Blind items are the newest addition to gossip sites. From E!online with its popular Awful Truth column to independent websites such as Gossip Boy, blind items are everywhere.
What Are Blind Items Articles
A blind item is an article about a particularly shocking habit (usually sex or drug-related) of a movie or TV celebrity. To protect the identity of the star and to protect the author of the article from possible lawsuits, the name of the celebrity is omitted from the text and replaced with a nickname. This nickname, along with other well-hidden clues throughout the article, can help readers identity the true identity of the star.
Other websites benefit from blind items by running forums or groups where readers can find out the most popular guesses for the true identity of each celebrity mentioned in the blind section of the gossip sites.
Toothy Tile and the Blind Items Stars
Blind items have created an interesting phenomenon where some of the nicknames used in those columns are now almost as famous as the stars behind them.
One such moniker is Toothy Tile. This moniker, used by Ted Casablanca in his Awful Truth column on E!online, has been the star of many articles. In those, details about the star's hidden homosexual life and his relationship with another male actor nicknamed Grey Goose are told in details. Because of the number of clues given throughout the years by Mr Casablanca, most of his readers have now guessed the true identity of Toothy Tile, creating an interesting phenomenon where a male star still poses with gorgeous women in magazines while details of his gay relationship are now posted on many popular Internet websites.
The Impact of Blind Items on the Movie Industry
Since the advent of the gossip columns and articles, journalists have always been forced to keep the most lurid details of the stars' private lives out of their stories due to legal reasons. By posting the same details in blind items, writers have now exposed the Hollywood's dirty laundry to the world.
Movie studios are, of course, very concerned about those new developments. Since the silent era, studios have always tried to hide the most scandalous activities of their stars by fear of a negative impact on ticket sales. Nowadays, such details are available to any person in the world, provided that they have an Internet connection.
While audiences may be more open-minded on topics such as homosexuality than what Hollywood thinks, rumors of drug use and extra-marital affairs can still break a career or seriously impact ticket sales.
Movie and TV studios, as well as publicists, have been unsuccessfully trying to stop blind items altogether by threatening the journalists or their alleged sources.
A new strategy, currently considered by some studio executives, would be to simply allow their stars to be much more open about their true private lives. For example, gay stars could be encouraged to come out, therefore ending the rumor mill. Since at least half of the blind items are about closeted celebrities, this could at least take care of a major part of the issue.
Nicolas Henrion - Nicolas Henrion started his writing career for the now defunct Geocities website, back in the nineties. As a Community Leader, he was in ...
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