Last place in mutual stalking society's contest

Actor Ashton Kutcher became the first Twitterer to to rack up 1 million "followers" Friday morning, edging CNN. If you're wondering why celebrities who hate gossip websites would encourage people to follow them around, in a digital sense, you're not alone.

One answer: They're anxious to help usher in the birth of the next generation of mass media -- not just Twitter, per se, but all sorts of user-driven content. Plus, in this case, Kutcher's effort was for a good cause: The first one to hit a million had agreed to donate 10,000 mosquito nets for World Malaria Day.

Kutcher, whose wife Demi Moore alerted authorities to a suicidal Twitterer last month, was helped in part by 1,144 billboards donated for a day by Lamar Advertising -- including at least one in Bakersfield. A bit further back, behind Kutcher, twitter.com/stubblebuzz ended the week with seven followers. What did you expect? No billboard help.