Cue Woman’s Day breathy voice over:

“Woman’s Day can reveal Staci, one of the most talked about and sought after stylists in New York, is the secret love child Tim fathered in his teens.”

gillardstep

Throw to the Herald Sun yesterday:

“When asked for her opinions on the election Ms Child reportedly said she couldn’t speak. “I’m a little limited on what I’m allowed to say,” she said.

That line “I’m a little limited on what I’m allowed to say” seems to be the only thing Gillard’s wild secret estranged make-up artist step love child has said to the media. It’s repeated three times in the Herald Sun piece. Meanwhile, The Daily Telegraph is busy knocking down her door in New York.

Now throw to this MySpace interview with Prime Minister Gillard, to be posted online this evening:

The Prime minister says she prefers Lady Gaga to American soul sister Beyonce Knowles because her partner Tim Mathieson’s daughter has worked with the eccentric recording artist.

“I feel a moderate connection to her because Tim’s daughter has work doing some hair and makeup for her,” she said.

Not so secret, then.

We’ll end with a more rational voice: Paul Keating. Someone who knows a little something about daughters being harassed spoke about privacy in a speech at Melbourne University earlier this month:

“Instead of standing aggressively behind the status quo, dressed in the cloak of the Fourth Estate, they need to talk more about responsibility, more about the importance of ethics, more about improvement in the standards of journalism in all respects.”

It’s one thing for a gossip rag to roll around in this stuff. It’s another thing for the nation’s highest-selling newspaper to concoct a story around it.