"No one is actually listening anymore: One of the great frustrations of the lonelygirl hunt was the fact that, despite having her face plastered everywhere in media, for weeks and weeks no clue about her identity emerged. How was this possible that no one had seen her? Well, it was possible because, despite everyone on earth in one way or another seeing her face (certainly everyone who used the internet), no one was actually paying attention. It was presumed by detectives on the case that if Bree was a fake, she must have been recruited in some distant land and kept locked away in a safe house. In fact, she lived near Hollywood and was an active aspiring actress, with headshots, acting classes and all kinds of industry acquaintances. She had worked in the make-up department of King Kong, for crying out loud. When I met Jessica, I asked her if, instead of doing all the charts and hacking if I had just sat at the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Sunset Boulevard (the latte grounds of young Hollywood) for a couple weeks, would I have seen her there? She admitted I would have. She was right under the nose of the media but no one had put it together, or been thinking, or paying attention….”
The End of the 00s: The Hunt for lonelygirl15, by Richard Rushfield