Free Republic

LAST NOVEMBER we told you here about a book titled Ultimate Sacrifice, which purported to offer new details about the death of President John F. Kennedy. It's too complicated to go into all the revelations in this massive work by Lamar Waldron, but let it suffice to say that the San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a rave review written by Ronald Goldfarb. He was the Mafia prosecutor under Attorney General Bobby Kennedy, and this is the first time anyone closely associated with either brother has offered praise for a JFK assassination book. Now we can tell you that NBC has...

The Best From The New Vanity Fair ... Rick Skye ... Rainbow Flags ... and The End Credits Roll For Harvey Weinstein. “WHY? Are you planning to kill me?!” That is Shonda Rhimes of “How to Get Away With Murder” and “Grey’s Anatomy” fame, answering Vanity Fair’s Proust Questionnaire query “How would you like to die?” I love the PQ. I usually turn to it first, for laughs and more than occasional inspiration, before tackling the rest of the magazine. NOVEMBER’s VF, with Kate McKinnon on the cover, is one of those issues simply packed with great stuff. McKinnon’s profile,...

by Liz Smith I THINK I INVENTED THE TRUMPS, Part II Liz began her sum-up yesterday of what she wrote when first meeting the Trumps. This analysis was published in 2000 in her memoir "Natural Blonde." The story will conclude on August 26th in this space. I noted that Donald Trump had attacked a paralyzed, stultified New York bureaucracy and given commerce, construction and business a real shot in the arm. I asked, "If you love democratic capitalism, how can you hate Donald Trump?" I spoke of the other ruthless tycoons I'd heard opine that Trump couldn't last. I said...

Madonna: "What is NY without Liz Smith?""DON'T TALK about yourself; it will be done when you leave," said Wilson Mizner. Well, I'm not "leaving" my spot here writing this column, so maybe it's all right if I say a few words about what happened in the past few days. I have decided it is quite exhilarating to be fired, at the age of 86, from a job you've had for 14 years. Fortunately, I seem to be healthy so I'm forging ahead. I do want to say that I am in love all over again with ABC-TV's Bill Ritter, guardian...

NEW YORK Manhattan gossip columnist Liz Smith, who knew her way around a blind item long before today’s celebrity bloggers were born, is no longer a New York Post columnist, due to financial considerations. Her last Post column will appear this Thursday. Starting next week Smith will move her column to women-celebrating Web site wowowow.com -- of which she is a founder -- marking the first time in 33 years that Liz Smith’s column will not be in a New York newspaper, according to the site.

http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081207/peggy-noonan-lesley-stahl-and-friends-raise-more-money-wThe purse strings haven’t completely closed for start-ups looking to raise money–even niche Web sites that hope to stay afloat by selling advertising. Wowowow.com, a site launched earlier this year, which targets women over 40, has raised a $1.5 million round led by Bob Pittman’s Pilot Group and the Rhime Group. No word on valuation, but I’d guesstimate Wowowow.com’s investors peg its value in the high 9-figure range. The company has now raised $3.1 million in less than a year. The five founders–former publisher Joni Evans, “60 Minutes” reporter Lesley Stahl; New York Post gossip columnist Liz Smith; ad exec...

THE DAN Rathers of New York and Austin, Texas, signal me that the rumor of their impending divorce is as highly exaggerated as the story of Mark Twain's death while he was still alive and kicking. I saw the Rathers in the capital city of Texas, where they have a condo overlooking the Colorado River. They buzz into town from their nearby ranch for games of bridge and barbecue. They always act like teenagers who just met. In fact, the artist Jean says to me that the only "D" word around their house is "date night." The couple just celebrated...

ay 25, 2006 -- 'THIS IS who I am/You can like it or not/You can love me or leave me 'cause I'm never gonna stop." So sings Madonna. FORGET THE crucifix. No, really. It has already become the visual image of Madonna's spectacular (and spectacularly ambitious) "Confessions" concert. But as usual, there is more to M's work than meets the eye. The "blasphemous" sequence, in which she sings "Live to Tell" suspended on a cross, is accompanied by desperate images and dire statistics about children dying of AIDS in Africa. Why the cross? Don't ask M, who'll only tell you...

In today’s NY Post, octogenarian gossip frau Liz Smith offers her list of holiday movie recommendations. Some highlights: “If you want to be ravished by images, glamorous melodrama and the mysterious world of Japanese courtesans, try Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha,"Liz recommends of the film in which young Japanese girls (inexplicably played by young Chinese girls) sell their virginity to the highest bidder. No warning of any nebulous message here. “ If a shattering, cathartic cry is what you're yearning for, ride over to "Brokeback Mountain.”Liz recommends of Hollywood’s groundbreaking, anti-marriage, gay cowboys eating pudding movie. No warning of...

With "The Passion of the Christ" soaring back to the top of the box office after weeks in release, Tinseltown's jaw just keeps dropping lower. "I've never seen that before. 'The Passion of the Christ' is just rewriting box office history," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations. "This is a holy day, and this movie is tailor-made for a weekend like this. It's not just a movie. It's a religious experience for many people." Liz Smith writes today in the New York Post: "Gossip columnists were once taken to task if they presumed to mention the...

ENDQUOTE to end all!! Ann Coulter boasts the No. 1 best-selling book in American non-fiction, "Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right." Many read it with slack-jawed wonder, thinking if one simply switched "liberal" to "conservative" throughout, it would make more sense. The vivacious Ann gave an interview to George Gurley in the New York Observer this week. She actually says, "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber) is he did not go to the New York Times building."