David Hasselhoff has suffered some trying setbacks recently. The former star of Baywatch, Knight Rider and the late 1980s German pop music scene, revealed recently that he was turned down by Steven Spielberg for a part in Indiana Jones, and also for a part in Superman. “The latest big ‘no' was when I brought Knight Rider back to NBC,” the current America's Got Talent judge told Parade magazine. “They said, ‘We love the project, but we don't think we want you starring in it.”

Well, Hasselhoff's Knight Rider may not live on, but its legacy does. Midnight Rida (www.maniatv.com/shows/midnight-rida) is a new online spoof of the original 1980s kitsch classic. The story focuses on Mitch McKnight, a nerdy intern working for a secret underground intelligence bureau who is anxious to prove he is special agent material, and GARI, a crime-fighting car with a mind and voice of its own. GARI, with its street slang, is no KITT, and who could ever quite replicate the Hoff's Roger Moore-like cheesiness? But it's good to reminisce - if, admittedly, slightly difficult to remember quite how it was that this very part propelled Hasselhoff into such a high level of stardom that his next TV show had him surrounded by sand, sun and an endless supply of surgically enhanced women.

Speaking of the Hoff, you might also want to check out Hoffspace (www.davidhasselhoff.com), his very own social networking site. It has around 12,400 members and all your social networking mod cons. “In my travels round the world I have always been surprised that no matter where I go, people recognise and know me, from Europe, Australia and India to the Philippines and the Zulu nation in South Africa. This got me thinking... I realised that while two people from two entirely different countries and backgrounds may seem to have nothing in common, the only thing they might have in common is me... So I decided to start a network where people from across the world might come together and get a conversation started over me,” he explained. Amazing.

Editor's choice

• U2 at Nou Camp Stadium, Barcelona
• The 50 Best Movie Villains
• The 15 golden rules of theatre etiquette