In other celebrity tabloid insider news, in addition to Us Weekly's Joey Bartolomeo jumping to People, we hear In Touch just removed David Thompson, their West Coast bureau chief, who was described to us as "very strange" and one with "no people skills," and simply wasn't up to the task at hand.

He came aboard at the end of November from OK! (and, before that, The Globe), replacing Martin Gould (now at Star). Gould's deputy at the time was Ashley Dillahunty, who remained the No. 2 on the West Coast as news director when Thompson took over.

Now, it's her turn to shine: Dillahunti has been elevated to the bureau chief spot, while former Us Weekly staffer and 944 Vegas editor-in-chief Abby Tegnelia, who's credited with breaking stories like Angelina Jolie giving birth to Shiloh in Namibia, and someone who's been described to us as "talented" and "unassuming," returns to In Touch to grab Dillahunty's old post.

As if the rate base headaches at Bauer couldn't get worse, word arrives that the New Jersey tabloid outpost has its phone taps by the feds as part of a payola investigation.

The FBI is said to be investigating claims that editors, or one in particular, are being paid by photo agencies to choose their pics to appear on the cover. (Sometimes it works in different ways.)

Cold hard cash dumped into their pockets, in exchange for editorial play, won't exactly sound alarms in the industry (c'mon), or in a courtroom. But if said editor doesn't put that income down on his tax return? Eek! And that's the claim being intimated.

Former In Touch staffers in Los Angeles are being called in by federal agents for questioning. But one source inside the company claims to have zero knowledge of the investigation, or even the allegations. "It's bullshit."

Some folks are pointing fingers at Martin Gould, the former West Coast news director who departed for a better payday at Star. But others counter it couldn't be Gould, or anyone based on the West Coast, since the LA bureau doesn't choose cover photos. That's left to Richard Spencer's team on the East Coast.

UPDATE: Bauer just issued this statement to us: "This whole story sounds ludicrous. Our West Coast bureau do not assign photo agencies - this goes through our photo desk. In Touch has not been contacted by the FBI."

In Touch's Martin Gould, the west coast news director and someone who might be referred to as a "superstar reporter" by peers, is taking off for the greener pastures of … Star.

We had to re-read the email he sent to colleagues to believe it, but it does make sense: Star has been raiding the mastheads of other celeb weeklies in recent weeks, especially In Touch. That, and Gould's career is filled with breaking some pretty big stories in this biz, like Pamela Anderson's Hepatitis C status, which her publicist repeatedly denied only to later acknowledge in a "proper" media outlet.

Gould will become senior executive editor at Star when he starts there – or picks up where he left off in 2002 – next week.

"I wanted you all to hear it from me," Gould writes in his email, "because I am sure you will soon hear from someone else." So true!

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