B.Rumors about celebrity flirtations and feuds abounded this year, and the internet enthusiastically commented on all the twists and turns of A-listers’ lives. There were romantic intrigues: Adam Levine’s flirtatious direct messages were sent to at least one woman who wasn’t his wife. Pete Davidson’s irrepressible charisma made him the first Kim Kardashian and then a relationship with Emily Ratajkowski. Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen’s divorce was reportedly because they chose football over family.alleged incident between good morning america Co-hosted by TJ Holmes and Amy Roback.
There was a celebrity controversy: spiteful restaurateur Keith McNally kicked James Corden out of his famous eatery Balthazar for the way he spoke to waiters.Lea Michele expressed her long-held wish funny girl On Broadway, it led to the early exit of Beanie Feldstein.And, of course, there don’t worry darling Chaos: A romantic tryst between director Olivia Wilde and pop music icon and movie lead Harry Styles overshadowed the film itself, while a tense promotional tour saw her ex Jason It shed light on Wilde’s custody battle with Sudeikis. Her rumored feud with star Florence Pugh. Styles fans’ complaints about their relationship with Wilde. Her claim that she fired Shia LaBeouf from the film and his denial of her story. And (if within fan imagination) Styles’ beef with co-star Chris Pine.
We did these tidbits and ran with them. We dug up an old story about Lea Michele who allegedly terrorized the cast Gree And it got so loud that the actor himself tried to get on board with the joke, perpetuating the “Lear can’t read” conspiracy theory. We got down to subtle yet strange details, like the fact that James Cordon’s wife appears to be ordering an omelet with only egg yolks. (Pine’s rep had to lift the denial to quell the internet frenzy.) children.
Gossip is forever. The spread of rumors didn’t start in 2022. Being locked in means keeping our social circles connected when spread by friends and friends of friends. Back then, celebrities seemed perfectly up to the task of breaking up and breaking up with the same talent we expected of them. There was no setting for such a drama.The award ceremony was held remotely, the set was closed and the party was closed to the public.Sewanee University Professor Maha Jafuri said: says. Southern wrote about how gossip unfolded in Victorian literature.
read more: The science behind why people gossip
Over the last few years, some of the resources we have for spreading rumors have become popular. for example, dumois, an Instagram account that posts unverified celebrity scuttlebutt tidbits and photos of A-listers wandering New York and Los Angeles, said its creator (whose name is still confidential) began working remotely in March. , exploded in 2020 after devoting her ample reserves of quarantine time to curating what celebrity gossip still existed. Even though many of the “tips” she posted bolstered her credibility or proved to be outright false, it had little effect on the growth of her account. Reddit, meanwhile, is littered with communities digging up dirt on her favorite YouTube personality. In the summer of 2020, when the Bon Appetit Test Kitchen collapsed following accusations of racism and unequal pay, fans took to the platform to analyze the star’s posts. Theorize on social media and who played what role in the cast’s demise.
Those who study gossip for a living suggest that gossip is also necessary for distraction, socializing, and establishing cultural values. Andrea McDonnell, Professor of Communication Studies at his College of Providence and co-author of an upcoming book, said: gossip politics, On the role of gossip in our political discourse. “Especially celebrity gossip can be used as a form of currency. When talking to friends and family, it creates a common thread: ‘Can you believe it?’ ‘Did you see it?’ mosquito?'”
rich and famous scandals This year has been so rich that there seems little need to delve into the lives of ordinary people.Launching in September 2021, media company Puck’s newsletter is dedicated to insider knowledge (Bob at Disney It quickly cemented itself as a must-read for Hollywood powers, both due to its early reporting of Iger’s replacement for Bob Chapek) and its obscure, conspiratorial tone. The line between news and gossip. Still, non-celebrity scandals have also gone viral, often on TikTok. When they found out, they banded together to cancel him. Even with the cheating scandal surrounding YouTube, Try Guys dominated social media for days.
Perhaps the most prominent example is normal gossip— A podcast in which host Kelsey McKinney shares anonymized gossip about her friend’s friend — which just launched in January, Top 1% of globally shared podcasts on Spotify in 2022Part of the obscene interest in these stories is rooted in their niche and compelling settings. One story takes place in a knitting group, another in an all-gay male choir with a love triangle at its center, and a third story among colleagues in an escape room. But Jafri claims the show also offers a safe way to indulge in the otherwise gossipy harmful habits. “If you could design a defensible but fun version of gossip, what would it be like? I think that’s this show,” she says.
read more: The 10 Best Podcasts of 2022
McDonnell says these stories aren’t just funny, they also have social and moral value to the listener. We identify with characters and draw conclusions about our actions as a result. McKinney evokes this level of empathy by stopping at key moments and asking guests, “What would you do?” I think your boss and co-workers are discussing in the back room: Investigate or leave them alone? You discover that the queen bee of your neighborhood knitting group is hiding something. Take pictures for proof? We suddenly have to take into account our own choices and morals. Random her TikTok users shared embarrassing and dramatic stories about themselves, friends, and ex-girlfriends, forcing us to do the same.
Celebrity stories can also serve as moral tales. “On the surface, this is downright effervescent, racy, and some might even say crap,” he says McDonnell. don’t worry darling Big mistake. “But that story about gender and sexuality is also embedded with issues. It may contain.”
The moral of Olivia Wilde’s story depends on who is telling the story. One lesson is don’t sleep with someone who works for you. But, as my colleague Stephanie Zacharek pointed out, the way people are ashamed of Wilde for always doing what male directors always do has women warned, especially against dalliances on set. There was a tinge of misogyny, as if to. “Gossip can be a way for people without power to lose power or to overthrow people with power,” Jafri says. “for better or worse”
read more: If Olivia Wilde Was A Man
celebrity gossip, most of the time, is a lot of fun.Olivia Wilde, Pete Davidson, or GMA Dating co-hosts, they leave rich and powerful at the end of the day. It’s highly unlikely that a celebrity will hear what we say or have a direct impact on someone’s mental health,” McDonnell says.
But Megan Robbins, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside, argues that gossip can be deployed by society as punishment. “If you gossip about someone who cheats a lot, that in itself is the result of cheating and what we think is wrong in our culture,” she says. “So not only can gossip tell us what people consider good behavior, but it can also serve as a consequence of bad behavior.” “It reminds me of when we talked about Britney Spears and Amy Winehouse in the 2000s,” McDonnell says. There is a darker side to it. ”
A meme-fied video of Stiles supposedly spitting was a harmless distraction.But the same treatment that applied to Amber Heard’s testimony in this summer’s defamation trial put a disturbing corner of the internet in the spotlight. Sued her after calling her a public figure representing domestic violence director Editorial. Depp’s supporters edited the video, adding voice-over to create a false and sexist account of Heard taking drugs while in the stands, and analyzing her body language to Claiming to be an abuser herself, she spread rumors that Depp was dating his lawyer. Not now. (A jury awarded $15 million in damages in Depp’s case, and Heard awarded $2 million in her counterclaim.) Again, at Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, the body language “expert” has spun a narrative by analyzing Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s slightest move. Markle perpetuates the racist and sexist narrative that has haunted her for so long. Sometimes it seems we have learned very little from the malicious gossip era of the 2000s.
read more: Depp Heard trial perpetuates perfect victim myth
Still, cruel gossip is the exception, not the rule, Robbins argues. categorized as either negative or neutral. They found that popular beliefs about gossip (developed predominantly by women and backed by malice) were inaccurate. Everyone is involved in gossip, not just women, and negative gossip is much less common than expected. “We’ve all been plagued by negative gossip before, so I think it gets a bad rap,” she said. “But on the whole, gossip is neutral and beneficial to society. To function in the social world, you have to talk about people.”
Looking at the increased interest in gossip over the past year, we can point to it as another sign of the end of our society. Robbins would disagree: “People seem very excited to be back together and gossiping.”
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