Perez Hilton on being the world\u2019s most notorious gossip blogger<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n\u201cI think there was a perfect confluence of digital media offering huge amounts of space for content, cheaper distribution, the beginnings of today\u2019s world of 24\/7 photo-taking opportunities \u2014 and celebrities welcoming the chance for coverage, visibility and fame without yet knowing the potential horror of losing their privacy,\u201d says Camilla Wright, the co-founder of Popbitch.<\/p>\n
By the mid-Noughties print had waned and the internet was leading the charge. In America sites such as Perez Hilton and TMZ brought the tabloid to our browser tabs to such an extent that, these days, a lot of pap shots are seen as phoney or PR stunts. \u201cThese are often approved shoots and faux-illicit photos set up by the celebs and their teams,\u201d Wright says.<\/p>\n
But it doesn\u2019t necessarily bring us any closer to the celebs than, say, the Nineties gossip magazine Closer did. \u201cIt looks like we have more contact and knowledge of the lives and thoughts of celebrities than we ever have before,\u201d Wright says, \u201cbut it\u2019s just an illusion \u2014 almost none of it is real.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s why during lockdown, which was barren of such gossip, a new wave of online hotspots for celeb spotting emerged. Deuxmoi, started in 2020, has grown to two million followers on Instagram, through the posting of a mixture of photos from the agency Backgrid and user-submitted titbits promising authenticity. \u201cDeuxmoi is for the people, by the people. It\u2019s not for celebrities like traditional news media,\u201d its anonymous co-founder tells me via email.<\/p>\n
And now these WhatsApp groups are bringing celebrity gossip back to its grassroots, delighting in the fact that \u2014 as one of the WhatsApp groups\u2019 taglines goes \u2014 \u201cno spot is too Z-list\u201d.<\/p>\n
In our Warholian world of 15-minute fame for all, it\u2019s the lesser names that get more interest. \u201cI think sometimes a more niche celeb gets a good response. I remember someone spotted one of the contestants from Race Across the World<\/i> series two in Victoria Park,\u201d says Ben, 28, a member of both groups.<\/p>\n
Notably absent is the toxic, heavily critical exposure of the past. \u201cThis celeb spotting is innocent fun instead of portraying someone in a negative way,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
More than anything, though, it\u2019s a reminder that celebs live like us. Well, sort of. \u201cI think the thrill of it is seeing a celeb in your manor,\u201d Ben says. \u201cAlexa Chung was spotted in my local pub and wine bar, and I thought that was class.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thetimes.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Becky Hill at Mare Street Market drinking a neon cocktail. A glimpse of Iris Law\u2019s pixie bowl fringe on Marylebone High Street. \u201cThe GC\u201d \u2014 aka Gemma Collins \u2014 filming in Ikea. Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) on Parsons Green, tucking into a butterbeer. Jameela Jamil walking her dog in Soho Square. Keith Lemon (Leigh Francis) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2211097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2211096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/How-WhatsApp-became-the-hot-destination-for-celebrity-gossip.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2211096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2211098,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2211096\/revisions\/2211098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2211097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2211096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2211096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2211096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}