Smart Kid From USC Wants to Work For Sheen

When you hear Charlie Sheen in a conversation, you're likely to hear "tiger blood" and "goddesses" and a slew of other crazy terms the actor has recently mentioned. Sheen has catapulted himself into the spotlight by being perhaps the craziest person in show business right now.

J.P. Gooderham, a Tulane University sophomore from Upper St. Clair, said he finds Sheen's wackiness not scary, but "intriguing."

Like more than 80,000 people, Gooderham responded to an online posting on internships.com for an eight-week position as Sheen's intern to monitor the actor's social media platforms.

"It started off as a joke. My friend from my dorm sent me a link," Gooderham said.

Gooderham replied to the posting with a 75-character tweet. To his surprise, he made it to the second round, cutting the competition in half. 

So he sent in his formal application, which is full of internet experience.

"I'm kind of a tech geek," Gooderham said.

In middle school Gooderham created his first website, based on the "Harry Potter" craze. 

For three years in high school, the self-described "zealous golfer" created a golf blog he updated for three years, which he said was named one of the top 50 best golf blogs in the nation.

His most recent creation was inspired by the the high cost of college textbooks.

"Even used books are a terrible deal," Gooderham said.

He started a Facebook group to eliminate the middle man, and allow students to sell books to each other. In a short time, the group had 750 members, so Gooderham had to start a separate website, collegehaggler.com.

"I've always loved being able to connect people through Facebook and Twitter," Gooderham said.

Impressed? The intern hiring staff was. Gooderham is now one of the top 250 candidates in the third round.

His latest task was to create a video seriously answering the question: What company do you think has made the best use of social media? Part two, the video must create community engagement.

Gooderham's friends from Upper St. Clair and from Tulane University are doing their part by spreading the video link. But no one is working harder for Gooderham than his mother.

"She's being unbelievably supportive," Gooderham said. "She's my unofficial public relations person; an intern to an intern."

Some mothers have left comments online, condemning Gooderham's quest to work with Sheen. 

"The job doesn't require to out-party Charlie Sheen," Gooderham said. "It's a high-profile internship for the most popular celebrity right now. The experience would be great to talk about during a job interview."

Gooderham didn't want to give away all of his secrets, but he said the key to being a successful intern would be to keep giving Sheen's audience what they want. 

"A lot of time people like this will go away after a week, like Rebecca Black," Gooderham said. "I would have to maintain Sheen's level of popularity he has right now."

Gooderham is now working to increase his YouTube hits, get more people to like his Facebook page and attract more followers on Twitter, so he can do what Sheen does best: duh, winning!