Gossip columnists

Smith, who died Sunday, started her daily column for The New York Daily News in 1976. In 2000, she told Fresh Air: "I always held back from writing things that were intentionally hurtful."

The classic 1957 film about the gossip industry has been remastered and rereleased on DVD and Blu-Ray. Critic John Powers says the movie's Manhattan is a "seamy, deglamorized world in which small men destroy lives to make themselves big."

Neal Gabler, author of a biography of Walter Winchell. He'll talk about Winchell and the power of celebrity. Martin Scorsese has bought the film rights to his biography of Winchell. (REBROADCAST from 10/12/94)

Walter Winchell was the man who legitimized gossip columns, tabloid news, and celebrity watching. He rose from a poor New York family to become one of the most read columnists, and eventually consulted with F.D.R. and Joe McCarthy. Writer Neal Gabler has written a biography about Winchell. "Winchell: Gossip, Power, and the Culture of Celebrity" helps explain the man who was the source of our current celebrity-obsessed culture.

Mulcahy wrote for the New York Post's Page Six, and now works for New York Newsday. While the column she now helms features salacious stories, she considers certain topics off-limits, like AIDS and the outing of gay and lesbian public figures. Mulcahy's new memoir is called My Lips Are Sealed.