In 2006 when I started Celebitchy I was living in Switzerland with my then-husband and our one-year-old son. I missed American pop culture so much that I was reading celebrity gossip blogs like PopSugar and DListed constantly. My career was as a web designer and usability consultant. I’d had some minor success with pop culture websites including a fan site for a celebrity (who later emailed me) and a tribute to Princess Diana in 1997 which was featured on then-new MSNBC. My goal for Celebitchy was to create a smart gossip site. I wrote consistently every weekday, for months and then years. YouTube did not exist, social media was MySpace and Friendster and Twitter was just about to launch. Kim Kardashian was just Paris Hilton’s assistant and Meghan Markle worked as briefcase girl on Deal or No Deal. I started getting help about a year in and Kaiser joined us in late 2008. We have had so many other excellent writers over the years including JayBird, MSat, Bedhead, Hecate, Corey, Oya, Carina, Quimby, Peridot and our now-current writers Kismet and Rosie. I cannot thank them enough.
Sites who linked to us and helped us out include MoeJackson (RIP), PopSugar, Dlisted (RIP!), I’m Not Obsessed, Socialite Life, Starcasm, OMG Blog, Reality Tea, Go Fug Yourself, Pajiba, Lainey Gossip, Seriously OMG WTF, Jezebel, Yeeeah and so many others. When DListed shut down in 2023 I was frankly devastated. Thank you so much to our ad company, Raptive! We could not have grown without their help and support. Also thank you to our webhosts, ServerStack, and to the photo agencies we work with: Avalon.red, Backgrid and Cover Images.
In 2010 I got an offer to buy the site from another major corporate-owned website. The deal came with the promise that they would let us run things as usual. The compensation package amounted to $900,000. I got the help of an excellent lawyer whom I still work with to this day. The major corporation asked for substantial changes during initial talks and I walked away. Private equity firms ruin everything and celebrity gossip sites are no exception. Former founders of The Superficial, What Would Tyler Durden Do and Pink is the New Blog have been open about the absolute bullsh-t they’ve gone through after being acquired. None of those sites still exist in any recognizable form.
In 2019 Kaiser and I started the podcast. We haven’t kept up with it like we did in the beginning as it’s a lot of work (although we have a new episode out this week!) but we’ve thoroughly enjoyed creating it and plan to continue making episodes. Thank you so much for listening to us and supporting our content there and on this site.
My main goal with this site and in life is to make a living without compromising my principles. I’m very much a stubborn Gen X woman, often to the detriment of this business. We run things almost the same way we have since the beginning. We don’t write to the algorithm, we don’t use click bait titles for the most part and we don’t have pages of slides you have to scroll through to view content. Respect to other sites that do this, it’s just not our way. We want our articles to be readable, entertaining, informative and to have a clear opinion. I often leave money on the table for this reason. I’ve never created a paywall or used Patreon or Substack. I’m not ruling it out, I just haven’t yet. I haven’t even added commercials to the podcast, but I plan to do this.
The evolution of the Internet and the weaponization of social media has been alarming to say the least. It’s helped bring the worst fascist in my lifetime to power in America. Innocent civilians are being murdered, kidnapped and sent to concentration camps. Children are being trafficked by the US government. The algorithm in Google and on popular social media sites is being exploited to magnify misinformation, lies and hatred. Bots and AI-powered agents are taking over comment sections and we’ve definitely seen that here. (I swear a bot even emailed me. I asked it to send a brownie recipe and it did.) All we can do is continue to call out fascism, to tell the truth and to run this site. I’m committed to doing that as long as we can make a living.
I’m proud of what we’re created and hope to keep it up for at least a few more years. If you would like to support us you can sign up for our mailing list. I’ve put some options for that below. I send about one email a day on weekdays and I write them all myself. Also please subscribe and review our podcast on the platform you use. (YouTube is a good start.) If you use Google News, subscribe to us there as one of your favorite sources.
Thank you for being part of our community and for reading, commenting and supporting us. Some of you have been here for over a decade or more. It means a lot and we appreciate you all! – Katie
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Britney and Paris are shown in 2006 in Las Vegas credit: Finalpixx / Retna Pictures/Avalon. Paris and Kim Kardashian photo is from June, 2006. Credit: George Campos/Avalon. Second photo of them is from 2023 via Instagram/Avalon.red. Jude Law, Kate Winslet and Cameron Diaz are shown at the premiere of The Holiday in 2006. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are shown outside a Banksy show in September, 2006. Credit: JFX Images/Look Press/Avalon. Photo of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes circa 2006 and credit: Look Press Agency/Look Press/Avalon. Charlize Theron is shown at the 2006 Oscars credit: Jacqui Wong/Avalon
