by Sun Meilan

Created on: April 10, 2010

Twitter, a relatively new concept in social networking, has allowed many celebrities to have unlimited access to their fans in the form of mini-blogs updating everyone on their progress. However, the problem with any form of blog is that once posted, they are published for posterity and, if what is said targets someone else, the celebrity grape-vine is bound to ensure that the person in question is informed. And this is just what happened when Aimee Mann commented on Ice T's acting abilities, starting a war of words that involved more than just the two celebrities named. 

For anyone who doesn't know, Aimee Mann is a singer songwriter and guitarist, famous for her independent rock music, with some punk thrown in for good measure. She has also done a little acting, including a small role in The Big Lebowski. Ice T is much more of a household name, making his name as a rapper during the 1980s and 1990s. He also starred in movies during the 1990s before taking on a role as one of the detectives in Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. 

The 'war' began with a tweet from Aimee saying: "Christ, there is no reason in the world anyone should ever have cast Ice T in a television show." The news eventually got back to Ice T, who didn't really take kindly to the slur on his acting abilities. His immediate response was "Some one tell me who is this b%£%h?" Once he found out, he suggested that she should not worry about his acting, but concentrate on her 'wack ass music'. Not satisfied with his response, Ice T continued retaliating by tweeting that he had forwarded Mann's response to TMZ, claiming that he was "WNTFW...Wrong Nigga To F*&k With". 

Aimee Mann eventually realised that Ice T had seen her tweet and had responded to it badly. To her credit, she immediately tweeted an apology: "He's out there doing his job. He doesn't need any heckling from the peanut gallery. So, I am sorry, Mr. T! You get out there and DO IT!" Ice T's response to that was less than gentlemanly. Retweeting her words, he ended it by saying that he had won. A couple of tweets later though, he tweeted that as she had apologized, it was time to 'cease fire'. 

Surely the end of the story? Not quite. Other people have taken exception at the fact Ice T was so abusive towards Aimee Mann. One Twitter user called Ice T a "tedious thug...CAN'T act or converse w/out swearing" and there were one or two other criticisms of his colourful language. Ice T (or FINALLEVEL as he is known on Twitter), who has a faithful army of followers, known as the Final Level Twitter Gang, responded by saying that his followers would inform him of any negative tweets. 

If there is anything to be learned from this war of words, it is to remember that Twitter is very a very public way of expressing your opinions, so if you don't want to get into an argument or cause offence, it's probably best not to post them for everyone to see. Nevertheless, the aggression and threatening tone in Ice T's response was palpable. Ultimately, Aimee Mann's tweet was probably silly and thoughtless, but Ice T's response was unnecessarily rude. 

Sources: 

http://uk.askmen.com/celebs/women/singer_60/74_aimee_mann.html

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2010/04/09/ice-t-vs-aimee-mann-robert-pattinson-as-kurt-cobain-and-hugh-hefners-birthday-in-todays-twitter-wood/

http://twitter.com/aimeemann

http://twitter.com/FINALLEVEL

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