Famed Gossip Columnist Liz Smith Dies At 94 : NPR
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The famed New York gossip columnist  Liz Smith  has died at 94.  Her  decades long column in the New York Daily News gave people a look into the lives of the rich and famous and powerful.
For decades  if you wanted to know where a famous person was last night and with whom  you'd see what  Liz Smith  was writing.  Smith  was a famed gossip columnist who chronicled the lives of the rich and powerful in New York's tabloids.  She  died Sunday at the age of 94. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this appreciation.
ANDREW LIMBONG  BYLINE:  Liz Smith  liked to compare gossip to Greek tragedy.  She  was especially fond of this quote from an academic calling gossip an emotional release valve that allows us to express a whole range of human findings - envy  anger  compassion - and to find solace in other people's woes. But  she  herself wasn't that high-minded about it.
 LIZ SMITH : It wasn't just about people doing terrible things all the time. A lot of it was just wannabe news.
LIMBONG: This is  Smith  on NPR in 2009.  She  talked about bringing readers to places where all the rich and famous people hung out.
 SMITH : You wanted to go. You wanted to know how - what would it be? How much did you tip the hat check girl in a place like that? You know  looking through the keyhole at how your betters lived  I guess.
LIMBONG:  Liz Smith  was born in Fort Worth  Texas  in 1923.  Her  babysitter used to take  her  to movies where  she 'd be captivated by movie stars.  She  moved to New York and began ghost writing gossip. In the '70s   she  eventually got  her  own column in the New York Daily News simply titled  Liz Smith .  She  never wanted  her  columns to be mean  and they were far removed from the sort of bloggy online snark of the gossip that came after  her . But  she  had insider information on the likes of Rock Hudson  Elizabeth Taylor  Elaine Stritch.
DOREE SHAFRIR: And you could tell that  she  was writing them sort of from a place of almost  like  love of the people  she  was writing about. Like   she  really enjoyed the world that  she  was writing about and the characters in it.
LIMBONG: That's Doree Shafrir.  She  covers tech for BuzzFeed now  but  she  used to work at Gawker and profiled  Smith  for the New York Observer in 2008.
SHAFRIR: Like a lot of people in media  but probably especially for gossip columnists of  her  era  the line between friends and sources and subjects necessarily got very blurred.
LIMBONG:  Smith  was criticized for not being objective  but  she  didn't pretend to be.  She  told NPR in 2009 about  her  biggest scoop.  She  got it from  her  friend Ivana Trump.
 SMITH : One day Ivana called me and asked me to come to the Plaza Hotel. And when I got there   she  threw  herself  in my arms and told me that Donald didn't want  her  anymore  and that  she  had just gone through all of this plastic surgery to enhance  her  looks. And I tried to give  her  some motherly advice.
LIMBONG: The Trumps' divorce was a big deal  and  Smith  knew what the fallout would look like.
 SMITH : I said  get yourself a PR person who's respectable and defend yourself against him.
LIMBONG: Donald Trump  who was a celebrity real estate developer at the time  wasn't  thrilled Smith  was writing about  his  divorce.
 SMITH :  He  said  he  was going to buy the New York Daily News in order to fire me.
The famed New York gossip columnist  Liz Smith  has died at 94.  Her  decades long column in the New York Daily News gave people a look into the lives of the rich and famous and powerful.
For decades  if you wanted to know where a famous person was last night and with whom  you'd see what  Liz Smith  was writing.  Smith  was a famed gossip columnist who chronicled the lives of the rich and powerful in New York's tabloids.  She  died Sunday at the age of 94. NPR's Andrew Limbong has this appreciation.
ANDREW LIMBONG  BYLINE:  Liz Smith  liked to compare gossip to Greek tragedy.  She  was especially fond of this quote from an academic calling gossip an emotional release valve that allows us to express a whole range of human findings - envy  anger  compassion - and to find solace in other people's woes. But  she  herself wasn't that high-minded about it.
 LIZ SMITH : It wasn't just about people doing terrible things all the time. A lot of it was just wannabe news.
LIMBONG: This is  Smith  on NPR in 2009.  She  talked about bringing readers to places where all the rich and famous people hung out.
 SMITH : You wanted to go. You wanted to know how - what would it be? How much did you tip the hat check girl in a place like that? You know  looking through the keyhole at how your betters lived  I guess.
LIMBONG:  Liz Smith  was born in Fort Worth  Texas  in 1923.  Her  babysitter used to take  her  to movies where  she 'd be captivated by movie stars.  She  moved to New York and began ghost writing gossip. In the '70s   she  eventually got  her  own column in the New York Daily News simply titled  Liz Smith .  She  never wanted  her  columns to be mean  and they were far removed from the sort of bloggy online snark of the gossip that came after  her . But  she  had insider information on the likes of Rock Hudson  Elizabeth Taylor  Elaine Stritch.
DOREE SHAFRIR: And you could tell that  she  was writing them sort of from a place of almost  like  love of the people  she  was writing about. Like   she  really enjoyed the world that  she  was writing about and the characters in it.
LIMBONG: That's Doree Shafrir.  She  covers tech for BuzzFeed now  but  she  used to work at Gawker and profiled  Smith  for the New York Observer in 2008.
SHAFRIR: Like a lot of people in media  but probably especially for gossip columnists of  her  era  the line between friends and sources and subjects necessarily got very blurred.
LIMBONG:  Smith  was criticized for not being objective  but  she  didn't pretend to be.  She  told NPR in 2009 about  her  biggest scoop.  She  got it from  her  friend Ivana Trump.
 SMITH : One day Ivana called me and asked me to come to the Plaza Hotel. And when I got there   she  threw  herself  in my arms and told me that Donald didn't want  her  anymore  and that  she  had just gone through all of this plastic surgery to enhance  her  looks. And I tried to give  her  some motherly advice.
LIMBONG: The Trumps' divorce was a big deal  and  Smith  knew what the fallout would look like.
 SMITH : I said  get yourself a PR person who's respectable and defend yourself against him.
LIMBONG: Donald Trump  who was a celebrity real estate developer at the time  wasn't  thrilled Smith  was writing about  his  divorce.
 SMITH :  He  said  he  was going to buy the New York Daily News in order to fire me.