There is some cross-pollination between those who are "Social News" and those who are "Celebrity News." Some socials have parlayed their stories of excess and stupidity into a type of dog and pony show celebrity status. They get on camera and perform some tricks for the audience and display themselves and their assets to the best of their advantage, and for no purpose other than their own glorification.
If nobody read about them or watched them on television, all of this would be moot, but because there is an ever increasing appetite for this type of tripe, not only do the number of shows featuring ersatz celebrities increase almost daily, the number of media outlets obsessed with them multiplies correspondently.
There are some of these media outlets that have been deemed more powerful than others. There are the old warhorses of the West Coast, People Magazine and Entertainment Tonight, who pretty much handle the less sensational Celebrity news, figuring what they lack in sensationalism they make up for in access and quality of pictures.
On the East Coast, where there are less Hollywood types but more blue blood aristocrats, it's "Page Six" of The New York Post that rules the roost. "Page Six" seems to exist for no other reason than to be vindictive and catty about some people and loving about others.
One poor fellow was attacked on such a consistent basis for over a year that he contacted the paper's owner, Rupert Murdoch, to complain that the items were completely false. It made no difference. It's because of this gentleman, Ron Burkle, that the good ship "Page Six" is foundering in rough waters, and it has made itself the topic of scandal sheets around the city.
One of the main contributors to "Page Six", Jared Paul Stern, is under investigation by the F.B.I. over allegations that he tried to extort $220,000 from the aforementioned Ron Burkle. It seems Mr. Stern was offering Mr. Burkle protection from negative stories. For $100,000 up front and a further $10,000 a month, he would be guaranteed that not a negative pronoun or adjective would appear in The New York Post for the next year in reference to him and his dealings.
Mr. Stern also claimed that various other industry heavies had come to an "arrangement" with "Page Six": Miramax head Harvey Weinstein, and Revlon's Ron Perelman being two very prominent New York figures purportedly amongst them. Both have denied any such allegations of course, but Steven Houpt points out in his article about "Page Six" (see above link), neither man has been attacked in the last year.
Article comments
1 - Diane Ensey
I have a feeling that gossip and intense interest in our social "betters" goes back to the cave when the group gossipped about Glog and Una every time they went hunting.
Seriously, though, the whole celebrity thing seems to be a reflection of the unhappiness and dissatisfaction with our lives. We jump at the chance to live vicariously through someone else's life or to see how their lives are no different than our own.
There is also the "car wreck" mentality where you can't NOT look. I'm guilty of this sometimes. Where does this come from?
2 - chancelucky
I'm sure that gossip columns will continue to exist, but to me this story was really more about the fact that Murdoch's people tried to "sell" immunity from the column to at least one person.
It makes you wonder about what else Murdoch's news folk "report" as news.