Waiting for Toothy, Not JakeWatch

In August, 2008 the Association for the Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) sponsored a conference in Denver, Colorado entitled “Difficult Dialogues: Theatre and the Art of Engagement”. During the segment “Dishy Dialogue: Gossip, Gender and Performance”, a paper exploring certain avenues of gay-oriented gossip on the internet was presented by Frank Miller of Georgia State University, entitled “I Dish, Therefore I Am: Performing Toothy Tile and Ted Casablanca”. It is available to read here.

A false assumption was made in Dr. Miller’s paper which I would like to correct. In “I Dish”, he lumps the fanblog JakeWatch! in with Waiting for Toothy as being two of a kind. Waiting for Toothy (begun by a woman in Columbus, Ohio who currently wishes to distance herself from the fan world) went defunct late in 2007—its archives are now private—and replaced in January 2008 by a WFT fan who called the new blog Waiting for Toothy, Part 2. A spinoff blog in the same vein, Oh My Godot, has been in existence since August, 2007. These three fanblogs are pointed to on the hotlinks page ToothyTile.com.

However, JakeWatch, from its inception early in 2006, was never intended to be anything but a fanblog to be enjoyed by both sexes, although its main audience has been heterosexual women of all ages. Its main objective was to appreciate the good looks and acting career of Jake Gyllenhaal. One steadfast rule they maintained from almost the beginning: There was to be absolutely no discussion about Jake’s sexual relationships. This rule was constantly breached by cross-posters from Waiting for Toothy (the comments sections of both blogs always remained open to anonymous postings) and was the deciding factor in JakeWatch becoming inactive in late 2007; although closed to comments, its online archives are still accessible. (“The Dastardly Uncle Jack Nasty”, a hilarious account of life in Jake fandom written by the co-administrator of JakeWatch, can be found in the Summer issue of my literary quarterly, Cantaraville, which can be read here.)

What differentiates the Toothy Tile blogs from other, more conventional fanblogs like JakeWatch is the sexual innuendo encouraged by them. For in the world of Waiting for Toothy, Waiting for Toothy 2 and Oh My Godot, their object of interest, Jake, appears to be a closeted gay. Further, in Oh My Godot, the actor Austin Nichols also appears to be a closeted gay, and it is speculated that he and Jake have been a secret couple in Hollywood for some years. Other subjects, and actors, are discussed at the Toothy Tile blogs, but the sexual orientation of these two and their possible romantic connection are the most prevalent. It is these particular idees fixes which have made it extremely difficult for the Toothy Tile blogs to be integrated into mainstream Jake fandom—but then again, I doubt that this is their intention.

For the uninitiated, let me explain: These fanciful speculations were inspired by a pseudonymous character who, since 2005, has made several appearances in the gossip columns of Ted Casablanca, E! Online’s reporter. The character is named Toothy Tile, and while Casablanca has stated over and over again that he will never reveal Toothy’s true identity, he does drop a good number of clues for his readers to interpret as they wish. Jake is not the only candidate for Toothy Tile. But there’s a significant part of Jake fandom willing to believe that this is so, and will roundly defend this idea in whichever fanblog they’re allowed to voice it in, no matter what the dominant subject of that fanblog might be. This has invariably led to confusion, misunderstandings and quite a lot of name-calling.

To lay it at Ted Casablanca’s door would be to miss the point. There will always be a part of the internet audience that indulges in idle gossip. It’s when passions run high in justifying unjustifiable speculation, that mischief begins.

From http://cantarasnotebook.blogspot.com