L.A. to Page Six scandal: ho-hum

Burkle became a Page Six subject of interest for his attempts to change California law to keep details about his divorce proceedings under wraps. And Stern is heard on surveillance tape bragging about how Page Six staffers have finessed former Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein into giving them lucrative publishing deals in exchange for flattering coverage (implications a spokesperson for Weinstein has refuted).

Yet locally, only L.A. Weekly's "Deadline Hollywood" columnist Nikki Finke has mined the local angle, posing a "Page Six Scandal Q&A" on her deadlinehollywooddaily.com website.

Mark Lisanti, who writes the entertainment industry's must-read blog, Defamer.com, put up what he calls a "token posting" about the story (defamer's New York sister site, Gawker.com, on the other hand, has posted six items relating to Stern). But Lisanti, who takes undisguised glee in rebroadcasting and editorializing about the embarrassing missteps of studio bigwigs, movie stars and tabloid fixtures, says the scandal falls well outside of what normally captures his readership's imagination.

"It's not hitting L.A.'s sweet spot," he said. "It's not really an industry story and that's what gets people buzzing out here: industry stuff. If it had turned out to be, let's say for the sake of argument, [Paramount President] Brad Grey, there'd be a lot more chatter."

Payola Six has piqued New Yorkers' interest by exposing a widely known but seldom discussed quid pro quo between powerful people and gossip reporters -- a culture in which buzz is worth more than money and where gift baskets, preferential treatment and luxury perks can buy laudatory column inches while crossing the wrong reporter can result in an avalanche of bad press. As if to highlight this information-for-favors commerce, the New York Daily News reported that Page Six's editorial overseer, Richard Johnson, accepted a $50,000 all-expenses-paid bachelor party trip to Mexico from Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, who has had his praises sung in Page Six.

Deborah Schoeneman -- a former Page Six reporter who in May will publish "4% Famous," a novel about young New York gossip columnists who trade favors and confidences -- explained that New Yorkers have become fascinated with Stern's predicament for its apparent violation of the city's accepted rules about gossip reciprocity.

"What is so shocking to people is the cash payoff, the over the table arrangement," Schoeneman said. "In the past, Page Six payoffs have been quieter, a bit more creative, a bit more informal and unspoken."

Schoeneman added: "There is a certain level of glee from anyone who has ever felt misrepresented by Page Six."

In the Southland, the celebrity-industrial complex functions with a comparatively workman-like efficiency. Although celebrity journalists and gossip columnists are accustomed to a stream of swag trinkets and lunches at Kate Mantilini, and even press junkets to exotic locales including the Bahamas and Hawaii on publicist dimes, Page Six's "you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, or else" style would not fly.

And while she may be exaggerating a tad bit, L.A.'s powerhouse publicist Pat Kingsley put it this way: "If they bother to ask us, we check things out. Other than that, we have no relationship with any columnists. We don't seek or ask for favors with columnists. We just treat them like we treat everybody else."

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Times staff writer Rachel Abramowitz contributed to this report.