Boldface Dies, Takes Gossip With It? (Nah.)
Today, as promised, is the final installment of the Times' Boldface column. Some say it's dying because the Metro editors were tired of it; some say it's dying because Mrs. Keller, the gin heiress, doesn't like it; some say it's dying because Campbell Robertson, the column's author, has starry-eyed dreams of the Great White Way. (He'll go out there a youngster, but we have no doubt he'll come back a star.) In his farewell column, however, young Campbell provides his own explanation:
In a stunning development that rattled the gossip world to its very foundations — foundations that in turn crumbled into a pebble-strewn field of broken dreams — MR. SEGUE MAN, a former part-time stringer for the wildly popular Boldface column and editor of the short-lived Boldface: The Magazine, was revealed yesterday to have been caught on a secret videotape allegedly offering to pay $35.60 to various celebrities if they would allow him to use their names in the column.
The allegations come at a time when the gossip world is reeling on its axis and at risk of being derailed by charges of high living, free meals, all-expense-paid junkets and the occasional bachelor party....
Some observers of the industry say that the allegations surrounding Mr. Segue Man could be gossip's death knell.
Gossip's death knell? Really? Could it be?
Because of the allegations swirling around Mr. Segue Man and the fact that the Boldface closet was recently found to be out of pencils, this column you are reading will be the last. As of today, there will be no more Boldface.
The year's remaining Broadway openings, movie premieres, book parties, galas, benefits and concerts were, oddly, slated to take place on schedule despite the development.
Odd indeed.
