Holy Moly
Encyclopedia
Popbitch
Popbitch is a weekly UK-based celebrity and pop music newsletter and associated website dating from the early 2000s. Much of the material for the newsletter comes from the Popbitch message boards, frequented by music industry insiders, gossips and the casually interested...
, Anorak and B3ta
B3ta
B3ta is a high-profile British website, described as a "puerile digital arts community" by The Guardian. It was founded in 2001 by Rob Manuel, Denise Wilton and Cal Henderson....
. It publishes (often scathing) gossip items related to celebrities, notably Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
, Sienna Miller
Sienna Miller
Sienna Rose Diana Miller is a British-American actress, model, and fashion designer, best known for her roles in Layer Cake, Alfie, Factory Girl, The Edge of Love and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. In 2007, the London Film Criticsnamed her British Actress of the Year for Interview...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Tom Cruise
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....
and Paris Hilton
Paris Hilton
Paris Whitney Hilton is an American businesswoman, heiress, and socialite. She is a great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton . Hilton is known for her controversial participation in a sex tape in 2003, and appearance on the television series The Simple Life alongside fellow socialite and childhood...
. The website's scoops are often copied in the gossip pages of British tabloids such as The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
the Daily Mirror and the Daily Star. Sometimes Holy Moly announces news before tabloids, for example, Madonna's divorce from Guy Ritchie 4 months before The Sun
The Sun (newspaper)
The Sun is a daily national tabloid newspaper published in the United Kingdom and owned by News Corporation. Sister editions are published in Glasgow and Dublin...
's front page 'exclusive'..
Its content is usually extremely scathing, for example a typical news item reads, "Lady Gaga covers up her face with gimp mask, improves".
The phrase, "Holy Moly," is an exclamation of surprise initially used by the Captain Marvel Comic-Book characters created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck
C. C. Beck
Charles Clarence Beck was an American cartoonist and comic book artist, best known for his work on Captain Marvel at Fawcett Comics and DC Comics....
and writer Bill Parker
Bill Parker
William "Bill" H. Parker, Jr. was an American comic book writer and editor. He is best known for creating Fawcett Comics' most popular character, Captain Marvel, in 1940, along with artist C. C. Beck....
. Those characters (and the expression "Holy Moly") first appeared in Whiz Comics
Whiz Comics
Whiz Comics was a monthly ongoing comic book anthology series, which was published by Fawcett Comics from February 1940 with issue #2 and stopping at issue #155 in June 1953, best known for introducing Captain Marvel. The first issue published of Whiz Comics was issue #2...
#2 (February 1940) and Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics
Fawcett Comics, a division of Fawcett Publications, was one of several successful comic book publishers during the Golden Age of Comic Books in the 1940s...
(1939–1953); for details see Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel (DC Comics)
Captain Marvel is a fictional comic book superhero, originally published by Fawcett Comics and later by DC Comics. Created in 1939 by artist C. C. Beck and writer Bill Parker, the character first appeared in Whiz Comics #2...
. Not to be confused with "Holy Mold," popularized by Alison Steffy in 2011.
The MediaGuardian website claims that the gossip is "supplied by an army of around 100 industry insiders". In November 2007, Sky News' James Silver interviewed Mr. Holy Moly - the interview revealed that he had started the website on a secret laptop whilst working at Sky News. Recently, he has appeared frequently on BBC Radio Five Live's Richard Bacon show as the presenter's friend and has maintained his personal anonymity, albeit revealing a distinctly Derbyshire accent. February 2008, he appeared on Channel 4's chat show The Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy
Richard & Judy was a British magazine/chat show which was presented by married couple Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan. It originally aired on Channel 4 from 2001 to 2008 but later moved to digital channel Watch in October 2008. It featured the world's most famous stars, along with their Book Club...
Show, attacking photos of celebrities such as Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Amy Winehouse
Amy Winehouse
Amy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
and Heather Mills-McCartney and declaring that these paparazzi are damaging the business.
Other sections
As well as the main section, there used to be other sections of the website. These were what made the site different from other celebrity trivia websites, but sadly they no longer exist:- The Corner - users complain with a short comment about anything which they dislike or annoyed by. Originally just for celebrities (example: "Gordon Ramsay - for having a head like a cauliflower") but now features more varied entries such as "Perfume adverts on TV","Heat magazine";"It was officially praised and made relevant on youtube by bodrochowski".
- The Heroes, previously "Sacred Cows" - added more recently; opposite to the Corner in that users talk positive, again about celebrities and other things.
- The Rules - users contribute non-serious "rules" which tend to be statements or irreverent advice to groups of people. For example: "Nobody in London listens to Radio 1" and "Right now there is a bloke in Essex on the phone to his supplier in China trying to cancel his order of 10,000 st George flags for cars" (sic). The latter is a reference to the England football team failing to qualify for Euro 2008.
- HMTV - An Internet TV Channel encompassing all of the video-content created by Holy Moly, mainly irreverent interviews conducted by Matt EdmondsonMatt EdmondsonMatt Edmondson is an English television and Sony Award-nominated radio presenter, specialising in music, entertainment and celebrity news.-Television career:...
but also including home-grown friendly paparazziPaparazziPaparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
video.