Boyzone Give Stephen Gately A Dignity The Media Cannot Handle
STEPHEN Gately is not long dead. The Daily Mail has led the tabloids’ charge to bury him not praise him, peppering a report of the former Boyzone singers early demise with suicide, drugs, depression, domestic violence and his sexuality.
Today the post-mortem will discover if Gately died from being gay, Irish, or whatever else pushed him to the margins of what Mail readers would term ‘decent society’.
Police in Majorca says there were “no signs of suspicious circumstances”.
Which brings us to the Sun’s front-page headline:
“I FOUND STEPHEN PALE AND COLD.”
Well, he can’t get on with everybody, nor be orangey-brown as the Simon Cowell pop factory paints its uniform acts.
It’s turns out that a Georgi Dochev says Gately was pale and cold when he had died. The singer was “very cold and white“.
As front page shockers go, news that a dead body was cold is right up with news that Katie Price sleeps on her back, the Pope has a balcony and the BNP is not keen on immigrants.
But here’s Dochev to deliver his “I was there” moment:
“I almost have not slept since this happened. I found Stephen dead and I woke his husband. I am still nervous and really upset.”
He tells the Sun. As for the background story:
Mr Dochev is believed to have accompanied Gately and his partner, Andrew Cowles, back to the apartment in the resort of Port Andratx in the early hours of Saturday. He confirmed he had spoken to police who are investigating the death.
The tabloids chip away. But there appears to be a quiet dignity surrounding Gately’s death. His former Boyzone bandmates Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch flew out to the scene to pay their respects.
A spokesman tells us:
“All the boys are home now. They went there to pay their respects and start dealing with the fall-out of the situation. However, it’s clear that them being there at the moment is bringing a lot more attention to the situation.”
So they left. They did not announce a comeback your, call for an urgent investigation, speculate on Gately’s state of mind, talk to the media nor grandstand and make themselves the centre of attention. They came. They saw. They left.
It’s more than the media can handle…
The Media Destroys Stephen Gately With Drugs And Suicide
Stephen Gately - a life in pictures…
Posted: 13th, October 2009 | In: Celebrities, Key Posts Comments (5) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
Comments
October 17th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
You know that the Jan Moir’s of this world are just waiting for a reason to say ‘gay civl unions don’t work!’, completely disregarding the fact that the vast majority of divorces, cheatings leading to divorce and separations are among the heterosexual community, by default. But because it’s so accepted, it goes by ho hum unnoticed.
October 17th, 2009 at 11:46 am
I think the way the Daily Mail has covered this “story” is disgusting. I personally don’t think anything sinister or ’sleasy’ has gone on. This was just a young man who passed away tragically. I have created a memorial to Stephen at Friends At Rest (it is a similar site to one that Patrick mentioned in that it allows people to pay their respects to people who can’t make it to the funeral.)
The memorial is http://www.friendsatrest.com/memorials/stephen-gately/
I hope that the service today will draw a line under this terrible incident and allow Stephen Gately’s friends and colleagues to get on with their life. I also this signals the newspapers to truly let him rest in peace.
October 15th, 2009 at 6:42 pm
***A spokesman tells us:
“All the boys are home now. They went there to pay their respects and start dealing with the fall-out of the situation. However, it’s clear that them being there at the moment is bringing a lot more attention to the situation.”***
Was it not VERY obvious to anybody with half an ounce of sense that going out there in the first place would result in it “bringing a lot more attention to the situation”? You don’t jump on the bandwagon and then congratulate yourself for getting off it.
October 13th, 2009 at 10:30 pm
I think that speculation as to the cause of Stephen Gately’s death is inevitable. Whilst much of this is salacious and prurient, the fact remains that a seemingly fit and healthy thirty one year old has passed away. Statistically, under these circumstances, the cause of death is as likely to be due to drugs or foul play as it is to natural causes. Notwithstanding this, the best course of action is surely to say nothing until we have the coroner’s report.
October 13th, 2009 at 8:34 am
The Lasting Tribute website has updated its memorial pages to include Stephen Gately.
http://www.lastingtribute.co.uk/tribute/gately/3165224
It’s a respectful memorial and somewhere to pay tribute to the band’s and his family’s fortitude at this difficult time.
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