[July 12, 2011] Rebekah Brooks of Dover mistaken for British tabloid editor of same name at heart of scandal Tweet DOVER, Jul 12, 2011 (Foster's Daily Democrat - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- What's in a name? For Rebekah Brooks, of Dover, as of recent there's been a mix-up, some confusion, and more than a few laughs. The mix-up comes from having the same name as a woman facing some nefarious charges in England. The other Rebekah Brooks, not of Dover, is at the center of continuingly expanding controversy over phone hacking by the British tabloid, News of the World. Brooks was working as the editor of News of the World during the alleged activity. The paper has shuttered as a result of the revelation. The local Brooks said she had become aware of the woman she now refers to as her "evil British twin" as early as 2009. But the two women became entangled more recently after some confusion over the local woman's Twitter account, which was mistaken for that of the English editor. The confusion began last Tuesday with some unusual messages on her Twitter account. "I got these weird tweets about (Rupert) Murdoch and News of the World," said Brooks. "It was a lot of people swearing at me and saying, 'You should be ashamed with yourself.' I had to explain I'm a different Rebekah Brooks. It started from there." Brooks said she has been an active user of Twitter since 2008. She said as of July 4, she had roughly 600 followers on the social networking website. The next day that number grew by roughly 250. Now Brooks has approximately 1,000 followers on the site. Brooks said her popularity on the site has continued to grow, despite the fact that, for the most part, the confusion over her identity has been cleared up. "They started following me because they liked my reaction to the whole thing," she said. "I get more nice ones (tweets) now than I get telling me I'm a terrible person." The two women do share some similarities. In addition to their shared name, the two Brooks are both involved in journalism and both have long, curly hair. But the local woman has had a much easier time shrugging off her associations and has taken the Internet attacks in stride. "I wasn't angry," explained Brooks. "I just thought it was funny. I understand why they're so angry. They should be angry. I just wish it wasn't directed at me." If anything, Brooks' newfound popularity on Twitter has provided her with a means to procrastinate from doing her work. "It's actually quite distracting," Brooks said. "I just keep checking it when I should be doing my writing." To see more of Foster's Daily Democrat or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.fosters.com/. Copyright (c) 2011, Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, N.H. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]