Gossip columnist Liz Smith dies at 94

Longtime New York tabloid gossip columnist Liz Smith died on Sunday at her Manhattan home. She was 94. Smith chronicled the lives of the rich and famous for more than 30 years, writing her column for publications including the New York Daily News, Newsday, and finally the New York Post, where it appeared from 1995 to 2009, before it moved onto the internet in the New York Social Diary. For years, her column was syndicated and was published in up to 70 other newspapers. She occasionally got big scoops, such as Donald and Ivana Trump's 1990 split and Madonna's 1996 pregnancy, but Smith was known for a more gentle approach to gossip than the brutal, sensationalist style of many of her competitors, which led critics to accuse her of going easy on celebrities to stay in their good graces.

Source: The New York Times

Editor's Note:
Familiar with Liz Smith? No, neither was I. Sometimes I think they report the deaths of certain pseudo famous people when their age adds up to a significant numerological number, in this case 13. Occasionally a legitimately famous person dies, whose age seems significant, but this seems more obvious when that person is probably only known by a fraction of the population.