Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez are in a “toxic” relationship but are still in “love,” declares Hollywood Life who, over the past two weeks have dumped a juggernaut’s worth of toxic claims about the on-off couple onto the Internet.
So, as we asked yesterday in our round-up on Jelena gossip, that includes Hollywood Life’s claim Bieber is flirting with Miley Cyrus in a bid to make Selena jealous for her alleged flirting with actor Orlando Bloom, and a claim that Gomez’s pals want to stage an “intervention to get her away from him” — where is the solid proof for these claims, beyond unnamed “sources” which it’s doubtful are bona fide insiders?
Lets not forget the other rumor doing the rounds. Star magazine — who like Hollywood Life have been proved wrong about Bieber-Gomez in multiple, previous claims that also quoted ‘sources’ — is now insisting Bieber cheated on Gomez with an inevitably unidentified fan at the South by Southwest festival (SXSW) after the Latina left his side following their whirlwind Texas weekend.
Again, proof for this accusation rests on – you guessed it – unattributed ‘source’ quotes that are as easy to write as what I am writing now.
“He couldn’t resist,” says a purported ‘source.’
Who says? Where is the proof of this encounter between Bieber and this oddly faceless fan in a world where catching someone in the act with a smartphone is as easy as one, two, click?
It seems more than a tad hard to believe that after Bieber declared Gomez was “my baby” at a concert in Austin then posted two videos of himself and the starlet, that he would throw it all away for fan sex.
Gossip Cop previously shut down OK! magazine’s sex tape claim, reporting a close Gomez insider said, “There’s no tape.”
GC then took the step of saying Bieber and Gomez are no longer in a romantic relationship, possibly to stem the upsurge of gossip reports.
Hollywood Life also claim in their evidentially lighter-than-air story, that Bieber and Gomez’s “relationship is as toxic as possible — they love each other, they hate each other — Justin hooks up with other girls,” according to a supposed ‘source,’ even though it’s unlikely either star’s associates would be talking to the website.
HL’s alleged insider adds, “They keep hearing from friends and other people they’re close to to not hang out, which only makes them want to be together more. It is sordid, awkward and there is no end in sight. They are still going to be in each other’s lives and it will be all over the place.”
We’re going to call it and perhaps other outlets will be brave enough to call it too.
The best kept secret in the pulsing, 24/7 entertainment news cycle? Possibly over 50% of gossip site ‘ sources ‘ are dreamed up by the outlets reporting the original claim, and even if some are real they are not always credible and sometimes can be actively misleading .
The device is used to keep the flow of content moving, and as we are now seeing, typically used more when fact-based information about celebrities dries up. Which was clearly the case in Hollywood Life’s recent Orlando Bloom story, in which website based its claims on the facial expressions in Gomez’s backstage We Day conference Instagram and Bieber’s assumed reactions.
What’s next? Reading tea leaves?
So, while Bieber and Gomez may indeed be “toxic” together and may be better off with other partners or on (separate) therapists couches — such a claim has not yet been proven by a single gossip report. Nor has the pile-up of recent claims and rumors that we’re all reporting.
Simply repeating a claim doesn’t make it real, and so far we would argue the most toxic thing in Bieber and Gomez’s relationship — is the entertainment news cycle that inaccurately and obsessively deconstructs it.