Blogger Perez Hilton claimed last Tuesday that Lindsay Lohan's father had tweeted that his daughter was infected with HIV. Michael Lohan says it was made up. The story of a gossip report.
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton had done it again. "Lindsay Lohan has Aids?????" was the headline above a short exclusive "news item". It spread around the world within a few hours on Tuesday last week. Content: The father of the actress and singer wrote on his Twitter account that it was now time to let his readers know the truth about his daughter. The 23-year-old has been HIV-positive for several years.
According to Lindsay, her father Michael Lohan has been trying to gain control of her money and her career in dubious ways for a long time and has sold stories about her to the yellow press several times for this purpose. In these stories, he claims that she is addicted to drugs and alcohol. To describe the father-daughter relationship as strained would be an understatement.
It was only on Monday that the police turned up at the flat that Lindsay Lohan lives in with her 16-year-old sister in LA. Lohan's father had sent them there, allegedly to prevent his younger child from being further harmed by his older one. But the law enforcement officers had to leave without having achieved anything, everything was in order.
Barely twelve hours later, the news of the daughter's HIV status on Twitter. A vile act of revenge by an evil father. Or was it?
The accused denies having written the message quoted by Perez Hilton. Hilton countered this with a screenshot of the Twitter account, which he posted on his website along with the initial message www.perezhilton.com published on Tuesday.
Michael Lohan claimed a day later that Perez Hilton had hacked his Twitter account and posted the tweet about his daughter there himself. He would never do such a thing to his child. Lohan's father wants to press charges against Hilton for fraud and defamation.
The woman whose health is the subject of speculation doesn't make any specific comments: "My father has already spread lies about me in the media several times and probably won't stop. No comment."
Gossip junkies cheer: "She's not denying it!" Media experts say: right and well done. To fully consider the claim, she would have no choice but to publicise her HIV status. And that's nobody's business.
The really interesting thing about this disgusting little internet mud fight is the media reaction to it. Firstly, the choice of words: All print and even the very most omnivorous online media did not write off "AIDS" in Hilton, but at least correctly translated Lohan's alleged condition as "HIV-positive". Secondly, hardly anyone believes the story, Lindsay Lohan is generally pitied for her father. But even he is seen by most as a victim: within a few days, Perez Hilton was generally recognised as the real culprit.
"If it wasn't so difficult to hook a Twitter account, I'd just write that Hilton put this message online herself," speculates an American media blogger.
Michael Lohan will try to prove exactly that. The crux of the matter: a few minutes after the tweet in question appeared, it had already disappeared again. The only indication that it existed at all are the screenshots that Hilton published. A prankster who now finds the legal situation in Web 2.0 difficult.
"I'm sure I'll hear from Lindsay or her mum today," Hilton speculated on Tuesday. Perhaps the American public prosecutor will get in touch with him now.
(Paul Schulz)
