Have you heard the scoop? Beyonce is pregnant….Robert Pattinson and Kritsen Stewart have split up again….Barbara Walter’s daughter got busted for DUI. Juicy huh? And it’s all true, because I read it online. You should hear the rumors I have heard too, they will blow your mind.
I don’t get the whole gossip/rumor thing. Who cares if Kim Kardashian is at the gym, or Gwyneth Paltrow only eats edamame beans and jojoba leaves?
So I can’t stand by any of the gossip above. I’m not BFF’s with Beyonce and Robert Pattinson is not calling me for relationship advice. People are drawn to celebrity gossip like moths to a flame. Is it because they are jealous of their success and like to see them fail at something? There is a description for this; it’s called the Tall Poppy Syndrome. It means that when people are perceived to be more successful, popular, wealthy, famous etc then some people take great pleasure in “chopping” them down.
Sometimes sharing gossip is purely for entertainment, but is it always harmless? Here are some nuggets of gossip that are so ridiculous it’s amazing anyone believed them!
Walt Disney was convinced that science would one day find a cure for the cancer that killed him, so he had his body cryogenically frozen and is buried beneath the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland. In reality he was cremated and the ashes interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park. That’s far more mundane.
Sweet Mr. Rodgers had a dark past; he was a marine sniper and during active duty in Vietnam killed 25-42 people. Makes you shudder when you think of the hours spent watching him in his cardigan with all his puppet friends. Poor Mr. Rodgers was a victim of gossip; he had never been in the military.
This one had to be true, I saw the photo myself. When OJ Simpson’s attorney Johnny Cochrane died he had his tombstone inscribed with the message “OJ did it.” Imagine my surprise (not) when I found it that the picture of his tombstone was photo-shopped.
New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg was out for a casual lunch and he recently denied a second slice of pizza in a restaurant because the owner was mad at him about the recent soda laws, after giving Blomberg a piece of his mind, he threw the mayor out. The story came from a satirical newspaper that openly admits their stories are fictional. I’m sure there are many business owners annoyed at Mr. Bloomberg but he is yet to get thrown out of a restaurant.
I could go on; the list of stories is endless. Thank goodness for the website www.snopes.com. When you see a story you can go check out the facts there. Too bad someone has not come up with a version for everyday people that are victims of the rumor mill. Oh wait, there is something; common sense.
So before you call or text or tweet your friends with the latest scandal, ask yourself; how would I feel is someone was saying that about me and it was not true?
