From the Plagiarism Department

The Bachelorette

By B-Side | Thursday, January 27, 2005 | 1:22 am | 21 Comments

plagiarismAs many of you know, over two weeks ago, TVgasm broke the news that Bachelorette contestant Fabrice is actually gay. Since then, various news organizations such as E! Online, The New York Daily News, and the Chicago Sun-Times have all run the story. They even gave us credit for breaking the news.

Then interesting things started happening. First, someone told me that the National Enquirer was claiming the scoop as their own, which is odd since their article was published long after the news hit the stands… and because they called us asking “Is this really true?”. But whatever. It’s the Enquirer. Can’t expect much from them.

But then today our friends at Reality Blurred forwarded us a press release that’s gone out over PR Web. Turns out a website, WashingtonSocialites.com not only claims to have broken the news about Fabrice but even had the audacity to send out a press release about their scoop.

Hmmm… Things smell fishy in the blogosphere…So here’s the deal. WashingtonSocialites.com is run by Kelly Ann Collins, a former journalist for USA Today and The Associated Press. To her credit, she has pulled up a lot of dirt on Fabrice. Most of it is harmless: “Fabrice was in a play!”, “Fabrice went to school here!”, “Fabrice exists!” That type of stuff. Now honestly, we don’t really care about that. Everyone’s allowed to pull up their own dirt. And once again to Kelly Ann’s credit, she did write that “All of these sexual-orientation questions started popping up when the TVgasm.com posted an email from a reader who claimed he had crossed paths with Fabrice before, and that the reality contestant was an actor.”

So what’s the problem? Well, even though she gave us props in the nether regions of her blog, Kelly Ann actually sent out a press release which states “After investigation, Washington Socialites has taken the stance that Le Parc is gay. The site has released a gallery with screenshots of Le Parc’s profiles on different homosexual-oriented websites, his Friendster profile, and quotes from another man that says he, too, dated Le Parc.” Now some of you semantics sticklers might be saying “Big deal. It’s just a press release saying that WashingtonSocialites.com simply agrees with the theory.” But is it? The headline of the release is “Bachelorette Contestant Fabrice Revealed As Gay Actor” and the deck reads “Blog reveals hidden identity of reality TV show participant.” Hmmm… sounds like someone’s taking a little credit.

Okay, still not blatant enough for you? Well, let’s check out this nifty line from the release: “In addition to the controversy regarding Le Parc’s profession, there is debate swirling the Web about his sexual-orientation. These questions were first raised after a blog reader emailed editors claiming he had dated Le Parc in the past.” Oh no she di’int! What happened to “All of these sexual-orientation questions started popping up when the TVgasm.com posted an email from a reader who claimed he had crossed paths with Fabrice before, and that the reality contestant was an actor.” I guess Kelly Ann forgot to consult her own blog before sending out the press release. Makes you wonder why she’s no longer gainfully employed by USA Today and The AP.

In other news, WashingtonSocialites.com has been nominated for a 2005 Webby. Why? I don’t know. But I’m sure they’ll be sending out a press release announcing their win, even if they lose.

UPDATE: According to WashingtonSocialites.com, they’ve been nominated for a 2005 Webby. According to WebbyAwards.com, the nominations haven’t even come out yet. That’s odd. So how could WashingtonSocialites.com be so sure of their as yet unannounced nomination? Well, turns out that the Webbies charge $195 for self-nomination. Yes, you get nominated by PAYING them. Kudos to WashingtonSocialites for the nod!

About

21 Comments

  1. 1
    empty
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 4:52 am

    what an outrage, i will crush this website for you tvgasm. fools! FOOLS!!

  2. 2
    tvgfan
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 6:25 am

    fools indeed! by the way, thanks for another hilarious AR recap. =)

  3. 3
    marc rice
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 6:29 am

    http://ollie.dcccd.edu/library/Module4/M4-VII/plagar.htm

    I thought you were going to use Spellcheck??

    Plagiarism

  4. 4
    jash
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 6:51 am

    i think he misspelt plagiarism because he didnt want to plagiarize the word from the dictionary.

    btw, the girls at washingtonsocialite.com are grotsky little biatches.

  5. 5
    Retroqueen
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 7:46 am

    “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”

    I believe in TVGASM’s case this means major fame can’t be too far away and one day soon we will see Viacom’s banner at the top of this page…..probably with Julie Chen Moonves at the helm

  6. 6
    wendy
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 8:13 am

    several readers have posted comments on their website telling them to check themselves before they wreck themselves.

  7. 7
    Ananda Fan
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 10:10 am

    damn WashingtonSocialites.com bizatches needs 2 recognize!

  8. 8
    Sandy
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 10:33 am

    What a bunch of bitches! Are you sure she didn’t write for the NY Times? Losers.

  9. 9
    Kelly Ann Collins
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 10:49 am

    Hello,

    This is Kelly from Washington Socialites.

    TVGasm did not have a story with:

    1. Fabrice’s full name
    2. Proof he is an actor
    3. Where he went to school
    4. Info on his real estate (the studio)
    5. His work history
    6. “4 Secondes de Chute Libre”
    7. The Philips ad
    8. Photos from his model portfolio
    9. Photo of Fabrice in 2001
    10. All of the online profiles

    And, that is not the only post we had on him. I sat up late one night and researched him, found out where he went to school, got pics of him from as far back as 2001. What is the deal? You guys are being haters.

    We came out with his name, resume, acting work, model work. I even mentioned you. Why didn’t you email me if you were this upset. I would have gladly put you on the press release, if this is what your beef is. But you did not have proof he was an actor/model. All you had was some random email — not proof. Besides, I heard this rumor on FuckedCompany.com from a friend — did you quote *them* in *your* story???

    There is nothing wrong with getting a tip, then checking it out. Next time something happens in the news, I challenge you to try and uncover it quicker than I can. A blog off!!

    On AP / USA TODAY — I make more $$ working for myself. Journalists do not make the bling bling. :D

    - Kelly Ann

  10. 10
    Madeyoulaugh
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 11:11 am

    Kelly,

    I have a few guesses about you. You sat in the front row in school. And probably ran for some sort of student counsel. I don’t question your ability to research, clearly you did. But Lois Lane you are not. Your a smart girl, you realize the real story here is not
    1. Fabrice’s full name
    2. Proof he is an actor
    3. Where he went to school
    4. Info on his real estate (the studio)
    5. His work history
    6. “4 Secondes de Chute Libre”
    7. The Philips ad
    8. Photos from his model portfolio
    9. Photo of Fabrice in 2001
    10. All of the online profiles

    The real story and the newsworthy story is the fabrice is gay story which as you now know, and as the rest of the published media knew weeks ago, was broke here at TvGasm. You rode that wave and tried to pass it off as your own information via a press release. I will give you the benefit of the doubt that perhaps you didnt know about it at the time, which is why I suggest to make things right and do the right thing, you submit a retraction on both your site and any media outlets your “press release” went to.

    I believe that would not only make things right factually, but also be a great way for you to prove the class of journalist and more importantly person you can be. In addition, it would be a great way to avoid alienation of our loyal readers.

    My balls are in your court.

  11. 11
    Kelly Ann Collins
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 11:16 am

    lol

  12. 12
    Madeyoulaugh
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 11:34 am

    Kelly,

    “There is nothing wrong with getting a tip, then checking it out.”

    No, there is not, but there is something wrong with you taking information from a published, accredited news article, padding it with inconsequential sub-information, and then passing the whole thing off as a new breaking story by you. We all know the story was his homosexuality, and you flat out stole that from us and passed it off as your own, plain and simple.

    “Next time something happens in the news, I challenge you to try and uncover it quicker than I can. A blog off!”

    Why next time? How about this time? We uncovered Fabrice 2 weeks before you. We win…so do you have to do my laundry now or something?

    Madeyoulaugh from TVGasm

  13. 13
    smithie
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 11:48 am

    I went to Kelly’s blog and she does say the following:

    “All of these sexual-orientation questions started popping up when the TVgasm.com posted an email from a reader who claimed he had crossed paths with Fabrice before, and that the reality contestant was an actor”

    She’s a liar, and as everyone knows, liars get cancer. Poor Kelly, I feel bad for her.

  14. 14
    chettogirl
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 12:52 pm

    Kelly-
    you found all the information nobody cares about, then tried to put it in a lame looking list.
    BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

  15. 15
    Lisa
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 3:02 pm

    1. Fabrice’s full name
    2. Proof he is an actor
    3. Where he went to school
    4. Info on his real estate (the studio)
    5. His work history
    6. “4 Secondes de Chute Libre”
    7. The Philips ad
    8. Photos from his model portfolio
    9. Photo of Fabrice in 2001
    10. All of the online profiles

    But this is all of the information I was interested in. Finding out he was gay was no big deal but finding out his last name… WOW! *sarcasm*

    B-Side & Madeyoulaugh, look on the bright side. At least you have proof she comes to this site. She can’t deny coming hear and reading what you wrote, now can she?

    And Kelly Ann, I don’t know about you but I would rather work for the AP/USA Today than some website that nobody has heard about until they ripped off somebody else’s story. At least you are making the big money now.

  16. 16
    Lynda
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 3:09 pm

    Wow! Never defend yourself unless you’re on the witness stand.

  17. 17
    mellymel
    Posted January 27, 2005 at 3:10 pm

    The sad part of this, KAC is getting what she wants –> People to realize who is she and coming to her blog. grrrr

    Her next story will be about some rw/rr person hooking up with rw/rr or that they spotted Victoria at the airport. TVgasm.com rules. I enjoy really your post daily.

  18. 18
    2tothehead
    Posted January 28, 2005 at 7:06 am

    All of this mud throwing is somewhat disenchanting to me. If this is what tvgasm is about maybe your plagiarism dept you just start doing auditions for the jerry springer show. The girl did some research and posted it big deal.

  19. 19
    curlypacks
    Posted January 28, 2005 at 10:51 am

    2tothehead: its a good thing your post made no sense at all, I was worried I would have to read something stupid.

    Madeyoulaugh, chile- you are totally on point! You know KAC was that pudgy girl running for school counsel (who probably made her campaign posters all by herself ’cause no one else would magic marker with her.)

  20. 20
    Christian V
    Posted January 30, 2005 at 12:37 am

    TVgasm staff,

    I don’t know if you guys heard yet but you WERE mentioned in the latest issue of Us Weekly. In reference to Fabrice and his homosexuality they said this, “An anonymous tipster e-mailed the Web site tvgasm.com claiming Scheft’s Parisian suitor is openly gay.”

    So congrats. There was NO mention of Kelly Ann Collins or her piece of shit blog.

  21. 21
    renpeh420
    Posted February 1, 2005 at 8:00 am

    That is insane!!!! I would like to see how she came up and found Fabrice on chicagopride.com I was the one that found that and sent it to ABC message boards and put it on here, and E! news even said something about chicagopride.com on their website mentioning it was on TVgasm.com man some people just like to take alll the credit huh?

    Dustin

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