Everything We Know About Australia’s Controversial Anonymous Gossip Page, Celeb Spellcheck
As a self-proclaimed gossip lover, I was obviously hooked when Gossip Girl was on the air.
Unfortunately for me, no one at my high school wanted to make my dream of a real-life Dan Humphrey moment a reality, so I was left without the drama of a mysterious gossip curator.
So you can imagine, in lockdown last year, my excitement when Celeb Spellcheck burst onto the scene.
The TL;DR On Celeb Spellcheck
Following in the footsteps of the show, the Instagram account is run by an anonymous Melbourne local, who’s set their sights on Aussie and international influencers.
For those of us who enjoy influencer drama – which let’s be honest, is a lot of us – the anonymous account was a welcome distraction from the world outside.
Skyrocketing from 13k followers in 2019 and now sitting at 142k, the account has become a hub for pointing out questionably photoshopped pictures and misspelt captions.
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From Lily Brown’s earrings literally bending the wall behind her to Bec Judd allegedly dropping off gifted clothing at her local op shop, I think the account makes influencers more relatable. After all, who among us can say they haven’t done some tipsy Facetuning?
OK, but who is it?
If you want to join in on the speculations so far, the most common theories stem from a Sydney Morning Herald article. As reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, a dinner organised by Piper-Heidsieck was dominated by talks of the mystery person’s identity and the rumours began that the person behind the account ran in the same social circles as the influencers they were reporting on.
It was thought that there might be more than one person running the account: two publicists from the Mornington area, one of which is dating a former AFL player and another who is friends with a past Australia’s Next Top Model contestant. It makes sense for them to be in the Melbourne socialite circle, but the account shut these rumours down in a statement to the Daily Mail.
In a series of Q&A’s, Celeb Spellcheck said they work in PR in Melbourne and they’re a Sagittarius, which to any keen zodiac enthusiast, obviously fits the bill.
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Did Celeb Spellcheck cross a line?
With more fame comes more scrutiny, and the mystery Melbournian now has plenty of influencers ready to unmask the person behind the posts. Perhaps these famous figures are after them because of a few on the edge posts about their personal lives, as well as TMZ-style plastic surgery speculations. These posts have been archived or deleted, with Celeb Spellcheck stating, “I have definitely posted things in the past that I am not proud of, but I do try to never cross the line.”
With recent coverage around the media’s mistreatment of stars like Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes, it seems fair that many are calling the account out for potentially doing the same to the Insta-famous.
Then Celeb Spellcheck went ghost. They insisted there was no lawsuit and told loyal followers it was the moderating of comments and more pressure on deciding what to post that was the catalyst for the pause on the account.
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Laura Byrne and Brittany Hockley from the Life Uncut podcast said the account went from holding influencers accountable for breaking Covid restrictions to uploading videos that could get celebs into legal trouble and encouraging trolls.
One of Celeb Spellcheck’s last videos before they went on a hiatus and archived their material featured a former Bachelor star Laurina Fleure snorting white powder at an intimate party which led to Fleure saying she felt “sick” and “humiliated”. Bec Judd was also caught up in Celeb Spellcheck controversy after promoting a fellow WAGs new loungewear set, only for the tracksuit to end up at a nearby Salvos, sparking speculation that Judd discarded the set soon after promoting it.
Both the posts on Fleure and Judd sparked bad press for the Instagram account, with the likes of Ruby Tuesday Matthews and Keira Maguire calling out the page for bullying and “encouraging hate”.
Will Celeb Spellcheck ever come clean?
Since this article was first written, Celeb Spellcheck has returned to Instagram with a few new posts calling out both Aussie and international influencers, focusing again on harmless gaffes and spelling errors.
With all eyes on them, perhaps they will be revealed. As more and more influencers are pointing out, it’s easy to put them all on show for their mistakes, but there are no real consequences for Celeb Spellcheck personally. And everyone’s favourite duo Zara McDonald and Michelle Andrews of Shameless have speculated that putting a face to the name could open Celeb Spellcheck up to defamation lawsuits for their more explosive posts.
Celeb Spellcheck could also come clean themselves, as they had once posted that they had “thought about eventually doing an identity reveal via payment and partnering with a charity.”
So, could it be Jeanine from your office’s PR division or maybe an influencer getting revenge on fellow celebs? Is it me? Is it Dan Humphrey again?
If you’re like me and can’t wait to find out who the mystery person or people are, with no indication of when the big reveal will be, it’s safe to say we might be left speculating for a while.