Paxman's beard, Facebook's celeb-only app and a raging Cher set social media abuzz

BBC 2 viewers had their minds blown as JP appeared on University Challenge with a clean, well-shaved face, and then popped up on Newsnight two-hours later with an actual beard.

Newsnight received what I can only imagine was its biggest Twitter audience yet, with the beard even spawning its own Twitter account @PaxmanBeard.

Among all the furore, J-Pax (I think we can make that work) explained that he had ‘grown a beard’ on many summer holidays in the past, but this year wondered whether he ‘really needed’ to shave it off to present Newsnight.

Pax-Daddy (not so much) has even accused many at the BBC of being ‘pognophobic’ (having a fear of beards) as his facial debate raged on. Jeremy laid the matter to rest (not really, people are still talking about it) by saying: "I may keep it or I may shave it off, but I think I’ll make my own decision."

Just in case you were wondering Jeremy, I freakin love the beard and definitely hope it says.

Facebook tests celeb-only app

Facebook has confirmed that it is developing an application exclusively for celebrity use.

The app, which is apparently being tested by small groups of ‘VIPs’, will let celebrities monitor comments that are being made about them while on the go.

The aim of the app is to make it easier for famous people (or a member of their entourage) to have conversations with fans through their Facebook page, making it easier for them to see the comments that are being generated.

I imagine it’s only a matter of time before people start whinging about what it takes to be classed as a celebrity; I mean what happens if you have over a million likes/fans/followers? I’m sure we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Gap takes over Tumblr

Gap has taken over Tumblr in what would appear to be a cross-platform advertising and social media campaign.

The clothing giant has bought every piece of ad space on Tumblr for 29 of August and plans to fill the space with adverts created by fans.

Its ‘Back to Blue’ campaign asks fans to share a piece of content of what blue means to them, and the four best entries will be used as ads on Tumblr.

A nice idea for getting fans involved in the creative process, but I’m sure we’ll be seeing some japesters submitting entries that will probably come under the #fail category.

Cher suffers Twitter meltdown

Cher* has had an actual celebrity Twitter meltdown this week, after someone leaked her duet with Lady Gaga, ‘The Greatest Thing’, online.

She tweeted: “Just heard TGT! F**K! IT’S NOT EVEN THE RIGHT F**KING VERSION!! WHY DO PPL THINK THIS KINDA LEAKING S**T IS OK! I’M so Fg DISSAPOINTED”

Excellent use of both capital letters and exclamation marks there, Cher.

Gaga tweeted her back with a tweet including just as many capitals. I think it’s fair to say they were both pretty cheesed off.

*Just to clear up any confusion, I’m talking about real life Cher and not Cher Lloyd off the X Factor a couple of years ago.