Britney Spears sued Us Weekly last week, after they printed an article claiming she and her husband met with lawyers to try and prevent a private sex tape of the couple from being released. David Carr of the New York Times wrote an interesting editorial about the incident, questioning whether or not a personality with a super-high profile can even claim libel: Of Tabloids, Mega-Fame and Free P.R. - New York Times.
There was a time when Us Weekly was trying to be more like People magazine, but that was before Bonnie Fuller showed up (here's an article from 2003 where she talks about changing Us Weekly, and her move to American Media.) She's no longer there, but she did have a lot to do with creating the current glut of celebrity weekly magazines.
With four entertainment magazine shows on every weeknight between 7 and 8 p.m., and all those magazines, one wonders how many people actually believe what the read and see? Or what part of it? Maybe half the fun for readers is trying to figure out what's true and what's not.
David Spade's "There You Have It" segment on a recent episode of The Showbiz Show was the best rant of all on the subject. Referring to this year's obsession with Brad and Jen and Angelina, he said: "For the last 12 months the entire country has somehow been turned into a giant freaking hair salon with all of us sitting under these driers squawking about the latest issue of Us Weekly. And we all need to calm the f*** down." Of course, celebs and the tabs supply him with an endless amount of material to write about, so I guess it's all good.
As far as my opinion on the suit, I haven't seen the article, so I don't know how it was sourced. In previous years Britney might not have cared. She has been open about her sexuality in the past and as Mr. Carr said, her reality show Chaotic got about as risque as it could on broadcast television. And it's true that a sex tape is not that big a deal anymore and it has been great publicity for certain celebrities. But, I'm not quite as cynical as Mr. Carr. Britney has had a baby, and perhaps she's now thinking about what things might affect him in the future (at least he's too young to know what's going on -- for now.)
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