Media Junkie Lounge

Silveral asked:


Celebrity Gossip and celebrity scandal are everywhere. When it comes to stars and celebrities we love to talk about them. Not many people can resist a good old gossip preferable about someone that is known. Celebrity gossip and news can be found in magazines, on the radio, and on the television screen.

Celebrity Gossip is a great way to take a break from the more serious news that is found both locally and around the world. As a society we like to follow the actions of those celebrities we see in media. We talk about them. After all, do you really want to miss out seeing the next outrageous outfit that Paris Hilton is going to wear?

Do you feel a twinge of guilt about buying a gossipy celebrity magazine? Don’t. Tell yourself instead that you are merely honoring a respectable ancestral survival mechanism by engaging in celebrity gossip. This reveals lots about our culture. Celebrity gossip helps us tackle our social anxieties (what if we started breaking the rules like some Celebrity) and celebrity gossip tells us something about our dreams (only if I were to be rich and careless like Angelina).

Celebrity Gossip and our past.

Humans as a species live in groups, so it is essential for individuals to learn what other members of the tribe are up to and what this means. In our modern world with its instant communications celebrities make up part of that group. We feel we know them even if we have not even met them in real life. This drives us to engage in gossip about the celebrities. This begs the question :

Did celebrity gossip just start recently or has celebrity gossip been around for a long time?

Long ago reputations were important, we are talking, middle ages here, even more so than they are today. Women needed their husband to uphold their reputation - if a woman felt she was losing their husband, she would vocally accuse her competitor of trying to take him away by calling her a *****. You could even be punished for gossiping!

The punishment was various - but included a scold’s bridle, a metal band that fitted over the head and had a 3.5 inch protrusion which was inserted in the mouth and lay flat against the tongue. One sure way of making sure they did no more scolding.

Going back further. “If primate intelligence originally evolved to solve complex social problems, such as keeping track of shifting coalitions or countering against deception, then it’s possible that present-day human intelligence carries a legacy of this history”. So it seems that even in history mankind has been engaging in different forms of celebrity gossip.

Celebrity Gossip Today.

As we get to the point where we have less and less friends in common, the only way we can engage relationships and communication is to try to find people who are known to both of us - celebrities, public figures, sports stars, and media figures of all kinds. This allows us to gossip about a common theme - the well known celebrity. Now that communities include virtual ones, we engage in virtual celebrity gossip by e-mail, text or Internet. Most of the time this is for pure entertainment and the forming of social bonds. This need-to-know what happed to so and so could explain the enduring popularity of soap operas and other gossipy media. This human need for celebrity gossip was shown in Scotland in a recent human group experiment.

An interesting discovery about Celebrity Gossip

Scottish Psychologists devised a mind test similar to the game known as “Chinese whispers”,

They gave 10 volunteers four different texts to read, and then asked them to write down what they could remember. Their efforts were then passed to another set of volunteers as passages for them to learn, and the process was repeated four times.

The final version of the texts were then compared against the original - and the psychologists found that “celebrity gossip-like” information, involving deception and infidelity and the interactions of other people, was most easily remembered and relayed with the most accuracy.

However, the volunteers were hardly able to recall purely descriptive information about individuals or their surroundings. These results suggest that humans attach a high importance to personal and social data. Just the type of data we find when we engage in celebrity gossip. Could this information be used in the future to educate our children? Who knows but finding out about other people’s private lives and interactions is a key for human survival. We must also remember that celebrity gossip does have a serious side to it.

Celebrity Gossip and work

It’s all to do with being a human being. You simply will not survive unless you can gossip about the people you know, for a lot of us that means celebrities. We just love to exchange information about them and find out more about them. This need also comes to the fore at work.

In any organization, you’ve got a boss that’s one person you need to know about - their idiosyncrasies, their peculiarities and their relationships. As a result most office gossip is focused upwards - it’s looking up the hierarchy. This is another reason why we gossip about celebrities so much as they appear to be above us in the human hierarchy.

Celebrity Gossip and Public Relations

Some businesses use this information to great effect. In the Public Relations business it’s important to control the flow of information and when that information is released to the public. Public Relations companies need to know when and where to show the public important information about their clients who are incidentally often celebrities that they may be representing. Most importantly is where people gossip about celebrities.

To find out where this gossip takes place, one enterprising PR company compiled a top ten list of the places that people are most likely to engage in celebrity gossip…

Top 10 places to engage in gossip.

1. Restaurants

2. On the train or Tube

3. Friends telling friends

4. On our mobiles voice and text

5. At Meetings

6. In crowded bars

7. With the cabdriver

8. With their coach or personal trainer

9. Supermarket queues

10. Unisex toilets.

Do you see how those same PR companies use this information to target us. All those strange advertisements we see about upcoming celebrity events in train stations and on tube escalators, it gets us talking.

What if there was no gossip?

What would happen if we stopped gossiping about people? Just imagine if all celebrity gossip, were to stop tomorrow, what would we talk about? Who would we talk about?

Without celebrities or people we see as above us it would be an imperfect world - the most obvious reason is that about 80% of talk that occurs now, simply wouldn’t happen. That’s about how much of our conversation is celebrity gossip. Imagine no celebrities to gossip about! Society would break down, because the information we get from other people is fundamental to managing our relationships with them. We need to know who the friends, fools and the scoundrels are.

So to sum up we need to talk and to talk means to gossip. Celebrity gossip is a great way to take a break from the more serious news that is found around us. As a society we like to engage in celebrity gossip and follow the actions of those celebrities we see in the media light. It helps us bond. Celebrity gossip is here to stay. Just imagine seeing the next outrageous outfit that Paris Hilton is going to wear on the front of a magazine! Would you ignore it? Or talk about it?

Random Writers asked:


Summer, as we all know, is the season for movie blockbusters. The summer of 2007 promises to be one of the biggest yet, with several second and third installments of feature film franchises that already have a large following hitting the theaters. From Pirates and Superheroes to animated characters and real life characters who are overly animated, expect a record breaking season that may go down as the highest grossing ever.

Starting things off with a bang is “Spider Man 3”, the Sam Raimi directed prequel to the sixth highest grossing movie of all time, Spiderman. We rejoin the friendly webslinger as he battles a new cache of villains while fighting off the effects of a symbiotic lifeforce that has attached itself to him in the form a new spider-suit.

If superheroes aren’t to your liking, maybe the comedy of Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in the highly anticipated “Shrek 3” will do the trick. The third film in the series finds Shrek faced with the arduous task of finding someone to fill the recently deceased King of Far, Far Away land’s shoes lest he should have to do it himself. All the main characters from “Shrek 2” return to handle the voicework.

Last years blockbuster, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl”, has set sail for new waters. The third and likely last in the series, tagged “Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End”, is scheduled for release on May 25th and features the reunion of Captain Jack Sparrow and his long lost pirate father, played by none other than Keith Richards.

Steven Soderbergh has once again dragged out the A and B-list for another round of Danny Ocean and company hijinks in “Ocean’s 13”. The latest version finds the crew teaming up with casino boss and enemy Andy Garcia for their biggest job yet.

Whether sequel or prequel, nothing this summer has quite the draw (both literally and figuratively) of “The Simpson’s Movie”. “The Simpsons” are the second longest running television show in history, behind only “The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet”. Creator Matt Groening promises more of what we know and love, but in the context of a well thought out story.

Last, but certainly not least, is the reunion of east meets west for “Rush Hour 3”. Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan are at it again with a new crime to solve, one which will take them to Paris, among other locations.

Daniel Millions asked:


Many people follow the latest Brad and Angelina news and if you could yourself as one of them: you are part of a very large crowd. Our society simply loves celebrity gossip. We love to know the innermost details of celebrities’ lives. What they do in their personal time, what they wear, what they eat and even quotes they say about very everyday things become real news items.

Celebrities become a real part of our lives. When you follow a favorite television star or movie actor: you wind up watching their shows or films. It often seems as if they are part of your daily life. Therefore, it would be very natural to think that what they do would be of great interest to you. Human beings by nature are very curious and often wonder what makes other people “tick” and act the way they do.

A top reason to love celebrity gossip is that often we see celebrities deal with situations that mirror our own personal lives. When Kristie Alley went public with her weight loss struggles, she gained many more fans who watched her get slim and successfully take those pounds off. Both women and men can relate to someone with a weight problem. It can be quite appealing to watch someone who has been very successful that is struggling with something that you are struggling with as well. It gives you a real “me too” feeling that makes you want to watch this celebrity even more. It also makes these celebrities seem more real to live and less evasive to real people.

Another popular reason to follow celebrity gossip is often this can be a “safe” way for many people to gossip in their personal lives. Some people just love to gossip, but they know if they talk about their neighbors or coworkers that it is likely to get them in trouble if these people find out. However, Jennifer Lopez is unlikely to find out that you feel she spent too much money on her wedding! Gossiping about celebrities can be a way to socialize and have fun with friends. Many friends follow the same television programs and movie actors. Often when you have a great celebrity gossip tidbit, they are excited and thrilled to hear this juicy piece of news.

Many people also like celebrity gossip because it is very glamorous. Celebrities spend money the way water flows down the sink drain. They have three thousand dollar handbags and diamond studded cell phones. Their dogs have real jewelry. They rent private islands for family vacations. When you hear a piece of celebrity gossip, it is usually filled with glamor, intrigue and involves spending more money than most of us will ever see. Many celebrities lead glamorous and exciting lives. Talking about these celebrities can be exciting and thinking about what they do is a great way to daydream about such a glamorous lifestyle. While most of us will never live this type of lifestyle, we certainly can talk about it through the tales of celebrity gossip.

Following celebrity gossip can fun and entertaining. Sometimes it is fun and other times it can be a little shocking. Celebrity gossip is lots of fun to share at the water cooler at work or with the girls while getting a manicure!

Jason Oconnor asked:


Even if everything here is complete bunk, we can’t keep our eyes off of the veritable train wreck that our favorite celebrities treat us to on a daily basis. So, we scoured the rumor mills and gossip columns to bring to you the latest in who is doing what, who is doing who, who is going to jail and everything in between. So sit back, grab your box of bon bons and enjoy the latest from the music celebrity rumor mills.

Busta Rhymes, are you getting a fair shot? TMZ.com reports that he was stopped by police and admitted to having a shot of Hennessy before hopping behind the wheel of his Denali. The arrest report that TMZ obtained stated that Rhymes failed the sobriety test, but only blew a 0.067 later at the police station, which is below the legal limit of 0.08. He was reportedly charged with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle while impaired.

Even though Paris Hilton really isn’t much of a music celebrity, she made the celebrity gossip hit list by getting sentenced to 45 days in jail for driving with a suspended license. She had the nerve to show up to court 20 minutes late powdering her nose. The judge put the clueless blonde in her place by sending her to the clinker.

Here’s some stuff from the world according to PerezHilton.com.

Pete Wentz reportedly left a little gift for Marilyn Manson at the rehearsal space that they share - a vial of his blood. What the?

It seems that American Idol sweetheart, Kelly Clarkson is slipping in the ranks. Her comeback isn’t going so great while fellow Idol veteran, Carrie Underwood in consistently outperforming Kelly on internet download charts.

A lot of hoo ha for a lip synched performance. Britney Spears (a.k.a. the rehab boomerang queen) recently “performed” at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney, Anaheim. And we use the word “perform” loosely. The sign outside said: NO cell phones, NO cameras, NO video. Hmmm, didn’t say anywhere on there “NO LIVE SINGING!”

OK, am I like the only one who says ENOUGH ABOUT BRITNEY?!!! She just isn’t that interesting.

The longest retirement in music history. Barbara Streisand, in perpetual “retire” mode, will be touring in Europe. And then that’s the very last one - again!

More American Idol dish. Jessica Sierra who was a former AI top ten finalist, apparently hit a guy with a glass, had cocaine on her person and, now this is interesting, is being charged with “the introduction of contraband into a detention facility.” Good grief! We don’t want to go there!

Looks like Courtney Love is planning on selling her late husband’s things. What better way to memorialize her hubby? She plans to pair up with Christie’s auction to put Kurt Cobain’s stuff up for sale. She plans to “make a lot of money and give a bunch of it to charity.” Uh, OK.

Ah, Boy George, did you really want to hurt him? Rumor has it that Boy George hired an escort, grabbed the poor guy and chained him to a wall. He handcuffed the poor little escort guy to the bed and produced a box of **** whips and *** toys, telling the terrified escort guy, “Now you’ll get what you deserve.” Nobody died, escort guy got away and Boy George was charged with assault and false imprisonment. The ’80s were a tough time.

PopDirt.com is dishing it big time! It seems that Paula Abdul doesn’t do so well when you put her on national TV without a script. Seems she gave a bizarre performance on QVC where she was promoting her jewelry line. Strange, strange girl, cute as a bug, though, and always seems so sweet on Idol - is that scripted??? Not her first bizarre public unscripted appearance, though.

Send that girl to driver’s ed! TMZ is reporting that they have recently acquired a lawsuit that was filed by the husband of the woman who was killed in a car accident that involved former pop princess Brandy. This is her second lawsuit on that accident. The suit claims that Brandy was traveling too fast for conditions, driving recklessly and carelessly and following too closely. The suit is for an “undisclosed amount,” but the woman’s parents are suing Brandy for $50 million. If this is any indication of what the husband is seeking, that girl needs to hire a chauffeur or stay off of the road.

Well, this is definitely a “hmmmm” moment and conjures up some interesting (if not disturbing) mental pictures. PerezHilton.com has some juicy info. It seems that passionate sister kissing James Haven, brother to multiple foreign kids adopting, blood vial wearing Angelina Jolie, is seeing Rebecca St. James. Now, if you are not moving in “those” circles you may not realize that St. James is a Christian pop singer. You also may not realize that she is a huge advocate for saving yourself until marriage and abstinence. Well, well, what is ol’ Jimmy thinking about that? Maybe Angie will adopt her and then it will be OK.

Now, we want to leave you with this warm, fuzzy mother and son moment.

TMZ says that Rush & Malloy says that Usher is preparing to fire his own mother, the woman who GAVE HIM LIFE, raised him and has been his manager from the very start. They reportedly do not get along, but it is said that Usher’s stylist and (surprise) fiance, Tameka Foster is egging it on. Usher’s rep is denying the rumor, but let’s face it, this seems like it happens more than we’d care to admit.

There is an endless stream of gossip flowing out of the lives of everyone, it’s just that the famous peeople’s are the best!