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By our count, and we may be off by one or two, HollywoodLife published 20 separate stories in the last five days about Selena Gomez allegedly dating music producer Zedd. We’re not exaggerated for effect. HollywoodLife literally published roughly four stories per day, all week, with the stories’ premise being that Gomez had rejected on-and-off boyfriend Justin Bieber for a romantic relationship with Zedd.
When Gomez and Zedd were seen holding hands at a Golden Globes party last weekend, that was all HollywoodLife needed. The webloid flooded the Internet with every story it could muster about the pair, trying to gain a search engine advantage even though specifics about Gomez and Zedd were non-existent. There were headlines about how “furious” and “threatened” Bieber was. There were alleged quotes about Gomez being “on cloud nine,” and how much “happier” she was with Zedd as opposed to Bieber.
On Friday, the site wrote, “The romance is heating up! HollywoodLife.com can EXCLUSIVELY reveal that Selena Gomez and Zedd are on the right track — and that he’s totally smitten with her already.” The webloid’s exclusive continued, “[Gomez] may have finally found the right person to move on from [Bieber] with. Not only has she been spending lots of time with [Zedd] but a source has revealed to HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY that he ‘adores’ her and that things are definitely headed in the right direction for this cute new couple.”
And then, disaster struck HollywoodLife. Photographs surfaced showing Gomez had actually gone to dinner with Bieber on Thursday. The two stars dined at Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills and then left together. Uh-oh. WHERE WAS ZEDD?!
HollywoodLife immediately backtracked, posting multiple stories about Gomez and Bieber that go against everything the site has been saying for days. “Sometimes, the heart just wants what it wants,” declared the webloid. “That’s right, Selena and Justin were spotted at Mastro’s Steakhouse… The couple frequented this restaurant over their continued on-again, off-again relationship — could things be picking up for them again?” Um, if your story is slathered with the word “exclusive,” as HollywoodLife’s is, YOU’RE supposed to have the answers. You’re not supposed to be asking questions.
The second “exclusive” story HollywoodLife made up and published on Friday is even worse: “Selena Gomez’s Friends Furious She’s Letting Justin Bieber Back In Her Life.” Oh, really? “Everyone in Selena’s camp is scrambling, they are hating every moment of this because they were fooled for the thousandth time that she was finally over him,” a phony source tells HollywoodLife. “Everyone was steering her towards Zedd and wanting that to work, but the problem with Zedd is that he likes her and is a nice guy. But that is Kryptonite to Selena. She is not attracted to the nice guy, she keeps going back to the bad boy.”
Then why didn’t HollywoodLife seem to know about any of this before the pictures? Why did HollywoodLife “exclusively” say Gomez had “finally found the right person” in Zedd and that things were “headed in the right direction for this cute new couple” ON THE SAME DAY it “exclusively” reported that Gomez and Zedd were doomed because she’s allegedly “not attracted” to nice guys?
The lesson, once again, is that HollywoodLife makes up stories without thinking. It’s true that Gomez and Zedd have a close professional relationship, and it’s impossible to predict whether things might take a more romantic turn between them. For what it’s worth, Gossip Cop asked about Gomez and Zedd earlier this week. A rep for Gomez told us, “they’re working together,” and there didn’t really seem to be much more to the story. We figured we’d let them, and Bieber, go about their lives. Whatever happens, happens.
But day after day, we watched HollywoodLife dig a deeper and deeper hole with stories about how in love Gomez and Zedd supposedly were. And then, as soon as something disrupted that plot line, the site flip-flopped. Selena Gomez knows how full of it HollywoodLife is. This is yet another example of how clueless and careless the site is.
