Thin Line Between News and Entertainment

Wednesday, 11 August 2010 | by Pat's Picks

The thin line between news and entertainment got razor sharp this morning. Seizing on the public’s affection for Steven Slater, the Jetblue employee who took to the PA system to spout obscenities before grabbing some beers and deplaning via the emergency exit, a young woman decided to announce her resignation to colleagues with a series of hilarious photos.

Her boss had been giving her a hard time so she decided to return the favor. In a chain of white board messages, she outed him for calling her a HOPA (short for Hot Piece of Ass). The only problem? The whole thing was a hoax. A really convincing one that, I must admit, caught our attention at Pat’s Papers. Within minutes of tweeting the story, I was inundated with responses pointing out that the post was indeed a hoax.

Tech Crunch identified “Jenny DryErase” as an aspiring actress named Elyse Porterfield. Apparently, she responded to this ad posted by TheChive.com and was paid $400 for a day’s work. Now the jig seems to be officially up. “Jenny” just posted another series of photos on The Chive introducing herself and explaining the prank.

Let’s bask in the irony of the 24-hour news cycle, shall we? A hoax based on a legitimate news story that sounded like a hoax actually turned in a legitimate news story. The lesson learned seems to be one personified by Ms. Porterfield: In this day and age, learning to walk the tightrope between news and entertainment will not only get you a job, it will situate you high on Google’s most searched list—a position, I imagine, that any aspiring actress would covet.