‘Outing’ celebrities like Rebel Wilson has no place in journalism

In the usual run of things, Wilson would have mentioned her new girlfriend online and everyone would have moved on to the next bit of celebrity showbiz intel with barely a backwards glance. Except, it didn’t really work out that way.

In his column for the Sydney Morning Herald, Andrew Hornery noted he had gotten wind of Wilson’s new romance before it was made public. Hornery, himself a gay man, gave Wilson two days to “comment” before noting he had “enough detail to publish” the news himself.

Wilson put the kibosh on the scoop by posting her own image on Instagram. After a wave of support, Wilson later posted: “Thanks for your comments, it was a very hard situation but trying to handle it with grace.”

The paper’s editor, Bevan Shields, later wrote: “Like other mastheads do every day, we simply asked questions and, as standard practice, included a deadline for a response.”

Interestingly, Shields too is a gay man. He must know on some level that a person’s decision to come out as gay is an intensely personal, individual one.

It’s never a decision that’s easily handed over for a national newspaper to manage. It was reminiscent of what I truly thought was a bygone era in journalism, where newspapers ‘threatened’ to run with a celebrity’s coming out story if they didn’t offer them an exclusive interview about it.

Earlier this week, Ronan Keating reminded everyone of how appallingly Stephen Gately was treated by a newspaper when he was pressured into making the announcement, likely before he was ready to.

In 2018, the band spoke to Attitude magazine about Stephen coming out to the public, saying: “At the height of our fame, Steo would often be worried on a Saturday night about what stories might run about him in the following day’s papers.

“We were on tour in Europe when he found out that a newspaper was planning to out him. He made a deal so he could tell the story himself, but we were so angry because the press basically forced him to do it. What other choice did he have?”

Even more recently than that, swimmer Tom Daley found himself in a similar scenario. 

A whole host of celebrities have talked about how they don’t feel the need to label their own sexual preferences, among them Kristen Stewart, Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus. They fall for people, not genders. As Wilson herself posted on the pic: #LoveIsLove.

Hornery opened his column by lamenting that “in a perfect world, ‘outing’ same-sex celebrity relationships should be a redundant concept” before declaring that “as Rebel Wilson knows, we do not live in a perfect world”.

As long as there are people who believe a newspaper scoop is more important than the sensitivities involved in what is often the most momentous, petrifying time in a gay person’s life, it’s no one’s idea of a perfect world.

What’s more, if being gay is still seen as a particularly juicy, salacious bit of celebrity gossip, ‘perfection’ is still some way off.

Liz’s ‘tea sock’ comment stinks

I suppose we all had a great laugh over Liz Truss’s ‘tea sock’ comment in reference to Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

We can add it to the number of other Irishisms that people from Britain (and beyond) seemingly can’t get their head around, among them Gallagher, Haughey, Domhnall (‘Dumble’, if you’re Leonardo Di Caprio) and Saoirse.

But I’m not sure I find it all that funny because there’s something slightly sinister in the way Truss, who is in the political sphere, simply cannot be bothered to learn the right pronunciation of the word ‘Taoiseach’.

Somewhat incongruously, I thought of Love Island alumnus Yewande Biala, who noted that one of her co-stars mispronounced and constantly forgot her name during their time on the show.

“When someone doesn’t take the time to learn the proper way to pronounce another person’s name, or worse — intentionally mocks it for being ‘too difficult’ to pronounce, it can come across as malicious,” Biala said recently.

She’s dead right, of course. ‘Tea sock’ may sound hilarious to some, but it sounds dismissive to me. 

When people don’t bother to learn the right way to say these things, it says a whole lot about what regard they hold you in.

And given what’s going on with the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, that’s probably not what I’d call ideal.

Not a thread of decency, Kim

Kim Kardashian has landed herself in hot water/back in the headlines with news she has been accused of doing “permanent damage” to Marilyn Monroe’s dress.

The star denies the claims, but images have emerged of broken seams, shredded fabric and missing beads/sequins.

People are evidently mad that Kardashian piggybacked on past glories, took a prime piece of cultural history and cheapened and disrespected it for little more than her own personal gain and social media buzz.

Sounds like a snapshot of the Kardashian family’s modus operandi, if you ask me.