Hot Gossip

...No not the lycra-clad, permed devil-woman dance troupe that spawned the phenomenon that is Sarah Brightman, but the continuing fetish for online scandal sharing. Brian Boyd applauds the current hottest slaver-site - Holy Moly.

A journalist who went to interview Mel C at the height of her Spice Girls 15 minutes of fame found that her "people" had drawn up a list of questions that were not to be asked - "under any circumstances". Even though the interview was for Heat magazine - which makes Hello! And OK! look like rigorous investigative journals - the journalist found that his printed, sanitised interview about just how wonderful Mel C is was a lot less interesting that the almost Maoist PR practices of the singer's "people".

A short while later, a pop music gossip website called Popbitch appeared. It did exactly what it said on its URL - spreading sometimes salacious, sometimes malicious stories that were kept out of the printed press by libel laws/threatening PR types with stars' reputations to protect.

Popbitch soon went from being a small Internet cult to having a massive electronic circulation.

Its style - reporting stories about pop stars behaving badly but stopping just short of naming them (while supplying enough information so everyone knew who they were) - was soon stolen outright by national newspapers and glossy weeklies. Such was the popularity of Popbitch that those hapless pop stars being popbitched about got friends to post stories on the site that either flatly contradicted a reported incident or spread salacious rumours/facts about a rival.

While Popbitch is still going strong at www.popbitch.com and still being consistent and diligent in its ridiculing of dimwit popsters (especially the ones who slime their way up from reality TV shows), there was always going to be room for a new site that went even further. Welcome,then, Holy Moly, which shortly after making its presence felt on the web had to stop accepting new subscribers such was the level of traffic it was attracting.

A British site, at www.holymoly.co.uk, the received wisdom is that it is run by someone pretty high-up in UK television circles, who started Holy Moly when his idea for a TV programme based on a pop gossip website was turned down. Perhaps more telling is how Holy Moly's secretive overlord describes what has become known as celebrity culture: "It's like being cold-called at home by Jehovah's Witnesses. You didn't ask for their opinion; they are pointless to your existence, serving no use whatsoever. Holy Moly is my way of venting spleen at these idiotic people."

People will tell you that Mr Holy Moly is about 30 years of age, is "extremely successful" and is based in London's Soho. He never talks directly to the press. It is believed that Holy Moly has over 100,000 subscribers and that sponsors/advertisers are queuing up, flashing open chequebooks, all keen to be involved with one of the most talked about websites.

It's quite obvious that Holy Moly has top-level sources and there are obviously people leaking very hilarious stories from the complaints log of television stations. Holy Moly also got the real story behind the Arsenal/Manchester Utd "Battle Of The Buffet" last year - it is alleged.

None of their stories can be repeated in full here, but they did wonder, on hearing the news that Peter Andre ("the Antipodean oiled walnut") was planning to write his autobiography, if "he has his potato-print kit at the ready". A recent edition claimed to have the entire plot of the new Bond movie and they also roundly applauded a certain music television programme that sent a horse to interview a certain well-known band (the horse was a dig at one of the band's bad heroin habit).

There's some very saucy stuff reported on a certain "cheeky Northern duo", an explanation of this year's must-do craze - "Back, Crack, Sac and Gak" - and a story about Andrew Lloyd-Webber which refers to him as "a piano-raping, cock-curling tube of death".

An Irish music industry insider, who has worked with some of the biggest music stars around and has contacts at the very top level, says of Holy Moly: "Popbitch has been on the go for a while now and some of the stories they cover are less wicked whisper and more National Enquirer. Holy Moly was first recommended to me by someone who happens to be a bigwig in UK television. It's a lot more believable and has so far been completely spot on in terms of stories and predictions. It appears a lot of its contributors are actual behind-the-scenes TV people. I've heard this is the best gig for gathering gossip in that you deal with the agents, you organise the dressingroom rider, you meet and greet the artist, you try to deliver the requests, you listen to their telephone calls, and after a show you rarely see them again, so there's no love lost. You are also so anonymous to them that it would never be obvious the story came from you. . ."