From Gawker:
Has anything the celebrity family of Jett Travolta said about the teenager been the unvarnished truth? If so, we missed it. Even the publicity photos of Jett they sent out after his death are Photoshopped.
The constantly changing versions of the events surrounding Jett’s death have gripped the public’s imagination because it is so congruent with the story of his father’s life. John Travolta would have us believe that he is normal; that he is not a member of a crazy cult; and that he is straight. At least two of those things are false.
The details are sufficiently creepy to warrant the time it takes to read them (the nanny that found the unconscious son is the same man previously caught in an intimate kiss with the father), and the Photoshop show-n-tell (go here, scroll down) is damning, especially since they’re fucking with such a seriously gorgeous father-and-son photo. (Really, I’ve never seen Travolta look so at ease in a personal photo.)
Complete Gawker skinny here.
A PUBLICITY PHOTO is PHOTOSHOPPED? How can this be?
John Travolta isn’t public property. If he doesn’t want to tell you what’s going on in his personal life, he doesn’t have to. We have no right to “the unvarnished truth”. I’m sure he’s got lots of personal photos in his albums that are unvarnished, but WE DON’T HAVE A RIGHT TO SEE THEM.
@1, Bravo. Well said.
Running for or holding public office? Full disclosure is necessary. But this guy is an ACTOR. He gets to have a private life. His religion/son’s disability/sex life is no more our business than details about your life that you wish to keep private, Schmader.
He can choose to say nothing. To say something, and lie, is worthy of comment.
#1 hit the nail on the head. And who gives a fuck? Kids die every day.
Re: morality of discussing all this: Does the fact that the weirdly Photoshopped photo was ostentatiously released to the media by the family matter?
Is there a clause in the Bill of Rights allowing Entertainment Tonight and Gawker full access to grieving celebrities? If there isn’t, then we should all butt the fuck out. Travolta’s son just died, for crissakes.
this is a tragedy, this young boy’s death, and his family is no doubt grieving, but it would seem the tragedy goes further back, prior to this boy’s existence even. if we didn’t live in a world where homosexuality was vilified and people could be who they are and love who they please, then maybe this wouldn’t have ever happened. john travolta’s self hatred/denial and his involvement with the church of scientology are responsible for the life he has chosen and ultimately for the death of his son.
Thank god they saved him from unnecessary medications, though!
of course we don’t have a ‘right’ to any of this. having a free media is just a privelege. but the fact remains that a family with unlimited resources may have denied their son potentially life-improving or life-saving medical attention, instead choosing to spend those unlimited resources covering their own tracks. travolta’s and preston’s privacy seems like a small price to pay if another tragedy like this can be averted.
Touched up family photos just means they are a vain Hollywood family. Nothing new there.
But really, Fnarf nails it again, who cares?
brandon, you can’t “avert” people away from their scientology or christian science any more than you can talk people like sarah palin out of being xtain nutbags. tragedies like this have always happened, will always happen. we can only gawk from the sidelines of sanity.
As for the kiss between John and the photographer, it looks weird but it’s probably innocent. I’ve seen friends’ families where kissing is more intimate than I’m comfortable with. I don’t kiss my parents on the lips, but I have friends who do. I’ve also seen some people insist on hugging and kissing straight adults of the same gender. It may make you uncomfortable, but evidently the photographer/nanny didn’t feel that way. Doesn’t make either of them gay.
ellarosa, yes you can. not every scientologist, nor every potential scientologist, is completely irrational. i’m not sure what the legal recourse is here regarding parents witholding medical treatment on account of religious beliefs, but it’s not much of a stretch to consider this child abuse. fact is we’ll probably never know the truth. but that doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t ask questions.
Brandon, your justification for asking questions in the first place is nothing more than baseless speculation on Travolta’s religion and the nature of his son’s illness. You’re acting like there’s proof of wrongdoing to be found, but the truth is that you have absolutely no idea, and neither do any of us here. Speculate all you want, but just because you imagine a scenario in which they denied medical care to their child doesn’t mean it’s true, and it doesn’t justify infringing on their privacy.
Now, if law enforcement gets some kind of credible information indicating misconduct, then they would be justified in invading the family’s privacy, but that’s really the only case where that would be justified.
@14 usually parents are allowed to withhold treatment on their child’s behalf, and there’s not much the medical professionals or legal community can do about. As a child’s guardian, it’s their decision. It is generally assume that parents have the best interests of the child at heart and know the most about their history—medically, spiritually, ethically. If something a parent decides clearly endangers a child, the hospital can obtain a court order to try to go against the parents’ decision, but it is rare that that would happen.
and @1, well said! bravo!
sorry, hernandez, but there is nothing baseless about this speculation. scientologists are quite vocal in their disavowal of modern medicine, and jett’s diagnosis was considered an open secret for years before his death. i never said there is conclusive proof, in fact i said the exact opposite — we will never know the truth, but that doesn’t mean people should be shamed for asking questions.
I’ve been out of it for over a week (travel, mostly) and only saw the headline that Travolta’s son had died. I had no clue that there was all this craziness around the death. Huh.
@12, please don’t lump Christian Scientists in with Scientologists. They’re nothing alike, and only extreme weirdos within the religion avoid medication at all costs as though it is ‘sinful’.
I grew up Christian Scientist, and my parents are both currently in the church. I’m an athiest, and my mother doesn’t even believe in a sentient god (she gave Sunday sermons for years and found no conflict with this belief and what she spoke), and I suspect my father doesn’t either.
Nor do they believe in an afterlife. From my experience, it’s the least harmful variety of Christianity and is unworthy of being lumped in with Scientology, or even Christianity for that matter, considering that positions like theirs are not only tolerated within the church, but treated as subjects worthy of thought and discussion.
I agree 100% with #1, and everyone else here that said none of this is any of our business.
I also wanted to point out that I don’t think I’ve printed or posted a single photo of myself that i haven’t photoshopped in some way since the mid-90’s. Maybe that makes me vain, or maybe that makes the people who don’t lazy or not very good with photoshop. What it doesn’t make me is suspect for child abuse.
Photographs add pounds, they add shadows in funky places, they add wrinkles that aren’t even there. The idea that there’s anything whatsoever wrong with tidying up a shot is utterly insane. If I take a picture at a party with my friends, before I send it out I check to make sure everyone looks they way they like to appear, and if they don’t, I’ll photoshop. Is it more honest to send 5 friends a picture where the lighting makes one of them look heavier than she is? Is it less “creepy” to share a picture one of the 5 won’t want to put on her desk, that won’t be a happy reminder of the fun time we had? To hell with that. Before there was photoshop, actors & photographers did the exact same things in darkrooms that we’re doing on our machines now, only crabby bloggers didn’t have the technical knowledge to point it out and wail about the dishonesty of it all. Grow. Up.
Jesus, Gawker’s a pack of assholes. Who fucking cares– a family just lost a son and brother, regardless of their whackjob beliefs. Leave them alone and let them grieve, even if it means releasing photos that are supposedly photoshopped– firm jawline or not, that picture is incredibly intimate and well-done.
“Jesus, Gawker’s a pack of assholes. Who fucking cares– a family just lost a son and brother, regardless of their whackjob beliefs. “
The mother is VERY active in rallies where they demand parents take children off ALL psychiatric drugs, even those who treat epilepsy.
She did not provide these drugs to her child, lied about consulting with a doctor about such, and her kid died of a seizure.
Scientologists believe and preach that *all* people involved with the mental health field, psychiatrists, researchers, academics, and neurologists who fail to accept L Ron’s religion will be enslaved or murdered when they take power and enact a new mental health science.
It’s very sad, but offers the opportunity to bring these facts up.
Who gives a fuck about a deadly cult, right? Oh right, cuz it’s deadly.