Filtering Through Celebrity Gossip Lies and Truth
Gen Wright asked:
new celebrity gossip stories hit the front pages of the entertainment sites but how does one separate the truth from fiction? Of the popular news media outlets some of the more established like People Magazine, tend to be more reliable sources, confirming stories as much as possible before publishing. This tends to make these outlets trusted sources but at the same time often slow to come out with controversial news that’s harder to confirm and that might cause backlash. After all if a story reflects poorly on a celebrity, they and their reps are not likely to confirm and may in fact blatantly deny until totally cornered. They may also be reluctant to co-operate with that media outlet in the future.
There are also many media outlets that are more daring and will go forward with publishing a story pretty readily if they believe it’s based on truth, even if the gossip is based on circumstantial evidence. These types of stories require the most detective work to weigh the validity of the story. New couple alerts are a good example. Celebrities are often spotted ‘looking cozy’ together all the time. Sometimes these types of stories have some supporting photo evidence, other times it’s based on hearsay third party witnesses. Many times these stories are just planted by reps. and the celebrities themselves for publicity purposes. Jennifer Aniston is forever being linked to every leading man she works with, especially since her splitting from Brad Pitt. Fans want to see Jen find love again and tabloids are anxious to deliver to sell magazines. Two thirds of those stories or more are false of course. When Jen was initially linked with John Mayer, frankly I was skeptical. The funny/sad thing was, when Jen broke up with Mayer, she was immediately linked with another hot new guy. This rumor which should have made anyone highly skeptical soon proved to be false but that’s the nature of this business. Without going into a whole manifesto here, another type of story example that’s usually hard to get confirmation on is celebrities stricken with health issues. It was ‘The National Enquirer’ that broke the news on the Patrick Swayze cancer story, which was confirmed by his rep. after the actor was ‘outed’. Meanwhile stories like, Paul Newman’s alleged battle with cancer has never been officially confirmed.
Many gossip news outlets fall into a third category. Seemingly under the gun to crank out new articles,they throw in a few ‘trash gossip’ stories in the mix of each publication. Most of these fiction based stories are not malicous, and based on some shred of truth, that I call ‘progression stories’. A celebrity dating the same person for a while, is reported to be, breaking up, cheating or planning their wedding. A celebrity known to drink, is going to rehab. A celebrity is photographed with a new ring, there engaged. A couple weeks before Jennifer Aniston split up with John Mayer she appeared on two magazine covers on the same week. One reporting she was planning her wedding, the second saying she was already making plans to have a baby.
My biggest pet peeves in the truth and lies game is twofold:
Media outlets and websites that deliberately publish malicious ‘false stories’ for the sake of publicity. Many of these stories capitalizing on celebrities misfortunes and are attention grabbing but often based on nothing more then conjecture or just imagination. A recent trash story, that had my blood boiling, claimed that Christina Applegate was going to put off treatment for ****** cancer so she could have a baby! The tabloid picked up on the fact that: ‘Christina told an interviewer that she didn’t want to wait until her mid-forties to have a baby, and that her biological clock was ticking.’We learned 5 days later that Christina Applegate had already had a double mastectomy performed to remove the cancer.
Likewise media outlets that turn their back on certain types of stories because they don’t want to get their hands dirty or offend their audience. Recently the NY Post’s famous Page Six published under their ‘blind items’:
‘Which hunk in a summer movie is a violent, closeted **********? The heartthrob snuck into his ex’s apartment a few months ago and ***** him so violently, the ex ended up in the hospital – and the actor paid him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut.’
Well I guess you can see why they might be a bit reluctant to name, names. It’s not unusual for one of these blind items, which are posted frequently to eventually be reported with names by more daring publishers.
new celebrity gossip stories hit the front pages of the entertainment sites but how does one separate the truth from fiction? Of the popular news media outlets some of the more established like People Magazine, tend to be more reliable sources, confirming stories as much as possible before publishing. This tends to make these outlets trusted sources but at the same time often slow to come out with controversial news that’s harder to confirm and that might cause backlash. After all if a story reflects poorly on a celebrity, they and their reps are not likely to confirm and may in fact blatantly deny until totally cornered. They may also be reluctant to co-operate with that media outlet in the future.
There are also many media outlets that are more daring and will go forward with publishing a story pretty readily if they believe it’s based on truth, even if the gossip is based on circumstantial evidence. These types of stories require the most detective work to weigh the validity of the story. New couple alerts are a good example. Celebrities are often spotted ‘looking cozy’ together all the time. Sometimes these types of stories have some supporting photo evidence, other times it’s based on hearsay third party witnesses. Many times these stories are just planted by reps. and the celebrities themselves for publicity purposes. Jennifer Aniston is forever being linked to every leading man she works with, especially since her splitting from Brad Pitt. Fans want to see Jen find love again and tabloids are anxious to deliver to sell magazines. Two thirds of those stories or more are false of course. When Jen was initially linked with John Mayer, frankly I was skeptical. The funny/sad thing was, when Jen broke up with Mayer, she was immediately linked with another hot new guy. This rumor which should have made anyone highly skeptical soon proved to be false but that’s the nature of this business. Without going into a whole manifesto here, another type of story example that’s usually hard to get confirmation on is celebrities stricken with health issues. It was ‘The National Enquirer’ that broke the news on the Patrick Swayze cancer story, which was confirmed by his rep. after the actor was ‘outed’. Meanwhile stories like, Paul Newman’s alleged battle with cancer has never been officially confirmed.
Many gossip news outlets fall into a third category. Seemingly under the gun to crank out new articles,they throw in a few ‘trash gossip’ stories in the mix of each publication. Most of these fiction based stories are not malicous, and based on some shred of truth, that I call ‘progression stories’. A celebrity dating the same person for a while, is reported to be, breaking up, cheating or planning their wedding. A celebrity known to drink, is going to rehab. A celebrity is photographed with a new ring, there engaged. A couple weeks before Jennifer Aniston split up with John Mayer she appeared on two magazine covers on the same week. One reporting she was planning her wedding, the second saying she was already making plans to have a baby.
My biggest pet peeves in the truth and lies game is twofold:
Media outlets and websites that deliberately publish malicious ‘false stories’ for the sake of publicity. Many of these stories capitalizing on celebrities misfortunes and are attention grabbing but often based on nothing more then conjecture or just imagination. A recent trash story, that had my blood boiling, claimed that Christina Applegate was going to put off treatment for ****** cancer so she could have a baby! The tabloid picked up on the fact that: ‘Christina told an interviewer that she didn’t want to wait until her mid-forties to have a baby, and that her biological clock was ticking.’We learned 5 days later that Christina Applegate had already had a double mastectomy performed to remove the cancer.
Likewise media outlets that turn their back on certain types of stories because they don’t want to get their hands dirty or offend their audience. Recently the NY Post’s famous Page Six published under their ‘blind items’:
‘Which hunk in a summer movie is a violent, closeted **********? The heartthrob snuck into his ex’s apartment a few months ago and ***** him so violently, the ex ended up in the hospital – and the actor paid him $500,000 to keep his mouth shut.’
Well I guess you can see why they might be a bit reluctant to name, names. It’s not unusual for one of these blind items, which are posted frequently to eventually be reported with names by more daring publishers.
Celebrities Finally Get a Taste of Technology
Jason Martinez asked:
Thanks to the multitude of media outlets focused on tinsel-town, our hunger for the daily details of our favorite celebrities is satisfied. The naturally voyeuristic nature that many of us have drives a want for controversy and the most sensational of stories – fun and entertaining sure, but arguably of very little value.
So wouldn’t it be nice to learn something truly unique about our celebrity favorites, something that could actually also serve as informative or even educational?
Turns out that the good folks over at PC.com, an educational technology portal, have done just that. Many of the most popular Hollywood celebrities are covered in short productions called Celebrity Techovers. These Techovers feature an interview discussing the specific technology challenges of the celebrity and the ways that technology can meet the specific requirements. In a who’s-who of consumer electronics devices and solutions, visitors are exposed to the many ways that some of the most common technology problems can be solved. Not just for the rich and famous – non-celebrities are getting into the action as well.
Sylvia Rodriguez, a Sacramento California teacher, was recently visited by PC.com. Sylvia has a long track-record of teaching success with many awards and accolades to her name, however in a case of role-reversal she found that her students were often more informed with matters of technology. Within the span of two celebrity techover episodes, Sylvia gains a new understanding of what can be accomplished with the latest technology. She now has a little something to say about technology when opportunities for tech discussions present themselves. No longer the tech cast-out, Sylvia can now add a little tech knowledge to her extensive educational repertoire.
Arguably pop-culture is really a phenomenon driven by those with celebrity status. From fashion to cuisine, transportation to lingo, they set the bar for what we want to imitate. It is this very fact that makes the efforts of PC.com unique and valuable. Think of how many people, both young and old, will read and watch celebrity techovers and gain a better understanding, even if just a little, of the technology centric world we live in!
There are several celebrities that have received their celebrity techovers. Rob Lowe, Josh Duhamel, Marcia Cross, Paula Abdul, and Joely Fisher to name a few.
Thanks to the multitude of media outlets focused on tinsel-town, our hunger for the daily details of our favorite celebrities is satisfied. The naturally voyeuristic nature that many of us have drives a want for controversy and the most sensational of stories – fun and entertaining sure, but arguably of very little value.
So wouldn’t it be nice to learn something truly unique about our celebrity favorites, something that could actually also serve as informative or even educational?
Turns out that the good folks over at PC.com, an educational technology portal, have done just that. Many of the most popular Hollywood celebrities are covered in short productions called Celebrity Techovers. These Techovers feature an interview discussing the specific technology challenges of the celebrity and the ways that technology can meet the specific requirements. In a who’s-who of consumer electronics devices and solutions, visitors are exposed to the many ways that some of the most common technology problems can be solved. Not just for the rich and famous – non-celebrities are getting into the action as well.
Sylvia Rodriguez, a Sacramento California teacher, was recently visited by PC.com. Sylvia has a long track-record of teaching success with many awards and accolades to her name, however in a case of role-reversal she found that her students were often more informed with matters of technology. Within the span of two celebrity techover episodes, Sylvia gains a new understanding of what can be accomplished with the latest technology. She now has a little something to say about technology when opportunities for tech discussions present themselves. No longer the tech cast-out, Sylvia can now add a little tech knowledge to her extensive educational repertoire.
Arguably pop-culture is really a phenomenon driven by those with celebrity status. From fashion to cuisine, transportation to lingo, they set the bar for what we want to imitate. It is this very fact that makes the efforts of PC.com unique and valuable. Think of how many people, both young and old, will read and watch celebrity techovers and gain a better understanding, even if just a little, of the technology centric world we live in!
There are several celebrities that have received their celebrity techovers. Rob Lowe, Josh Duhamel, Marcia Cross, Paula Abdul, and Joely Fisher to name a few.
