The controversy surrounding the famous influencer trip to Mexico has given rise to all sorts of gossip pages on social networks, where anonymous Internet users like to exchange details of the private lives of moderately wealthy people, but a bit famous. While Quebecers have been said to be extremely respectful of the privacy of their stars, have we just opened a Pandora’s box?
Some artists are worried about it, but many in the media world doubt it and do not fail to point out that the paparazzi have never managed to carve out a place for themselves in Quebec.
Unfaithful comedians and singers who have a penchant for partying can therefore rest easy. They won’t see their little secrets being exposed anytime soon, is convinced cultural journalist Marie-Josée R. Roy. According to her, the intrusive curiosity that influencers have been victims of in recent weeks on social networks is a phenomenon apart.
“For Mr. and Mrs. Everybody, an influencer is someone who doesn’t work, who says nonsense on YouTube and who gets paid for everything by his sponsors. So, it’s sure that when we see them screw up like in the Sunwing flight case, it makes us collectively happy. But I don’t put influencers and Véronique Cloutier in the same category,” points out Marie-Josée R. Roy, who covered artistic news for the now defunct Huffington Post and for Quebecor media.
This experienced journalist has just launched her own site, In the Spotlight, which primarily aims to showcase the work of artists, but which will not spit on little gossip here and there. By “gossip”, Marie-Josée R. Roy means news about private life: the pregnancy of one, the separation of another. However, everything must be consented to and confirmed by the artist. No question of pouring into a style close to the Anglo-Saxon tabloid press, which does not care about the private lives of celebrities.
“In Quebec, it is very easy to chase. You can’t go too intimate and too salty. Journalists and artists are too close. You’re going to see so-and-so on a red carpet on Sunday, you’re going to see him again at a launch on Tuesday and Friday, you’re going to review his show,” testifies the journalist, who doesn’t believe there is anyhow. has a great interest in this kind of content. Truly ? Conversely, the creator of the drama.qc Instagram page notes that several of her 30,000 or so subscribers are fond of rumors and scandals.
This young woman, 23, who wishes to remain anonymous, managed at the beginning of the month to guess the code of the private conversation on the Discord application of the controversial influencers who had left under the sun of Tulum to smash the year. .
In quarantine after catching COVID-19 like thousands of Quebecers during the holiday season, she was shocked to see the carelessness of these social media stars and therefore decided to publish screenshots of the often surreal exchanges . It is thanks to her, among other things, that the general public was able to learn that people who took part in this trip had contracted COVID-19 and that they were panicking at the idea of returning to the country.
“My goal was to do justice. I wanted people to see that influencers think themselves above all else, ”says the one behind drama.qc. His account went viral within hours, and soon, followers started private messaging him with juicy stories about celebrities far better known than the influencers who found themselves on Sunwing’s flight. The young woman, however, admits to being much more hesitant to share them, aware that making fun of former reality TV candidates is still happening, but that throwing information about big names in the artistic colony is a whole different ball game. “I’d rather not play with it. I don’t want a libel suit. And Quebecers are really attached to the big stars who appear on TV, ”she reflects to herself.
To go too far
And for good reason, some gossip sites have regretted having pushed the plug a little too far. When it started in 2007, Hollywood PQ called on the public to send it candid photos of Quebec artists. But the site quickly backtracked, not because the interest of the public was not there, on the contrary, but because several artists quickly rose up against this drift. “Real tabloid press is almost impossible in the Quebec dynamic. If a media turns against an artist, it means that the agent of this artist, who represents 50 other artists, could decide to refuse all interview requests, “says Carl Abran, co-founder of Hollywood PQ, who left the management of the site more than ten years ago.
Since then, similar sites have proliferated on the Web thanks to their catchy, even often misleading titles, intended to make even the most indifferent readers click. A game-changing strategy in the media world people Quebec, hitherto dominated by magazines.
All in all, the articles remain quite conventional, both on the Web and on glossy paper in Quebec. Nothing comes close or far from TMZ, the gossip site that’s been raining down on Hollywood for more than a decade by spying on the lives of stars. “We are still in this era of respect for our stars here. We worry about what is happening in their lives, while being respectful. There may be some explosions on the right and on the left with platforms that allow themselves more, but I don’t think that will change, ”analyzes Érick Rémy, former host of the popular radio show The hot showbiz.
The son of Edward Rémy, the founder ofEcho stars, is however well placed to know that the so-called artistic press has already been much more biting in Quebec. Certainly, but the time was also very different, he retorts.
“Several stories at the time of my father were launched by the artists themselves to get people talking about them, recalls Érick Rémy. Today, it is much less in their interest to do so. It’s much more difficult to get through scandals. Everything stays online and nothing is erased. »