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Liz
Smith cont.
JJ:
Who's the toughest celeb to interview?
LS:
Gwyneth Paltrow. Her press agent just won't let anybody near
her! She's lovely. She's hard to interview. Oh they're all
kind of hard. I don't think it's that they're difficult. I
think it's that they feel they have limited energy and don't
want to be interviewed. And they don't want publicity, most
of 'em. It's a 180-degree turnaround.
JJ:
What's your take on Richard Gere?
LS: I think fatherhood
has changed him for the better. I always thought he was sort
of vain and empty, but he's probably got a lot more qualities
than I thought.
"There
isn't any law guaranteeing anybody privacy in America."
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JJ:
What makes you decide whether or not to kill an item?
LS: If I think it would
be too hurtful or truly injurious to somebody's career or
personal life I might kill it.
JJ:
So what do you think of the extramarital affair that practically
ruined Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford's marriage?
LS: They didn't do it
any good themselves by going on TV and continuing to talk
about it. They conducted their reaction to it totally in public
and I think it just ruined them.
JJ:
What do you think about the so-called columnists who first
exposed it?
LS: It was in The
Star, which paid for the story, so I didn't think much
of it. That's really quite awful, luring someone into having
sex with you and then selling it and ruining others' lives.
JJ:
Exactly. How do you ride the fine line between friends and
connections?
LS: I haven't the vaguest
idea! I mean, it's something I have to deal with every day.
JJ:
That's a true art, wouldn't you say? A real balancing act.
LS: Oh I don't know, I've
tried a real balancing act and it's a pain in the ass, frankly.
And I don't know how I do it!
JJ:
[laughs] What's a good day and a bad day for you?
LS: A good day is when
I've got a lot of wonderful news, when people call and give
it to me themselves, or that I pick up at a party. The day
I have to dance around and find something out is a bad day.
Fridays are always bad days—everything happens on Friday.
Just as you're getting ready to go away for the weekend, people
announce things, and the timing is awful.
JJ:
How has the climate of gossip changed since you started your
career? And what's your take on the Matt Drudges of the world?
LS: It changed because
times have changed. Mores and manners and morals have all
changed, and so of course there is more you can say now. In
the past you couldn't say all this stuff and now you can say
almost anything. And of course on the Internet you can say
anything, probably without much fear of any kind of reprisal.
I don't like the Internet because I think it has no brakes—no
editors, no publishers. And so I don't like that free-wheeling
thing where you can just put any kind of crap out there.
JJ:
What do you think of a celeb's privacy when it comes to
the paparazzi and the media?
LS:
Well I think the paparazzi and the media overdo it and I think
the celebs overdo their feeling that they deserve privacy.
There isn't any law guaranteeing anybody privacy in America.
I think the bad thing is that the press hounds people. Or
the press gets those stories and won't let them go! Then you
could go crazy because for 10 days you don't read about anything
else. It drives you nuts and you hate the people ever after
because you never want to hear their name again. [Jedell laughs.]
That's sort of what happened with Kathie Lee. The interesting
thing is that Kathie Lee seems to have lost her popularity
more than Frank.
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Mary
Tyler Moore and
Dr. Robert Levine
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Ivana
Trump, Liz
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Kathie
Lee Gifford
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photos
taken by Joan Jedell at Liz Smith's book party for Natural
Blonde at Le Cirque
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