Hollywood scandals have been part of American culture since the early days of silent films. Everyone knows that the entertainment industry is decadent, but perhaps there is a new dimension to the depravity.
The publisher of gossip blog Crazy Days and Nights, an anonymous entertainment lawyer who goes by the handle “Enty,” posts blind items, sometimes of an elaborate nature. In case you don’t know, blind items don’t contain names, just the lurid details.
Users who follow pop culture closely make educated guesses there about which celebrities might be involved. Even if you are unfamiliar with many of the celebrities or so-called celebrities, it’s still an interesting and admittedly voyeuristic read. A guilty pleasure.
Amidst all the standard-issue affairs, drug abuse, and the make-believe relationships, the website has also exposed a euphemistic practice called “yachting,”
Crazy Days and Nights contains the following disclaimer that readers should take into consideration:
“Crazy Days and Nights is a gossip site. The site publishes rumors, conjecture, and fiction. In addition to accurately reported information, certain situations, characters and events portrayed in the Blog are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Information on this site may contain errors or inaccuracies; the Blog’s proprietor does not make warranty as to the correctness or reliability of the site’s content. Links to content on and quotation of material from other sites are not the responsibility of Crazy Days and Nights.”
A New Meaning to ‘Side Hustle’?
You’ve probably seen paparazzi images in tabloids or online of supermodels or actresses enjoying luxury vacations while sunbathing and partying on a millionaire or billionaire’s yacht.
Well, yachting, in the website’s parlance if this is true, is the alleged practice of these women essentially engaging in high-priced prostitution with rich dudes. Pay for play.
In other words, the premise is that the modeling industry, fashion shows, and even reality TV programming constitutes a front for prostitution.
Yachting is a catch-all term; it doesn’t take place just on yachts, but you get the idea. In addition to modeling work, beauty and youth exchanged for supplemental income.
A trip around the Mediterranean or the Caribbean on someone else’s dime must be enticing.
It’s unclear how modeling agencies fit into all this. It seems that many in that industry know or have to know what’s going on, though. Are they complicit?
You would think that in the #MeToo era, these kind of rumors or non-rumors would have already made it into mainstream reporting, but evidently not so far. The women presumably have to sign contracts and non-disclosure agreements and whatnot that paper over their actual role in the sordid scenarios.
These gigs apparently are also sometimes allegedly portrayed as magazine shoots or a promotional appearances. Presumably the actual expectations become evident, if they aren’t already, if a model wants to continue to get hired for similar lucrative gigs going forward.
Hollywood Hypocrisy, Again
It’s kind of ironic that liberal Hollywood — where everything is transactional — expressed outrage over Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood locker-room talk yet the many of the movers and shakers there presumably are deep into yachting. To some degree, it’s kind of how the Hollywood community which has consistently and publicly demanded strict gun control has a made a fortune on movies and TV shows featuring prodigious gunplay.
Again with all the casting-coach revelations about wealthy Democrat donor and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, among other producers, directors, and actors, or the allegations against Bill Clinton pal Jeffery Epstein, you would think that someone would have blown the whistle on yachting already. Is the difference that, presumably anyway, the yachting appears to be a consensual arrangement among adults? Is the media afraid of losing access to show business stars who might be entangled?
Separately, with all the censorship in play on Internet platforms, one wonders if gossip sites will be at risk for de-platforming if elites are implicated.
Check out the CDaN website and draw your own conclusions about the validity of the content.
[Featured image credit: Peter H/Pixabay]
