Editing Gossip columnist (section)

==History==
[[File:Louella-Parsons-1937.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Louella Parsons]] (1937)]]

The precursors to gossip columns were the [[Society reporting|society columns]] of the 19th and early 20th centuries. [[James Gordon Bennett Sr.|James Gordon Bennett]] Sr. is credited with first creating this position at the [[New York Herald]] in 1840.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ross |first=Ishbel |title=Ladies of the Press: The Story of Women in Journalism By an Inside |publisher=Harper |year=1936 |pages=441}}</ref>

[[Walter Winchell]], a gossip columnist famous in the 1930s and 1940s, was the first writer to have a syndicated gossip column. Winchell used his political, entertainment, and social connections to mine information and rumors, which he either published in his column ''On Broadway'' or traded to accumulate more power. He has been referred to as "the most feared journalist" of his era.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gabler |first=Neal |title=Winchell: gossip, power, and the culture of celebrity |date=1994 |publisher=Knopf |isbn=0-679-41751-6 |location=New York |oclc=29637810}}</ref> From the 1930s to the 1950s, the two best-known Hollywood gossip columnists were the competing [[Hedda Hopper]] and [[Louella Parsons]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Longworth |first=Karina |date=May 3, 2021 |title="Gossip Girls" |url=http://www.youmustrememberthispodcast.com/episodes/2021/4/26/gossip-girls-louella-parsons-and-hedda-hopper-small-town-girl-episode-1}}</ref> 

In Hollywood's "[[Classical Hollywood cinema|Golden Age]]" in the 1930s and 1940s, gossip columnists were courted by the [[movie studio]]s so that the studios could use gossip columns as a powerful publicity tool. During that period, the major film studios had "stables" of contractually-obligated actors, and controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of their movie stars. Well-timed [[News leak|leaks]] about a star's purported romantic adventures helped movie studios to create and sustain public interest in their star actors. The studios' publicity agents also acted as unnamed "well-informed inside sources." In this capacity, agents could counteract whispers about celebrity secrets, such as homosexuality or an [[Legitimacy (family law)|out-of-wedlock]] child, which could severely damage both the individual reputation of a movie star and their greater box office viability.

Having fallen into ill-repute after the heyday of Hopper and Parsons, gossip columnists saw a comeback in the 1980s. Many mainstream magazines such as ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', which once considered the hiring of gossip columnists as beneath their stature, now have sections titled "People" or "Entertainment". Such mainstream gossip columns provide a light, chatty glimpse into the private lives and misadventures of the rich and famous.

At the other end of the journalism spectrum, there are entire publications that deal primarily in gossip, rumor, and innuendo about celebrities, such as the British [[tabloid (newspaper format)|'red-top' tabloids]] and the [[Gossip magazine|celebrity 'tell-all' magazines]].