E4 GOSSIP
KLMNO
SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010
MICHAEL PILLA/GETTY IMAGES/ASSOCIATED PRESS A PLUS FOR THE TABLOIDS:The breakup of Kate and Jon Gosselin stirred interest among celebrity-watchers far beyond the reality show on which they starred with their eight children. B UPCOMING EVENTS
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Is this real life? Or just made for TV?
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www.kennedy-center.org/shearmadness COMEDY
B by Amy Argetsinger
What’s happened to my be- loved gossip rags?
I used to enjoy peering into the
private lives of the rich and fa- mous: who was dating whom, who was having babies, who was feuding, who had a stunning new home.
But the famous (if not neces- sarily rich) these days are reality TV stars, and their private lives are paradoxically public fodder for their shows. That’s left the gossip press completely co-opted, pushing stories that are little more than recaps and promos — advertising, really — for televi- sion programs. As a reporter who covers the world of celebrity, I probably mourn the declining quality of tabloid trash — and fear the arriv- al of “The Real Housewives of D.C.” — more than most of you. Lately, you see, I’m getting con- stantly getting tripped up by real- ity-tainted faux gossip. Tori Spelling’s marriage
in
trouble? Sounds promising when I spot that headline in my People- UsWeekly-TMZ browsing. Should we keep an eye out for a divorce announcement from the ’90s kitsch icon? Ah, whaddaya know: Turns out “Tori Spelling’s marriage in trouble” is also the story arc of her new reality series. I think she and Dean might make it after all. The sons of a beloved TV per-
sonality open up about their fa- ther’s recent death — poignant, no? But what if the TV person- ality is a reality star, and the in- terview runs not soon after his death but months later, just as his death episode is set to air? (To record-setting viewership, natch.) I’m sorry for your loss, sons of Captain Phil Harris of Discovery’s “Deadliest Catch,” but this ain’t news anymore. That’s why, much as I hate to write about them, I’ll grudgingly give props to the Kardashians, who actually do real-life things (marrying NBA stars, having ba- bies) that might legitimately qualify as “news” even if, theoret- ically speaking, the sisters were famous for something other than starring in the reality shows on which said blessed events are about to be showcased. In the age of Balloon Boy and
Home delivery makes good sense.
1-800-753-POST
Michaele Salahi, we’ve all won- dered how much reality TV is af- fecting reality — how the desire to create good television may steer a wannabe-celeb’s behavior. (Poor Bristol Palin and Levi John- ston. An unromantic public im- mediately assumed that their sur- prise engagement was a bid for a TV deal.) But it’s also created a crazy hall-of-mirrors effect for the media attempting to cover this world. In some ways this new breed of
celebrity — more raw, less guard- ed than the Hollywood elite — has been good for the tabs. The
SF
ABC
GETTY IMAGES
FREDERICK M. BROWN/GETTY IMAGES
AS SEEN ON TV: Their shows have helped blur the lines between actual events and story arcs. From left, “Bachelorette” DeAnna Pappas, “Deadliest Catch” Captain Phil Harris and TV veteran Tori Spelling.
In the age of Balloon Boy and Michaele Salahi, we’ve all wondered how much reality TV is affecting reality.
gossip sheets struck gold last year when they turned up evidence that one Mr. Jon Gosselin, at the time best known as the belea- guered Pennsylvania dad of eight kids on TLC’s “Jon & Kate Plus 8,” was cruising Wyomissing area nightspots minus Kate. The me- dia frenzy over their breakup spurred epic ratings, and even af- ter viewership subsided, the Gos- selin saga remained popular with gossip consumers. The stories about Jon and Kate may now be bigger than their show ever was. But I’m convinced reality TV comes out way ahead in this un- holy partnership. Take “The Bachelor.” The looking-for-love show had been lagging in the rat- ings for years, until 2007, when Brad Womack scandalized view- ers by rejecting all the women competing for his heart. The ce- lebrity rags dove in to investigate what’s wrong with that guy? And they haven’t left the “Bachelor” beat since, expending the same kind of probing energy on the Ja- son-Molly-Melissa love triangle or the Ed and Jillian infidelity re- ports that they once devoted to the watershed breakup of Jenni- fer Aniston and Brad Pitt.
Bravo’s “Housewives” franchise
is particularly shrewd about crafting plotlines that spin out parallel faux news stories. Last year, some of the “Real House- wives of New Jersey” hinted on- air that one of their own had a scandalous past. Tri-state news- papers quickly exhumed a 1980s kidnapping-extortion case in- volving cast member Danielle Staub, and New Jersey ended up being the highest-rated “House- wives” season to date. Who knows if producers schemed be- hind the scenes to make sure the other wives uncovered Staub’s obscure secrets — but did the me- dia get played here, as well? Was this really a valid celebrity news story — or just an unpaid ad? So from the time we learned
that Bravo was considering Tareq and Michaele Salahi for the D.C. installment, I steeled myself. I knew there were plenty of seamy allegations surrounding these small-time Northern Virginia so- cialites; we’d reported some of them over the years. But I re- solved we’d get ahead of Bravo’s PR blitz and reveal the Salahis’ travails on our own schedule, spoilers be damned. But then, for once, the news got ahead of reality TV — way ahead. The Washington Post broke the story when the Salahis crashed a White House state dinner in No- vember, months before they’d even been confirmed as cast members, and then their contro- versial business dealings came to light. For a while, I vainly imagined
that The Post had killed “Real Housewives” by exposing its al- legedly glamorous stars as bank- rupt graspers. Instead, judging from the pre-
views, producers embraced the saga of the Salahis’ disgrace. In the old days, the showbiz estab- lishment promoted its stars as flawless, godlike creatures — and then the gossip columns and tab- loids could revel in dishing the dirt on them. But in the new show business, reality producers are doing both jobs: building up
their stars, but also exposing and embarrassing them. So what’s left for us, the gossip writers? These people are celebri- ties in their own way, and celebri- ties are my beat. Many readers are interested in these characters (that, of course, is why the celeb mags have gotten trapped in this cycle), so we’ll continue to cover them. When I learned that one of the D.C. “Housewives” was the same woman who, under a differ- ent name, sold her story of ca- noodling with Prince Harry to a British tabloid, I reported it out — same as I would have if it had been any other rising local social- ite. (And then I wondered if that was exactly what Bravo wanted me to do.)
And then there are the Salahis.
Launched to notoriety by the White House incident, they cer- tainly gave us plenty of other le- gitimate news to write about — massive debts, ugly court battles, a bitter family feud over their winery, a state probe of their charity polo match. They de- clined to talk to The Post during our investigation last winter but sent an e-mail via a rep blaming several other people by name for their financial problems. One unlikely name jumped
out. It was the college-age daugh- ter of one of the other D.C. “Housewives”; the rep claimed she stole from the Salahis. That was intriguing, I thought — a sign of an ugly rift between these fam- ilies brought together by Bravo. Couldn’t wait to write about that. And then I saw an extended
preview of the new show. The hot tip evaporated: There, on the screen, Tareq Salahi was making the same accusation to the moth- er’s face, in front of the camera, for the nation to hear. The Salahis weren’t giving me a story. Just a preview of coming attractions.
argetsinger@washpost.com
MORE PHOTOS Review some of the more noteworthy reality shows in a photo gallery at
washingtonpost.com/style.
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