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Sunday, February 21, 1999 By Barbara Cloud. Post-Gazette Columnist
There are times when we pick up on the end of a conversation and totally misinterpret what we "think" we heard
Then we repeat the bit we heard.
We start a rumor.
There's a rumor making the rounds, this one concerning racist remarks supposedly made by Tommy Hilfiger while he was a guest on Oprah Winfrey's show.
It never happened.
He was never on the show, plain and simple.
It doesn't seem to matter.
We persist. I don't know if we persist innocently or with purpose. I like to think we do it innocently.
We like juicy gossip. We like to repeat it even though it can be dangerous and hurtful. It's like the jokes that spread like wildfire within hours of a particularly juicy subject making news.
They're telling the same Monica or O.J. jokes in Philadelphia and Des Moines at precisely the same time. It's amazing.
The Hilfiger rumor reminded me of the Liz Claiborne rumor that was hot and heavy several years ago.
I received a phone call at my desk when I covered fashion for The Pittsburgh Press. The woman related the story about the powerhouse designer, who, oddly enough, was also a guest on Oprah.
People saw her. People heard her.
Claiborne announced she belonged to a cult of some kind. The money the Claiborne firm made went to this cult.
Then my phone began to ring.
Did I know about it? Would I look into it? Would I write a story telling people not to buy anything with a Claiborne label?
I did look into it, and this is what I found out: Claiborne, like Hilfiger, never appeared as a guest on the show.
I had called both Claiborne and Winfrey, and they vehemently denied the circulating rumor. I wrote about it. I thought it would be put to rest. Certain rumors, however, refuse to die.
The Claiborne rumor popped up again a year or two after the first incident. Again, someone called me to make sure I knew about it and to suggest I never use any pictures of Claiborne merchandise.
I asked the "informant" where she heard the big news. Well, she hadn't been watching, but the sister of her neighbor's cousin-once-removed heard it from so-and-so, who had gotten wind of it from the baby just born to her aunt on her father's side in Indonesia.
I exaggerate.
The revelation, swore the caller, was made on the Oprah show.
"Liz Claiborne has never been on our show," said Oprah's spokesperson. And the Claiborne front office was just as adamant.
It's the same story with Hilfiger. Winfrey has announced twice on air that the incident never happened.
Rumors do start with misinformation, and then they take on a life of their own.
Pittsburgh has its fair share of oft-heard tales.
I have heard two recurring rumors during the 40-plus years I have lived here, both involving TV personalities. They seem to resurface every few years.
There is no truth to either rumor, but they persist.
Deep down, aren't you dying to know what they are? That seems to be human nature.
I've had a few rumors circulate about me.
When I was in junior high school, a rumor was making the rounds. If you could have a baby by holding hands and dancing too close to "Moonlight Serenade," the rumor might have had wings. I did do those things. But the rumor didn't fly.
Eventually the young girl who started the rumor broke down and cried when confronted. She simply liked the same boy I did. She was jealous. We survived.
After I started to work in Pittsburgh in 1957, a rumor started that I was dating Don Hoak, a popular Pittsburgh Pirate.
OK, he was a hunk.
We were "seen" together. Sure.
I sensed people looking at me with newfound admiration. The rumor grew, and we became engaged.
I am here to tell you neither rumor was true.
Darn it.
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