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Gossip magazines in Spain have evolved and adapted their reasoning to the new social reality, the demand for other types of information not only that of "tabloids" but also in terms of practicality and directed at a specifically feminine audience. A change that has been stimulated by the decline in terms of audience and the propagation of such magazines, by competition from other weekly publications which have flagged the pattern of new contents and by the various business changes which have taken all the magazines analysed, with the exception of ¡Hola!/Hello!, to be absorbed and thus, moving away from being family enterprises becoming multinationals in the publishing industryLa prensa del corazón en España ha ido evolucionando y adaptando su discurso a la nueva realidad social y a la demanda de otro tipo de información no sólo “rosa” sino también práctica y dirigida a un público específicamente femenino. Un cambio que ha venido propiciado por el descenso en términos de audiencia y difusión de este tipo de revistas, por la competencia de otras publicaciones semanales que han marcado la pauta de nuevos contenidos y por los distintos cambios empresariales que han llevado a todas las revistas analizadas, con la excepción de Hola, a ser absorbidas y pasar de empresas familiares a multinacionales del sector editorial.

The so-called celebrity politics is a well-known general and global phenomenon, common to most Western democracies. The celebrity politicians have become leading actors in tabloids, gossip magazines and entertainment TV programs. The paper aims at investigating the impact of those developments on women politicians and attempts at evaluating if they are advantaged or disadvantaged by the increasing celebritization of politics. By referring to the case of the Italian female ministers and through a content analysis of the most read Italian gossip magazine, the paper tests the hypotheses that female ministers receive more coverage than their male colleagues and that this coverage gives more space to trivial details, like appearance and attire. The paper argues that the celebrity politics may give women more visibility, but offers also some occasions for activating the most common and unfair gender stereotypes. Therefore, in the case of male politicians, the coverage of gossip magazines can simply “humanize” their image by showing them in more private settings and allowing them to express their feelings and emotions. In the case of women, the same kind of coverage could reinforce an already biased treatment due to the fact that they usually receive more media coverage mentioning family life, dress and appearance than male politicians.