metagossip

Why Is There No Good Gossip Anymore?

Emily Gould · 12/10/07 10:50AM

"Now that J&J.com is over, did we learn anything from the experiment?" asks College Humor founder and deep thinker Ricky Van Veen, referring to the recent demise of Ricky's buddy Jakob Lodwick and Star Editor at Large Julia Allison's website and relationship. "Yes — that the gossip industry works on a model that can be disrupted. The gossip industry is built on second hand information, information embargoes, secret sources, tips, etc. But what if the people who are being gossiped about bypass that inaccurate mechanism and just make the information public in real time? ... That kind of universal transparency would put Page Six out of business." Right, if Lindsay Lohan was like "It's 10 on Sunday, I got a manicure today, I just relapsed and snorted a fistful of coke" at lindsaylohan.blogspot.com, Page Six would have nothing to write about. Ricky is so incredibly off-base. Except maybe, in a twisted way, he's also partly right?