Fry amasses 200,000 Twitter followers

Fry started actively tweeting in August 2008. He shot to international Twitter fame when he tweeted from a broken lift and has made high profile appearances discussing his interest in the micro-blogging site, most notably on fellow Twitter fan Jonathan Ross’s BBC1 chat show.

Fry passed the 100,000 followers landmark on 2nd February. He welcomed Hayley Elliott, his 100,000th follower to the micro-blogging site, with a reply: 'Hi there Hayley! You are my 100,000th follower! And I'm proud to be your first. Welcome to Twitter xxx', shortly after exclaiming 'Holy ARSE. Thank you all xxxxx'. The entertainer has yet to make a public announcement to his 200,000th follower.

In terms of Twitter popularity Fry is second only to Barack Obama who has amassed over 290,000 followers. It is widely expected that Fry will overtake Obama in March.

Fry's Twitter popularity is showing no signs of stopping as by 1pm today he had over 204,000 followers. Despite this, even he is showing some signs of weariness. Last night he posted the following message: “Did interviews with Sunday Times and PA (both British) before filming scene. Journos more interested in Twitter than Bones.” This was swiftly followed by the remark: “Worry that talking about Twitter too much will somehow spoil it. But hard when asked all the time. Don't want to become a bore on the subject.”

Last week, Fry began selling Twitter themed T-shirts through his website. Discussing the decision, Fry’s website producer Andrew Sampson commented: “Stephen loves it [Twitter], as you can tell by his Twitterings he’s a genuine bloke who doesn’t hide much and entertains many. Sure, the press coverage in the UK has often tied him to it but that's because he has embraced it and uses it without inhibition.”

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