The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 136

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1986 THE SUN Liz Smith makes gossip respectable, profitable Srafery Rosewood i Tea'keood Furniture Fine Gifts of Ivory, Jade, Crystal, Satsuma and more. Just Arrived New Selection of Kyoto Hakata Dolls Also Kimonos Happi Coats For Adults and Children irTTifN "December beauty I bVllilA LLii9 sale' de MAX FACTOR VALUE Le Jardin 1 oi. CAip Vn 1 Limited Edition Eau de Parfum Spray Call For Special Hours and Sunday Openings Ljj Los Angeles Times NEW YORK "Gossip is news running ahead of itself in a red satin dress." says Liz Smith, the latest and loudest practitioner of the fixture of American journalism known as the gossip column. The gossip star of New York holds what's left of the star columnist torch passed on by Walter Winchell and Dorothy Kilgallen. She's a post-Watergate phenomenon now in her 11th year at the New York Dally News, at the top of the heap of Manhattan gossip columnists.

(Ms. Smith also is syndicated in about 60 papers, including The Sun.) People who know things want to tell them. Mostly, in Manhattan, they want to Visit us at cur New Location. 1447 GALLERIA TOWERS York Rd. at Seminary Ave.

Lutherville. MD 21093 Phone. 321-1612 Hour! Monday Thru Saturday and By Appointment tell them to Liz Smith. If the name Liz Smith means'" nothing in Peoria, it means much to -the powers that be in show business. Her column is sent overnight 1 to Hollywood studio chiefs, agents." producers and others.

And they re-" 1 act, and overreact. As David tick put it in "Indecent Ms. Smith has "redefined gossip and elevated it to a new level of ability." Mr. McClintick defines the Liz Smith column as a "new form of gossip journalism." Example: Ms. Smith recently printed "the possibility," as she put -it, "that Richard Pryor might have AIDS.

The rumors were rampant, and not because of homosexuality," she explained. "I printed a list of reasons, praying It wasn't true. But the talk was everywhere. Richard had admittedly been an intravenous drug user, and he'd had a lot of blood transfusions Well, I was laid to filth by my friend Paramount production president Dawn Steel, saying how could I do this? Studio heads -see the column faster than any- body." Ms. Smith has been right It was she who "kept the drum fires burning" in the David Begelman 1 check-forging scandal and persuad- ed chief witness Cliff Robertson to break his silence in the case but she has also been wrong.

She pre- dieted that Robert Redford would en- ter politics and that Elizabeth Taylor would not marry John Warner. But whatever else Ms. Smith has been, she has been pivotal and personal. As Frank Sinatra calls her. "The Extra Strength Tylenol of Journalists." Or, as producer Ray Stark puts it: "Liz isn't always accurate, but she is always fair." What she isn't and it works to her advantage is Hollywood-based.

"I don't have enough Integrity to live In Los Angeles and write a gossip column," Ms. Smith said, half- joking. "1 spent one Christmas there and I saw the extraordinary gifts that went to Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. I thought then I could never live here. Now there's no temptation, of course: I'm too old to be corrupted." Just in time fir holiday giving.

til don't have enough integrity to live in Los Angeles and write a gossip column.) LIZ SMITH 4' Save up to 50 on Keepsake9 Choose from thousands of engagement and wedding rings for him and her from Melart's $212 million inventory. ft jL Diamond Fashion Rings Diamonds For Men Handsome cluster ring wnwcooo was $350 iMVwyy 4-diamond nugget ring wowcTQQ was $499 "uvv5yy Carat Diamonds wasVW Nw $2,999 N0W $3,299 was $4,950 $3,950 Floral cluster ring was $425 20-diamond row band was $1,200 2 ct. t.w. cluster ring was $2,500 now 5359 now $ggg Nowsggg .4) It Is clear Just why Ms. Smith could only operate In Manhattan: In the company town of Hollywood, subjects handled lightly and with humor and In Smith-style, would set off shock waves.

Hollywood egos arc more fragile. So the Hollywood press is kept either at a distance or very very chummy. (Very very chummy usually means off the record.) New York, however, Is not a company town. It's a town of fashion and publishing and broadcasting and government and finance. And Ms.

Smith touchca, lightly, most of these bases. Her lead items could be on Andy Warhol or Happy Rockefeller or Donna Karan. There's a diffusion of names and power. And New Yorkers are used to being investigated. But is New York enough when show business Is now totally blcoas-tal? "New York Parochial" is a label attached to Ms.

Smith with some very strong adhesive. One can't do four columns a week, two broadcasts a week, four (or more) parties a week, four sessions with a hairdresser a week and still be Dorothy Parker. So Ms. Smith doesn't try, and thus the column is considered lively without being stylishly written. Nor Is It a pulpit for star making.

Ms. Smith isn't above plugging a personality or a project In recent months, for example, she has helped lengthen the run of the Broadway revival of "Arsenic and Old Lace" but she doesn't watit to play savior. Nor is she about to unmake anyone. Instead Ms. Smith has a minimum of enemies (which Is not to say she has none).

But when Insiders say they have troubles with Ms. Smith, they usually mean they can't get through to her. The reason may be Saint Clair Pugh, a brusque, briskly effective man of Indeterminate age who fits Ms. Smith like an argyle sock. At 63.

Ms. Smith is herself precisely and undlsgulscdly "post-menopausal." as she puts It. She hasn't glamorized her Image, as has her friend Barbara Walters or her rival Aileen "Suzy" Mchle. Ms. Smith and Mr.

Pugh are very much synchronized; they see the column as work-work-work. Going to a party is work. An evening of theater is work. Mr. Pugh helps decide which things should and shouldn't be covcml.

He shouldn't be discounted and can't be: To crack the Ice with him Is like cracking a safe at Chase Manhattan. Only after weeks of pica bargaining did he concede that a reporter could see Ms. Smith at work, at home, not Just at parties and over the requisite lunch. "But." he kept Insisting, "she doesn't let reporters sec he at home, ever," Ms. Smith says of Mr.

Pugh; "People say he can be a tough guy. And I Yes. but he's my tough guyV Save 20 Diamond Solitaire Earrings 110 t.w. was $149 NOW 99 t.w was $330 NOW 5249 9 and get a Free Melart t.w was $800 NOW 5649 nuggy bear With purchase. Also, save on Larger sizes 3 For knowledge and experience vou can rely on melartfeujelers Rne Diamonds Since 1939 owings Mills Town Center White Marsh Mall Laurel centre Security Mall Annapolis Mail Terms of use your Cold Melart Charge Card or ait major credit cards Sir LIZ, 9G.

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