Still, the conversation may not rise to the level of criminal charges. Stern's defense attorney, Joseph Tacopina, said that "in their best six minutes [of tape], they still don't come close" to the legal definition of extortion, although other charges, like wire fraud or mail fraud, are possibilities. Tacopina said he does not know how fast the investigation is progressing.
Stern and his wife retreated to their home in the Catskills shortly after the news broke about the FBI investigation.
It is a remote place -- 2 1/2 hours by car from Manhattan -- where they live with a cat, a dog and two ferrets. They paid $220,000 for it and fixed it up to look more like a manor house and less like a farmhouse. They bake their own bread, and they don't have cable.
In better days, they occasionally dress up in black tie -- just the two of them -- and convene in the dining room for a formal dinner. A friend, film director Whit Stillman, said they remind him of Nick and Nora Charles, the bon vivant detectives from "The Thin Man" film series.
"Those are the very good years -- 1937, 1938," Stillman said. "To me, that seems to be where Jared comes from."
Gutman looked weary as she described the endless series of strangers calling, among them anonymous sources passing on tips about the Burkle affair.
The entire drama, she said, "has become so bizarre, like something out of a movie, and very much of a surprise." Years ago, she used to accompany Stern when he covered parties for the Post. It never seemed like a blood sport to her.
"I can't think of anything I've read in a gossip column in recent memory that sounded as if it could be damaging or hurtful to anybody. Obviously, with the items not really about me I suppose I can't really say, but to me, most of it seems to be in the spirit of fun," she said. "Which is why this comes as such a shock."
By last week, Stern had put his gossip skills to use, defending himself with obvious relish. Tacopina, who has handled a long series of high-profile cases in New York, said it is not uncommon for him to glance at his computer at 3 a.m. "and there's a Jared e-mail giving me the latest article [on the case] from Beijing." Typically, clients in Stern's position "take months to get out of that initial stupor."
Tacopina said he has never had a client who counterattacked so aggressively.
"In part, it's joint strategy. He doesn't do anything I ask him not to do," Tacopina said. "On the other hand, he's a guy who is master of his own domain."
