[darkandbrooding]

I can't remember the man's name now, but I once read an interview with a NYT gossip reporter who worked up until the 1950s. He said (and I'm paraphrasing from memory), "gossip is rich people dealing with problems that money can't solve."

Apparently the modern incarnation of gossip reporting took shape during the Great Depression, and was a way to humanize people whose fortune and fame made their lives seem wholly separate from their fan base. Gossip permits a person to live vicariously through the celebrity, and creates the illusion of something more inclusive than a simple producer:consumer relationship.