April 7-13, 2005

artpicks

Dishing It Out

by A.D. Amorosi

Books

So there's gossip goddess Liz Smith the other day in The New York Times, kvetching about the new snark and how she doesn't have the stomach to be consistently, constantly mean; rambling on and on about how she doesn't read the gawkers and defamers of the world; trilling unendingly about how darned near anybody can be a gossip queen now. Yeah. This might just be the dull roar of an elder scribe slightly out of touch with the Internet's currency, the nature of the blog beast and the speediness world at large. Like Tom Wolfe's take on college life, I Am Charlotte Simmons, Smith may be lost in another time, one filled with Walter Winchells and Hedda Hoppers. Then again, she's half right. The blog world is adrift in know-nothings taking blind stabs along the information highway, simply adding two cents onto a nickel's worth of info. What Smith does have the stomach for is food — meals she's cooked from her own design and those of the celebs she's dished with and on. And that would be put into a book called Dishing: Great Dish — and Dishes — From America's Most Beloved Gossip Columnist After A.D. (Simon & Schuster). And yes, I added that last bit, OK? After having memoir-ed her golden years with Natural Blonde, Smith takes her subjects — the Astors, the Reagans, the Rathers, the Taylor/Burtons — with a literal grain of salt, dropping dimes on how and what the elite eat. She throws in a batch of Elvis foods (fried Snickers), a few foods from the skinniest of socialities (Kate Hepburn) and shows off Diane Sawyer's Cherry Pie without conjuring memories of Warrant.

Liz Smith, Thu., April 7, 8 p.m., $6-$12, Central Branch, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1901 Vine St., 215-567-4341.