Hmm. Perhaps, then, it's more complicated than calling the Lohan-Ronson coverage an evolved form of outing. Maybe, with fame culture and its now-rote privacy invasions having brought us to a state of flux about what secrets a celebrity is entitled to, long-held anti-outing stances are crumbling.
There are other, more subtle factors at work in the case of Lohan, of course. This is, in tabloid terms, an over-covered (former, one hopes) disaster who has entered into a same-sex relationship. After all the dirt they've dished on her, why would the gossip mill back off now? There's also the reality that the mainstream celebrity media must compete furiously to survive, and Lohan and Ronson are dating in a public way, with much photographic evidence. It would be surprising if they did not scuttle the old rules to be able to document this latest Lohan chapter.
And there's yet another open question: Do editors assume that their readers are, at this point in history, largely accepting of -- and possibly even interested in -- gay relationships? (At least when it's two women?)
It would be nice to ask some of the romance's other leading storytellers these questions, but the editors of US, People and Page Six all declined to comment for this article through PR representatives.
Perez Hilton, whose website perezhilton.com regularly exposes perceived inconsistencies and hypocrisies in famous people and institutions, has also found himself wondering about this subject. "I've been fascinated by the reluctance of anyone in the mainstream media to talk on the record about the issue," Hilton said in an interview. "Most of these big media organizations -- still to this day -- have an unwritten policy against, quote, 'outing' people.
"What's especially interesting to me is that the publication that first jumped on the Lindsay-and-Samantha relationship bandwagon . . . is People magazine! And People magazine, of all the celebrity weeklies, is the tamest, the most celebrity-friendly and the most by-the-book. I'm fascinated by why they're doing it. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, it's just surprising to me."
So why won't People -- or US or Page Six -- say why Lohan and Ronson's relationship is different than other same-sex celebrity relationships that they ignore? "Maybe because they have no good explanation for it," Hilton said.
