"Nicole Richie, who took a beating generally for being a screw-up, has turned it around, and everyone's cheering for her now," Levin said of the former Hilton sidekick and tabloid staple, now the mother of a month-old daughter.
Even if news media coverage is weighted in their favor, male celebrities aren't exactly feeling immune from harsh scrutiny.
"There is certainly an argument for it being incredibly sexist, the attention that's given to women and the hounding of them," the actor Colin Farrell said at a recent party for his new film, In Bruges.
Farrell, who has attracted his share of attention, said such potential bias did not make him any less of a news media target. "If they catch me out and about," he said, "they'll go for it."
As Farrell spoke in a room filled with journalists and photographers, he was not even sipping a beer.
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