It’s Friday. It’s the end of the week. It’s a slow day for those of us whose blogs focus on esoteric niche topics like celebrity baby names. Even the celebrities seem to have stopped having babies for a day or so.
I thought I’d idle away a few minutes with a quick tour of the Celebrity Gossip Jungle:
First stop, Glitterati Gossip. I love this site. Main reason — whoever is writing it actually writes. Today’s top story is about Katie Holmes tapping fashion arbiter Victoria “Posh” Beckham for help with her wedding wardrobe. The post fairly drips with irony. Way more interesting than gossip sites that regurgitate stale stories about this star’s new dress or that star out walking their dog, yada, yada, yada.
Next stop, a site where I have to be careful of what I say, so as to adhere to my stated policy of non-vitriolic writing: Baby Razzi. Notice I didn’t even give them a link? That’s because of their philosophy of how they harvest images from around the web (and I’m quoting from their site):
babyrazzi.com finds photos and images that are taken from the web and therefore believed to be in the public domain.
Huh? Interesting definition of “public domain” there. It’s on the web, so it’s free for the taking. Some of us pay for our images, or at least use something from Creative Commons. No matter what the image is, somebody created it, therefore it is their work. I know I get pretty mad when I see people stealing my work without as much as a nod, never mind an outright request. Don’t know why photographers would feel any different.
Maybe it’s time for bloggers who work in the celebrity journalism space to form some kind of association, like the National Press Association. It could be called CBGB’s — the Clandestine Band of Gossip Bloggers. Now that the New York rock mecca is closed, maybe the acronym is up for grabs. It could establish standards for its members, like ‘no taking other people’s images without permission,” and a commitment to at least “one original post out of five per week”. And then the group could start negotiating as a block with some of those advertisers out there, so bloggers could be getting a bit more in advertising revenue…
Wow, major digression there. That’s Fridays for you.
On to Defamer, a gossip blog whose very tag line:
LA is the world’s cultural capital. This is the gossip rag it deserves.
tells you immediately that you may have arrived at the gossip blog to end all gossip blogs — let the irony begin, let the sarcasm drip. Gotta love it. Where else can you consistently find such great headlines as:
Great Moments in Contextual Advertising: If it Burns, They Can Sell it
Cate Blanchett Graciously Feigns Hysterics at Brad Pitt ‘Babel’ Set Antics
The writing inside the posts is every bit as good as the headlines. Defamer is a masterwork of the true gossip genre.
Over to Teddy & Moo’s Place: they’re not real big on the writing here, like a lot of blogs (maybe they should be renamed phogs) it’s the images that take center stage. But at Teddy & Moo’s, it works — the images are big, bold, and in your face. If it’s pics you want, it’s the place.
Celebrity Smack. Funny, very sarcastic. Tag line: “The Celebrity Gossip Blog That Refuses To Kiss Ass.” My kind of site!
Celebrity Buzz. A softer touch, more mellow, but with a sharp bite. (A recent post: “To email (Rush) Limbaugh and tell him what a dick he is, click here”).
The Blog You Love To Hate. Witty, caustic, and unapologetic. On Monday, called Katie Holmes “a greedy fashionista.” Cool.
Celluloid and Vinyl. Celebs who get on the wrong side of this blog end up on the cutting room floor. Sharp, funny writing, very irreverent, (as opposed to just “irreverent”) and great, original graphics. (Don’t tell Baby Razzi).
I’m Not Obsessed. Another funny and caustic blog, and not afraid to post really large photos of stars’ faces, really close up. (Like this one of Jennifer Aniston).
Golly, where has the time gone? My “few minutes” have turned into an hour, and my quick tour of the celebrity gossip jungle must come to a screeching stop. It’s been a lot more fun than I anticpated. Maybe I should make this a regular Friday thing — a quick tour of the Celebrity Gossip Jungle. It gives me something to do when there are no new celebrity babies to blog about. And as Juvenal said, “who will watch the watchers?”
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Technorati Tags: celebrity baby names, baby names, Creative Commons, Celebrity Gossip, Juvenal
In an interview due to air Monday on Entertainment Tonight, Katie Holmes reveals that more babies are in the future for the actress, and husband Tom Cruise.
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born April 18, 2006, edged out Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, daughter of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, born May 27, as the most popular celebrity baby name that was searched for on Yahoo! during the past year.
following in the celebrity tradition set by Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt, indicates more to me than simply that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have decided to prove Suri’s existence. It implies, I think, that they have gotten over the furor created by the oddness of her name.
