Rowland apparently started something called Project Migration this past summer. The organization sells products "made by single mothers in Africa;" proceeds ostensibly help improve their water supply and health care. And, what do you know, this effort just happens to require a professional photo shoot starring one Hilary Rowland (see attached video), which the sometime model just happened promote to her public Facebook wall:

(We're not sure what the reference to Rowland being "haunted by" porn purveyor Vivid Entertinament is about, though that comment makes us especially curious about her past.)

This isn't Rowland's first brush with chairty; though she is best known for posting pictures of herself with various celebrities on Facebook, and for being the rumored girlfriend of celebrity actors like Adrian Gernier and James Woods, she's long participated in various charity events, emphasis on "events" (one "Mexico Summit" observer: "they handed shoes out to little brown kids...in between cocktails"). Her day job consists of repurposing Glamour and MSN articles for her fake fashion magazine, "Hilary." Perhaps an article about Project Migration is in order. Don't forget the photos!

Reads the caption on the Getty pic: "Actor James Woods kisses Hilary Rowland at the Cerruti Showroom Fall/Winter Fashion Show 2001/2002 party January 29, 2001 in New York City." It sure looks like that's what is going on here. But maybe the famous actor and the infamous name-dropper are just talking, really closely, and Rowland's eyes are only closed because she's blinking or something. Sure!

We found the picture amid other Getty shots showing Rowland and Woods together at six different events between January and March 2001: the National Board Review Awards, a Talk magazine party, the Cerruti show above, the Hannibal premiere, the Museum of Television & Radio Gala and the Vanity Fair Oscar party. The captions no longer identify Rowland as Woods' "girlfriend" as they did just two days ago. But surely they were at least dating; that's what one usually calls the act of attending a series of events with a person you kiss.

Maybe protocelebrity Rowland knows that publicly acknowledging a romantic relationship with a bona-fide star makes it that much harder to find the next one.

Or maybe Woods is too B-listy; we notice Rowland didn't bother to deny dating Entourage's Adrien Grenier, the focus of the post tying her to Woods.

Gossip involving Rowland should be treated even more skeptically than other celebrity rumors; talk of a Grenier-Rowland relationship is just the sort of buzz the protocelebrity seems to crave, if only because it would lend a touch more credibility to her star-studded Facebook albums.

But our tipster's money bets the union is genuine. And it's worth noting that Grenier wouldn't be the first famous actor Rowland got her claws into; Getty reported she was James Woods' girlfriend paramour in early 2001. Below, find one of several Getty pictures from the period, which in the photo service's database include a caption identifying her as his "girlfriend."

Can you shed any light on the situation? Drop us a line. We'd hate to manufacture false glory on Rowland's behalf, whether or not she feels likewise.

Hilary Rowland is described by those who've met her as "one of those self-described 'serial entrepreneurs' who's started fifty businesses, none of which you've ever heard of." Perhaps the most prominent of those is "Hilary Magazine"—a vital publication she calls the first ever online women's magazine (sample 2006 story: "A Childhood Trapped Inside the Playboy Mansion").

She's further described as a "world champion name dropper," something that seems to be borne out by, for example, her Twitter feed. Look, she calls Richard Branson by his firstie!

According to her own bio, she also started newfaces.com, a model portfolio site. Where she has her own profile because she is, in addition to being an internet entrepreneur, an actual model!

Nothing wrong with modeling, of course. What irks people about Rowland is that they say she's an outrageous self promoting, name dropping, celebrity-hounding model disguised as an internet entrepreneur. And, apparently, a bore. According to one acquaintance, she was at a party for internet types, and her method of socializing was to start reeling off her own resume starting at age 17, running up to the present day. When someone else walked in and joined the conversation, she'd stop, go back to the beginning, and give her whole self presentation over again.

And where do her flaws manifest themselves most thoroughly? On her Facebook page, of course! There, her armada of friends can access her "hanging with friends" album, where she most casually lets you know about her good times spent with her close, personal superstar friends.

She makes the rounds of various do-gooder tech entrepreneur events, which are all more or less cocktail parties disguised as charity events. Her full-fledged embrace of this world strikes some as her worst quality of all: self congratulatory self promotion dressed up as futuristic world-saving. At the Mexico Summit, says one source, "they handed shoes out to little brown kids...in between cocktails."

These internet types are catty! It would obviously be wrong to think that you had a full picture of Hilary Rowland without spending some time with her in person. But it was time for us to bring her to your attention. The cozying up to internet millionaires; the posing as a new media entrepreneur; the shameless self promotion, name dropping, and provocative poses; she reminds us of an old friend.

The Summit Series, an event for Internet entrepreneurs under the age of 36, is gearing up for a third get-together, this time in Aspen.

Rowland, the founder of Hilary Magazine and New Faces, a modeling agency, was one of the few women who went to the last Summit Series, a phenomenally ill-timed November junket in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for some 60 Internet-industry second-raters who partied and drank in the midst of an economic meltdown. (One attendee, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, came straight from laying off 8 percent of his workforce.)

The event was supposed to be off the record, with no names released, no photos posted, and no mention made of the event's existence. But Rowland, a very attractive blonde with a decidedly unattractive penchant for name-dropping, issued a press release and posted photos of the event for her vast number of Facebook friends. The summit's stated mission was the exchange of ideas and the promotion of charitable works. Perhaps that happened! But if so, Rowland's photographs did not document it:

Among the people Rowland exposed: Drop.io founder Sam Lessin, the son of a Wall Street banker who took 19 of his closest friends to his dad's vacation home in Cyprus, where they filmed a video of their frolics. The clip leaked and the event, promptly dubbed "Camp Cyprus," became an infamous example of the Web 2.0 set's irrational exuberance. In other words, Summit Series Mexico was only the second money-wasting event Lessin, whose startup is hardly setting the world on fire, got caught attending.

And that's the problem that the Summit Series' organizers are now facing. Rowland has proven that they can't keep the event private, and the likes of Lessin surely don't want to be caught out as wastrels a third time. Elliott Bisnow, the event's founder, is also trying to cajole invitees to the four-day Aspen event to pay $3,000; past events were free save for airfare. (Here's the full text of his emails, including an amusing followup to beg for ticket purchases.)

I suppose Bisnow could disinvite Rowland. But there will always be someone willing to barter privacy for a little taste of fame. Isn't that what the Internet was made for? With all her experience, Rowland should know that better than anyone.