Be a Virtual Celebrity Stylist

Beefcake Jake and Naughty Camilla. (Courtesy Stardoll.com)

I spent much of this morning playing with dolls. Virtual celebrity paperdolls, so I was working, you see. The fruit of my ground-breaking research is Jake Gyllenhaal dressed like one of the Village People, a tarted-up Camilla Parker Bowles and an amusing (to me) tableau of Tom Cruise coming out of the closet as Katie langorously looks on from a nearby couch.

This morning of mischeviousness was made possible by Stardoll.com, a site that claims to target the 7- to 17-year-old set of budding celebrity worshippers. I freely admit that I took what seems to be a pretty neat fan/social networking site for building mindless brand loyalty in younguns and used its slick tools to satisfy my own offbeat sense of humor.

It's addictive. You can spend a significant amount of time here dressing up -- or down -- caricatures of Dolly Parton (sadly, no wigs), three different Christina Aguileras (I guess one is "Dirrty"-er), Naomi Campbell (no cellphone available), Bow Wow (I went with a Detroit Pistons jersey and a Crips bandana), David Beckham (such a metrosexual), Cher (and she thought she was already a wild dresser), Audrey Hepburn (get her out of those damnable skinny black pants) -- there's really a star doll for everyone.

My fashion-challenged 'Me Doll'. (Courtesy Stardoll.com)

The ultimate fantasy, though, is the ability to create your own "Me Doll." We all look good as idealized avatars -- obesity, crooked teeth and acne are not options. Instead, trick your new hot-as-a-celebrity self out in designer clothes. My clotheshorse "Me Doll" tried on a lot but, alas, wasn't committed enough to drop my very real world credit card number in order to purchase the required "Star Dollars" to make the virtual impulse buys.