Sienna Miller and Jude Law: Not Just One of Those Flings

Balthazar Getty Daniel Craig Diddy Heath Ledger james franco Jude Law New York Times paper of record Sean Combs Sienna Miller

7:30 am, October 19th, 2009

 

Even the New York Times, the so-called newspaper of record, gets it wrong sometimes.

In an article about Sienna Miller in yesterday’s Arts & Leisure section, the opening paragraph about her starring in the Broadway show “After Miss Julie,” begins, “‘SERIAL MILLER’ is what the London tabloids like to call the 27-year-old actress Sienna Miller, in honor of her long and well-documented romantic history. Her flings have included Jude Law, Heath Ledger, Daniel Craig, Sean Combs, James Franco and most recently the married oil heir Balthazar Getty, with whom she was photographed topless and in a sailor hat.”

For the record, Miller did NOT have flings with Heath Ledger and Sean Combs. While the Times corrected those inaccuracies online (with an addendum at the bottom of the story), the newspaper’s mistakes were still in black-and-white in the print edition.

OK, so they fixed those gaffs (online), but Gossip Cop was shocked to see that the New York Times referred to Miller’s involvement with Jude Law as one of her “flings.”

First of all, the newspaper contradicted itself, and downgraded their connection.

Only six weeks earlier, in a piece about Jude Law, the Times wrote, “Mr. Law is a regular presence in tabloid gossip columns. His divorce from the mother of his three children and his relationship with the actress Sienna Miller were both highly public [emphasis supplied].”

So the Times felt Law was in a “relationship” but Miller only had a fling?

Possible sexism aside, it’s poor reporting, especially since the Law-Miller “fling” lasted three years – and the couple were engaged, a fact the New York Times had mentioned on several other occasions. For example, in a 2005 piece about Law’s fling with his children’s nanny, the Times referred to Miller as his “fiancée” and noted, “The couple became engaged on Dec. 25, 2004.”

Gossip Cop doesn’t think it was just one of those “flings,” and feels the New York Times might owe Miller an apology for connecting her to two men with whom she was never involved, and flinging off a long-term relationship, which included an engagement.