If You’ve Heard of Blind Items, You’re Hot

Image Courtesy: Strike Magazine Tallahassee

I am nosy. When a friend comes up to me saying they have tea, I am immediately intrigued and give them my full attention. When it comes to celebrity gossip, I pry even more, so it should not surprise you that I have become a blind item connoisseur over the past year or so. Blind items are the nosy (but hot!) girl’s bible, and if you know nothing about them, I am happy to teach you.  

Blind items are anonymous riddles about what celebrities are up to. They regained popularity over the pandemic, mostly thanks to Deux Moi (aka the real-life Gossip Girl) and TikTok users, who introduced a new generation to the open secrets of Hollywood. Deux Moi became well-known over the pandemic: as we were all stuck inside doing nothing, we suddenly became much more interested in what everyone else was up to. Deux Moi, the previously anonymous Instagram user, publishes little riddles on their story about various celebrities from different sources. Some come from caterers working quietly in the shadows of A-list events, and others come from friends of friends of celebrities. Either way, Deux Moi has become a cultural phenomenon that finally got Gen Z interested in the blinds.  

Image Courtesy: Instagram

Old-school blogs have been publishing blind items for over a decade. Enty, an entertainment lawyer, has been posting anonymous riddles on his blind item blog Crazy Days and Nights since 2006. Enty has remained anonymous for his entire career while still publishing some verifiable truths about celebrities (and managing to not get sued). 

Some may view blind items as an invasion of the privacy of celebs, but they are just tidbits of open knowledge within Hollywood. It can be a slippery slope from harmless gossip to outlandish conspiracy theories, so every blind item should be taken with a healthy portion of salt on the side. With that said, I find that blind items combat unhealthy para-social relationships with celebrities in an age where we feel closer to them than ever before. Your favorite celebrity is probably doing drugs and being rude to waiters, all of which are exposed in the blinds. It is a hard wake-up call to learn that no celebrity is perfect, but we wouldn’t want them to be. 

Blind items have changed the way that I look at celebrities. They are people who make mistakes, have PR relationships, and take edibles before their movie premiere and fall asleep (cough, cough Chris Pine). A-list stars are humans with talents we have commodified into fame, and that isn’t something they should be put on a pedestal for.  

Image Courtesy: Spotify

If you are late to the blind item train, hop on. Deux Moi and CDAN are only the starts of celebrity lore, and there are plenty of digestible ways to learn more about these A-listers. Podcasts like Fluently Forward, Beyond the Blinds, and Celebrity Memoir Book Club provide the information necessary to get you hooked on the blinds.  

Start reading, watching, or listening to information about blind items! You won’t regret it. ` 

Strike Out, 

Writer: Lydia Coddington 

Editor: Addy Crosby 

Graphic Designer: Maria Gonzalez

Tallahassee