Today Chaunce sent out a big email blast that "New York Post, Page Six scribe, Marianne Garvey, has been fired!" Chaunce wrote that Garvey used to write for him at Steppin Out (which she describes as two pieces when she was in college for $40 each), and that she had recently turned down a cover at the mag that instead went to Shallon Lester at the Daily News, so maybe Richard Johnson was so mad about it that he fired her? But definitely, she was fired. According to Chaunce.

Actually Garvey left to take a job at In Touch—which she announced more than two weeks ago. By all accounts she left on her own terms, and wasn't fired.

When this was pointed out to Chaunce, he sent out a "statement":

We received a tip that Marieanne Garvey had been let go by the Post. When we called the Post for comment we were told by the paper that Marieanne no longer worked for the Post and would not comment further.
Marianne has just informed us that she quit and that Richard Johnson was the best boss she ever had.
We wish Marieanne the best at her new job at In Touch magazine.

This has caused Garvey to freak out a bit. So Chaunce emailed her an apology:

Calm down..... You're insane. We get dozens of tips a day and we follow up on all of them.
Good luck at In Touch.. haha

Wrong, late, and mean: the three attributes of a great gossip hound.

Consider the man's history. Starting out as nothing more than a dude with a ridiculous hat, he worked his way up through the gossip muck to the top ranks of the New York Post. He had his own column called "Nightcrawler" for a time, and was a regular contributor to Page Six. He was living the life that the young man who first put on the stupid hat dreamed of living.

Then, of course, he tried to extort Burkle, and got publicly scandalized and tossed aside by the Post. He's quietly made his way back into the media with various projects, but nothing as high-profile since. And then last week some random guy decided to publicly release a (purported) tape of him having sex with JPS' wife. Damn.

People can bounce back from most scandals. In time, even the "Payola Six" affair—sensational though it was—would have receded into history. But JPS has never been able to bounce back, because his ongoing lawsuits and, now, alleged cuckolding cause the original damage to his reputation to keep getting rehashed.

So here's our gentle advice, JPS: the sympathy of the world has now, excruciatingly, returned to your side. Use it. Drop all of your various lawsuits against everyone involved in the Burkle mess—they'll ultimately do nothing but drain your bank account. Hold your head high, admit some wrongdoing in the past, and forge ahead. Disgrace is almost a foreign concept in the gossip world; schadenfreude does not run deep enough for people to say you deserved all of this. With an extended moment of grotesquely poor judgment and a run of very, very bad luck, most anyone in the New York media could be in your shoes right now. So get out there and make it, JPS—for all of us!

Sacco's rise to fame is familiar by now. She's just a Jersey girl who came to New York City, worked in the restaurant business, and made some important friends who eventually bankrolled her first club, Lot 61. She hit her peak with the opening of Bungalow 8 in 2001, which succeeded in turning the once-barren area of West Chelsea into the club capital of New York—to the point of destroying the exclusivity and isolation of the neighborhood that helped attract the top models and A-list celebrities to Sacco's clubs in the first place.

But Sacco's more recent history is one of unmistakable decline. She opened a Bungalow 8 in London, which received (and still receives) a tepid reception from the locals. Bette, the restaurant Sacco opened as a "neighborhood joint" near her own Chelsea apartment, closed without warning earlier this summer. She got a slew of nightlife and image consulting jobs that, while lucrative, aren't nearly as glamorous as her former life as an NYC tastemaker. And she says she's simply getting tired of it all:

After three decades in the game, she was bored and worn out. As Amy admits, “If I’m bored, I’m just miserable and I think that translates.”...

“I’m in Vegas, London and New York,” Amy says, “and I’m adding to my calendar. I definitely want to go to Dubai.” When she’ll return home is unclear. She’s been renting an apartment in London since November. “Certain people bitch and moan because I’m not in New York,” she says, “but I can’t be everywhere. I deserve to have a life.”

Now she has a new, younger boyfriend—London chef Andrew Lasseter—and says vaguely that she's "gone into hedge funds and finance." That presumably would help with the $179,000 tax lien leveled on her apartment, which Stein says may or may not be cleared up by now.

Of course, money shouldn't really be a problem for Sacco now. She talks about wanting to "reap the fruits of my labor," and no one would deny her the privilege. But that may involve her acknowledging that her moment is past, and ceding the nightlife crown to a new generation. Bungalow 8 is no longer hot in New York, and Sacco's decision to take the club to London rather than, say, Vegas when it was still popular may have cost her the chance to cash in on brand at its height.

People get older, and stop clubbing as much. In the same way, club moguls see their popularity wane as their proprietary crowd gives way to newer, younger stars. So what? Amy Sacco can either move into the more serene field of hotels, like Ian Schrager, or hang it up altogether. Less buzzing around is usually a healthy thing.

[P6 Mag]

6/22/08

WE HEAR: THAT Stephen Colbert will belt out the National Anthem at the Partnership for Public Service gala Tuesday night at Cipriani 42nd Street, where Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will be presented with the Theodore Roosevelt Award by his friend, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

6/19/08

SIGHTINGS: "DANCING With the Stars" runner-up Jason Taylor and former Miami Dolphins teammate Dan Marino backing up Carlos Santana on bongos and cowbell at the Samsung Four Seasons of Hope Gala at Cipriani Wall Street.

5/25/08

WE HEAR: The 540 Latino-philes at Cipriani 42nd Street the other night applauded the news that Goya Foods owners Joseph and Carmen de Unanue donated $3 million to the Fifth Avenue museum of Hispanic culture.

5/20/08

WE HEAR: THAT comic Lewis Black will perform at the 21st Anniversary Gala of the Cooke Center for Learning and Development tomorrow at Cipriani 42nd Street.

4/29/08

WE HEAR: THAT John Catsimatidis is being honored with Frankie Valli by the Friars Club on June 16 at Cipriani 42nd Street, where the cast of Broadway's "Jersey Boys" will perform.

1/26/08

WE HEAR: THAT the Halcyon Company will auction off a walk-on role in "Terminator Salvation" during the Cipriani AmFAR event Thursday.

.

[Outside of Page Six, we should note, the Post seems to cover Cipriani's troubles pretty aggressively.]

CHAUNCE HAYDEN: What separates the New York Post's Page Six from the New York Daily News' Rush and Molloy?
SHALLON LESTER: We just write better. We're really clever. I think it comes down to really good writing...
I really wanted to work for a newspaper and I love the Daily News and the Rush and Molloy column. It's not like [New York Post's] Page Six where we're out to smear people and ruin people's lives. They have a definite tone that is different from ours. Page Six has a much more biting, undercutting tone. I hope our column doesn't come across that way.

No, never!

CH: Ever get offered a bribe to give someone good press?
SL: Sure. But my neckless [SIC] does not say revenge for nothing. If people want to f-k with me they're in for a long hard road. I don't respond well to threats or bribery. A lot of journalists do it and you can totally tell when it's happened just by reading the article. Personally, I never take anything in exchange for a story. I hate being indebted to someone, plus we have a very strict policy about that. I've seen a lot of people take, take, take. They're in this job just because they like to get free shit. But they can't write their way out of a paper bag. I see it a lot.

Also she talks about how she was once a virgin and now all her ex-boyfriends are rock stars and athletes and how Perez Hilton is a "gangster" and how she has a reality show coming out on VH1 so that should be interesting one way or another.

Olbermann called Snow "optimistic, funny and courageous," adding, "While we could not have disagreed more on policy, we were in frequent contact, even during his days as Press Secretary."

The temerity!

...a true friend of Snow's says Olbermann had "no relationship with Tony, at all." In fact, Olbermann named Snow his "Worst Person in the World" on Jan. 9, 2007, accusing him of lying about President Bush's 2003 "mission accomplished" speech. Olbermann hissed, "You're just baldfaced lying. You were hired to lie . . . We're not all third-graders out here."

Clearly, Olbermann's parting words for Snow should have focused on their bitterest moments of disagreement rather than on what Olbermann admired about Snow. In fact, Olbermann should have included in his eulogy the phrase "worst person in the world," if only for the sake of consistency.

[Post]

“I, as an academic, am accustomed to seeing buildings with names like Newton, Copernicus, Darwin,” said Ponzy Lu, a chemistry professor at the university. “Then to see the name of this person, who is very fresh in our memory, who is not associated with a pursuit of knowledge — a gossip columnist: it strikes me as being totally idiotic.”

Oh, boo hoo. As if secretary to William Penn and university trustee James Logan wouldn't have appeared on Regis and Kelly, given the chance.

Hunter College better hope their alum Ms. Barkin remains healthy, and her relationship to Mr. Perelman remains limited to dueling lawsuits.

(We're going to marry Oprah and force NYU to rename Washington Square Park after us.)

Today, Steppin' Out has a circulation of around 85,000 and is distributed throughout New Jersey and New York City by a team of 30 drivers. Hayden is the editor, but, more important, also serves as the magazine's de facto publicist: Since no one actually reads it, it's up to him to feed the best material to the various gossip outlets around town, most of which are desperate to fill column space each day.

This is how "gossip" works! Armies of professional tipsters (literally professional, in many cases—some Ron Burkle-owned magazines are known to have piles of cash on hand for these tipsters) who sometimes feed you great stuff and sometimes utter bullshit.

So Chaunce seeks status and publicity for himself, netting himself closer access to the famous and semi-famous who he then sells out to Page Six until one of them then turns on him and Page Six is forced to burn him, the end.

"It's actually not that difficult to get people to appear in the magazine," he says. "I just promise them the cover. Of course, no one has ever seen the damn thing, but publicists have usually heard of it, which is good enough. Everyone's a fame whore in this town."

True! When we first began receiving emails from "Chaunce Hayden" on behalf of Steppin' Out they confused and upset us, but now, sadly, we understand the whole game. And we've still never seen a physical copy of this magazine.

Chaunce's full statement:

Statement from Chaunce Hayden: Neither myself or any other employee of Steppin' Out magazine, published anything at anytime to suggest that [Opie's fiancee] Ms. Smigo was involved in a sex tape. In fact, I went as far as to print that Ms. Smigo was not involved in a sex tape despite what Page Six of the New York Post suggested. When contacted by Bill Hoffmann of the New York Post, prior to their story about a sex tape involving Ms. Smigo and Bam Margera, I was asked if I thought the story was indeed true. I told Mr. Hoffman that I never saw a tape and that this is a rumor that has been on the internet for two years and that a former employee of the Opie and Anthony Show is claiming the story to be true. I told Mr. Hoffman that I was waiting for an answer from either Mr. Hughes or Mr. Margera to confirm or deny the story and I would wait until I saw a tape before filing my story. The next day Page Six published the item, despite my denial of a sex tape. In fact, I personally advised Mr. Hoffmann not to print anything until he saw the tape. Mr. Hoffman asked for 48 hours to "work" the story after I suggested he hold off until he saw the tape as well.

Yea Chaunce, you should probably get a lawyer, though. And here's a transcript sent by Hayden, in which he helpfully inserted the name of the real culprit in all this:

Transcript: Opie commenting on his XM radio show about the alleged sex tape between Bam Margera and his fiancée Lynsi Smigo. Opie confirms how long the story has been public and where the story originated: This is a false rumor. It's a lie that was started a year and a half ago by someone and we all know his name (Ben). Fucking Chaunce was the one who fed this story to Page Six and made them believe that this story could be possibly true. This guy [Ben] is a complete asshole. I'm now up to 20 names of people I know that (Ben) told this rumor to behind my back. He's been trying to get this rumor out there and trying to get as many to believe this. He got message boards to believe it. He's got people saying, "Let's try to find the fucking tape!" This whole thing started one and a half years ago! Everyone knows who started this. I'm not allowed to say his name on the radio right now. He would text me non-stop around the clock. I wouldn't budge. I finally wrote back, "Wow you are damaged. You need help." Then he wrote back, "Lynsi...Sex tape. Do I have your attention now?" I thought who is ever going to believe it. Now this motherfucker [Chaunce] gets Page Six to believe this and now I'm in hell.

Page Six does the nasty:

The story spreads:

It's not true!:

Also, lies are hurtful:

[via The Smoking Gun]

According to an insider, Keith was really upset that NBC didn't buy him a first-class ticket to Washington DC for Russert's private service. He was screaming into his phone demanding a first-class train ticket. Then he didn't get to go to the ceremony and he had to travel by car.

AND an "aghast witness" says Keith "went apoplectic" when he realized that there weren't any ketchup packets at the Kennedy Center. This is one of the weirdest gossip item we've ever read!

Olbermann was heard saying outside the service, "this place is going to hell," because his Washington staff couldn't find ketchup packets for lunch at the Center. An NBC insider claimed, however, "Keith did not have lunch at the Kennedy Center and was not eating on the set because he was anchoring a broadcast."

Honestly... the "insider" claiming to see a celeb berating an underling on a cell phone stories are kind of the lamest thing Page Six does. Nine times out of ten they are just obvious strikes against targets deemed unfriendly to the column. The story, while exclusive, is not even as entertaining as the one where they said Keith has a GIRL DISEASE. So if this is the worst they could do (WHERE IS HIS GODDAMN KETCHUP?) then Keith can probably rest easy.

He won't, though! He'll declare someone else tangentially involved the Worst Person In the World again and the cycle will begin anew.

Update: So Olbermann did mention this item on yesterday's show, by calling Page Six staffer Corynne Steindler the third-worst person in the world. Once again, further down the totem pole! A couple months from now he'll be accusing copy editors of smearing him. (Also there was a bit of an implied insult aimed at Corynne's photo, something Keith often claims to be above. And something Page Six never claims to be above.)

May 2003. This, according to Jack Shafer, is when Keith Olbermann instigated the NBC/Fox War. In a throwaway wisecrack at the close of his show, Olbermann compared Fox Blowhard Mascot Bill O'Reilly to Joe McCarthy. By 2006, the two hosts were fighting with each other almost nightly.

January 2006 Bill devotes his nightly comment to attacking NBC itself—and not Olbermann by name. "But 'Talking Points' is troubled by the behavior of NBC, which cheap shots FOX News on a regular basis and has been doing so for some time." He then takes it to the next level by going over Keith's head and pinning the blame on NBC President Robert Wright! (Keith responded by declaring O'Reilly his Worst Person in the World.)

October 2006 Fox's NBC war was expanding beyond Olbermann and O'Reilly. Fox gossip Roger Friedman turned a benefit report into an odd swipe at NBC's ratings, blaming Wright for the failure of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

January 2007 The O'Reilly Factor presented a fair and balanced report on The Decline of NBC News. "As we reported NBC News has taken a sharp turn to the left under executive Jeff Zucker and Robert Wright with elements at NBC News now actually using propaganda from far left web sites as primary source material. Unbelievable." He went on to gleefully report on the supposed misdoings of Maria Bartiromo, bringing in a financial analyst willing to publicly trash CNBC.

April 2007 As the odious Michelle Malkin hosted his program, O'Reilly appeared via satellite to blame the Don Imus affair on Jeff Zucker. Meanwhile, Fox business correspondent Terry Keenan gleefully reported that NBC's parent company GE wanted to unload the network.

January 2008 The war heats up! O'Reilly does one of his patented ambushes of General Electric head Jeffrey Immelt! Supposedly because of some deal with Iran, but mainly because GE owns NBC and NBC employs Keith Olbermann and Keith Olbermann makes fun of Bill O'Reilly.

And so the feud widened. From Bill versus Keith to Fox versus NBC to News Corp versus General Electric. It went as high as Immelt and Rupert Murdoch! Fox News head Roger Ailes called NBC head Jeff Zucker personally to complain about Olbermann and threaten to take the battle to the New York Post. Murdoch called Zucker to ask that the network not play a video of a blogger harassing O'Reilly.

Page Six, the Post's gossip arm, constantly runs embarrassing stories about Olbermann. Which often leads to Olbermann naming some News Corp or Post-related figure his Worst Person in the World. And then the cycle begins anew! Over and over again!

Post columnist Andrea Peyser overhears Keith bitching about Connie Chung, Keith calls Peyser the worst person in the world, a few months later, Page Six reports that Olbermann is bad in bed! Then column editor Richard Johnson gets the first of his Worst Person in the World awards. (The second would come when he threatened to rape Vanessa Grigoriadis.) It's fun!

But the involvement of Murdoch? The harassment of Immelt? As GE decides whether it wants to keep its toes in the broadcasting business, this ego-driven bullshit might help convince them it's not worth it. Bill might win this one, sort of!

As in most things Murdochian, Rupert doesn't dirty his hands. While it's fun to pretend to see his fingerprints on each Olbermann smear in Page Six, the truth is Johnson and Post head Col Allen do indeed call the shots. They just know which shots they're supposed to call. Just like Roger Ailes at Fox, all the way down to Bill.

Would that GE and NBC/Universal had a message machine so in tune? They've got the cable blowhards warring with the broadcast newsmen and it all ends up publicized by one News Corp outlet or another.

The real winners, as always: us!

The insider said, "They're cable. They're far too partisan. They have no gravitas. If gravitas is eight letters, they're about seven letters short."

Even more than the opinionated Matthews, Olbermann, with his long "special comments," has forced open a wedge at NBC News between the cable and broadcast side. (The division was explored, among other places, in this week's New Yorker profile of Olbermann.) It appears as though Meet The Press is the latest battlefield in this civil war, which in turn implies that, though Olbermann lashed out at longtime enemies Murdoch and Page Six over the Russert memorial gossip, the stories may very well have originated not with anyone from News Corp. but from a fellow denizen of 30 Rock, the NBC headquarters.

[Post, Previously]

Update: So the Post has posted the Page Six item Keith Olbermann was so worked up about yesterday, and it does indeed say Hardball host Chris Matthews "seemed" to be talking about a strategy for landing Tim Russert's job at a memorial event for the NBC personality, and that Olbermann is threatening to quit if he doesn't get Russert's Meet The Press job. (On Countdown, Olbermann denied issuing an ultimatum for Meet The Press and said Matthews shut down talk of him replacing Russert when an acquaintance brought it up.) But the gossip item also quotes a source, ostensibly from the traditional broadcast side of NBC News, who claims that Russert himself wanted NBC News political director Chuck Todd as his own replacement, and that the network will never install someone from MSNBC on the show. The insider said, "They're cable. They're far too partisan. They have no gravitas. If gravitas is eight letters, they're about seven letters short."

Even more than the opinionated Matthews, Olbermann, with his long "special comments," has forced open a wedge at NBC News between the cable and broadcast side. (The division was explored, among other places, in this week's New Yorker profile of Olbermann.) It appears as though Meet The Press is the latest battlefield in this civil war, which in turn implies that, though Olbermann lashed out at longtime enemies Murdoch and Page Six over the Russert memorial gossip, the stories may very well have originated not with anyone from News Corp. but from a fellow denizen of 30 Rock, the NBC headquarters.

Update: Paula Froelich of Page Six responds: "I am honored and chuffed that someone with such a severe case of malignant self-obsession as Keith Olbermann would say I am the Worst Person in the World for June 19, 2008. Apparently I, by writing a true story about his ambitions, trumped the atrocities committed by Robert Mugabe, Than Swe, Boris Boyarskov (he wasn't in the news yesterday but I generally think he's a pretty bad guy and assume he did something bad), Ratko Mladic, Hugo Chavez, and his own beloved Dick Cheney. (Notice I didn't say what these people do — Olbermann will have to expand his scope beyond his own being to figure it out. Heres a hint, darling: one is the vice-president of the United States of America). Perhaps Keith, who is as infantile as he is narcissistic, should preach to his viewers about things that actually matter to them, rather than himself. But then again, there are only 300,000 of them. The FLDS has more members."

Stern promises to appeal the ruling, first off. Which will be fun. And Stern is still suing his former employers at the New York Post! In Florida. Because Stern's lawyer Larry Klayman is a conservative political activist who keeps suing the Clintons over and over again, so now he's only only allowed to argue cases in Florida, Pennsylvania, and D.C.. Maybe some sun will do Stern good?

And hey, Stern should still look on the bright side. His life may be in shambles, but at least he's not one of the two former Page Six contributors currently in jail for statutory rape or theft. He's not even reduced to writing for Gawker! (Anymore.)

The Gramercy Park Hotel's super-exclusive private roof club:

The space consists of a few drawing rooms crammed with Damien Hirst paintings, ringed by a large terra cotta patio.

The Spotted Pig's super-exclusive third floor:

This exclusive apartment is ironically small and simple, housing a tiny open kitchen, a sofa, two long tables, and two fridges. 'One is stocked with beer,' says a regular.

Cipriani's super-exclusive upstairs:

In the words of one habitue, a 26-year-old model, it's filled with 'slimy guys who want to hang out with younger women.'

The super-exclusive "underground" club called Upstairs:

'Patrons ascend a set of stairs, walk down a graffiti-lined hallway past the bathrooms, and open a door into the club itself. It's really one of the least stylized nightclubs ever.' Upstairs is a sparse, cheaply furnished room with banquettes lining the wall and utilitarian lighting.

One day, baby. One day.

[Joshua David Stein]

"Olbermann is uncoordinated—he can't drive, having once smashed his swollen head leaping into a subway car. The concussion permanently upset his equilibrium, he claims.

"The New Yorker also reveals that CBS was so desperate to find a replacement for Dan Rather, it nearly stooped to hiring Olbermann. CBS president Les Moonves and his news chief, Andrew Heywood, held a 'secret meeting' with Olbermann, where he said he wanted to 'redirect' the last three minutes of each newscast with 'his personal touch.' After a second meeting, the CBS suits picked Katie Couric instead.

"It was a major relief to old-school news vets. 'Oh, no, no, no, [Olbermann]'s not a newsman. He's not a reporter. I've never seen anything that he's done that was original in terms of information. It's all derivative,' said Sandy Socolow, who was Walter Cronkite's final executive producer.

"Tom Brokaw, who's had to give Olbermann on-air scoldings for his leftist grandstanding, told The New Yorker: 'Listen, it's a strain. And it's under constant examination.' But Olbermann actually thinks he'd rock in a nightly news slot, boasting, 'I think it would not do any worse than the three that are out there now.' [P6]

MILK also has a basement party room where Moss' old hook-up Jamie Burke's band Bloody Social (who were also at the party) practice, so I'm sure the coke party could have moved down there. Also, I'm sure MILK owner Madzac Rassi knows Kate Moss and would've accomadated her. Most likely, Kate left the party beacuse it wasn't that great.

[Photo: Medicine Agency]

When she invited everyone to "come get drunk on my drink!," Froelich tells us, she assumed that the event would have a cash bar. But she found out that it actually had an open bar—which would have amounted to her selling her name in exchange for free booze for her friends. So the Post told her she couldn't go. The liquor-guzzling paper somehow managed to make the right call, and a scandal was averted. Luckily none of this prevented the Voice's Michael Musto from getting his drink on.

An IZZE FROLIC:

Vodka
Sparkling Grapefruit Juice
Lychee and Lemon Juices

Mix. Don't forget to pay.

[UPDATE: Portfolio media reporter Jeff Bercovici notes that he emailed the Post's PR firm on Monday asking about the ethics of the planned party—the same day Musto reports that the paper told Froelich she couldn't attend. Reporters working together to keep each other in line, huzzah!]

When Chaunce Hayden sent out an email blast this week, he got this back:

From Richard Johnson to Chaunce Hayden: We're not using stuff from you at this time, or possibly ever again. My boss was furious we had to run a correction. It is an embarrassment to the entire newspaper. Don't you get it? Don't waste your time sending us items. We're not going to use them.

OH YEA?

From Chaunce Hayden to Richard Johnson: Well Richard... it wasn't that much of an embarrassment for you. After all, you took the cowards way out and blamed me for your bad reporting. I told Bill I never saw the tape and that I was told about the tape from an ex employee of the O&A show. But you didn't have the guts to take the hit for it. You should know I got several emails from your co-workers who thought what you did was a disgrace. But I'm sure you already know that.

How hypocritical of you to take hundreds of items from me for nearly 20 years and one goes sour and you throw me under the bus. What kind of person are you? You should be ashamed.
But again... I'm sure you already know that.

[pictured: Chaunce's hardcore tat]

"I have been a gossip columnist for all my 10 years in New York—first with the online fashion column 'Chic Happens,' and six years full-time with the Daily News. But for a writer New York is like a fairground, and I think it’s time to go on some of the other rides. Also lately I’ve developed a peculiar attitude towards scandal—with some of the items that have crossed my desk I’ve thought, 'This really isn’t any of my business.' Which is problematic for a professional gossip columnist.

"I approached Gatecrasher as essentially a humor column that happened to be about gossip. But now for me it’s time to Leave Britney Alone. Two weeks ago I went down to Palm Beach for Ivana Trump’s wedding, which was a hoot. Around midnight, as the reception was winding down, I found Kathy Hilton alone in a corridor. She was in front of a full-length mirror, holding her dress and dancing with her own reflection like a happy teenager. Something about that moment struck me as the perfect image to leave Gossip with."

Ben's retirement completes a circle. Every single New York City gossip columnist who started out around the same time as I did are all gone now, victims of the inevitable burn out. Well, all but one...

[via Orbitcast]

"The large and in-charge diva's agent, Ruth Bowen, told her pal Page Morton Black that Franklin has rented a home in Westhampton for two weeks in July. Bowen and Black—the chairman of the Parkinson's Disease Foundation—seemed almost as excited by the news as they were about the Parkinson's annual fund-raiser May 14 at The Pierre hotel." Is this evidence that over-exposure to celebrity gossip can occasionally screw your shit all up? Or is this some passive-aggressive mindfuck between Franklin and her agent? I simply do not know. [P6]

In large type on the invitation, you find the names of chairs and co-chairs, those boldface attendants who, often in lieu of paying, draw into involvement the names below them. Those include the honorary chairs, dance chairs, benefit committee members and underwriters.

"It's basically a pyramid scheme," says the 25-year-old event planner Martin Dawson.

Meet the Free Ballers [Page Six Magazine]

[Photo: Karin Kohlberg]

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, which shut down the Page Six's website earlier this month, says economic conditions aren't right for new contenders in the viciously competitive online gossip arena. But word is the Associated Press—which recently declared that trainwreck Britney Spears was henceforth a "big deal"—is hiring 20 or so writers for the wire service's new entertainment site.

And paparazzi agency x17, which supplies celebrity photos and video to media organizations such as CNN, is cutting out the middleman: the controversial shop, which near cornered the market in Britney Spears non-news, will service consumers directly with its own imagery, and prose provided by its own editorial staff.