Back in March, Salon writer Rebecca Traister predicted that "the golden age of celebrity gossip" was coming to a close. Citing a variety of possible reasons – America's resurgent interest in politics, a glut of outlets, etc. – Traister's premise seemed plausible but unlikely, what with Speidi being interviewed about politics and Perez Hilton getting richer than CNN anchors. We figured it was just a matter of time until the Times switched to purple ink and started calling Robert Mugabe "fugly." But then the bottom dropped out.

Ben Widdicombe was the first to go, ankling his post as the New York Daily News' most respected gossip columnist. Next were Rush & Molloy, the married gossips who since 1995 had also penned a column for the Daily News—they wanted to focus on other stories for the paper. Then Jo Piazza, whose scuttlebutt replaced Widdicombe's, quit, too. Jossip's gossip-oriented sister site Mollygood shut down, much like the short-lived PageSix.com before it. Also, tabloid sales continued to shrink. In short, Traister was right. But why?

It wasn't politics that caused the shift. If anything, politics in '08 became more gossipy than an episode of The Hills ever was. Don't believe us? Then why do you and I know that the name of Sarah Palin's daughter's child's father is Levi, a hockey player who dropped out of high school and whose MySpace page proclaimed that he was a "fucking redneck"? Just because it's on CNN doesn't mean it can't be gossip.

So then, is gossip dying because there's too much of it (ie the prevalence of gossip blogs killed it)? Sounds a bit too "the Internet made the world fall apart" for our generational sensibilities. As Treister says in her article, "There has been a market for entertainment gossip ever since there has been entertainment." All this rumormongering isn't anything new, and it's not as if gossip blogs, columns and television shows aren't easily avoidable things (just the other day, our dad asked us what TMZ is!).

Couple the politics theory and the "too much" theory, and we think you might be onto something. In an e-mail chat with Ben Widdicombe about why gossip is on its way out, Widdicombe, now an editor at large for Star, noted, "I don't think gossip is on its way out, but it's changing. Fame has become much more democratic." And in a more democratic society, it's Warhol's nightmare: fame for all, for at least 15 minutes. Every swath of humanity is ensured a voice anymore, and with that voice comes whispered rumors.

Like an Old Navy with a fleece color for every taste, America now offers a gossip flavor for everyone interested: There's Hollywood gossip, sports gossip, Manhattan media gossip, soap opera gossip, music gossip, hipster gossip, art gossip, Juggalo gossip, political gossip, black gossip, gay gossip, Latino gossip, advertising gossip, college gossip, LA gossip, Toronto gossip, San Francisco gossip, tech gossip, booze gossip, food gossip, sex gossip, financial gossip and skateboarding gossip. And sometimes, like when we write about the goings on of Star, people gossip about gossip.

Deal with it. Gossip isn't dead, everyone's secrets are.