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Confessions of a gossip monger

By Si Tingting (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-08 08:03

Thanks to the weeklong Spring Festival vacation, when even the most dedicated workaholics stayed at home with their families, I came to realize one thing I can't live without - juicy, but stupid celebrity gossip magazines.

For almost four days that week, newspaper kiosks in Beijing were closed, and perhaps because most of the hardworking paparazzi took their only vacation in a year, updates on celebrity news on Chinese Web portals came to a standstill.

I felt terribly empty and missed the daily fix so badly that I lost interest in the real news altogether. As a news professional, I always start the day reading headline stories on everything and from everywhere.

But I know that I could only go on reading the serious stuff because I reward myself with some fun reading of the entertainment section in the end. After four days of painful waiting, the newsstand owner eventually showed up.

I bought each copy of the gossip magazines available and began absorbing the exploits of film stars and models religiously on the way home. I usually read such magazines more than three times, cover to cover. The first time, I scan through the book for the exciting pictures. The second time, I read the bitchy stories. The third time, I check for anything I missed in the first two readings.

On the ninth time, I scour the details - the dress, the accessories, the twisted faces, the scars ... I'm the only one in my family to find any appeal in these magazines. The others just don't understand why anyone would care how much weight an actress lost, or pictures of an actor and his rumored girlfriend on the beach.

"You are too well-educated to bring this crap home," they tell me. "But I love it. It's my thing. So let it go," I always reply. My mother found one magazine so distasteful that she only used her thumb and index finger to pick it up, as if it were dirty laundry or worse. For people of her age, who adored film stars in the good old 1970s and 1980s, celebrity news should be all about how beautiful, talented or well-behaved their idols are.

The celebrity magazine she read back then typically had a cover with a well-poised, well-groomed actress/actor with the most innocent looks. Inside the magazine were loving words of how well she/he acted and how committed she/he was toward China's fledgling film industry.

Everything was a fairy tale. Ok, so what do I see in the "crap" I'm reading? Half of the magazines are filled with vulgar advertisements for Botox injections and breast augmentation surgery, and the rest are blurry with bad taste photographs, mostly snapped by paparazzi waiting for celebrities outside apartments, restaurants or shopping malls.

Some people think most of the gossip news worshipers follow such things for latest tips on fashion and makeup and they think we enjoy reading about the glitz and glamour of the wealthy and famous.

However, unlike those who see celebrities as role models, celebrity gossip hounds seek out rumors and not-so-glamorous sides for comfort. Girls like to look at the competition and hence relish stories of a celebrity getting divorced or cheating. Knowing that a person with fame, wealth and good looks can suck in real life makes people who are not that fortunate feel good about themselves.

In addition, gossip magazines bring us a real connection to the real world because they represent the real sides of stars when they are not in public. Pictures of them without makeup, or before the plastic surgery, and of their proverbial skeletons in the closet always grab the most attention.

We believe the most ridiculous assumptions of celebrity rumors, no matter how groundless they are; the part we enjoy most is sitting on a high horse and judging them.

I once read a piece about how pathetic a famous Hong Kong pop star was after her boyfriend abandoned her. The assumption she was distraught came from a picture of her eating alone at home. The blurry photograph was taken through her kitchen window. I could barely recognize her face and I could not tell whether she was upset.

But I happily bought into the assumption anyway. People don't care much about the accuracy of their celebrity news, as long as they are what we want to believe. Celebrity gossip is not always evil. On the bright side, a lot of people learn a lot from reading about famous people and their mistakes, success, downs and good/bad fashion sense.

For instance, if a famous person was caught cheating on his or her spouse and the fairy tale ended ugly, other people who have a tendency to cheat might think twice before breaking their vows.

In addition, celebrity gossip has brought a lot of people closer and helps destroy boredom. Just think about how many good laughs and exciting chats during lunch at the office, exchanging creative and really mean comments about celebrities' private lives. Now I'm packing a parcel of gossip magazines for my Chinese friends now living in the US. They always tell me one thing they miss most is Chinese celebrity gossip.