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HollywoodLife did exactly what we expected on Thursday. The bottom-feeding webloid ran a series of clueless stories scolding Justin Bieber for putting his hands on Ariana Grande, with HollywoodLife not bothering to check to see whether Big Sean’s alleged angry tweet about the situation was actually real. As it turned out, and as Gossip Cop reported, the tweet was fake. But HollywoodLife had already created an entire saga based on sensationalism rather than reporting.
First came the original story, in which the blog helped spread the fake Photoshopped tweet wrongly attributed to Big Sean, in which he allegedly threatened Bieber for hugging Grande during a surprise appearance at her Los Angeles concert on Wednesday. Here’s how HollywoodLife described it: “Oh no he didn’t! Justin got a little too handsy with Ariana during their performance of ‘As Long As You Love Me’ on April 8 in LA. To say her boyfriend Big Sean was upset is an understatement — he was LIVID! See his tweets of rage below!” Um… not so much.
But the webloid was far from finished. A second story about Bieber’s “shocking PDA moves” on Grande asked visitors whether it was all “inappropriate” and got “out of hand.” Then came a third story, and this time, HollywoodLife took things up a notch. “Justin Bieber: You Should Really Keep Your Hands Off Ariana Grande,” demanded the site in a headline. The blog commented: “Oh, Justin. You are always getting yourself into some sort of trouble, aren’t you? This time, you’ve ticked off Big Sean by getting too handsy with his girl Ariana on stage. I’m sorry but, I’m going to side with Big Sean on this one!”
With HollywoodLife, it’s always about taking sides. Even if there are no sides to take, because the TWEET WAS FAKE (much like HollywoodLife’s “exclusives”) and Big Sean had NO PROBLEM with Bieber in the first place. For HollywoodLife, no controversy is too small. Anything that pits celebrities against each other is what the site tries to sell, regardless of the truth. And after running three separate stories attempting to create a huge Bieber-Sean feud on the back of a non-existent tweet, care to guess how many stories HollywoodLife devoted to reporting that there was NO tweet? Try none.
