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When I was flipping through the February issue of Vogue, something caught my attention – a headline heralding Wisconsin senator Russell Feingold as “the most blogged-about Democrat since Howard Dean.” This was big. If a high fashion magazine like Vogue believed that being “blogged about” was something that not only deserved respect and praise but was also worthy of over three pages, this definitely legitimized the new Web trend.

While I admit that I’ve recently gotten hooked on reading blogs, I attributed my initial delight in them to the part of me that was a cheap and lazy college student. Why walk all the way down to the magazine stand in Westwood and shell out $4 each week to get the new Us Weekly when I can sit in my room and check out blogs like Perez Hilton and Defamer for updates on celebrity gossip and entertainment industry news for free? But then I started to realize that regularly reading blogs was in some ways even better than reading the tabloids, largely because they are sometimes updated multiple times a day, as opposed to the week-long wait for the next issue of Us. But it seems I’m not alone in my feelings – a Women’s Wear Daily article reported that fourth quarter sales for Us Weekly, People and In Touch have all fallen from last year.

But for those of my friends who aren’t satisfied with just saving a couple of bucks, they have actually attempted to make money writing blogs on anything from celebrity gossip to music. Seriously, sitting in your apartment earning extra cash writing about your interests definitely beats picking up a part-time job flipping burgers at In-N-Out. (Please pass on making a personal online diary, because unless you have a personal life like Jessica Cutler, the woman behind the D.C. blog scandal and author of “The Washingtonienne,” no one cares and you aren’t going to get a whole lot of advertisers.)

In my mind, having a blog is one thing, being blogged about is quite another. If “Mean Girls” was made in 2006, Damian wouldn’t say to Cady about the Plastics, “If North Shore was Us Weekly, they would always be on the cover.” He would say, “If North Shore had a blog, they would always be on it.” Well, that’s kind of a stretch, but you get my point.

Anyway, one of my good friends and former A&E columnist, Justin Scott, recently started a celebrity gossip blog at so-thin.com. So when we headed out to Hollywood Life’s Breakthrough of the Year Awards last month, I discovered that he had brought along his camera to snap pictures of celebrities for his blog. We were congregating with the Hollywood nobodies around the food table, avoiding the carbs on our plates and keeping an eye out for famous people, when all of a sudden Justin spotted Jeremy Piven.

Before I knew it he was pulling me and another friend, Erica, over to Piven, calling, “Jeremy, these girls really want to take a picture with you.” Piven agreed and Justin took the photo of Erica and me with Piven.

The next day, I got a call. It was Justin telling me to check out his blog to see photos from the night before – and there was a photo of me, Erica and Piven under the heading, “Jeremy P.I.M.P. Piven!” with “Hugh Hef Jr.” scrawled across Piven’s suit. The note underneath the photo read that Piven “was the object of every girl’s affection! Could these be the two hot blondes he’s been rumored to have been seen all over with lately?”

While my first reaction was that of mild horror at the fabrication and of being equated with “the girls next door,” I was then excited by my launch into celebrity. It doesn’t matter what people say about you, the point is that people want to write about you. Just look at Nicole Richie. The media tracks her every move, reporting on her eating disorder which she, of course, denies as true.

So I checked the blog later that day hoping for comments. There was only one, which read “On Jeremy Piven: I’d hit it” – and I’m pretty sure it was written by Erica.

It was about then that my ego deflated and reality set in. Sure, being blogged about was great, but the only people in the pictures who anyone really cared about were celebrities like Piven. And just like the North Shore Plastics were not tracked by the real Us Weekly, neither is my life tracked by Perez Hilton or Defamer.

So unless I can come up with some way to be a blog-worthy person, I might have to look into starting my own. I could use the extra cash, anyway.

Rodgers is trying to decide what to make a blog about besides her exciting personal life. E-mail her your ideas at jrodgers@media.ucla.edu.