Oscar curse strikes again

Derrick Hawkins, Alestle Photographer

by Derrick Hawkins, Alestle Photographer

The glamorous life of red carpet events, fame, fortune and wanting to win that little gold man named Oscar comes with a price. It seems when ever something good happens, something bad it not far behind.

The first of the curse was Janet Gaynor in 1929. She won the very first Academy Award for Best Actress award in 1929 and four years latter she and her husband divorced. In more recent times, many of the Best Actress winners’ marriages have ended in divorce. Halle Berry won back in 2002 for her performance in “Monster’s Ball” several months latter she was divorced. In 2006, Reese Witherspoon won the Oscar for “Walk the Line;” by 2007, she was divorced from Ryan Phillippe. Hillary Swank, Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman are just some of the A-list ladies to have the Oscar curse.

The most recent lady bitten by the curse is our very own Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock. She won the best actress award March 7 for her performance in “The Blind Side,” and 10 days latter it was reported that she had moved out the house that she lived with husband, Jesse James. James is rumored to have cheated on Bullock, or so says the reported mistress, Michelle “Bombshell” McGee.

Sandra was indeed blind sided by her husband’s cheating ways, but then again what do you expect when the mistress was at one time, among other less savory professions, a stripper? Nevertheless, it seems that husbands of Best Actresses don’t like sitting on the bench while their leading lady is the one scoring the touchdowns.

Get the facts straight, TMZ

by Catherine Klene, Alestle Online Editor

Catherine Klene

On Saturday, celebrity gossip Web site TMZ announced that author and poet Maya Angelou was hospitalized in Los Angeles after collapsing before an event. Rumors began to viral that she was near death or that she died.

On Sunday, Angelou spoke to a jam-packed Meridian Ballroom at SIUE.  Aside from needing some assistance to cross the stage, Angelou seemed to be a picture of 81-year-old health.

Talk about a quick recovery.

In reality, Angelou was never scheduled to appear at the Los Angeles event. She wasn’t even on the same coast.  Angelou was on her coach bus somewhere between her home in Winston-Salem, N.C., and St. Louis.  Alive.

There is a saying in journalism: “When your mother says she loves you, check it out.”  Confirm it with someone else.  When someone says Maya Angelou didn’t show up to an event, don’t assume it’s because she’s dead.

Instead of broadcasting information without any backing, call someone who might actually know what’s going on.  Find out what this person’s name is.  (For the record, “a source close to so-and-so” is not a name.  It’s a cop out.)  Get concrete information you can stand behind.  Don’t rely on the tip from an obscure e-mail, or the gossip Tweeter who likes to stir up trouble.

It may take a bit more time than just tossing the rumor up on the Web site.  Competition from other news organizations will bite at your heels, and the pressure to be first and fastest will bear down.  Still, the deadline crunch is no excuse for shoddy work.

People rely on news sources for accurate information the first time, and no matter how hard you try, you’re going to have a hard time convincing everyone someone came back from the dead.

Don’t scramble for excuses, TMZ. “We have no idea why the organizers told us she was a no-show because she went to the hospital,” and “Our camera guy on scene was told that Angelou would not be there because she was taken to the hospital,” don’t make it better. Get your facts straight the first time.

Maybe then you won’t write a woman’s obituary before she actually dies.