New York Post Newspaper

A former contributor to the New York Post's Page Six gossip column who was accused of trying to shake down Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle in exchange for good press will not be charged in the case. The case involving Jared Paul Stern is being closed, said an individual familiar with the federal investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the decision was not yet public. Stern's lawyer confirmed that his client would not be indicted.

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.

Stepping into the hypercompetitive arena of New York gossip, Jared Paul Stern wasn't afraid to spew a little poison. As a writer for the New York Post, he described Melanie Griffith and Goldie Hawn as "cryogenic freeze jobs gone awry," called Elton John "too old, fat and short to look ironically hip in ugly sweatsuits," and once mused that "whenever you see a beautiful girl, it pays to remember that somewhere, someone is sick of her."

Jared Paul Stern, the gossip writer at the center of a federal extortion inquiry, said Monday he had discussed money with Ron Burkle, whom he knew socially through a friend, because he believed the California billionaire wanted to invest in his clothing company. Stern, 35, spoke by telephone from the Catskills farmhouse where he has been since late last week, when investigators from the U.S. attorney's office told his bosses at the New York Post about the investigation.

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.

It takes a special kind of man to wear a monocle. You need to be a 19th century deep thinker, like Alfred, Lord Tennyson or Karl Marx, or maybe a jackbooted Aryan type, like Col. Klink on "Hogan's Heroes." It works too if you're a jaunty cartoon character with a top hat, like the Penguin from "Batman" or Mr. Peanut from the Planters label. Now we can add a new category to the accessories list of winking devotees: 21st century gossipmongers of Manhattan.

The New York Post, which has maintained a Sphinx-like silence about the scandal over its Page Six gossip column, is restructuring the feature to reduce its reliance on freelancers. It was a freelancer, Jared Paul Stern, who was videotaped allegedly offering California billionaire Ron Burkle a guarantee of favorable coverage in exchange for payments that would amount to $220,000 over the course of a year.

A New York Post cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police drew outrage Wednesday from civil rights leaders and elected officials who said it echoed racist stereotypes of blacks as monkeys. The cartoon in Wednesday's Post by Sean Delonas shows two police officers, one with a smoking gun, standing over the body of a bullet-riddled chimp. The caption reads: "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill."

After two days of protests, the New York Post apologized Thursday for a cartoon that some have interpreted as comparing President Obama to a violent chimpanzee gunned down by police. The newspaper posted an editorial on its website Thursday evening saying the cartoon was meant to mock the federal economic stimulus bill, but "to those who were offended by the image, we apologize." The piece was posted hours after 200 picketers chanting "Boycott the Post! Shut it down!"