Is Us Magazine’s Story about Prince’s Singing Challenge To Paris Hilton False?
I published a story first seen in Us Magazine about Prince calling Paris Hilton on stage during his April 20, Las Vegas concert at the Rio Casino club 3121. As the story was printed, Prince invited Paris on stage and then reportedly said to the audience, “Let’s see if she can really sing.” Paris reportedly stormed off stage in a huff, refusing the challenge. Paris’ reps denied the story and Prince’s reps offered no comment.
Most assumed the story was true, as Us Magazineis a fairly credible celebrity news source. Well according to this rather descriptive comment left on Glosslip.com, the Prince/Paris singing dis story is a complete fabrication.
A Ms. Janet Gabriel, who states she was at the concert, offers a counter-claim to the Us Magazine article:
“As it turns out, I’m the lady from the audience who sang “Play that funky music” with Prince on Friday 20th April 2007. He had already invited a handful of people onstage to dance, Paris Hilton was one of them and so was I. Prince respectfully asked anyone to from the audience to sing that song with him and never said anything about whether Paris could sing or not. The microphone was with his backing singer, Shelby and she was the one that apparently offered the microphone to Paris. I knew the song and I in my excitement I frantically ran across the stage to seize the opportunity of a lifetime; the honour to sing with the greatest of all entertainers, Prince himself. It looked as though the problem was that Paris did not know that particular song, so I started singing the first bar of the verse of the song with the mic still in Shelbys hand. Prince then signaled Shelby to let me continue and that was it. Prince did not dis Paris and Paris did not storm off in anger. All dancers left the stage together. The whole event was great fun and awesome entertainment, nothing should be taken away from that. And I’ll never forget that moment that I shared the stage with Prince!!!!”
If this is in fact Ms. Janet Gabriel, she is also a singer and has several audio clips on her website. She also has a myspace page, but there was no mention there about the concert. I have found nothing to counter her claim of being at the concert, and I have emailed her for any additional comments on the story. Assuming this is true, it’s another example of a how we in the “citizen journalist” media take at face value what the major publications print.
We all love celeb dirt and certainly I am as guilty as anyone of pouncing on sensational stories that paint celebrities in a negative light. But I want those stories to be true, even those about Paris Hilton. It makes you wonder how many times we read a story in a major magazine, assume it’s true, make a judgment, form an opinion and then color our view of someone based on information that’s just plain false.
Do we owe Paris Hilton an apology? Maybe? But only for this, the rest, is pretty unforgivable.
Update: I continue to check out this the reliablilty of this counter-claim, and while I have no smoking gun, on Us Magazine’s site I see Ms. Gabriel left a comment there as well, and there are several other comments backing up her statement. This isn’t Imusgate or anything, but still, makes you question how much fact-checking major magazines give to their sources.
Pink Stripe WordPress Theme Designed by Joni Mueller &
very nice investigating Dawn - it’s important to find the facts even if they are less fun. One of the main reasons the blogosphere arose in the first place was it’s success at fact-checking the MSM
Comment by EricOlsen — April 28, 2007 @ 2:31 pm
I find it funny if it mentions Paris, it’s a must read weather it’s true or not.
Comment by Marta — April 29, 2007 @ 2:04 am
Scusate, era una balla
La notizia di Prince che si prende gioco di Paris Hilton non era vera. Secondo Janet Gabriel, che era al concerto, Prince ha invitato diverse persone del pubblico di cantare il brano "Play that funky music" e tra queste c’era la Hilton, che
Trackback by treunodueuno — April 29, 2007 @ 4:17 am
I really like the guts of ms gabriel, she is a wonderful as she always uses her time to furnish people like myself infos, I mean real information, more grease to your elbows Janet, keep it up
Comment by Segun — April 30, 2007 @ 3:41 am
[…] wrote about this over the weekend and didn’t want to go too far with the story until I heard back from Janet […]
Pingback by GlossLip » Us Magazine’s Prince/Paris Hilton Humiliation Allegation False, Says Singer Janet Gabriel — April 30, 2007 @ 12:31 pm