I’ve taken to talking rather obliquely about who I work with in my job. It’s not because I’m contractually obligated not to talk about them, but I am in media management and it’s part of my job to oversee the flow of information that gets out about the artists we handle. I don’t want to say anything that may come back to bite me in the rear, like accidentally revealing personal information, or schedules, or routines.

I never thought I’d be working in this field. In fact, I never even watched shows like “The Buzz” or “S-Files,” and I’d roll my eyes at the showbiz segments on our nightly news programs. I’d say, “Is this really news?” when some bar fight between two starlets makes the segment.

These days, I’m coming to realize that although these programs and segments aren’t exactly news per se, they’re ways of getting the word out about an artist’s upcoming projects or keeping an artist in the public eye. it’s just how you use it that matters. The gossip and mudslinging is the dark flip side of this whole thing, although some people will take any and all publicity whether negative or positive, true or untrue.

For the first time in my life, I’m actually witnessing how ugly showbiz rumors get started. Last month an artist’s impromptu answers to a radio program’s quiz segment were blown out of proportion by one of this country’s prominent gossip columnists. More recently we’ve had sustained attacks questioning the popularity and mass appeal of two of our young artists.

Our artists are persons, too. Under the facade created by fame are people with dreams that can be dashed, feelings that can be hurt, souls that need nourishment. It’s just that they live their lives in the glare of public attention, without the shielding privacy that we anonymous faces in the crowd don’t even realize we enjoy. I’d like the people I work with to know they can be themselves around me without the nagging thought that something they may say or do will make the gossip rags the next day. Ü

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