Aug. 23: ANONYMOUS, the hacker organization, endorses #occupywallstreet with a video promoting the upcoming Sept. 17 occupation. Until now, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement was merely talk initiated by Adbusters, an anti-consumerist, not-for-profit organization out of Canada.

Sept. 17:  Zuccotti Park, formerly referred to as Liberty Plaza Park, is “liberated” and occupied by protesters from across the country. Socialists, communists and anarchists are among the protesters. OWS organizers say they have no single demand but rather wish to call attention to the anger and discontentment of their peers over corporate power and the wide gap in wealth distribution, among other issues. Actress Roseanne Barr, rappers Lupe Fiasco and Immortal Technique all speak at the inaugural General Assembly.

Sept. 24: During a march of approximately 500 people toward Union Square, the New York Police Department (NYPD) kettle a group of protesters using orange mesh nets. Roughly 80 are arrested.

In the hours and days following the march, video footage of NYPD officer Anthony Bologna pepper-spraying three women is circulated widely on the Internet. The video garners mainstream coverage by major news organizations of the OWS movement.

Sept. 30: As Occupy movements sprout up across the country (Occupy Boston, Occupy Chicago and Occupy San Francisco are a few of the largest, among many more) a rumor spreads that the band Radiohead will play an acoustic set at Zuccotti Park. Thousands of people flock to the park, despite numerous denials from a spokesperson for Radiohead and OWS. Ultimately it turns out to be a hoax, but media coverage increases.

Oct. 3: During a planned march over the Brooklyn Bridge, over 700 people are reportedly arrested by the NYPD.

Oct. 5:  Many unions and political organizations, including TWU, 1199SEIU and MoveOn.org, officially endorse OWS with a rally and march that starts in Foley Square. Over 20,000 people reportedly attend the rally. Later that evening, several protesters are arrested as they charge a barricade on Wall Street.

Oct. 10: Celebrities such as Kanye West, Russell Simmons visit Zuccotti Park. The Occupy movement is now using Meetupcom as a platform and there are over 1,300 occupations around the world.

Oct. 14: Brookfield Office Properties, the owners of Zuccotti Park, attempts to clear the park by announcing that they and the NYPD will be performing a cleaning of the park at 7 a.m. the next morning. Protesters spend the day cleaning the park themselves, MoveOn.org gathers more than 150,000 signatures on a petition asking Bloomberg not to allow their eviction and, by 6 a.m., with no response from either the city or Brookfield Properties, an estimated 5,000 people gather in Zuccotti Park to prevent the clearing of the park. At the last minute, Brookfield rescinds their request for cleaning as well as their request for NYPD support in removing the protesters.

PHOTOS BY: Gail Zawacki, Brennan Cavanaugh, Gail Zawacki, Jeremiah's s Vanishing New York, Alex Fradkin, Brennan Cavanaugh, Meetup.com, Brennan Cavanaugh, Cody Swanson

The protesters in Zuccotti Park have now been occupying Wall Street for almost a month. Although at first they suffered from a lack of coverage, now the mainstream media seems to be more or less on their side. With great press comes problems, however. As awareness of the protest is increased, it seems that the message of the protest is diluted. Over the weekend Kanye West and Russell Simmons stopped by Zuccotti Park — two men famous for their wealth stopped by an anti-capitalism protest… and it wasn’t a joke. Is the parade of celebrities stopping by Zuccotti Park (during the safety of the daytime of course) good or bad for the movement? Can celebrities ever truly help a counter-culture protest?

Slavoj Zizek, the famous philosopher, however, is an exception that proves the rule. He is a celebrity who will always be welcome at any protest. Zizek stopped by Zuccotti Park on October 9th and addressed this problem. He reminded the protesters not to “fall in love with yourselves, with the nice time we are having here. Carnivals come cheap – the true test of their worth is what remains the day after, how our normal daily life will be changed. Fall in love with hard and patient work – we are the beginning, not the end.” Most importantly Zizek warned them to “beware not only of enemies, but also of false friends who pretend to support us, but are already working hard to dilute our protest.” The power of celebrity is a double-edged sword; although they bring more press and more awareness to the protest, at the same time they “dilute” it, as Zizek says. The protesters cannot, obviously, prohibit celebrities from participating. But perhaps they should. When Kanye West, whose very image is based on his role as a conspicuous consumer and arbiter of the zeitgeist, walks around Zuccotti Park in gold chains and gold teeth, he is controlling the language and the message, not the protesters. He is diluting the protest, robbing it of its power, claiming its relevance for himself, to up his cool-quotient rather than to commit to any outsider political views.

Although the “Occupy” movement has truly taken off and spread across the country in only a couple weeks, its lasting power and influence remains to be seen. According to OccupyTogether.org, there are 1,471 “occupations” currently underway across the country, with the largest being Occupy Denver, Occupy Phoenix, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Los Angeles, Occupy San Francisco and Occupy Portland.

If the protesters at Occupy Wall Street (and the other occupations around the country) continue to let celebrities participate in these protests without commenting, critiquing, or using the juxtaposition to their advantage, they risk becoming nothing more than a pop-culture punch line.