‘You’re crazy. Don’t make up things!’

‘You’re crazy. Don’t make up things!’:

Celebrity gossip shows denigrate homosexuality, but at least they talk about it

Bram Hendrawan

Hot Shot peddles hot gossip www.SCTV.co.id

‘The shocking confession of Yupiter Fourtisimo about his deviant sexual behaviour is still fresh in the public memory. Now, another celebrity is thought to suffer too from such sexual deviance. This case is even more surprising because that celebrity is Evan Sanders, a handsome man with an athletic body, a macho man. And it comes despite his recent statement that he just found the girl of his dreams.’
This breathless statement opened a news item on the television infotainment program Hot Shot, broadcast by SCTV on 14 March 2008. It’s typical of the way in which homosexuality has become a regular topic to spice up these shows, breaking old taboos but in ways designed to titillate and scandalise the audience.
Evan Sanders is only one of many Indonesian artists who have featured on Indonesian infotainment programs as subjects of gossip about their alleged homosexuality. In the infotainment programs such gossip is turned into a spectacle. Is he gay? If not, why is he still single? Why are they so close? Are they lesbians? The hosts of such programs typically pose these questions in the special celebrity gossip segments of television infotainment programs. ‘Evidence’ is presented to spice up the story, from photographs to love letters.
Infotainment programs are very popular in Indonesia. There are dozens of shows

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