Please recommend gossip writing!

February 12, 2021 8:15 AM

I'm interested in reading gossip about famous people. It's something I know nothing about and I'd love your guidance.

I read with great interest the recent Washington Post and New York Times obituaries of Maxine Cheshire. I know next to nothing about gossip writing, but now I'm intrigued. I'm particularly interested in salacious, juicy stories of the rich, famous, and powerful. Celebrity and political gossip would be great. Good writing certainly also would be a plus.

I found a 2015 AskMe question about "insider" memoirs that look promising, but I would be more interested in reading gossip articles and books written about other people than in memoirs or autobiographies.

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

posted by cheapskatebay to Writing & Language (19 answers total)

It's not gossip, but Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes brilliant profiles, many of which are of celebrities. Start with Gwyneth Paltrow.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:52 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

You might like Celebrity "Blind" gossip, which is where the gossip columnist drops a particularly juicy bit of gossip but without naming names, I guess in an attempt to avoid legal trouble. Anything with names in tends to be less salacious. Then the comment section try to guess. I found out about Weinstein, Epstein and Spacey from blind articles going back almost 10 years and was surprised at just how few people knew when the news broke to the wider public. Something to remember not all gossip is that exciting, but even after all these years I'll check them out from time to time to stay in the loop.

Crazy Days and Nights and Blind Gossip are the two I visit most but there are more out there to suit every taste if you google and hunt around.
posted by wwax at 8:55 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I love laineygossip.com maybe more than I should. On a side note, for some good celebrity gossip, I found Jessica Simpson’s autobiography really good (I was recommended it first by Elaine of laineygossip). She’s kind of a pioneer in the blind gossip genre and I think she tries to be professional about not being catty, but pointing out that celebrity culture is interesting and impactful.
posted by areaperson at 9:06 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

I like to read the site Celebitchy. In the past few years they have begun to focus a LOT on the British royals (I assume that's what people were clicking on) but I still enjoy the coverage. Each story is set up as an individual post so it's easy to skip to what you are interested in.

Part of why I like it is that the writers don't pretend to be neutral - they hate Trump, they believe in BLM, when a person says "this person is a dangerous abuser" they believe it.

I used to really enjoy their fashion coverage but there aren't a lot of red carpets to cover these days.
posted by Emmy Rae at 9:17 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Feast on the book Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret by Craig Brown.
posted by JonJacky at 9:27 AM on February 12, 2021 [5 favorites]

Tatler
Vanity Fair
Nancy Mitford's biographies: The Sun King, Madame de Pompadour, and Voltaire in Love.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 9:33 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

You should read LaineyGossip, Ann Helen Peterson, and OhNoTheyDidnt.

LaineyGossip does maybe 5-10 articles daily of varying levels of content - a celebrity social media roundup, a deep dive into a recent article, etc. I usually find one or two of them quite interesting. She views pop culture as a reflection of society and analyzes it thusly.

Ann Helen Peterson currently has a substack and used to work for BuzzFeed. You would likely like some of her old BuzzFeed articles. Her Substack (I get the free version) is also a good read.

OhNoTheyDidnt is much more lowbrow and there's a way higher noise-to-signal ratio but its usually very entertaining, and the comments are usually pretty interesting. It's a crowdsourced blog with posts about a bunch of different gossip topics daily.
posted by hepta at 9:33 AM on February 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Seconding Lainey Gossip and Anne Helen Peterson.
posted by heathrowga at 9:46 AM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Kitty Kelley is so good at this, her unauthorized biography of Nancy Reagan is everything you'd expect it to be and more. Also, her book about Jackie Kennedy is full of juicy stuff.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 9:46 AM on February 12, 2021 [3 favorites]

Palimpsest by Gore Vidal. If you're leery of drippy gossip but love the human narrative, it's good (so far!).
posted by firstdaffodils at 11:20 AM on February 12, 2021 [2 favorites]

Furious Love, on Dick and Liz and their ins and outs. Quite good.

Sex, Lies, and Stardom, on the women in Howard Hughes' life. Comprehensive and full of weird detail.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:35 AM on February 12, 2021

Oh, and the Cary Grant biography by Marc Eliot. TONS of gossip.

Yes, stars of yesteryear, but sometimes the good stuff takes a while to surface.
posted by Capt. Renault at 12:03 PM on February 12, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks to everyone so far! I won’t threadsit but the gossip of yesteryear is just as welcome as the current stuff.
posted by cheapskatebay at 12:08 PM on February 12, 2021

If you like some yesteryear gossip, I feel like you'll enjoy a lot of the podcast "you must remember this"
posted by euphoria066 at 2:00 PM on February 12, 2021

Here's a 2014 talk from Anne Helen Peterson at Webstock on why celebrity gossip matters - What we talk about when we talk about Brangelina
posted by maupuia at 2:47 PM on February 12, 2021

I just finished The Fabulous Bouvier Sisters and I very much enjoyed the gossipy parts! There were so many and I learned so much! They were kinda related to Gore Vidal and friends with Truman Capote, so there are good quotes and stories from them. And I think it ends with some salacious blind items, but oh if it were all true! Not a happy read, but very compelling.
posted by danabanana at 3:24 PM on February 12, 2021

I love two substack newsletters, Hung Up by Hunter Harris, a former pop culture writer for Vulture, and Gossip Time by Allie Jones.
posted by ellieBOA at 9:47 PM on February 12, 2021

Look no further than Dlisted.com - it's a go-to for my pop culture savvy friends.
posted by lecorbeau at 2:13 PM on February 13, 2021

A slight twist, but Truman Capote's Answered Prayers: The Unfinished Novel contains a chapter called "La Cote Basque" which was serialized in Esquire. It's a pretty thinly veiled exposé of the personal lives and scandals of socialites who held him in their confidence, and the fallout was severe -- he was ostracized after the publication in Esquire. (There's a fictionalized novel version of this incident which is more juicy but it's less gossip so much as Gossip +, IMO. )
posted by sm1tten at 3:55 PM on February 13, 2021