What's shocking in this Page Six item about hot tranny messes?

THE tourists in Times Square are in for a treat Saturday when 1,200 transvestites will gather at the Marriott Marquis for "Night of 1,000 Gowns." Michael Salem, who caters to the needs of drag queens, is planning to attend with Veronica Vera, who runs Mistress Vera's School for Boys Who Want To Be Girls. Salem - who does a brisk business in high heels up to size 17, triple-E width, and silicone breasts with nipples and without - is eager to mingle with his customers.

The regularly homophobic Post seems to have lost its inclination to bash the GLBT community!

After the jump, a classic example.

CONTINUED »

What's this we're hearing about the New York Post not keeping ANYONE from PageSix.com after they decided to shutter the three-month old site?

First on Jossip: The New York Post's attempt to take on TMZ.com is officially offline. We hear from inside the PageSix.com hen house that they've abandoned their online effort, effective immediately. The announcement was just made internally. Visitors to PageSix.com are redirected to Page Six proper. So, what, no more infighting?

Update: The site was online this morning and was taken down sometime this afternoon, we're told … Phone calls to various extensions there all go directly to voicemail … Blame low traffic numbers … An announcement from Post publicist Steve Rubenstein is forthcoming … The staff of 18 will be let go, though some will be transferred internally within the Post …

About that rumor: Being that we traffic in gossip, perhaps we should be the least surprised to hear the suspect news, that we're being sold, from another publication. Wouldn't it be more amusing if the truth were the exact opposite — that we're closing up shop? Facts are hard!

Though the Wall Street Journal has a new sports page from News Corp. cousin Stats Inc., all those shrieks of Murdoch-ification of the prestigious financial paper have yet to be realized, reports Frank Ahrens in the Washington Post.

In fact, in meetings between marketing representatives of the Journal and News Corp., Murdoch's company has turned down some Journal ideas for pairing the newspaper with News Corp. entities, according to a source close to the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private. The message from News Corp. to the Journal: We don't want to cheapen your brand.

Ahrens should be issuing a correction tomorrow.

Blogs David Freedlander for amNY (via):

Today, downtown, by City Hall, we saw multiple sellers hawking a special newspaper combo meal of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post for the bargain basement price of $1.00.

For you economists out there, that's basically like getting 30 percent off the Journal by agreeing to take the Post off their hands. Which, now that we think about, may have been how that whole Rupert and Bancroft deal went down in the first place.

Is Page Six Magazine a hazard to your health? YES! But only if you work there.

An operative writes in to tell Jossip "there are hundreds of toxic black mold spores that have just recently been discovered growing behind a series of file cabinets" in front of the art/ad sales department.

"Many Page Six Magazine staff members have refused to show up to the office until the matter is thoroughly investigated. Apparently there was a recent flood (last spring) on the 9th floor of the NY Post offices and that is what spawned the spores."

Editor-in-chief Margi Conklin is said to have "expressed concern" over staffers' health and, more importantly!, is "concerned about making the Thursday night close in time for the Sunday edition of the Post."

"Many of the office members have suffered from unexplainable abdominal pains and a rash around their mid section." Hardship! Especially for the pregnant lady we hear is on staff. She's 'specially scaredy-cat.

We've never been big fans of The Post and its yellow journalism. This particular incident has sent us over the edge. We thought about calling for a boycott of The Post, but that wouldn't do much good. What would we do? Keep not buying The Post? Plus, we're going to go out on a limb and guess that a fair number of the people who get their news from The Post think it's probably okay to out someone like that. So, instead we're calling for a boycott of sex with people who read The New York Post.

That's right. If you believe that what The Post did was wrong, and you're sleeping with someone who reads that paper, or considering sleeping with someone who reads that paper, don't do it. We're all for sex, but we're also all for people having the right to practice whatever sexual fetishes they want to do freely (as long as they're not hurting anyone else, which this man clearly was not) without having their names and faces splashed on the front page of a New York City tabloid.

-Emily Farris, "Scanner's Sex Boycott for New York Post Readers," Nerve.com

Blind Items are like the James Joyce of gossip. They’re challenging, but with hard work comes great rewards.

From Gatecrasher:

Don't Shoot the Messenger

Which recently launched gossip Web site can't keep staff? "Our new editor went partying in Miami a few weeks ago and just sort of never came back," complains one insider, who now has to cover her 6 a.m.-3 p.m. shift. "It's awful."

Don’t fall for the red herring clue about the new editor partying in Miami.

The key to this blind item is its source, the Daily News. This is an attack piece, so first we need to determine who the Daily News hates.

They hate Eli Manning, but now that he’s gotten the Giants to the Super Bowl, they hate him a bit less. Also, he didn’t launch a gossip site recently. Same problem with Hillary Clinton. And of all the recently launched gossip sites, why would the Daily News go after some random girl in Kansas who started a gossip blog she’ll drop in a week?

So what is this recently launched gossip website that’s allegedly falling apart?

CONTINUED »

If there are two things the New York Post cares about, it's sports and gossip. They'll cover terrorism, fires in Queens and violent deaths when necessary. But honestly, the paper cares about its back and its sixth pages above all else.

So with Tom Brady chilling out with Gisele before the Super Bowl, the Post is in Nirvana, which for them involves stalking Brady in the West Village.

While Giants quarterback Eli Manning was home dissecting game tape, Tom Brady spent 24 straight hours behind closed doors with his sexy supermodel girlfriend at her intimate Village pad.

What do you think they were up to all night?

Before you guess having sex, the rest of the article describes what kind of take-out they got. The correct answer is fucking and eating.

[Photo]

Our daily attempt to help you seem smart, even if you’re not.

voracious \vaw-RAY-shus\ adjective
1 : having a huge appetite : ravenous; 2 : excessively eager : insatiable

Lindsay Lohan was known for her voracious appetite for men and drugs. But after rehab, Page Six says she's a clean lesbian.

[Photo Credit: WireImage]

Congrats, New York Post. You get today's award for scraping together the least-needed, most-putrid story of the day. And you've got some stiff competition. So who do we have to thank for your delving back into the twisted mind of rapist Peter Braunstein?

The Post's Susannah Cahalan scores an "EXCLUSIVE!" interview with the jailed sicko (his first visit at the Clinton Correctional Facility since he arrived in August), who's adding to his creepiness factor by revealing he wishes he had killed ex-girlfriend Jane Larkworthy instead of torturing his Halloween night victim. Of the latter, he now says, "I wish I could have met her when I was normal. I think we could have been friends."

And then there's his wish to kill New York's Vanessa Grigoriadis, who wrote a story about him while he was on the run, as well a the entire Church of Scientology, and, of course, everyone's favorite fashion foe, Anna Wintour. Got that, St. Nick?

• This classic SNL digital short prompted one of our college friends to say "[Natalie Portman] is the only Jewish girl I'd convert for."

• Gary Kasparov blames Vladamir Putin for forcing him out of Russia's presidential election, continues his one-man crusade to get gunned down by members of the KGB.

• Gawker is looking for a reporter with "an ability to write five short items a day." Easiest job ever?

• "I Hucked Up" is officially the second-best Post headline of the day. Although we would have preferred "Huck Accuses Mormons, Romney Of Deal With The Devil."

• GQ tries to cash in on the progressive artistic phenomenon known as "Flashy-Light Vagina."

• Baseball: Not exactly America's pastime anymore.

• That face transplant chick from France is looking hot. Well, compared with having no face.

This just in from The Post: The Hills might be fake:

Before Lauren Conrad and her Teen Vogue counterpart, Whitney Port, went to Paris to "work" at the Crillon Ball, producers were "frantically calling publicists to see if anyone knew any guys to set the girls up with in Paris. If they had a love affair there, then it would look better," a source said.

Just because it’s not true doesn’t mean it’s not entertaining.

CONTINUED »

Dan Colarusso peaced out of the New York Post yesterday. The current metro editor and former business editor left without a job lined up. Colarusso didn’t return calls from reporters about why he walked out, but we have a feeling it’s juicy.

If you know anything, drop us a line at tattle@jossip.com. We love this kind of shit.

PageSix.com debuts today after only three years of missing the boat, looking less like a celebrity blog than an advertisement for Nikon with Britney Spears' name floating nearby. Speaking of Britney! Her late night birthday party crawl is their lead item, or at least the one sitting at the top of the site right now, which begs the question: Are we witnessing the first of many instances where Page Six's dot-com is going to scoop its print column? MAYBE!

The "Sixers" page lists eight writers, including former UsMagazine.com blogmaster Noelle Hancock and former New York magger freelancer and Post metro reporter Elizabeth Wolff, but also offers anyone the chance to be the "Sixth Sixer": "Could be you! Stay tuned for more details." (Wait, Sixth?)

Meanwhile: Fellow celebrity blogs, like The Superficial, will appreciate how P6DC "links" to their sites, only to host their entire feed on its own webpage. They've also given TMZ that treatment, even though TMZ's Terms of Use explicitly state: "The Material and all other content on this Site may not otherwise be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, distributed or used in any way unless specifically authorized by TMZ.com." Guess what? TMZ didn't authorize them. Best get on the phone, Harvey Levin.

And who knew there were palm trees in New York? Or is that their way of saying "We do L.A., too!" You know, 'cause they do now.

SEATING SHART For the second time in three years, the New York Post confuses Details EIC Dan Peres with actor Chris Klein. Um, at least it wasn't Calvin Klein? [Portfolio]

Might Jeffrey Epstein's publicist Howard Rubenstein colluded with also-client The New York Post to plant scurrilous items about Epstein accuser Maximila Cordero? MAYBE!

CONTINUED »

The Post reports today that Ron Galotti, the inspiration for Mr. Big, is in talks with McGraw-Hill, for a book deal. I had to wonder, how would Carrie Bradshaw react to the news? -raronauer

In a city like New York, opportunity is always around the corner. One minute, you’re walking through SoHo, unable to find a cab or Starbucks for your life, and by a stroke of luck, you uncover the best sample sale of your life.

CONTINUED »

The IRS knows when you are sleeping, they know when you're awake and, most importantly, they know when you've forgotten to pay the lion's share of your yearly income taxes. And now, thanks to an afternoon spent trolling the IRS records, so does the New York Post. Among their startling (and gleefully delivered) findings:

The records show that hip-hop mogul Damon Dash - whose estimated $50 million fortune bought him a chauffeur-driven $400,000 Maybach sedan, diamond-encrusted watches and more than 1,000 pairs of sneakers - owes the state more than $2 million.

$2 million dollars? Sounds like someone needs a better tax attorney and/or personal shopper! By our calculations, that means Damon "Leona Helmsley" Dash stands to lose approximately 4% of his estimated total net worth. On the plus side? He'll still have $48 million.

Watch out New Jersey citizens, Page Six is spreading rumors about you.

The Post is reporting that Jon Bon Jovi could be planning to run for governor. Their evidence: He’s kept his home in Red Bank (even though he lives in SoHo!), he performs regularly for Democratic events (so unlike other musicians!) and his P.R. guy, Ken Sunshine, used to work for David Dinkins. Still not convinced? He’s been approached by about running for office. Case closed!

Was Bruce Springsteen unavailable for this item or something?