Auntie is very, very disappointed in the behaviour of some social-savvy stars and now the BBC plan to slap a tweet ban on gobby celebs who can’t keep telly secrets schtum.
Senior Beeb execs are reportedly in talks to incorporate the gagging order into employee contracts, preventing Twitter chat regarding unaired TV shows. Stopping name stars from blurting out top secret soap twists or revealing chat show guests to their legions of fans and followers. The latter is worth noting down by posh pop totty Sophie Ellis Bextor – who openly tweeted about her involvement in Ricky Gervais’ yet-unseen Life’s Too Short show, appearing alongside the singer Sting.
This and a number of other announcements have been revealed unofficially, through loose lipped (or fingered) celebs – using their 140 characters or less – ahead of time, much to the upset of the BBC tog dogs. With a high profile BBC Vision exec saying “A random tweet can rob an artist of his or her potentially much louder fanfare.”
“There’s no doubt that Twitter is a popular communications phenomenon but it can also be quite disruptive if artists tweet about an appearance on a show or announce a new commission before the broadcaster is ready to go with the story.” The unnamed exec continues.
The Beeb already employs guidelines as to what is and isn’t acceptable conduct for employees involved in the social networking realm – and there is a lot. Think of any celeb and you’ll probably find them on Twitter. The current guideline is set to protect the “star” and the BBC as a company from harmful publicity when the name posts from a personal social account. But when this becomes contractual agreement it’ll mean a lot more than a slapped wrist for leaking a future plot.
We’d predict a number of stars will be tweeting of their own demise once the order is in place. More deaths in the Square? Let’s hope so..
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