Gossip roundup
· NYT journalist Michael Finkel, who was fired last year for fabricating a story, found out while he was contemplating suicide that Christian Longo (who was wanted in Mexico for murdering his family) was using his name as an alias because he liked Finkel's writing. HarperCollins is paying $300,000 for Finkel's story, including exclusive interviews with Longo. [Page Six]
· George Hamilton is hosting a reality TV show pilot in which a low-income family from the Bronx is transplanted into a Palm Beach mansion. [Page Six]
· Stephen King's cure for writer's block: "I pull out from deep within my desk this jar which is said to have a pickled little slave boy's heart from before the Civil War, although I'll never know if that is really true or not," (he tells Webster Hall curator Baird Jones.) [Page Six]
· Liz Smith takes a swipe at Mr. Untouchable: "I can't wait for Nicole [Kidman]'s turn as a woman married to a short-ish control freak who won't allow her to wear high heels." [Ed. notego Liz!] [Liz Smith]
· Clive Davis says none of his rivals throw competing Grammy parties because he always includes them in the fun. Kid Rock on musicians pontificating about war in Iraq: "Why is everybody trying to stop the war? George Bush ain't been saying, 'You all, make shitty records.' Politicians and music don't mix. It's like whisky and wine. [Musicians] ought to stay out of it." [NY Daily News]