Assembling Panel on Gossip as Performance for ATHE Conference

[Frank Miller]

I am currently research a paper on the blind item
  as
performance, focusing on the Toothy Tile items
circulated by E! Online gossip columnist Ted
Casablanca since March 2003.  For those with more
important things to do, Toothy Tile is the name
Casablanca has given a rising young actor who
allegedly is at war with his management over his
desire to come out, something he has
threatened/promised to do at the Academy Awards
presentations and in a magazine interview.  None
  of
these incidents have taken place, however, and
  there
is still no definitive answer to the question of
Toothy Tile's identity or even his existence, all
  of
which have been topics of heated discussion on
  various
online gossip sites.

The Toothy Tile story represents the intersection
  of
various performances:  Bruce Bibbey's performance
  as
gossip columnist Ted Casablanca (and the possible
performance of interns who are believed to be
  ghosting
items for his columns), the public and private
performances of the actor identified as Toothy
  Tile,
the performance of closeted actors in general and
  the
performances of the various posters debating the
issue, often using assumed names and identities
manufactured for the internet.

At present, I do not have any ideas for a panel
  that
could include this, so I'm appealing to my fellow
members in what has been dubbed "the best ATHE
  focus
group" (or was it "the cutest"; New Orleans
  remains a
haze for me).  If you are currently working on a
  panel
that could include a paper of this nature or have
  a
paper that might fit with it some area (if not
  gossip,
possibly the closet as performance, the internet
  as
performance, public sexual identity as
  performance or
something more creative than any of those),
  please let
me know.  If you weren't planning to create a
  panel
for yourself but think your research could fit
  with
mine, I'll be happy to propose the panel.  It
  only
takes three people, after all.

So, put on your thinking caps and get back to me.

"No daring is fatal. The whole logic of the universe is contained in
daring, in creating from the flimsiest, slenderest support." -- Rene  
Crevel




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