In today's Ad Age, Media Guy Simon Dumenco backs former Page Sixer Ian Spiegelman into a wall (sort of) and asks him the tough questions about working for the mafia, er, the Post's most notorious gossip column.

There's a lot of back and forth about Spiegelman's book, his temper tantrum at the Learning Annex, and why Barbra Streisand is a hypocritical basketcase. Then, there's this:

Media Guy: Nicole Kidman's Chinese, you know. Few people know that. I read it in Star.

Spiegelman: Yeah, someone whispered that in [Star editor] Joe Dolce's ear, but it's all wrong. She was grown in a vat for Tom Cruise but her programming got all fried the first time she gazed into his horrible, horrible eyes.

So all of Tom Cruise's wives were grown in vats? How incredibly interesting. See, gossips don't just make things up for their novels. They also make stuff up to try out humor and sell magazines.

Former 'Page Six' Gossip Admits to Making Stuff Up! (For His Novel) [Simon Dumenco, Ad Age]