Gossip column

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A gossip column is an article in a newspaper or magazine written by a gossip columnist. These columnists are often referred to as "gossip queens". The purpose of the column is two-fold; it mainly serves as a vehicle for spreading news, rumors and innuendo about movie and television celebrities, famous athletes, politicians, and members of society, usually for entertainment purposes. It is also often used by well-known personalities, particularly celebrities and society members, to publicize themselves or their projects, or to counteract bad press or gossip that has recently surfaced about their lives. In the era when the movie studios controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of their movie stars, the gossip column was used more as a publicity tool and to counteract whispers about celebrity secrets that could have severely damaged not only the reputation of the movie star in question, but the movie star's box office viability as well. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the two best-known - and competing - Hollywood gossip columnists were Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons. Having fallen into ill-repute after the heyday of Hopper and Parsons, the gossip column saw a comeback in the 1980s. Today, many reputable magazine] which would once have considered the idea of publishing a gossip column to have been beneath their stature, are including them for entertainment purposes, providing the hoi polloi with a glimpse into the lives of the rich and famous. There are also entire publications, the tabloids, that deal primarily in gossip.