The linked article says it was actually some contest he ran for fans to win performing a duet with him. So not quite as simple as a shout out, but still not that difficult to deliver.
Also, this is the first IMDb profile I’ve ever seen that has zero credits.
I’d say this generation of children has it better than in the past. Buying a shout out (especially if you’re buying it for someone else) makes way more sense to me than queuing (or writing a letter) to get an autograph.
A discussion over reusing existing accounts or the strange/shady “rebranding” of a real person is pretty interesting but in this case its not presented well. I had trouble commenting initially because ultimately the post is about gossip on a person i don’t care about.
“Also, this is the first IMDb profile I’ve ever seen that has zero credits”
I volunteered as grip once, for a small production that filmed over the weekend in small town . 10 years later I had imdb credit pop up for it . ten years after that I had a net worth of 30,000,000 on celebrity net worth…??? I bloody wish . it jumped up down over the years I occasionally check it out of curiosity and its currently at ten mil. celebrity net worth says trump is 3 bil I wonder how accurate that is? if I was a con artist I would certainly be trying to figure how to use my online presence and status a an “unheard of celebrity” on celebritynetworth to validate myself in a scheme and run of off with a bunch peoples money, but I’m not a con artist and I have a conscience. Another scenario thats run around in my hyperactive imagination is that some con artist gets my Id from the data of some dodgy crypto exchange I used to speculate on an alt. googles me finds my bogus celebrity networth and runs with it using my identity and weirdly inaccurate celebrity presence for their own con.