Every Sunday that rolls around when I have to write on this blog without a specific assignment, only told to write about anything having to deal with news editing, I struggle to find a topic. But, as I have already confessed to being a celebrity gossip junky, it is in that realm of journalism that I always turn to in such times.
Tonight, while simultaneously watching the Oscars and reading my People magazine, I thought about how funny it is that the media, most likely editors in particular, create simple monikers for celebrities probably just to save space in both spoken and written forms of media, but these nicknames stick forever and become extremely recognizable. For instance, instead of always referring to Hollywood's "golden couple" Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie by their full names, someone in media decided to just refer to them as "Brangelina;" and now that is a widely acceptable way to refer to the couple and their family by all media outlets.
Brangelina wasn't the first. Years ago we all knew Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez as "Bennifer," that is, until Ben traded J. Lo in for a different Jennifer (Alias' Jennifer Garner) and thus Bennifer II was created. And how could we forget the constant media frenzy and crazy couch-jumping that is TomKat (Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes)?
Of course these monikers occur in "real" news as well. Most recently, Nadya Suleman, mother of newborn octuplets and six older children, has been given the nickname of "Octo Mom."
Although this ability to essentially rename celebrities and other prominent newsworthy people is not one of the most noteworthy perks held by the media, it is truly remarkable to think about the power the editors in media have even in little instances such as this.
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