Ex-gossiper sues Burkle, Clintons

For months, former New York Post scribe Jared Paul Stern was at the center of unseemly accusations that he tried to shake down billionaire Ronald Burkle in exchange for good press in the newspaper's gossip pages.

Now Stern has fired back in a lawsuit filed Thursday against Burkle, the Post's archrival Daily News and even former President Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), whom Stern accuses of attacking him in an effort to suppress negative stories about themselves.

Stern, 36, alleges the defendants defamed and inflicted emotional distress on him and wrecked his job as a contributor to the Post's hugely popular Page Six gossip column. He seeks unspecified damages.

Burkle spokesman Michael Sitrick called the lawsuit "preposterous."