Today we have a guest writer: Jim Dykes, friend and co-founder of Rich and Famous Tours, who appeared in the Little Byte, Madison Square, Part One. Who better to respond to the loss of yet another New York City mainstay, Liz Smith's column in the New York Post?
OMG, I couldn’t believe it when it was announced that the reigning “queen” of NYC gossip columnists, Liz Smith, was being canned by the New York Post after nearly 20 years. I mean, the woman is an institution--older than the Empire State Building. Liz Smith calls herself “The 2000-year-old gossip columnist.” She arrived in Manhattan from the University of Texas journalism school in 1949 and has worked constantly in celebrity/show biz media for 57 years including a stint as a radio and TV producer. I immediately called a friend who is a theatre reviewer/columnist who knows Liz and who has ghost-written her column on occasion and I asked him what was going on with Liz and Rupert Murdoch, publisher of the NY Post and owner of Fox News (where Liz still appears).
“Rupert Murdoch and Liz’s agents just couldn’t come to an agreement because of several reasons. Her money demands are ridiculous. Murdoch had already cut her back to 3 columns a week instead of daily. Also, because of her advanced age (Some sources say she was born Feb. 2, 1921, some say 1923; either way, the woman is over 85), Murdoch didn’t want to give her a multi-year contract which her agent was insisting on, for the fact that at her age she might drop dead at any moment. He wanted to keep her on a month by month retainer.”
Heck, most of her columns aren’t even written by her any more. They are written by a team of younger writers. Liz is too busy going out on the town and being feted by all of her celebrity friends and attending charity galas. She herself started out in 1949 as a ghost writer for Cholly Knickerbocker and Walter Winchell.
He also said that Murdoch is happy with his other Post creations: Page Six (a true gossip column) and columnist Cindy Adams, who also covers the showbiz and society scene and is not afraid of quoting people in unflattering light, being a bit vicious and putting real gossip in her column, even if feelings are hurt and feathers are ruffled. Cindy’s prose is clumsy and artificial but her dirt is juicy and the “puff” is limited. Some would say Liz hasn’t reported real gossip in years. Her column is mostly P.R. puffery; press releases provided by flacks and friends, all angling to get their names and their client’s names promoted. Liz has become too close to most of the celebrities she covers to endanger her personal friendships by printing anything really scandalous about them unless they approve it. Examples? She’s buddy buddy with Elizabeth Taylor, Madonna, Elaine Stritch, the entire Broadway crowd and most of Park Avenue & Palm Beach society. So don’t ever look for real “dirt” on any of them.
On a personal note, I think I’m still the only New York City tour guide who has been mentioned in Liz Smith’s column. Several years ago a bearded man in sunglasses tagged along on my walking tour of Beekman Place: it was Steven Spielberg. I went home and wrote a press release and faxed it to Liz. Then I had to go through her arrogant assistant “St Clair” who informed me they had to call “Steven” to confirm the item actually happened and whether he wanted it printed (so much for cutting edge gossip). Apparently, my word wasn’t good enough. It was a simple story about a tour group meeting Spielberg and his comments to them and Liz’s staff still insisted on calling Spielberg because God forbid they tick off the great director. They finally printed my item with a bit of editing.
My friend Donna works in P.R., got me Liz’s unlisted number and said to make sure I write the item in the “style” of her column because she’s basically “lazy” and likes to just “cut & paste” things with little actual writing. Liz finally spoke to me on the phone and ran some other items on me, and then I finally met her at one of her Natural Blonde book parties. This was her best-selling memoir where she outed herself as a lesbian. She signed her memoir: “For Jim…one of my stars…Liz Smith.” When I protested that I wasn’t a star…she drawled, “You’ve been in my column, darlin’…THAT makes you a star!”
One last story: I was leading a Rich and Famous Celebrity tour one morning and ran into Liz walking her dog on an East side street. I spoke to her but she didn’t look pleased. Seconds later our group bumped into a very famous television anchor woman. I called my theatre columnist friend who knows Liz and told him how lucky our group had been to see TWO famous women just seconds apart. His response: “Jim (long pause) that makes perfect sense…didn’t you know they are an ITEM? She probably walked her girlfriend to Park Avenue while taking the dog out and I’m sure she was NOT amused to see 40 tourists with cameras tagging along behind you at 9am.”
You can still read Liz in Daily Variety and you can access her free on www.thedrudgereport.com (a great clearing house site for columns, political and puff). She also is the co-founder of www.WoWoWow.com.
Well Jim...It's sounds to me like the post might already have a good candidate for a replacement.
Posted by: Elizabeth | March 11, 2009 at 11:46 AM