[Z]

What do you think of this phenomenon? Is it justifiable for celebrities to have fake relationships in order to protect or advance their career interests? Although the term beard is generally applied to closeted homosexual celebrities pretending to be romantically linked to someone of the opposite sex, I'd like to open the discussion up to other career enhancing fake relationships (or rumoured fake relationships) too. Do you think there's no harm in it; it's mutually beneficial for all involved? Do you think it's damaging to the people involved; are there wider ramifications for other people, like if one or both of the people in the fake relationship wants to pursue a real relationship? Can it affect an entire group of people (e.g. the LGBT community) if people are perpetuating fake relationships?