It’s Not Out of the Realms of Possibility That the Whole Thing's a Stunt
October 27, 2019 3:11 PM Subscribe
As they say, not all heroes wear capes. Some wear Chanel, hoop earrings and an England t-shirt. She didn’t know it when she posted her investigative report on Twitter, but Coleen Rooney lifted a nation deep in Brexit gloom. It is, after all, a story that has everything, as evidenced by its breathless (and global) reaction. But part of its appeal is its accessibility. We are all still figuring out how our personal lives tessellate with our digital ones. And when so many of our relationships are entangled with social media, are we in fact falling into a trap of mutual surveillance of our friends and family? Hannah Jane Parkinson investigates the significance of Wagatha.
Don't know about Vardygate? Aisling Bea explains it to Paul Rudd in less than a minute
More complete version:
Coleen Rooney accuses Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to Sun [Grauniad]
Don't know about Vardygate? Aisling Bea explains it to Paul Rudd in less than a minute
More complete version:
Coleen Rooney accuses Rebekah Vardy of leaking stories to Sun [Grauniad]
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
posted by Popular Ethics at 3:46 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by Popular Ethics at 3:46 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
For me, who has no investment in this at all or knows anything about British socialites, Coleen Rooney seems to have been very clever in dealing with this privacy leak. I definitely picked up on how she said it was Vardy's account, not the person, but Vardy's response has been damning. If she was smarter, and innocent, a show of sympathy and a pledge to help fix it immediately would have gone a long way.
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
I gather that they're minor celebrities, but the visibility of the conflict has been escalated by the spectacular nature of how it played out. (It doesn't hurt that British tabloids are infamously vicious, so being sold out to a tabloid like this is genuinely traumatic.)
posted by Merus at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
I gather that they're minor celebrities, but the visibility of the conflict has been escalated by the spectacular nature of how it played out. (It doesn't hurt that British tabloids are infamously vicious, so being sold out to a tabloid like this is genuinely traumatic.)
posted by Merus at 3:53 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Oh ho, John Ronson has come down off his high horse for this one has he? Well well well.
posted by ominous_paws at 3:54 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by ominous_paws at 3:54 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
See also:
See also:
“When I first met my now husband, my friends were really happy because I was so happy. But my British friends said to me: ‘I’m sure he’s great. But you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life,’” - Meghan (Markle), Duchess of Sussexposted by EndsOfInvention at 3:55 PM on October 27, 2019 [21 favorites]
I don't know why the Mail or the Sun would need to buy stories from Rebekah Vardy when they can just hack people's social media and mobile devices like they've done literally every time before this one.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:08 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 5:08 PM on October 27, 2019 [3 favorites]
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
Partly yes, celebrity gossip is that big in circles that are not yours, but in this specific instance it also came during the most miserable month of Brexit (yet) when simply reading the news left one feeling psychically tainted. Amidst all of that, Wagnarok was like a brief return to more innocent times. It's no wonder that even serious news folks leapt on it in relief.
posted by tavegyl at 5:43 PM on October 27, 2019 [15 favorites]
Partly yes, celebrity gossip is that big in circles that are not yours, but in this specific instance it also came during the most miserable month of Brexit (yet) when simply reading the news left one feeling psychically tainted. Amidst all of that, Wagnarok was like a brief return to more innocent times. It's no wonder that even serious news folks leapt on it in relief.
posted by tavegyl at 5:43 PM on October 27, 2019 [15 favorites]
I had no idea this was happening. I have no idea who any of these people are, or why anyone was paying attention to their interpersonal drama. BUT:
In a crisis interview she gave to the Mail Online, Vardy asserted that arguing with Rooney is like “arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.”
God damn, I love this whole ridiculous thing!
posted by Naberius at 8:10 PM on October 27, 2019 [7 favorites]
In a crisis interview she gave to the Mail Online, Vardy asserted that arguing with Rooney is like “arguing with a pigeon. You can tell it that you are right and it is wrong, but it’s still going to shit in your hair.”
God damn, I love this whole ridiculous thing!
posted by Naberius at 8:10 PM on October 27, 2019 [7 favorites]
She withheld data from one account at a time to find the leaker which is O(N) when she could have found the leaker in O (log N).
Just withhold from half, which tells you the good half and the bad half depending on if there is a leak, keep doing that recursively with the new bad half til it is one person and the leaks have stopped.
posted by w0mbat at 9:14 PM on October 27, 2019 [16 favorites]
Just withhold from half, which tells you the good half and the bad half depending on if there is a leak, keep doing that recursively with the new bad half til it is one person and the leaks have stopped.
posted by w0mbat at 9:14 PM on October 27, 2019 [16 favorites]
@w0mbat: the algorithm is tail-recursive, which means an iterative implementation is usually just as efficient, as modern compilers will tend to recognise the tail-recursion and unwrap the loop at compile time (unless you're writing in Java, when you can't rely on a JVM to do this.)
Coleen may of course have known this, and dodged the algorithm entirely to avoid derailing the actual argument.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:25 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]
Coleen may of course have known this, and dodged the algorithm entirely to avoid derailing the actual argument.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 12:25 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]
it also came during the most miserable month of Brexit (yet) when simply reading the news left one feeling psychically tainted.
When Brexit finally hits, then, they're going to be printing stories about Coleen Rooney destroying King's Langley with dragonfire.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 1:00 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
When Brexit finally hits, then, they're going to be printing stories about Coleen Rooney destroying King's Langley with dragonfire.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 1:00 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
She withheld data from one account at a time to find the leaker which is O(N) when she could have found the leaker in O (log N).
It's not clear from the article but if you read her actual tweet, you'll see that she really only tested Vardy's account. She had a suspicion that Vardy was the leaker, so she made several fake posts with untrue information about her family over the course of months, letting only Vardy see, and then saw that they still continued to be leaked to the tabloid, confirming her suspicions. Not as cool as systematically checking all her friends, but still pretty cool.
posted by peacheater at 3:59 AM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
It's not clear from the article but if you read her actual tweet, you'll see that she really only tested Vardy's account. She had a suspicion that Vardy was the leaker, so she made several fake posts with untrue information about her family over the course of months, letting only Vardy see, and then saw that they still continued to be leaked to the tabloid, confirming her suspicions. Not as cool as systematically checking all her friends, but still pretty cool.
posted by peacheater at 3:59 AM on October 28, 2019 [2 favorites]
Kudos for providing the second link, which not only provides an explainer for non-UK folks, but also gives us more Aisling Bea, who is just goddam wonderful.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:47 AM on October 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 5:47 AM on October 28, 2019 [3 favorites]
@w0mbat: the algorithm is tail-recursive, which means an iterative implementation is usually just as efficient
When your basic compare operation has a >1d execution time and executing a batch operation is the same expense as a single element, the batch efficiency will overwhelm other concerns when the input size > 4.
Now that I think of it, we could use a parallel algorithm here. Come up with sqrt(N) stories and send each to 1/2 the elements, such that each gets a unique combination. If your results are perfectly reliable, you can isolate the element in O(1).
posted by CaseyB at 6:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]
When your basic compare operation has a >1d execution time and executing a batch operation is the same expense as a single element, the batch efficiency will overwhelm other concerns when the input size > 4.
Now that I think of it, we could use a parallel algorithm here. Come up with sqrt(N) stories and send each to 1/2 the elements, such that each gets a unique combination. If your results are perfectly reliable, you can isolate the element in O(1).
posted by CaseyB at 6:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [5 favorites]
Woah. This seems like such a big deal for such a small feud. Is celebrity gossip really this important in the UK (or in circles that aren't mine)?
Remember what it was like in America during the first season of Survivor? Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother were like that when I lived in the UK and it was something like season 7. I watched Big Brother because it was a portal into parts of England I would never really get anything other than transient exposure to (it also helped me with understanding accents) and I watched Celebrity Big Brother because I was curious what Denis Rodman and Jermaine Jackson were actually like (incomprehensible it turns out!). It's the TV equivalent of the cheeky nandos. Slightly shamefully banal but a decent meal nonetheless and almost everyone is up for a bit of it.
British celebrity gossip and reality TV show commentary really are very entertaining and display both the cleverness and awfulness of British journalism as you can see in the writing about Wagatha. American celebrity gossip is very thin gruel by comparison.
posted by srboisvert at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Remember what it was like in America during the first season of Survivor? Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother were like that when I lived in the UK and it was something like season 7. I watched Big Brother because it was a portal into parts of England I would never really get anything other than transient exposure to (it also helped me with understanding accents) and I watched Celebrity Big Brother because I was curious what Denis Rodman and Jermaine Jackson were actually like (incomprehensible it turns out!). It's the TV equivalent of the cheeky nandos. Slightly shamefully banal but a decent meal nonetheless and almost everyone is up for a bit of it.
British celebrity gossip and reality TV show commentary really are very entertaining and display both the cleverness and awfulness of British journalism as you can see in the writing about Wagatha. American celebrity gossip is very thin gruel by comparison.
posted by srboisvert at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Paul Rudd's "interested” face is not as convincing as I expected it to be.
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:10 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by bonobothegreat at 7:10 AM on October 28, 2019 [7 favorites]
Daily Mash weighs in: The media have firmly taken the side of Rebekah Vardy in her dispute with Coleen Rooney, proving she is not working with the media.
posted by ominous_paws at 7:14 AM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by ominous_paws at 7:14 AM on October 28, 2019 [4 favorites]
I think the reason this story has blown up so much is that it has revealed to people that the privacy controls on social media websites are more like a lace curtain than a locked door. If you are "friends" with 200+ people then the chances are good that at least one of those people is not really your friend.
Of course you could lock down your account to only the 10 or 20 people you really trust, but then you might as well just go back to meeting people in the pub instead of clicking buttons on a laptop.
posted by Lanark at 11:27 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Of course you could lock down your account to only the 10 or 20 people you really trust, but then you might as well just go back to meeting people in the pub instead of clicking buttons on a laptop.
posted by Lanark at 11:27 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
I could go for a whole series of Aisling Bea Explains UK stuff to Americans videos. Can she do "How the Brexiters are still in charge even though most people don't want Brexit anymore" next?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:32 AM on October 28, 2019 [1 favorite]
Obviously. But she lives in London and is explaining an ongoing English gossip scandal in the video and doing a smashing job of it, is she not?
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:38 PM on October 28, 2019 [6 favorites]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 12:38 PM on October 28, 2019 [6 favorites]
She withheld data from one account at a time to find the leaker which is O(N) when she could have found the leaker in O (log N).
Just withhold from half, which tells you the good half and the bad half depending on if there is a leak, keep doing that recursively with the new bad half til it is one person and the leaks have stopped.
This only works if the leaks can be reliably expected - because the leaks are happening only when the leaker is interested, she can't be sure that just because her latest bit of bait wasn't leaked, the leaker is not in the good half.
posted by Merus at 2:47 PM on October 28, 2019
Just withhold from half, which tells you the good half and the bad half depending on if there is a leak, keep doing that recursively with the new bad half til it is one person and the leaks have stopped.
This only works if the leaks can be reliably expected - because the leaks are happening only when the leaker is interested, she can't be sure that just because her latest bit of bait wasn't leaked, the leaker is not in the good half.
posted by Merus at 2:47 PM on October 28, 2019
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posted by sallybrown at 3:40 PM on October 27, 2019 [10 favorites]