You’d think I would know better. After all, I spent 14 years as a television news reporter working under seven news directors who were all about ratings, ratings, ratings. Why then did I allow myself to get bamboozled?
A couple of weeks ago I outlined a blog about Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry’s suicide attempt. Having read about it in Parade (you know the insert distributed in traditional newspapers) I figured it was legit. It turns out the information was accurate, but about 10 years old.
So here I was set to write a blog about Berry’s confession and her sudden change in attitude about talking about her personal life (last year she told Oprah that following her bitter break up with her last husband she would no longer be addressing personal questions during media interviews). I’m so glad I waited. And here’s why: Shortly after the Parade article ran Berry came out swinging with this retort:
“I want it to be clear that it’s nothing new – this is a story that is 10 years old and unfortunately another magazine felt the need to regurgitate it. In my opinion, if having it come up again can help one more person understand the horror of suicide, then I guess it’s all worth it.”
As it turns out, in 1997 Berry told a reporter she briefly considered killing herself after her marriage to David Justice ended in 1996. Two weeks ago Parade, recently quoted Berry about the incident again, and that’s what caused the brouhaha.
That said, yesterday, I just happened to catch part of ABC’s “The View” and who happened to be sitting on the couch next to Barbara Walters and Rosie O’Donnell—Halle Berry—who spent the better half of her interview with the ladies discussing the fact that Parade decided to run the quote about her suicide attempt—a decade after it was made.
That’s when it happened. A sudden wave of relief washed over me. I was so glad I had not written my original blog bashing Berry about her gut-spilling confession and subsequent failure to remain mum on all things private. I was also ashamed that I had fallen for the media trap—baiting readers with a lurid tease. I confess; I was suckered into thinking Berry had broken her promise to Oprah—-now I know better.
Did you also think it was odd that Berry was going public about something so personal at this point in her life?
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