Ashton Kutcher, Britney Spears and Ellen DeGeneres are among the many stars on Twitter -- latimes.com

"Brevity," wrote the Bard, "is the soul of wit." Just ask anyone who has ever sat through a rambling Oscar speech. There's an art to creating a haiku of narcissism.

Perhaps that's why many in the industry are flocking to Twitter, the social-networking site that lets stars -- and wannabe stars -- communicate directly to fans in 140-character messages transmitted in real time over the Internet...