Tristan Dare

Tristan Dare is an anonymous Internet artist specializing in creating controversial web sites which then get featured in mass media, and as a result get massive levels of attention becoming a story of their own.
Background
Mr. Dare himself first came into mass media spotlight in July 2008 when he created a realistic looking web site supposedly belonging to the alter ego of a newly arrested Serbian fugitive war criminal whose 12-year run from the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia for his role in the accused war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims, Bosnian Croats, and other non-Serbs during the Siege of Sarajevo, Srebrenica genocide and other events during the Bosnian War just ended. In the initial hours and days after Karadzic's arrest media outlets from around the world reported that the newly discovered web site belonged to Karadzic's pre-arrest alter ego Dr. Dragan Dabic while failing to realize that the web site was actually created on the day of Karadzic's arrest. The story about Tristan Dare being the creator of the web site was first reported by the New York Times, and was then covered by arts media and European newspapers. In the connection with the story Dare claimed that millions of people around the world were served false news via TV, print and online media because the journalists and the reporters in the race for ratings and exclusivity did not do their basic fact checking.
Mr. Dare also struck again the following month when he created a web site bearing the exact name of Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson. On this web site he invited audience to participate in a giveaway contest promising a "smoking-hot threesome" with the actress in connection with the promotion of her new movie Vicky Christina Barcelona. After the story about the web site first broke Mr. Dare claimed to have received 10,000 emails in less than four days from Ms. Johansson's fans wanting to participate in the "contest". Scarlett Johansson eventually sued Tristan Dare for her rights to the domain, and was awarded it in January 2009. In his official response Mr. Dare claimed that the web site contest was published in an "obvious, overt tongue-in-cheek manner" and "attempted to parody the typical Hollywood movie advertisement."

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