English Version | Gossip: Backstage

What happens in Vogue Portugal, doesn't stay in Vogue Portugal. Here's your all access pass to the backstage of the Gossip issue. 

Word on the street

I mean, it's not quite the street, it's more on the book Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language (1996), by the evolutionary anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who argues that the evolution of language, which includes a phase dedicated to gossip, was born from the act of social grooming, that is, picking lice among monkeys. According to the author, the socialization provided by gossip in humans is similar to the social bond triggered by this practice among primates, explaining that it allows individuals to take care of their relationships and maintain their alliances in a “if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” kind of thing. Robin Dunbar's argument states that the increase of the social circle, which made this care practice unfeasible, exchanged social grooming for vocal grooming. That is, instead of using your hands to take care of one ally at a time, you start using sound, which reaches a greater number of peers. The theory has garnered and does garner its dose of criticism, but his hypothesis seems to be supported by the fact that the structure of language appears to fit the function of narration in general. The importance of gossip in today's societies is indisputable, an idea explored in You didn't hear it from me, but....

Rumour has it…

There are rumors going around harder to believe than others. Some in such a way that they can't even be considered rumors, just jokes or memes. Others as unbelievable as interesting that we almost wish they were real. For example, that there are alligators living in the sewers of New York, an urban myth that dates back to the 20s or 30s of the 20th century and that supposedly some inhabitants brought back from Florida as a souvenir, but then flushed them down the toilet when they started to get bigger. The rest is just imagining the ecosystem working… only it wouldn't work: alligators are animals from warm climates and would not survive the New York winter. Besides, everyone knows that in the sewers of New York there are only turtles who are ninjas and who live with a black belt rat. Another rumour says that Albert Einstein failed his math test - a great rumor to use when you want to underestimate bad grades in this matter - but the physicist actually failed an aptitude test for a polytechnic institute (whose math section Einstein passed with distinction - the rest not so much). Actually, our friend Albert was not yet 15 and already had a master's degree in integral and differential calculus. In a more recent rumor, there are those who argue that Beyoncé is Solange Knowles' mother and not sister. The gossip starts with the singer's age, implying that the artist was born in 1974 and not in '81, so she was 13 when she gave birth to Solange, later raised by Beyoncé's parents as a daughter and not as a granddaughter. And if you believe this rumor, you also have to believe that Beyoncé is already a grandmother... errr.

True or false?

We also know how to do gossip in a good and bad way. In the list that follows there is hear-say, but some bullet points are true. Can you identify which ones? 1. Our offices have a number of collectible figures, including two Pinocchios and a Cricket who are very happy to see us (and it's not a banana they have in their pocket). 2. The editor in Chief of Vogue Portugal, Sofia Lucas, is also Superwoman. No one has ever seen them both in the same place at the same time. 3. One of the team members has a snake as a pet. 4. The editor in chief of GQ, José Santana, has a Spanish background and is always quoting Castilian proverbs that no one can remember afterwards. Ay, madre! 5. LightHouse Publishing has had team members with famous affiliations. A journalist being the daughter of a famous football player and a video editor brother of a renowned Portuguese musician. 6. Lenny Kravitz stopped by in August and had a coffee with us. 7. We once had a disco in our office. 8. We have a speakeasy in the basement. The password is justkidding. 9. We have two André Saraiva graffiti in our space. One of them is in the toilet. 10. There's a pregnant person in the newsroom. But the bosses don't know it yet.

Did you know…

Fleetwood Mac have an album titled Rumours? It's not gossip, it's even a well-known fact, but perhaps less known are these fun facts about this album. For example, Rumours is the result of everyone in the band breaking up at the same time, so the record is essentially a breakup masterpiece. It's also the source of the hit Dreams, written exclusively by Stevie Nicks - she says she wrote the song in 10 minutes while she was in Sly Stone's bed (well, a bed made for the singer, in the studio where Rumours was recorded, it's not at all what you're thinking... that's how the rumours start...). Rumours had unbelievable production costs - if it were today, the value would be in the realm of almost 5 million dollars, an insane amount for a record company. And it is said that a (large) part of the costs went to drugs - the gossip is that the consumption of cocaine in the production of this record became legendary, although the dealer did not get a mention in the thank you notess. Although Mick Fleetwood felt he should, he confessed in Fleetwood's memoir: My Life and Adventures in Fleetwood Mac (1990), among other stories. A funny story is the one behind the balls hanging between Mick's legs on the album cover: they are actually toilet chains stolen from a bar where the band played in the beginning. Interestingly, in Rumours there is a song called I Don't Want to Know - which Fleetwood Mac have never played live. Notwithstanding the album's success: the original work won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1977.

Translated from the original on The Gossip Issue of Vogue Portugal.Full credits and stories on the print issue.