These days, you can skip the milkshake, get out that video camera and go online. And now the granddaddy of Hollywood talent discovery is about to launch a site that promises at least to give the online talent business a run for its money. Ed McMahon of American Family Publishers and Star Search fame will launch the first competition for Next Big Star on April 15. It will work a lot like Star Search , except all entrants will be posted on the Net. On July 15, McMahon will host a TV special with a simultaneous Webcast.
Web users get to choose winners.
This is the element. Of course, this being the Net, it's being co-sponsored by several Net companies, including Microsoft. I think we're going to sell a lot of computers because grandma is going to want to see granddaughter on the Internet. Wonder no longer. Tony Northrup of Boston won Geek and Guru's Sexiest Geek Alive contest.