Well, hello there... Yes, yet another journo takes to Substack!

Introducing moi - a 50+ gay entertainment writer with many a tale to tell...

An introduction…

It was during the Christmas period of 2023 that I decided that I wanted to start documenting my day-to-day life and thoughts.

Eight months had drifted by since I’d turned the big 5-0 and I was feeling a little lost at sea. My mind was foggy and I didn’t feel like I was in control of what was happening in my life. I knew I needed to focus and be as pro-active and as ambitious as I had once been when I was a young whippersnapper. I felt like I’d been coasting for sometime and that now at 50 it was time for me to restart my engine.

After a minor pre-festive meltdown, I decided it might help to finally unload the tornado of thoughts that were whooshing around in my head and also – not to sound like one of those life-sucking narcissists who lurk on Tik Tok - reflect – not overshare - upon my own personal life and once-thriving career in showbiz journalism to help me regain a grip on life.

At the same time, I had also been toying with the idea of writing a memoir about my wild career in magazines.

While I’m fully aware I’m not a household name like, say, Piers Morgan, I have had the fortune to work at some very high profile titles over the years and felt I had enough compelling stories to share about the brilliant and not-so-brilliant people I’d met along the way, the amazing and sometimes heart-breaking high-profile interviews I’d conducted and the insane - and usually booze-fuelled - showbiz adventures I’d experienced.

However, knowing full well I’m not a celebrated writer like Caitlyn Moran or Elizabeth Day, I anticipated that a publisher might not think my stories worthy of a publishable tome, so thought I should find some other way of telling those stories myself.

And so here I am. On Substack. Late to the game, but hey, better late than never, right?

If I’m honest, I didn’t really know much about Substack at Christmas. I’d heard about it in passing but didn’t really understand what it actually was. It was only after former Glamour editor Jo Elvin mentioned her own very brilliant newsletter on the Lorraine show that I finally discovered this wonderful world where people get to write what they want and potentially entertain people in the process.

And so now I am launching Admissions Of Guiltenane (get it?), which I hope will be a witty, insightful and downright cheeky bi-weekly newsletter in which I will gaily reminisce about my mad old days in showbiz journalism, unload my messy thoughts about being a 50+ gay man in the 2020s and share gigglesome stories about what’s going on in my life.

While some of you may find this slew of mind burps and memory parps relatively amusing, I am primarily doing this for me. I don’t really care if you like or dislike what I write. This is my way of unloading the madness that is bouncing around in my head. It’s my way of making sense of any bumps in the road without bottling them up and waiting for them to explode.

And believe me, I say this from experience.

So who the hell am I, I hear you ask?

To most of you reading this, I’m just an ordinary guy next door, someone you’ve probably never heard of, but may have walked passed in the street without a second glance. However, there’s also a chance you may have come across me without even realising it. By that I mean, you may have read a showbiz story or a compelling celebrity memoir that I had a hand in.

I am an entertainment journalist, magazine editor and celebrity ghostwriter / biographer and have been working my ass off for the past 26 years! My, where did the time go?

While showbiz has primarily been my bread and butter – I wouldn’t know where to start if I was asked to write about business shenanigans or politics - I have also spent many years working on more heart-warming, life-affirming titles like Attitude magazine. So I am, as they say in the gay world, versatile.

However, it is my time on showbiz titles like OK!, Now! and various others that people always ask about and I have to admit it is the period of time that offers up the most madcap memories. I’ve written or organised many of the world’s most talked about celebrity stories. I attended the lavish, high-profile weddings of Cheryl Cole (her first one), Mel B (her second one), and tragic Jade Goody (her first and only one). I’ve interviewed many of the world’s biggest stars like Sharon Stone, Liam Payne, the Spice Girls, Madonna, Take That, Kylie Minogue and the Fast Food Rockers, and helped up-and-coming stars take their first step on that great golden ladder to stardom.  

Away from the glittering world of showbiz, my slightly more respectable roles on titles like Attitude and a teen gay website GuysLikeU that I founded myself, saw me endeavour to help young people navigate their way through life. I’m at pains to add, that my intention was never to become a worthy spokesperson for a generation - like those dreadfully transparent virtue-signalling wannabe activists who clog up my Insta feed. I mean, who am I ever to assume that role? I wouldn’t have the arrogance! I was merely writing about things that I myself had desperately wanted to read when I was an awkward closeted gay young fella with three haircuts on one head.

That said, over the seven years the site was live, it made headlines and was visited millions of times. Not bad for a one-man-band that posted two or three stories every other day. You see, I didn’t do it for money - I didn’t monetise the site - or the fame. I did it because I enjoyed doing it and as a bonus, it made other people feel better about themselves.

So all-in-all, I’ve had a dream career. But it hasn’t always been an easy ride. Far from it, in fact.

Along the way, I’ve come across people who made life a lot harder than it had to be. People who were tyrants, people who were backstabbing, people who felt so threatened by my enthusiasm and love for what I did that they had to sabotage me. Years down the line, I have forgiven them.

I now understand that sometimes we all say and do stupid things because of what’s going on in our muddled heads. I’m the first to admit, I’ve been a total tit when my mind has been unsettled. I guess it’s only natural. We lose grip of reality. It happens to us all. But, again, those stories are for another time.

Anyway, I’ve rambled on for far too long. I just wanted to say hi, and let you get to know who I am, should you feel the urge to sign in every week. And if you do, expect lots of outrageous showbiz memories, some very honest musings on life and a weekly round-up of what’s tickling my fancy in the world.

Have a nice day.

Admissions Of Guiltenane is a witty collection of incisive mind burps and madcap memory parps by a seasoned entertainment journalist and magazine editor who’s just crashed unwittingly into his reflective 50s. On Sundays and Thursdays he will share what’s going on in that noggin of his. Feel free to pop by anytime you like and if you do like it, please leave me a friendly comment below - no hate here please - and feel free to share with all your friends.