URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT

1086 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 27, 2007 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Top Lawyer At WellPoint Is Selected As Next Chief
BYLINE: By MILT FREUDENHEIM
SECTION: Section C; Column 1; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 621 words
As pressures mount in Congress and the states for a larger government role in financing and regulating health care, WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, has picked a lawyer and public policy specialist to become its next chief executive.

WellPoint said yesterday that Angela F. Braly, its general counsel and government affairs strategist, would succeed Larry C. Glasscock, 58, who will stay on as chairman when the change takes effect on June 1. Mr. Glasscock said he was retiring from the chief executive's job for family reasons, declining to elaborate.

Ms. Braly, 45, an executive vice president of WellPoint since April 2005, was promoted over several more senior executives, in part for her knowledge of public policy, Mr. Glasscock said.

WellPoint, which serves more than 34 million health plan members, operates large Blue Cross companies in California and New York as well as Blue Cross or Blue Shield associations in 12 other states.

It is the largest processor of claims for Medicare, the federal program for the elderly and disabled, a unit that Ms. Braly also ran. WellPoint is also the largest operator of managed care programs for state Medicaid plans for low-income people.

''We bring a lot of data and resources as well as ideas to the discussions about solutions for health care,'' Ms. Braly (pronounced BRAH-lee) said in a telephone interview.

Charles Boorady, a health care securities analyst at Citigroup, said Ms. Braly had not been very ''visible'' to investors, which he described as ''the biggest knock against her.'' But he said that at WellPoint. she was well known and respected.

''She has been running a business within WellPoint as a Medicare contactor,'' Mr. Boorady said, noting that ''the government is already a large payer and becoming even larger.''

He added, ''She is experienced in communicating with the government at a time when several Democrats in Congress are planning hearings involving the managed care companies, and the companies all expect their C.E.O.'s to testify on the Hill.''

Ms. Braly gained operating experience as president and chief executive of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri, where she worked for six years before she moved to the Indianapolis headquarters of WellPoint after it merged with Anthem in 2004.

Mr. Glasscock joined Anthem Insurance in 1998 and took it on an eight-year acquisition spree that increased revenue to $57 billion last year, from $6 billion when he started.

The biggest deal after the Anthem-WellPoint merger was the acquisition in 2005 of WellChoice, the New York parent of Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield for $6.5 billion.

He was paid about $8.5 million that year, including a $1.25 million salary and bonuses and stock awards, according to a WellPoint filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last May. Ms. Braly will be paid a salary of $1.1 million as chief executive.

With Ms. Braly's promotion, WellPoint will become the nation's largest company -- 38th on the Fortune 500 list -- with a female chief executive.

Alluding to that status, Ms. Braly observed that ''70 percent of health care decisions are made by women.'' She said that on a personal level, she is getting firsthand experience in navigating the medical system, as she and her siblings help their mother, a widow who lives in Texas, deal with ''a complicated health care situation.''

Ms Braly said her husband, Douglas, had retired from his family's trucking company in Texas a few years ago to move with her to Indianapolis and ''support me and our three children.''

In trading yesterday, WellPoint's shares dipped 37 cents, closing at $81.13, as many health insurance stocks, and the markets generally, had an off day.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: HEALTH INSURANCE (91%); LAWYERS (90%); PUBLIC POLICY (90%); MEDICARE (89%); INSURANCE (89%); MANAGED CARE ORGANIZATIONS (89%); MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS (64%); US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (78%); BANKING & FINANCE AGENCIES (78%); SECURITIES LAW (78%); INTERVIEWS (77%); EXECUTIVE MOVES (77%); POOR POPULATION (75%); WAGES & SALARIES (75%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (74%); MEDICAID (58%); MERGERS (69%); LOW INCOME PERSONS (66%) Biographical Information; Appointments and Executive Changes
COMPANY: WELLPOINT INC (92%); EMPIRE BLUE CROSS & BLUE SHIELD (81%); CITIGROUP INC (54%)
ORGANIZATION: MEDICARE (56%); MEDICAID (55%) Wellpoint
TICKER: WLP (NYSE) (92%); CGP (LSE) (57%); C (NYSE) (54%); 8710 (TSE) (54%)
INDUSTRY: SIC6321 ACCIDENT & HEALTH INSURANCE (81%); NAICS523120 SECURITIES BROKERAGE (54%); NAICS522210 CREDIT CARD ISSUING (54%); NAICS522110 COMMERCIAL BANKING (54%); SIC6021 NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANKS (57%)
PERSON: ANGELA BRALY (94%); LARRY GLASSCOCK (94%) Angela F Braly; Larry C Glasscock; Milt Freudenheim
GEOGRAPHIC: INDIANAPOLIS, IN, USA (92%) NEW YORK, USA (92%); INDIANA, USA (92%); CALIFORNIA, USA (79%) UNITED STATES (92%)
LOAD-DATE: February 27, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photo: Angela F. Braly, WellPoint's chief counsel, entering a news briefing in Indianapolis yesterday to discuss her appointment as chief executive. Ms. Braly, 45, was chosen in part for her knowledge of public policy. (Photo by A. J. Mast for The New York Times)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1087 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 27, 2007 Tuesday

Late Edition - Final

Accusations of Agency Error in Disaster Loans
BYLINE: By RON NIXON and LESLIE EATON
SECTION: Section A; Column 4; National Desk; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 836 words
Last September, the Small Business Administration, which provides most long-term rebuilding aid to disaster victims, accelerated its lending to homeowners and businesses in the Gulf Coast, responding to criticism that it had been slow to respond to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita of 2005.

But now federal investigators are looking into accusations that in speeding up its work, the agency made thousands of loans without following its own rules to avoid fraud. Current and former employees of the agency have told investigators that agency workers failed to secure proper proof that borrowers owned the houses they were supposed to rebuild or had the required insurance.

Caroline Pankove, who worked as a lawyer for the disaster-loan program at the agency from June through December of last year, complained to the agency's managers and its inspector general that employees were improperly pressured to approve loans quickly.

Loan policies were applied inconsistently, Ms. Pankove said, and disaster victims' paperwork was often misplaced or mailed out with errors.

''The rush to disburse loans put everyone at risk: the taxpayer, the agency and especially the borrowers,'' Ms. Pankove said in an interview. ''The people that we needed to serve the most were the ones getting hurt the most.''

Her complaints were echoed by Brian Cook, who worked at the agency as a paralegal last year, and by others who spoke on the condition that their names not be used because they were still employed by the agency at the disaster loan office in Fort Worth.

A spokesman for the agency's inspector general confirmed that his office was looking into the accusations but said he could not comment on a continuing investigation.

Agency officials said that they were taking the complaints seriously, but that the problems described by Ms. Pankove and others were isolated, not systemic.

''We never pushed for disbursement to be made without the proper documentation,'' said Steven C. Preston, who promised to reform the troubled disaster loan program when he was appointed administrator of the agency last summer.

The agency was trying to empower managers to make case-by-case judgments about loan documentation, Mr. Preston said, adding, ''We can't have a cookie-cutter approach.''

Mr. Preston also disputed the possibility that efforts to speed the process had opened the door to abuse. ''Of course we want to get the disbursements out faster,'' he said, ''but it's very dangerous to assume that this would lead to fraud and losses to the taxpayer.''

When Mr. Preston took over the agency in July, he inherited a huge backlog of loan applications, which had grown to 94,000 by September, according to the agency. Since then, 51,000 people have received all the loan money they qualified for, 19,000 have gotten some, and 24,000 have canceled their applications.

The agency has made more than $5 billion in hurricane-related disaster loans, more than half of them since Mr. Preston took over, said Sean Rushton, the assistant administrator for communications.

One way the agency reduced its backlog was by rewarding the employees who got money into the hands of the largest number of borrowers. E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times promised cash bonuses and overtime to the most productive workers, even though at least one supervisor acknowledged that this emphasis made people uncomfortable.

''I will be honest,'' a supervisor, Michael V. Cremer, wrote in an e-mail message in October. ''Disbursements = cash awards & overtime opportunity. I don't like it, you don't like it but it is what it is.'' The message continued, ''Work with your people to make these numbers look good.''

Mr. Cremer did not respond to voice mail messages left at his agency office in Texas.

Leaders of the House and Senate committees overseeing the agency said they were concerned about the accusations of improper lending.

''I'm worried that there may have been too much of a focus on quotas over quality of service for disaster victims,'' Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, said in a statement.

''And if that's true, it's unacceptable,'' Mr. Kerry said. ''If in a rush to get paperwork off their desks the S.B.A. shifted the burden to borrowers who have lost everything to Katrina, that's not a policy, that's an abdication of responsibility.''

Despite the agency's new emphasis on speeding the lending process, disaster victims say they continue to experience problems. Donna Colosino, whose family owns a small company in Louisiana that sells power generation equipment, told the House Small Business Committee earlier this month that more than 20 loan officers had dealt with her case. And she said she sent the same documents to the agency more than a dozen times.

''Working with S.B.A. after a disaster is like having a second job,'' Ms. Colosino said. ''I swear to you on my father's grave that this is the story. I am not an anomaly.''
URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: HURRICANES (90%); INVESTIGATIONS (90%); WEATHER (90%); TROPICAL STORMS (90%); SMALL BUSINESS (90%); NATURAL DISASTERS (90%); HOMEOWNERS (89%); HURRICANE KATRINA (78%); PARALEGALS (74%); SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE FORCES (72%); APPROVALS (71%); LAWYERS (68%); INTERVIEWS (66%); INSURANCE REGULATION & POLICY (76%) Hurricanes and Tropical Storms; Katrina (Storm); Rita (Storm); Insurance; Housing; Credit; Hurricanes and Tropical Storms
ORGANIZATION: SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (91%) Small Business Administration
PERSON: Ron Nixon; Leslie Eaton
GEOGRAPHIC: Gulf Coast (US)
LOAD-DATE: February 27, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1088 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 25, 2007 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Street Theater at the Pull of a Curtain
BYLINE: By ANDREW FERREN
SECTION: Section 5; Column 1; Travel Desk; JOURNEYS ROOMS WITH A VIEW; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 1147 words
VIEWS are a relatively modern travel discovery. Granted, much of the stuff they are made of has very likely been there awhile, but historically speaking, one stopped at the inn to get off the congested and foul-smelling streets, not to look out at them.

It took the French to show us that cities -- their cities anyway -- were worth ogling. First, Baron Haussmann prettied up Paris, and then Eiffel built his tower from which to look out over it. Pissarro and Sisley took to painting the views from their studios, and photographers like Eugene Atget and Alfred Stieglitz showed us that our modern cities weren't ugly ducklings after all. And as with almost any aesthetic innovation out of Paris, the Japanese have taken the ball and run with it up to the 50th floor.

But now that we've accepted the charm of traffic lights and neon, how to find the best face a city puts forward? At many hotels, the best views have been commandeered by upper-category rooms, but almost every property has a few standard rooms with views, so it's a question of knowing -- or asking -- when you book. Hotel reservation agents and sales directors can be surprisingly candid in assessing the value of their vistas. ROME

With seven hills, Rome ought to offer some spectacular vistas, and the city does not disappoint those with a penchant for sun-drenched rooftop gardens and horizons of domes and spires. The best lookout is most likely in the grand Hotel Hassler (Piazza Trinita del Monte, 6; 39-06-69-93-40; www.hotelhasslerroma.com) at the top of the Spanish Steps. The luxuriously paneled and tapestry-hung suites like the San Pietro offer the most panoramic views for 2,950 euros a night (nearly $4,000 at $1.33 to the euro). There are several ''classic'' rooms with similar vistas and one deluxe room, 506, which for 710 euros has a balcony over the Piazza di Spagna, offering a big-eyed peek at the skyline, from the marble Victor Emmanuel monument to the domes of the Pantheon and St. Peter's. Rooms like 720 (2,300 euros) peer into the Borghese Gardens and the Villa Medici. Next door, Room 718, a single, costs 460 euros.

For those who like history at closer range, there is the Hotel Forum (Via Tor de' Conti, 25-30; 39-06-679-24-46; www.hotelforumrome.com; rooms with a view from 350 euros). The lobby reads old-world pensione with marble floors, creaking staircases and fringed swags galore. More than a dozen rooms overlook the Roman forum, with its parade of columns and arches.PARIS

Paris's prized views are more about the city's refined urban context, where even a courtyard view is inspiring. For those with deep pockets, one of the five penthouse suites at the Hotel de Crillon (10, Place de la Concorde; 33-1-44-71-15-00; www.crillon.com), overlooking the Place de la Concorde, is the ideal. The Bernstein Suite is perhaps the most dramatic, with its slightly lowered ceiling adding to the drama of stepping out onto its terraces from which one recent female guest commented, ''You feel like you own Paris.'' Marie-Antoinette did own Paris, and she came to the Crillon for her piano lessons. As you scan the view of the Egyptian obelisk, the giddy fountains of the Place (where the French queen later lost her head), and beyond to the Pont de la Concorde, the Musee d'Orsay, the Tuileries Gardens, the Beaux-Arts glass roof of the Grand Palais and the Eiffel Tower, issues of ownership seem irrelevant. All you'll need is 8,200 euros. Regrettably, there are no standard rooms that deliver such an eyeful.

Thankfully, other hotels offer commanding views. At the elegant Hotel Pont Royal (7, rue de Montalembert; 33-1-42-84-70-00; www.hotel-pont-royal.com; from 380 euros) in St.-Germain-des-Pres, the windows of at least 10 rooms on Floors 6 and 7 frame the city's most romantic images like Impressionist canvases. Room 605 is one such chamber: to the west you see the Eiffel Tower and to the north Sacre-Coeur. VIENNA

Vienna's grandest hotels, like the Imperial and Bristol, offer enough gilded, overstuffed splendor that you may never draw the curtains back and look out at the city's architectural pomp and glory. But a few modern additions allow you to get above the action. The recently opened DO & CO Hotel (Stephansplatz 12; 43-1-24-188-444; www.doco.com; 350 euros for a city-view room) provides a heavenly perch above the city's 12th-century St. Stephen's Cathedral. The hotel is owned by the Istanbul-born entrepreneur Attila Dogudan, and the cozy rooms have a Turkish accent -- dark wood, low-slung sofas and kilims. Many of the new sixth- and seventh-floor rooms at the Hotel Sacher (Philharmonikerstrasse 4; 43-1-51-456-0; www.sacher.com) feature balconies overlooking grand edifices like the Opera and the Albertina museum. Most of these rooms are suites (from about 850 to 2,500 euros), but there are a few rooms for around 555 euros that feature a slice of the same imperial splendor. NEW YORK

As befits the most famous of high-rise cities, New York City has many rooms with a view -- especially those of the High Gotham variety like the Four Seasons and the St. Regis, to name but a few. Others, like the Pierre and the Mandarin Oriental, sell their pastoral Central Park vistas as if they were gold. But in a classic New York story, a downtown upstart is giving the uptown dowagers a run for their money. The 22-story Hotel on Rivington (107 Rivington Street; 212-475-2600; www.hotelonrivington.com; doubles with unimpeded views from $425) on the Lower East Side is removed enough from Midtown's concrete jungle to let you take in the whole sweep of the city, from the Woolworth Building downtown past the Empire State Building and up to the towers of the George Washington Bridge, best viewed from the three-story penthouse. With its minimalist design and floor-to-ceiling views, it has become an obvious choice for fashion photo shoots, especially the spacious Room 185 on the 18th floor, from which one can watch the city that never sleeps while soaking in the free-standing tub.TOKYO

Speaking of soaking up Japanese ambience, no sound stage could have provided the flickering-neon Tokyo backdrop of Sofia Coppola's ''Lost in Translation.'' The vertiginous views from Tokyo's Park Hyatt (3-7-1-2 Nishi Shinjuku; 81-3-5322-1234; www.parkhyatt.com), which occupies Floors 41 through 52 of the three graduated towers designed by Kenzo Tange that rise above the Shinjuku neighborhood, were for many the real star of the film. The hotel's New York Grill on the 52nd floor seems to float above the video-game street life buzzing below. Bill Murray's suite will set you back about $3,000 a night, but a park-facing room looking toward Mount Fuji can be nabbed for $500. The Mandarin Oriental (2-1-1 Nihonbashi Muromachi; 81-3-3270-8800; www.mandarinoriental.com) hovers over the livelier Ginza district, so you can save on cab fare and upgrade to a higher floor.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: Hotels and Motels
PERSON: Andrew Ferren
GEOGRAPHIC: PARIS, FRANCE (95%); ROME, ITALY (93%); VIENNA, AUSTRIA (92%); NEW YORK, NY, USA (79%); TOKYO, JAPAN (71%) NEW YORK, USA (79%) FRANCE (95%); ITALY (93%); AUSTRIA (92%); UNITED STATES (79%); CENTRAL EUROPE (79%); JAPAN (71%) Rome (Italy); Paris (France); Vienna (Austria); New York City; Tokyo (Japan)
LOAD-DATE: February 25, 2007
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: Photos: St. Stephen's Cathedral, seen from a room at the DO & CO Hotel in Vienna. Rome from a room at the Hotel Hassler. (Photographs by Chris Warde-Jones for The New York Times)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

1089 of 1258 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
February 25, 2007 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

'Grey's Anatomy' and Closet
BYLINE: By MARCELLE S. FISCHLER
SECTION: Section 9; Column 1; Style Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1466 words
AFTER watching an episode of ''Grey's Anatomy,'' Sarah Grace McCandless, 32, a novelist from Washington, went shopping. The $160 Citizens for Humanity jeans that she bought online had a special appeal that wasn't about the label.

''I bought jeans that Meredith was wearing,'' said Ms. McCandless, a self-described pop culture addict, referring to the character Meredith Grey. ''I don't have Meredith's body, but you can order them in different sizes.''

Ms. McCandless also has a pair of the True Religion jeans that Izzie wore, along with brown boots like the pair from Frye worn by Cristina, also characters on ''Grey's Anatomy.''

Ms. Candless shops on SeenON.com (also known as SeenON!), one of a cluster of TV- and movie-themed Web sites offering breathless behind-the-scenes chatter, as well as instant gratification for those with a taste for celebrity style. Fans are now just clicks away from owning not only the clothes and accessories worn by characters on more than 100 television shows and movies, but also the sofas they sit on and the martini glasses they drink from.

Screens big and small are already full of recognizable brands like Coke and Cheerios placed in strategic view, a practice known as explicit product placement. But, until recently, viewers had to work at identifying the shoes or earrings characters wore.

Because of the Internet, the selling of more than 20,000 products that are not easily recognizable or never identified in a script, called shopping-enabled entertainment, is taking off, driven by consumerism and celebrity worship.

''There are thousands and thousands of products that are naturally embedded in these shows,'' said Ashley Heather, a new-media entrepreneur and chief executive of Entertainment Media Works, which last March started an entertainment shopping site, StarStyle.com.

StarStyle lets fans buy a soup-tureen set from Nora Walker's pantry on the ABC series ''Brothers & Sisters,'' the polka-dot halter dress like the one that Diane Keaton's Daphne character wears in the film ''Because I Said So'' or a velvet blazer like the one Taylor Hicks wore on ''American Idol.'' (Many products are the same as what the stars wore, but sometimes a similar, less expensive version is offered, and identified as such.)

Viewers can shop by show, character, product or brand. Starting Tuesday, SeenON! will feature a ''Look for Less'' Oscar tie-in, selling versions of the dresses, shoes and earrings worn on the red carpet.

As more consumers use digital video recorders and watch fewer commercials, ''brands are looking at ways to connect with viewers,'' said Travis Schneider, the founder of StarBrand Media, which started StarBrand.tv in 2004. ''It's a marriage of consumers' fascination with celebrity culture and new technologies that is allowing this to happen,'' Mr. Schneider said.

Taken to the extreme, the idea of selling clothes right from the backs of drama queens offers the possibility of endless moneymaking, involving online sites, traditional retailers, manufacturers, production companies and networks in an incestuous web of marketing and sales. It may not be too far-fetched to imagine a day when ''Desperate Housewives'' spins off Desperate Housewares, a line of products made for the show, written into the show and then sold off through a Web site.

Explicit product placement generates $4 billion, Web site executives said, and some have estimated that extending this model to things like clothing that is incorporated into a set but never identified creates a market potentially worth $100 billion.

Which explains why retailers, brands and networks are scrambling to sign on. StarStyle has deals with about 25 networks, shows and studios, including FremantleMedia, the producer of ''American Idol''; MTV's ''Real World: Key West''; and daytime soap operas like ''The Young and the Restless.'' The site also markets apparel and accessories from music videos.

Shoppers can click on an item on the site, which links them to retailer sites like Nordstrom, Macy's and the Gap to make the purchase.

At SeenON!, some of the most-viewed items are the Gucci 85th anniversary bag from ''Ugly Betty,'' Meredith Grey's JBrand jeans and Gabrielle's Aldo purse from ''Desperate Housewives.'' At StarBrand.tv, the top sellers include the Adriano Goldschmied jeans that Rory wears this season on ''Gilmore Girls'' and the Lucky Brand belts worn by Veronica on ''Veronica Mars.'' Not surprisingly, most shoppers on these sites are women ages 18 to 34.

Fans have long been doing for themselves what the new Web sites have made effortless. When Carrie Bradshaw wore stilettos on ''Sex and the City,'' viewers hungrily eyed her Manolo Blahniks and made the brand a household name.

The new Web sites are not just for fashionistas, though. In recent months, Ms. McCandless purchased the dishwashing gloves and Tupperware set used by Bree on ''Desperate Housewives'' as a shower gift, and is hankering for Bree's Bosch washing machine and dryer -- all of which can be ordered, along with the Benjamin Moore paint on Bree's walls -- through an online tour of the ''Housewives'' homes on SeenON.com.

While none of the Web sites would disclose revenues, they said they made money through commissions on sales and profit-sharing with their network partners. SeenON! sometimes acts as a direct retailer, buying products wholesale from manufacturers, then selling them at retail and sharing the profit with the show or network. (SeenON! also runs about 40 stores for Web sites including for ABC, NBC and ET Online; it started its own site in December.)

Bruce Gersh, senior vice president for business development for ABC Entertainment, said that for a few years, the network has been heading in this direction, placing, say, jewelry on characters in daytime dramas, then encouraging viewers to visit abc.com to buy copies.

More recently, prime-time goodies, like Betty's paisley pajama pants from ''Ugly Betty'' and Lynette's J. Crew cashmere hoodie from ''Desperate Housewives,'' were on abc.com and SeenON!, and Mr. Gersh said sales from this type of commerce have been ''growing steadily.''

WEB site executives said products are not intentionally placed on shows, but that doesn't mean nobody is trying. Some sites are pushing for cross-pollination -- offering producers and stylists a look-book of brands where they can order products for shows for free. And those who dress the sets and the stars say they are suddenly being bombarded by brands that want exposure.

Dina Cerchione, the wardrobe designer for NBC's ''Deal or No Deal,'' which has a partnership with SeenON.com, said she is too focused on creating a look for the show to even think about what may appeal to fan shoppers, though she does get ''hounded'' by companies that want their fashions chosen.

Nonetheless, she said, she is aware that how she dresses Howie Mandel and the show's models influences people when they shop. Seeing it on a recognized figure, she said, ''takes the guesswork out of, 'Is this O.K.?' ''

Mike Fitzsimmons, the founder of Delivery Agent, which runs SeenON!, said his company doesn't try to do the job of the professionals. ''The costume designers and the stylists behind the scenes, they truly are the trend drivers in our pop culture environment,'' he said.

William B. Helmreich, a professor of the sociology of consumer behavior at the City University of New York's Graduate Center, said that shopping-enabled entertainment is par for the course in a celebrity-obsessed culture. ''It is called the game of realizing your fantasies to a minimum extent,'' Dr. Helmreich said. ''They are not only getting satisfaction from wearing the item, they are also sending a message to other people about who they are, that they are like a star.''

Indeed, Kathryn Hnatio, 29, an account manager in Manhattan, was smitten by a ''flirty but fun'' dress worn by Katharine McPhee on ''American Idol.'' When she wore a similar, less-expensive version she bought on StarStyle.com, friends complimented her and, she said, ''Everyone recognized it because they were watching the show, too.''

But if everyone recognizes it and can buy it just as easily, is it still special? ''You have the potential of killing the goose that laid the golden egg,'' Dr. Helmreich said. ''Cachet has to do with availability.''

The risk is that people will eventually focus more on the stuff than the story. Lauren Honig, 23, an executive assistant in Manhattan, bought a $595 Botkier bag through StarStyle.com after noticing Holly Harper carrying it on ''Brothers & Sisters.''

The ability to shop from television shows ''definitely opens new doors,'' Ms. Honig said. ''I am paying more attention to what they are wearing in the shows rather than the plot.''

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