By Kristie Bartlett

Here’s a cool concept for those of us who just aren’t into those sports fantasy teams but who enjoy the social interaction of being in a league and like to follow celebrities and gossip: instead of sports fantasy drafts, celebrity fantasy drafters play with pop culture.

Instead of watching sporting events each week and drafting athletes to create the ultimate sports team, Celebrity Fantasy Draft players scan the pages of three national magazines ~ People, Us Weekly, and InTouch ~ each week to draft super teams of celebrities. More than 2,000 celebrities are available to choose from, and stats, personal facts and more are provided to help players separate the top stars from the wannabes in order to compile their perfect teams. Celebrities are scored each week based on how they fared in published photos, and players’ scores are provided weekly to each league by Celebrity Fantasy Draft ~ and best of all, each league’s first season is free.

Celebrity Fantasy encourages friends, colleagues and/or families to get together and just have fun. Inspired by the fantasy sports phenomenon many sports fans enjoy/obsess over, Celebrity Fantasy Draft offers the “E! Television” generation a chance for some friendly competition!

Here’s how Celebrity Fantasy Draft works:

1.    A League director logs onto www.celebrityfantasydraft.com. Each league’s first season is free, and each season thereafter is $20 per league.

2.    The League Director creates a league profile, and emails invitations to his or her friends. Leagues can range from 2-20 people.

3.    Each league holds a draft party, and initiates its own pool if it so chooses. Each player within the league drafts a team containing five women, four men, one child under 13 years, and two alternates. Celebrities can only be drafted once in each league.

4.    Points are accumulated each week to those celebrities pictured in People, InTouch and Us Weekly magazines. Points are allotted based on celebrities’ life events (pregnancy, engagements, arrests, etc.), and the number of times their pictures are featured within each magazine’s regular sections, with points differing based on section.

5.    Each Monday, leagues receive an email routing them to weekly results, and each player’s standings within the league.

6.    The smack-talk ensues.

7.    Winners are announced after each two-month season. When the season is over, league directors can set a new draft and play again!

For more information, visit www.celebrityfantasydraft.com.