If your PR practice is technology centric, it’s inevitable that your work will either be directly impacted by or lead to Silicon Valley.  Stick around long enough, and you will realize that Silicon Valley is the Hollywood for geeky people.  It’s so hot to be a nerdy, tech type!

There’s even a tech paparazzi rag, Valleywag, trying to sex up geeks! And of course Geek Entertainment TV, which includes a former Washingtonian, Irena Slutsky.

Before I go too far, consider that my city — Washington, DC — is the Hollywood for ugly people.  Where else could  folks like Condi Rice, Al Gore, Dick Cheney and Joe Lieberman become famous?  Welcome to the District of Corruption!

Back to Silicon Valleywood. Of course, there’s the truest of royalty, Steve Jobs.  Heck he’s so big, he actually is a Hollywood player sitting on the board of Disney, and CEO of Pixar.  A little rough for the Prince of Apple these days, but he’s basically the Spielberg of Silicon Valley.

Consider how Michael Arrington has basically become Russell Crowe, huge A-Lister, talented and yes, he knows it. Or how about Jeremiah Owyang whose career is skyrocketing at Forrester. But is his career destined to be like Val Kilmer’s, letting the hype become part of his character, or a perennial good guy like Tom Hanks? Scoble is so well liked… Hmm, the Johnny Depp of Silicon Valley?

Unfortunately, because it’s tech there are less starlets, but never fear. We’ve got starlets!  Is Andrea Weckerle Silicon Valley’s Susan Sarandon (the 80 version, of course)? Cathryn Hrudicka is Meryll Streep. And Leah Culver is a young starlet with a red hot career ahead of her, much like Keira Knightley.

Take Two

 I asked my Twitter friends, “DC is the Hollywood for ugly people. Silicon Valley is the Hollywood for geeky people. What other cities could have Hollywood analogies?” Their responses are below!

Chris Brogan (Twitter): Pittsburgh is the Hollywood for Internet people.

xtopher1974 (Twitter): What other cities want them?

Mike Keliher (Twitter): Right now I’m thinking Minneapolis is the Hollywood for people who aren’t afraid of the cold.

Sean Percival (Twitter): There are lots of ugly people here too, but hey we are all beautiful :)

Jay Berkowitz (Twitter): Hollywood, FL isn’t very hollywood at all

Todd Jordan (Twitter): St. Louis is Hollywood for the foodies

Simon Young (Twitter): Wellington, NZ is the Hollywood for sane people who still want to do movies :)

CML (Twitter): Omg.. Hilarious! Ok, Detroit is the Hollywood for fatties. And Boulder (CO) is the Hwood for stoned people.

Peter Corbett (Twitter): You’ve got that wrong. DC is the Hollywood for intelligent people!

Ontario Emperor (Twitter): new york is the hollywood for non-tech corporate people

Rob La Gesse (Twitter): San Antonio is the town for “we won’t classify you” people :)

Shannon Whitley (Twitter): SF is the Hollywood for homeless people.