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Tinder introduces VIP status for celebrities who want to hook up

Here's another reason to be jealous of that blue checkmark.

 

Kate Knibbs

Tech

Posted on Mar 12, 2014   Updated on May 31, 2021, 3:41 pm CDT

When you become a celebrity, life is like an episode of Entourage: Hot people constantly throw themselves at you and your one friend won’t shut up about designer tequila.

Right? Well, apparently only the second part of that statement is true, because celebrities are trying to use dating app Tinder to find a warm body, and their problem is they aren’t getting enough matches. Famous people are all allegedly all signed up for Tinder, including Lindsay Lohan, Josh Groban, Jamie Kennedy, and Ashton Kutcher. That is mostly believable, although why Ashton would need Tinder when he’s supposed to be engaged to perfect human Mila Kunis is beyond me.

According to CEO Sean Rad, the response rate for their profiles isn’t what it should be because the users of Tinder tend to assume the famous face they’re seeing is a fake account.

Tinder requires Facebook logins for verification, but most celebrities who have Facebook don’t use their stage name to avoid a barrage of friend requests and messages. To help famous people get freaky, Rad told the Hollywood Reporter that the company plans to introduce a verification system, like Twitter’s famed blue checkmarks. “This will allow celebrities to enter Tinder in a different way,” Rad told THR.

Daily Dot reached out to Tinder to find out more details about how this verification process will go down, but have yet to hear back from the app, maybe because they are busy trying to track down a valid piece of ID for Lindsay Lohan.

Tinder got a profile boost during the Sochi Olympics because the athletes used the app to get fresh in Russia, and it’s likely this verification plan is more about drumming up publicity than actually making the service easier for celebrities to use. Because, let’s face it, there are going to be far more people enticed to sign up for Tinder with the possibility of talking to a celebrity than there will be celebrity Tinder users, Lohan and company’s participation be damned.

The verification checkmarks would be a good way to quickly tell if it’s actually Mindy Kaling or just some dumb Mindy Project marketing campaign.

H/T The Hollywood Reporter | Photo via Flickr/Joel Kramer (CC BY 2.0)

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*First Published: Mar 12, 2014, 2:45 pm CDT