Liz Smith
Liz Smith, a native Texan and graduate of the University of Texas, arrived in New York in 1949, with $50 to her name and no ticket home.
In 1976, as the star columnist of the New York Daily News, she created an overnight sensation. Her column, which began back on page 47, soon moved up, by popular demand, to Page Six. She became a new kind of gossip columnist -- one known for wit, humor and a sense of fair play.
Liz has done everything in the world of publishing except set type. She was a proofreader for Newsweek, an editor for Modern Screen, and a press agent for Broadway shows. She was a producer for Mike Wallace on CBS radio, and for five years a TV producer for NBC, working with Dave Garroway, Igor Cassini and Allen Funt.
In the '60s, Liz was ghostwriter for the Hearst society column "Cholly Knickerbocker," the entertainment editor of Cosmopolitan Magazine, and a contract writer for Sports Illustrated, bringing to that publication a woman's point of view.
But true success came with her syndicated column, which put the Daily News on the map, and her 11-year stint on NBC-TV's "Live At Five." Liz joined the L.A. Times Mirror syndicate in 1991 and, for five years, appeared daily in the popular New York Newsday. For more than 12 years, Liz was published in Newsday (appearing in the Queens, Long Island and New York editions), the New York Post and the Staten Island Advance, making her the first and only columnist to ever appear in three metropolitan newspapers at the same time.
Liz Smith is syndicated in more than 70 newspapers. Her column can also be found daily on the Internet and also in the Bible of Show Business, Variety.
Liz Smith penned her memoir "Natural Blonde" in September 2000 and a food memoir, titled "Dishing," in 2005.
Liz Smith Samples
'Iron Man' is weird, witty, crazy -- irresistibly crowd pleasing
"What a rage for fame attends both great and small! I was in Orso, the understated theater cafe on West 44th Street the other night, and there was music tycoon Clive Davis with his entire family.
Get your ice picks out -- will there be a 'Basic Instinct 3'?
"THERE'S NO smoking in this building, ma'am." "What are you going to do, arrest me for smoking?" So it went between murder suspect Sharon Stone and the detectives grilling her in 1992's "Basic Instinct."
At long last, a 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' sequel!
"CHINA IS a big country, inhabited by many Chinese," said Charles de Gaulle," with incredible insight. Fans of Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" were caught by surprise when they learned that a sequel is being planned.
Burlesque laid bare in revealing new book
"YA, know, from the way that dame walks, she would have made a damn fine stripper in her day!" So says Tessie Tura, commenting on Mama Rose, in "Gypsy."
Sweet Charity ... Sweet 'Home' Reese ... Dueling 'Star Trek' reviews
"Charity begins at home!" some wise philosopher once said. I went to a fundraiser last week for The Neighborhood Coalition where they had a "live auction' and guests began offering up huge sums of money just to get it to end!
Wrapped up in Liberace ... Angelina & Leo -- heroes! A look at networks and HBO ... Actors, Actors, Actors
"THERE'S NOTHING MORE intriguing than a movie star wrapped like a mummy playing someone just emerging from plastic surgery.
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