Dear Gossips,

If you’ve been reading this site for a while, you know my position on gossip – that it says more about us than it does about the subject(s) of the gossip. In that sense, there is a connection between the conversations we have about fame and the famous and what happens in other arenas, in other social and cultural landscapes. And, over the last couple of years especially, understanding celebrity and how the celebrity ecosystem operates, is becoming an asset to understanding the political ecosystem in the time of the Trump White House. 

As already mentioned several times in this space, Donald Trump was close with David Pecker who owns American Media Inc, publisher of the National Enquirer and Star Magazine, and other low ranking tabloids. He also developed a relationship with Harvey Levin of TMZ. The relationship between David Pecker and Trump is now strained. A few weeks ago David reportedly agreed to turn on Trump in exchange for immunity. And the connection between Trump and TMZ/Harvey Levin has supposedly cooled too. Is this like Kanye and Drake? Kanye and Jay-Z? Is this a Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna situation? Is it more of a Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss situation? Are they still friends? Are they not friends anymore? Why did they break up? 

Yesterday The New York Times published an op-ed, written by an anonymous senior member of the Trump administration. Gossips, it’s a BLIND ITEM! Of course it is. This is a president familiar with celebrity media practices. He probably grew up reading blind items, if he read anything at all. He understands how blind items work, from the time of Walter Winchell and even before. He probably used to plant blind items himself in the New York papers. 

Blind items out of Washington, obviously, are not new. But a blind item getting this much international play, with people analysing vocabulary use, and the turn of a certain phrase, breaking down every sentence for clues – this is what we’ve been doing in celebrity gossip for years. And now news journalists are trying to do the same. Reddit will probably figure it out before they do. 

Didn’t know what photos to use with this open …until I saw these of Chrissy Teigen in London last night at the GQ Men of the Year awards. Chrissy loves a blind item. She loved the “who bit Beyoncé” blind item. And she definitely would love this Trump administration blind item. 

Yours in gossip,

Lainey