Gossip Columnist

Nigel Dempster, 65, a leading gossip columnist in England who broke the news of Prince Andrew's engagement to Sarah Ferguson, the marriage and separation of Prince Charles and Diana, as well as Diana's eating disorder, died July 12 in London, according to Paul Dacre, an editor at the Daily Mail, where Dempster was a longtime employee. The son of an Australian mining executive was born in India in 1941 and educated at boarding schools in England.

The Northridge home originally built as a ranch and retreat by renowned Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons sold for $719,000. The two-story French Colonial, part of a 28-acre farm known as Marson Farms when it was constructed in 1937, sits on slightly more than half an acre. A sun porch-family room looks out on the backyard lawn, rose garden and swimming pool. The four-bedroom, 31/2 -bathroom main house features built-in cabinetry in the dining room, a wet bar opening to a den, a kitchen breakfast area and a butler's pantry.

Claudia Cohen, 56, a New York gossip columnist who became the subject of much gossip herself when she married into the city's elite, died Friday at a Manhattan hospital of ovarian cancer, said Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for her ex-husband, billionaire Ronald Perelman.

A verdant acre in the residential heart of Beverly Hills is the setting for a contemporary home with Old World flair designed by architect-to-the stars Harold "Hal" Levitt. Levitt's design combines modern elements such as geometric skylights, generous sheets of glass, touches of concrete and an open floor plan in reimagining a European villa. Levitt, who died in 2003, designed the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences building in Los Angeles.

A verdant acre in the residential heart of Beverly Hills is the setting for a contemporary home with Old World flair designed by architect-to-the stars Harold "Hal" Levitt. Levitt's design combines modern elements such as geometric skylights, generous sheets of glass, touches of concrete and an open floor plan in reimagining a European villa. Levitt, who died in 2003, designed the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences building in Los Angeles.

The Northridge home originally built as a ranch and retreat by renowned Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Parsons sold for $719,000. The two-story French Colonial, part of a 28-acre farm known as Marson Farms when it was constructed in 1937, sits on slightly more than half an acre. A sun porch-family room looks out on the backyard lawn, rose garden and swimming pool. The four-bedroom, 31/2 -bathroom main house features built-in cabinetry in the dining room, a wet bar opening to a den, a kitchen breakfast area and a butler's pantry.

An Australian newspaper mocked Russell Crowe for smoking and shoveling down a fatty meal during a recent bike ride, so the notoriously salty actor set out to prove he is still in gladiator shape -- by challenging the paper's gossip columnist to a duel by bicycle. In a story published Friday, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney said Crowe's spokesman called up gossip columnist Annette Sharp a day after the critical article appeared this week and said, "Get on your bike. Russell wants you to go riding with him. Are you ready to die?"

Bravo again to Howard Rosenberg for paying attention to what he sees and hears, and for pointing out the ludicrous appearance of (New York Post gossip columnist) Cindy Adams (Calendar, Jan. 29), on CNN's "Larry King Live" and also the disappearance of the old Larry King who used to take an aggressive approach to his guests rather than his current benign role as an observer and sometime sycophant. Artie Kane, Los Angeles

Of course, the gossip columnist for L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, would be expected to cover the Pope's visit to Los Angeles. So it was not really much of a surprise when Father Guido Sarducci of "Saturday Night Live" fame showed up while Pope John Paul II spoke to students at the Universal Amphitheater on Tuesday. Actually, actor Don Novello said he was videotaping segments for a cable TV comedy special.

LEARNING TO DRIVE by William Norwich (Atlantic Monthly Press: $22, 214 pp.). What made "Bonfire of the Vanities" such a wonderful book was Tom Wolfe's ability to chronicle, through personal experience of New York City's myriad subcultures, the clash of divergent social groups. William Norwich, a Manhattan gossip columnist, tells of a similar collision in "Learning to Drive," but the novel is pale and skeletal compared to Wolfe's.

Ronald W. Walters Scholar, author and political analyst Ronald W. Walters, 72, a longtime political analyst and scholar at Howard University and the University of Maryland who was a leading expert on race and politics, died Sept. 10 at a hospital in Bethesda, Md. He had been suffering from lung cancer. Walters spent 25 years at Howard before becoming director of the African American Leadership Institute at the University of Maryland. He wrote numerous books and more than 100 articles.

An Australian newspaper mocked Russell Crowe for smoking and shoveling down a fatty meal during a recent bike ride, so the notoriously salty actor set out to prove he is still in gladiator shape -- by challenging the paper's gossip columnist to a duel by bicycle. In a story published Friday, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney said Crowe's spokesman called up gossip columnist Annette Sharp a day after the critical article appeared this week and said, "Get on your bike. Russell wants you to go riding with him. Are you ready to die?"

Nigel Dempster, 65, a leading gossip columnist in England who broke the news of Prince Andrew's engagement to Sarah Ferguson, the marriage and separation of Prince Charles and Diana, as well as Diana's eating disorder, died July 12 in London, according to Paul Dacre, an editor at the Daily Mail, where Dempster was a longtime employee. The son of an Australian mining executive was born in India in 1941 and educated at boarding schools in England.

Claudia Cohen, 56, a New York gossip columnist who became the subject of much gossip herself when she married into the city's elite, died Friday at a Manhattan hospital of ovarian cancer, said Christine Taylor, a spokeswoman for her ex-husband, billionaire Ronald Perelman.

After a season in the limelight as a suspected extortionist, a former gossip columnist said Wednesday that he was relieved he wouldn't face federal charges of demanding payments in return for favorable coverage, and vowed to sue Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle and the New York Daily News for spreading the stories that ruined his career.

WHAT is it about the public's obsession with stars? The media has been enthusiastically covering Hollywood for 100 years, and today's incessant, Internet-fueled celebrity "news" is omnipresent. The distribution methods have been dramatically accelerated, but the focus of the stories hasn't changed much. Variety began writing about films in 1907 because one-reel movies were shown between acts on the vaudeville stage or as "chasers" to clear out the audience before the next live performance.

Ten years ago Helmsley entertained hopes of becoming a novelist in the manner of James Joyce. After the failure of his fifth book and his second marriage, he took up a career in journalism and discovered that he had an impressive talent for writing gossip. Before long, Helmsley was offered a newspaper column. He went everywhere and met everybody. Restaurant owners learned to fear him, and so did the maitres d'hotel of prime-time television.

When Ernest Hemingway was declared officially dead, the first call his wife Mary made was to gossip columnist Leonard Lyons. . . . When Carole Lombard and Clark Gable announced their engagement publicly--and not exclusively, or first, to Louella Parsons--the couple had hell to pay. The newlyweds, to salvage their relationship with Louella, had her master bathroom mirrored and paid for new plumbing to her john.

Jared Paul Stern, the gossip writer, was mixing Campari-and-sodas on a recent evening when more urgent matters drew his attention. He stepped past his collection of walking sticks and looked onto the porch. "Snoods, quick, she's got a vole, and it's still alive," he said to his wife, Ruth Gutman, whom he calls by the pet name "Snoodles." "That cat goes on a kill-crazy rampage when spring comes," Stern said, darkly, returning to his desk. "She eats them," he said. "So."

Last week, news of Jared Paul Stern's Page Six payola scandal rippled through New York's media circles with all the force of an 800-pound bomb. The story has all the stranger-than-fiction twists you could ask for: media figures accused of Mafia-like strong-arm tactics, boldfaced names in compromising positions -- and at its core is a terrific Los Angeles story, hinging on a Southland billionaire and with tantalizing implications about the entertainment industry's backroom dealings.