Thursday 7 June 2007

The cult of celebrity

The posters for this week's editions of the "big four" in Australian gossip mags, at the newstand at my railway station. I always travel with a book, and don't buy these, but sometimes they're fun to leaf through when at the doctor's waiting room! Especially if they are a year out of date, and all their fabrications are patently not true!

Do you have magazines like these?

21 comments:

  1. No, Sally, I get my fix of trashy gossip mags at the hairdresser's, dentist's or doctor's. The ones at the hairdresser's are usually the latest!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS what are you reading at the moment?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm abit diappointed that there are none f those fabulous arrows pointing at a "baby bump" in this selection.

    I'm reading a whodunit at the moment - David hewson 'The Lizard's Bite' - 4th in a series featuring a Rome-based detective.

    Just finished 'The Root of Wild Madder' about a journey amongst Persian and Afghan carpet places, lookign for the meanings of carpets and especially the reds derived from the madder root. Loved it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The covers are probably identical to those here in the US...I have to confess that People mag is my guilty pleasure :)
    I can't imagine any gossip rag here having a feature on how to cook mince though!

    ReplyDelete
  5. What about taking up the cause of the always neglected Waiting Rooms minority --- males? Even when there is a token "male" offering, it tends to be on either motor cycles or stockmarket tips.

    Or must I suffer silently, and simply thank God that I don't frequent these establishments all that often?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, your magazines are similar to the ones here.

    I was in the hairdressers a few weeks ago and I was engrossed in a magazine and then looked at the date--1997!!!!



    My PAD and
    Guelph Daily Photo

    ReplyDelete
  7. shy norman - I thought readers' Digest was there for your delectation.

    However, I find more than afew men love the frisson of "having" to while away the waiting time flipping thru these examples of high literature! Guilty pleasures and all that!

    ReplyDelete
  8. en France, il existe plein de magazines comme cela, je n'arrive pas à comprendre pourquoi les gens les achetent ;o(

    in France, there is full with magazines like that, I do not manage to understand why people buy them ;O(

    ReplyDelete
  9. Nice to see you on wroclawdailyphoto. Thank's for visiting us.
    Yes. We of course do have a clours gossip mags. And they look the same like in Australia. We think they all use the same photos. ;))
    In Poland we have even gossip web site called Poodel (Pudelek in polish). And it's compeletly rubbish. Like the mags.
    We like books as well.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ""...are patently not true"" ah how I would like to be english speaking as mother tongue so i'd be able to use sentence like this. Then I was sure you're that one used to read a book on train (and not talking loud at cell phone). Yes, of course we have those kind of magazines. Magazines? Or trash?

    ReplyDelete
  11. I get very frustrated in my dentist's waiting room as the mags there are all Hi Fi, BMW and Golf.
    Have to bring my own - usually bring an oldie and leave it for the next female with four kids appointments to sit through.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I sometimes look at these on the way out of the grocery store as they put them there. But many of the stories in those around here are faked or false and who really wants to see the Alien baby born to the mother of somebody famous.

    Abraham Lincoln
    Remember "The World's Ugliest Cat?" He got a haircut!
    Brookville Daily Photo

    ReplyDelete
  13. Nice picture! It seems this kind of mags exists everywhere; otherwise how would hairdressers, doctors and the like entertain their customers... :))

    ReplyDelete
  14. Abraham: Those American "alien life form" mags really intrigue me! We don't have them so much; more justthe gossip stuff about celebs.

    chris: Yes! the mince resipes are differenet! I suppose it is because these mags had their origin as home and family kind of things - knitting patterns, polite stories about royals, recipes etc - and still have a fair bit of that sort of content, after all the celeb trash.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh yes, we have the same torchons (=dishclothes) in France, like everywhere I think.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I find I can usually scan through one each week while I'm waiting in line at Coles - they all have the same photos in them !!- and I also love it when you find an old one with obviously wrong claims.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I too flick through these mags in doctor's waiting rooms, the barbers and the like.

    ReplyDelete
  18. As the old joke [slightly varied] used to go, "No Sally! Not the REaders Digest! Anything but the Readers Digest!"

    Thank God I'm still strong enough to carry a book with me.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm like you, I may look at them in a doctor office but wouldn't waste my money on them. I'm more into scrapbooking, cardmaking and writing magazines these days.

    ReplyDelete
  20. ancient narman - I always like "It Pays To Increase Your Word Power" though :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. The kids are even more celebrity obsessed here. How else did you think Paris Hilton has a career?
    *roll eyes*

    ReplyDelete