The secret lives of celebrities

More and more stars are working extra hard to protect their privacy

Paparazzi photos established that Rihanna and Chris Brown were an item. (REUTERS/FILE)

First came unconfirmed reports that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and supermodel Gisele Bundchen were engaged. Then came word that the couple had married in a private Santa Monica wedding. Yet two weeks later, the pair have not publicly confirmed that they are married, even after photos of Bundchen in a wedding gown at St. Monica Church appeared on the cover of US Weekly.

"I'm sure when he speaks to the media he'll address any questions that they have," says Patriots spokesman Stacey James.

Welcome to the new world of celebrity privacy.

Camera phones and tiny digital video cameras have made it easy to capture images of celebrities at intimate moments. With the new technology has come a dramatic growth of gossip blogs such as Just Jared and Perez Hilton that have created demand for information about celebrity marriages, engagements, divorces, and pregnancies. Stars such as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears, and Lindsay Lohan feed the gossip beast by making appearances at places they know paparazzi congregate or going so far as to alert the paps to their whereabouts.

But a growing number of celebrities are trying to keep their personal business to themselves. Chris Brown and Rihanna have each only released brief statements through their publicists about the incident that led to Brown's arraignment last week on charges of felony assault and making criminal threats. Although Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold photos of their three biological children to People magazine, they kept both pregnancies private for as long as they could. News of Bundchen and Brady's nuptials leaked only after the ceremony; they kept their wedding clandestine, just as Beyoncé and Jay-Z did last year.

"Many celebrities are trying to be private," says Natasha Eubanks, who runs the urban gossip blog Young, Black, and Fabulous, "maybe because they've been in the game a long time and know from past experiences being open and 100 percent public about things just does not work well." Eubanks says the silent treatment also appeals to rising stars who find that their secrecy generates more interest in them. "It's the cool thing to do. They think that it actually gives them more publicity when they're private."

Eubanks points to the singers Christina Milian and The-Dream. The-Dream scored a 4 1/2-star review in Rolling Stone magazine for his new album, "Love vs. Money." Milian was dropped by her label and wants to make a comeback. The pair have made several public appearances recently, but neither has explained why they're together.

"People have a tendency to talk about things they don't know about," Eubanks says. "If you say, 'Well, we're married,' people don't talk about it, because it's not fun anymore. If you stay quiet, it keeps people interested."

Ken Sunshine, a publicist whose clients include the notoriously private Leonardo DiCaprio and Ben Affleck, is careful not to speak specifically about his clients or to talk about celebrities who aren't his clients. He says the directive from his clients to protect their privacy is driven by their creative aspirations. "Most celebrities I know want to be judged on their art," Sunshine says. "They don't want to be judged on their personal lives. They don't want coverage of it."

Billy Crudup, who stars in the new movie "Watchmen," reflected on that stance in a recent interview on parade.com. "It's important to me not to give everything away," he said. "I put a lot of time and energy and thought behind what I do and the characters that I create, and I don't want to do anything peripheral that is going to make an audience see me up there on the screen rather than who I'm playing."

Because of the increased demand for gossip, it's becoming more difficult to not give anything away, says Tracy Nguyen, a publicist whose clients include the rapper Young Jeezy. "Now with the Internet," says Nguyen, "it just allows these fans to hone in a lot more and zoom in on these people on a much more personal level."

Veteran celebrities have become adept at keeping their personal relationships to themselves even as they feed the media machine. Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal have only begun appearing together in public, although bloggers have speculated that they've been romantically involved since they worked on the 2007 film "Rendition." In a recent Elle interview, Witherspoon didn't confirm or deny a relationship. She simply said: "He's fabulous. He really is a fantastic guy. Unfortunately, he's not in the movie, so we can't really talk about him."

Some bloggers are relenting a bit in their desire to know everything. Necole Kane, an African-American who runs the gossip site Necole Bitchie, says she often questioned why black celebrities were secretive about their relationships. Nelly and Ashanti, for instance, have never publicly acknowledged that they're a couple.

Although Brown and Rihanna never announced they were dating, Kane believes the frequent paparazzi photos of them together established that they were a couple. That, in turn, has made it easy for bloggers and the media to invade their privacy, she says. After a photo that showed Rihanna's injuries was leaked to the media, Kane says she became more understanding of why celebrity couples attempt to keep their romantic lives to themselves.

"I now realized," says Kane, "how important privacy in those type of relationships are."