Gossip: Vice or Virtue

Con: Stop wasting your mind, read a book

By Thomas Jolicoeur

joli0035@algonquincollege.com

Are you one of the many who spend their class time wondering what scandal will engulf Britney Spears or Paris Hilton next, and you can’t wait until the end of your lecture for your next fix of celebrity gossip?  You might want to take a step back and ask yourself a better question: “What is wrong with me?”
Celebrity gossip, and the websites that proliferate it, are becoming increasingly popular in today’s society.  They may seem harmless and a good way to pass an idle moment, but they represent a shift in our societal values. 
Websites such as perezhilton.com and TMZ.com are creating an intellectual black hole in our world that seems to be expanding by the second.  If that isn’t bad enough, the behaviour of the so-called journalists, the paparazzi, who are collecting information for these web sites, is threatening the health and safety of the subjects they stalk.
We need only to think back to the death of Princess Diana, caused by a desperate flee from the paparazzi in France that ended with what can only be described as the best photo opportunity in recent history.  And for what?  The chance to see Diana with her new boyfriend? 
While this incident occurred many years ago, it set the table for the type of behaviour that is becoming commonplace today.  It has become so bad that the city of Los Angeles has had to enact laws to ensure the physical safety of celebrities from the paparazzi.
The physical problems celebrities are experiencing in their personal lives are directly related to the high traffic that the sites photographers sell their pictures to are receiving.  This is creating a counter culture where celebrities are accountable to the paparazzi because they know everyone is reading the stories and checking out the pictures, so they have to look their best or fear the consequences.
It is for that reason, along with the fact that these sites contribute nothing positive in the way of social advancement that we should all take a pass on these web-sites.  So read a book, take a walk, or, if absolutely necessary, even listen to your professor, because the layer of filth that these sites have coated our society in must be washed clean.

Pro: Bringing the stars down to earth

By Vanessa Burka

burk0146@algonquincollege.com

Who among us hasn't fallen victim to a little celebrity worship?

Whether the object of our affection is an 80s pop sensation, a power-hitting third baseman for the New York Yankees or a politician, we're hungry for information about them. We want to know what they're saying, who they're with, where they're going and what they’re wearing. Celebrity inquiries and obsessions have not only become a standard of living in this past decade, however they may have also proven to be healthy to our own self-esteem.

Some may say surfing tittle-tattle websites is pointless and a waste of time, but I completely disagree. Without these online celebrity bloggers, the closest relationship I’d have with these Hollywood A-listers is through my 10 by 8 inch television screen.  After a long day of work, we look for sources of entertainment to relax our minds. We read about these stars in line at the drugstore, hear about them on the radio and see them on television. 

At first glance, they’re allusions; beautiful faces with flawless lives are all we see. But thanks to websites such as TMZ.com or Perezhilton.com, they’re not-so-perfect life is put under a magnifying glass for all us average Jane’s and Joe’s to examine. Suddenly Jennifer Aniston has wrinkles and Will and Jada really don’t have the perfect marriage. 

I like reading it for the star gossip to find out who is dating who and what the in-color dress of the week is.  The pages are filled with stars without makeup and hush hush gossip about whose marriage is biting the dust, leaving close to nothing off limits.

As one of Perez Hilton’s daily hitters, I’ve been given the opportunity to identify with these Hollywood sensations. This orange-haired pop culture phenom lives to post candid pictures while adding a touch of his own unique crude commentary.  His site has not only been ranked among the top 10 entertainment news sites, but he also draws in 2.6 million visitors worldwide per month, according to ComScore Media Metrix, the Internet tracking firm.

 Thanks to Perez, I’ve found comfort in identifying with the stars’ similar problems. I’ve now come to realize that some of these so called icons are no different than most of us.  Whether I’m reading about the chronicles of bad girl Lindsay Lohan’s latest scandal or Sarah Palin’s family struggles, I enjoy watching these spotlight figures fall on their faces.  Not only does this help diminish their perfect lifestyles, but it also brings them back down to earth with the rest of us.