A movie where the bit-parts take centre stageNews: Justin Kallu is shot. Bigger news: girl rocks the media with faux testimony.

What’s the real news here? Those who should be centre-stage are often now relegated to waiting in the wings. And vice versa. Which sparks the thought that Tom Stoppard’s play-then-film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead was the precurser to realityTV – where we all watch the erstwhile insignificant people become the protagonists.

Lots of grandmothers across the globe have lamented the demise of the Silver Screen, stating that there are no more Fred Astaires, Frank Sinatras nor Marcello Mastrianis; so too can we lament the dearth (and death) of real news in the mass media: the long tail is wagging the dog. All those little media outlets – or weblogs, as we used to call them – are creating enough noise to get the broadsheets worked up. Or maybe the broadsheets are becoming niche players through their web coverage of events as has happened with Clare Werbeloff this week. Much to poor Justin Kallu’s dismay. Nice synopsis of the spin offs at Mumbrella. 

The shooting victim, Justin Kallu, 27, was reported on news.com as saying: “I’m just a bit upset about the fact that I’ve been shot and that I almost lost my life and there’s this girl all over the news getting popular all because she has no brains.” Ahh, bless. Will the real Justin Kallu please stand up.