'I'll take Zsa Zsa to die at 95, please'

While the Hollywood community and fans mourned the death of film legend Elizabeth Taylor on March 23, Stephen Brown stared at his computer screen, livid.

"She wasn't on my list," said Brown, a 27-year-old teacher from Virginia Beach, Va.

Brown's mother, Dena Clavier, first heard the news of the death of Taylor, who was 79, on Facebook, and a minute later, posted a query on the Facebook wall of her sons community page, Dash's 2011 Death Pool.

"Anyone pick Elizabeth Taylor?" she asked. One participant replied: "I had her on the list before trimming it down, but cut her because of her age. She would not have been worth many points."

Keeping tabs on those who have died is not a novel concept -- just ask obituary writers and morticians -- but interest in online celebrity death pools has grown, according to those who run them, with more people embracing the lighter, and sometimes profitable, side of eternal rest.

Brown's first death pool, which is free, has 48 participants. The Old Blue Eyes Memorial Celebrity Death Watch, a free death pool named after Frank Sinatra, has 146 entrants. When the contest started in 1998, there were only 12. And this year, Stiffs.com, home of the Lee Atwater Invitational Dead Pool, is one of the largest, with 1,296 entries from around the world. That's 445 more than five years ago. Each entry costs $15 and competes in a yearlong contest for a grand prize of $3,000.

Morbid? Kelly Bakst, the 45-year-old Internet technology developer who runs Stiffs.com as a hobby, doesn't think so.

Clavier had reservations about celebrity death pools when she first heard about them. But since entering her son's contest, she has changed her mind.

"Its no more morbid than newspapers that write the obituaries they think are going to be dying in the next few weeks," Clavier pointed out.

Now, the competitive 51-year-old is in it to win. The prize? A trophy Brown hopes will resemble a tombstone.

The rules can vary slightly with each pool, but the general concept for most death pools is written along the bottom of the Stiffs.com website: "Pick some famous people you think are going to die soon. Whoever gets the most right wins."

Seems simple enough. However, deciding who is famous is not. The policy at Stiffs.com used to be if someone had an Associated Press obituary, he or she was famous. Now, Bakst has a Fame Committee made up of about 50 people who can say yea or nay to submitted names that have not been approved in the past.

In the Old Blue Eyes contest, run by Steve Vogl and Matt Gitkin, the death must be reported by the AP and elicit immediate name, face or character recognition.

In many pools, the younger the celebrity who dies, the more points the player receives. One player in Brown's pool submitted the names of celebrity children, hoping to get lucky.

"I didn't have a rule on newborns," Brown said, "so I kind of just let it slide."

Next year, he hopes he will have a cash prize; Brown might add a clause on how young is too young.

Armed with the rules of their particular games, players can strategize. Some pick shoo-ins -- people up in years -- while others spend time researching who is in poor health. Clavier's approach is to pick a mixture of young people, who could earn her more points, and people, like Courtney Love, whom she deems high risk.

But in the Lee Atwater Invitational, named after the Republican political consultant who was picked by the creators of Stiffs.com in their first death pool, Courtney Love is only the 126th most popular celebrity pick. Stiffs.com keeps statistics on the most popular picks year by year, For 2011, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Aretha Franklin and Michael Douglas are the top three.

According to Bakst, 94-year-old Gabor has been the most-picked celebrity in the contest's history.

"She just will not go down," he said.

Bakst insists that Stiffs.com is mocking the concept of celebrity, not the ending of life. He pointed out that one reason Gabor is famous is that she has been married nine times.

"She's famous for being famous, and that's ridiculous to us," Bakst said. "We laugh about that all the time."

"I wouldn't say you have to have a certain kind of sense of humor, because its not really funny when people die," Brown explained, "but it kind of gives you a little extra interest."

Jeff Bird, 45, from St. Joseph, Mo., took second prize in the 2010 Lee Atwater Invitational, winning $800 with picks such as George Steinbrenner and Elizabeth Edwards. He has 12 entries in this year's game and believes that everyone has an interest in celebrity death whether they are playing or not.