EDITORIAL
THE SLEUTHSAYER
"Sip, don't slurp," reprimands the charm-school teacher hired to instill
etiquette in the uncouth jockettes playing in A League of Their Own. "Legs
always together," she instructs, "a lady reveals nothing." Well,
my dear, we sure hope you're sitting down...'cause have we got a flash for you!
This issue of CELEBRITY SLEUTH boldly goes where no men's mag has ever gone before:
an entire edition devoted X-clusively to "Hot Flashers"—the famous
bloopers, fallouts and slip-ups (often wearing no slip} of the rich and shameless.
Think of it as a Kandid Kamera of the Kareless: celebrities caught in the act
of baring themselves...accidentally exposing their foibles {and otherthings} to
an adoring public for, in some cases, pubic}.
And it's precisely the forbidden nature of these exposures that adds to the titillation.
As gossip guru Liz Smith writes: "Candid photography is nothing new, nor
is a certain aggressiveness in obtaining an interesting, basically 'unposed' shot.
But it was not until 1960 that the word paparazzi {Italian for 'household
pest'} was coined by Federico Fellini in La Dolce Vita. The long lens quickly
became the bane of anyone who enjoyed (or didn't enjoy) a public life. It fell,
however," Smith sums up, "to ElizaBeth Taylor and Jacqueline Kennedy
to bear the brunt of the paparazzi attack. These two women could not escape the
camera's relentless pursuit." Nor Sleuth's...pages 10 and 68, respectively.
We've grouped our "Hot Flashers" into eight categories: "Opening
Nights" for those unexpected fashion spreads; slips of the nips in "Coming
Out Parties"; the auto accidents of "Car•nal Knowledge";
dressed to spill while "Out on the Town"; publicity stunts for "Self
Promotion" purposes; fits of peek though "Sitting Pretty"; sun
spottings while "Catching Rays"; and a concluding countdown of "The
Five Greatest Bloopers of All Time."
"We make no pretense about the pictures you'll see," warned the editor
of American Photo in announcing a controversial "Secrets of the Paparazzi"
issue. "They're the visual equivalent of great gossip—sometimes scurrilous,
sometimes scandalous, but oh, so interesting. Paparazzi are photojournalists who
fulfill an important need in our celebrity-worshiping world: They scow the high
and mighty in private moments, acting just like the rest of us, and often worse.
Should we enjoy that? Maybe not, but we do." Feel free...
Always in Focus,
