Celebrities aren't the only targets of gossip anymore Today I was watching The E! True Hollywood Story: Rockstar Wives on the elliptical at the gym when a commercial for The Soup--an E! network celebrity gossip show which airs on Friday nights-- appeared on the screen. In the 30-second blurb, a woman was asking the host, Joel McHale, if she could appear on the show.

He asked her a series of questions, including the following: Are you pregnant? Recently released from rehab or jail? Do you have a sex tape? Are you having a celebrity feud?

To all the inquiries, she said no. The gist of his response was that the show only wants to comment on people who have the above credentials.

The commercial was funny, but it made me think once again about how personal TV is now. We no longer really care about actors' or musicians' work; we view or listen to it to see how their rehab stint/shoplifting spree/accidental pregnancy affected it. I would imagine the hardest part of being a celebrity would be having complete strangers know, elaborate on and even lie about their personal lives.

The commercial made the Dallas gossip web site we're all talking about right now come to mind (storage bin model). Most SMU students didn't really think twice about posting our pictures on Facebook until about a week ago. What makes the Perez Hilton spin-off so disheartening is that none of the people in the featured pictures intended to be exploited in such a way. Students, whether they should have or not, didn't think such hazard came with having a Facebook account.

Celebrities realize getting their pictures on the Internet, TV, magazines, etc.--for better or for worse-- can further their career, so they take negative publicity with a grain of salt. Pictures of students on the Dallas web site can't help them in any way, but it could certainly be detrimental to their future careers.

It looks like the online gossip isn't so VIP anymore.  ¶ posted by Claire at 8:37 PM •