I agree with the popular take on Sarah Lacy's Zuckerberg interview at SXSW to this degree: The audience was revolting. Lacy threw an unbecomingly petulant tantrum on stage. But the Twitter reaction was equally self-indulgent. The debates over her performance obscured the man who should have been under the microscope: Mark Zuckerberg. As a speaker, Facebook's CEO is trying to model himself after Steve Jobs. He's gotten help from Bill Clinton's former speaking coach. But so far, all he's learned is the fine art of saying nothing.

With its appealing template, risk-free poking opportunities, and wealth of human-bartering applications, its hardly a wonder that Facebook has really taken off in Hollywood circles. Best of all, its Status Updates feature lets you experience in real time the mundane ("Brad Grey is wondering how many times you have to say 'mustard on the side' before The Daily Grill begins to get it!"), the profound ("Diablo Cody is Diablo Cody is Diablo Cody is..."), the sublime highs ("James Cameron is telling you— Avatar is going to blow your minds!"), and, in the above scenario, the painful lows of a life lived in the industry. Unfortunately, no amount of clicking by director Roger Kumble on College Road Trip's Rotten Tomatoes page is going to inch up that unlucky number 13%, or append the consensus "woefully short on comic imagination" with the phrase "but long on keenly inspired directorial flourishes!"

If Sheryl Sandberg weren't a Harvard grad twice over, we might have believed Facebook's new COO when she said Silicon Valley is a "meritocracy" and that people don't care who you know. Her claim is even more risible now that we learn Sandberg joined Facebook in large part because her brother-in-law is Elevation Partners cofounder Marc Bodnick, a private investor in Facebook.

Writes Jeff Jarvis, the magazine veteran who turned blogger a few years ago:

She's back! Marcy Simon, Eric Schmidt's ex-girlfriend, has always aimed to be with the hot tech company of the moment. In the '90s, she was all over Microsoft (and, we hear, Bill Gates). Then it was Schmidt and Google. Now that Facebook is looking to hire a VP of PR, could she be angling for the job? We hear she was rebuffed when she tried to land Facebook's outside PR account — San Francisco-based Outcast got the gig instead. But Simon is still relentlessly trying to work her way into Facebook. She's signed up Peter Thiel's Founders Fund as a client, hoping to use Thiel's influence as a board member to get tighter with Mark Zuckerberg & Co. I don't know about this, Marcy. Isn't Zuckerberg a little young for you?

If you didn't get to experience the Sarah Lacy-Mark Zuckerberg keynote travesty firsthand — or just want to relive it — here's a short clip of the interview. I've cut it down to Lacy's most awkward moment, when Zuckerberg tells her she has to ask him a question before he'll respond. Watch the clip and you'll see that clearly, Lacy should have talked less and listened more. But doesn't Zuck remind you of an android from the future still learning the nuances of human conversation?

• Facebook now available in French.

Kind words are few and far between when it comes to Sarah Lacy's keynote interview with Mark Zuckerberg earlier today at the South by Southwest conference. The dozens and dozens of negative tweets started coming in shortly after the keynote started, and have only gotten harsher since then. Here's a selection:

AUSTIN, TX — 1:53 p.m. Central Time: Facebook PR director Brandee Barker gave me this exclusive scoop: CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who's due to take the stage for his SXSW Interactive keynote in minutes, is not wearing his famous Adidas flip-flops.

Who's the richest billionaire in the Bay Area? No surprise here: Oracle founder and yachting enthusiast Larry Ellison, is the 14th wealthiest in the world (which must grate on him something fierce) with $25 billion. Trailing him are a trio of Googlers, Larry and Sergey with almost $19 billion each and CEO Eric Schmidt with $6.6 billion. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the youngest billionaire is pegged at $1.5 billion and outgoing eBay CEO Meg Whitman, one of only 99 women on the list, has $1.3 billion. Other local billionaires include Steve Jobs, Charles Schwab and George Lucas. Grab the full list from Forbes.

Number 785 on the Forbes Billionaires list is one Mark Zuckerberg. Forbes estimates his net worth at $1.5 billion — a far cry from the $5 billion we pegged him at last year — but still a nice chunk of change. (We've since learned the actual number is $4 billion; he owns 27 percent of Facebook.)

In an interview with BoomTown's Kara Swisher, Facebook's new second-in-command Sheryl Sandberg says "Silicon Valley is a very good place for women."

The Financial Times is offering a free 12-month subscription to its website (worth $109), renewable for up to four years, to any college student that adds its Facebook application. The FT says the deal is "part of the general trend to making [FT.com] free — but in a segmented way." Why don't they just pay college students to read the paper? That seems easier. [PaidContent]

"Facebook is a vehicle through which a bunch of investors in the Valley hope to turn a small pile of money into a much bigger pile of money by selling shares in the public markets. That is Facebook's core business." [The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs]

So, I guess I created an account on Flip.com a while back (probably to pick up high-schoolers), because I just got an e-mail from the social site where teenage girls are begged to express themselves. The site, which was supposed to rival MySpace and Facebook, is now a Facebook app rated lower than the "What disastrous event are you?" quiz. (Though, to be fair, it's the app's first day, and also I really want to know if I'm Pearl Harbor.) This is hopefully the end of the "Conde Nast Fails At The Internet" saga, which was analyzed here by Nick Denton, my publisher and the man most likely to gloat. IDK, be my BFF on Flip Facebook!

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been leaving Facebook groups at a prodigious rate over the past few days. Is it related to his recent relationship troubles or is he just cleaning house? Check out the screenshots below to see just how many groups he's left. We know the feeling, Jimbo: Who has time for this?

As congratulations rain down on new Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, her predecessor, Owen Van Natta, is left under a cloud. Van Natta left Amazon.com for Facebook when it was barely out of an Ivy League dorm, and turned it into a company with plans to take over the world. Then he got demoted. Then he abruptly left. Why? Because he wanted to be a CEO someday. But his ambitions did not match his talents, Mark Zuckerberg now implies. In Zuck's words: "With bringing in a COO, we just decided it was the right time for him to go and do that." Somewhere else. Ah, then we shouldn't call it a firing.

A tough message to deliver: "Mr. Zuckerberg is also seeking to hire ... a vice president of communications and public policy, says Facebook spokeswoman Brandee Barker." Barker's title? Director, a level below VP. Mark Zuckerberg isn't just hiring someone over Barker's head; he sent her to relay the news to the Wall Street Journal. The position's so new that it's not yet listed on Facebook's website. Is this how Zuck told his spokeswoman she wasn't getting the VP job? Harsh, dude. (Photo by Brandee Barker)