Stars and their fans love Twitter and Facebook, but social media isn't all fun and games, as teen headliner Miley Cyrus learned when a hacker invaded her MySpace page and sent photos of her midriff across the Internet, outraging her fans' parents.
The same tools that make fans go gaga over Lady Gaga can also cost plenty in ticket sales, product endorsements and future income.
"It's a slippery slope that they're going down. They have to be real careful what they post," says Robert Frost, president of Frost Specialty, an insurance agency based in Nashville, Tenn., that specializes in the music industry. "Once you hit Send, it's out there. It definitely makes things harder to control."
Frost's clients usually carry media liability policies to cover the public gaffes and goofs that come with being a celebrity. But not all insurers cover the content of what the stars tweet.
"That's a real gray area there," says Frost.
This gray area is one that opportunists tend to target.
"In some ways, it feels like a shakedown. Whenever you're somebody with any notoriety, you've got to be very, very careful about what you say because you give people the authority to go after you," Frost says.