The gossip world giveth jobs, and the gossip world taketh jobs away. Last week, Page Six hired Emily Smith to replace departed deputy editor Paula Froelich. Now, the column has let Bill Hoffman go. What happened?

This is sort of unfortunate, but not really. A federal appeals court today decided the news media will not be permitted access to the wiretaps that were used to bust Emperors Club VIP, the escort agency that employed Ms. Ashley Dupre and brought Eliot Spitzer's political career to a messy end last March.

When Ron Silver died in March, the New York Post's Cindy Adams eulogized him by revealing that he'd once been a CIA operative: "I remember him saying he'd been in the CIA at age 22." It's not true.

When CNN launched a new ad claiming (falsely) to be beat MSNBC and Fox News in viewers, Fox's flack retorted that Time Warner CEO "Jeff Bewkes is too smart to buy [CNN president] Jon Klein's bullshit." But Rupert Murdoch isn't.

Rupert Murdoch announced plans yesterday to charge for online access to all of News Corp's media properties. Coincidentally, the company posted a $203 million loss for its fourth quarter, down from a profit of $1.1 billion from the same period last year.

Oh New York Post, is there any Bill Clinton story you can't work a Monica Lewinsky joke into? The banner headline over the former president's heroic rescue of Euna Lee and Laura Ling: "BILL CAN STILL GET THE WOMEN"

Last night's farewell party for departing Page Six deputy editor Paula Froelich was as lovey-dovey as expected. In long-standing New York Post tradition, there was a mock front-page about her. As for gossip about about her departure, nobody was talking.

• How's the New York Times Co. planning to lift itself out of the financial mess it's been in? Times Co. chief Janet Robinson says more cuts are on the way and the company is planning to sell off more assets. Also, there's some sort of paid membership model in the works, apparently. [WSJ, Gawker]
• Related: The paper says it will sell its stake in the Red Sox by January. [BG]
• What you missed at Walter Cronkite's funeral yesterday. [NYT, WaPo]
• Best-selling author E. Lynn Harris has died. He was 54. [NYT]
• More magazine is teaming up with Candace Bushnell on a new Web series starring 90210's Jennie Garth and Talia Balsam from Mad Men. [MW]
• After a ten-year run, today is Paula Froelich's last day at Page Six. [NYM]

Pity Itty Bitty Kitty: Cupboard's Bare Cause Mother's There. Snackin' Fatty Dragged in Paddy Wagon.

The New York Post is shocked and outraged—not to mention disgusted—that some sicko perv secretly took a nude video of hot, sexy blond ESPN anchor Erin Andrews and posted it online. The Post is flabbergasted. And dismayed.

Life sucks. Everyone knows this. Of course, life sucks most for the models. All those castings and photo shoots and cocaine-fueled orgies and whatnot! How do they do it?! Well, things are finally looking up, thanks to the "Model Lounge."

The New York Post is in high dudgeon over Obama's health plan, blasting a "terrifying" potential 57% "mega-tax" on "successful NYers" under "Obamacare" on the front page. Gosh, that does sound like a lot. Glad we're not successful.

Yesterday, Debbie Rowe's lawyer demanded that the New York Post retract its claim that she sold her kids to Katherine Jackson for $4 million. Today the Post dug in.

The New York Post is facing a demand for retraction from Debbie Rowe's attorney over a story in today's paper, and it's choosing an odd way to defend itself: By relying on the reporting of its arch-rival, the Daily News.

Paula Froelich, the long-time No. 2 on the New York Post's Page Six gossip column, just gave two weeks notice, a source says. She recently published a novel Mercury in Retrograde, and there's no word on what she's doing next.

Fashion Week Daily is reporting that gossip queen (and, as of a few weeks ago, bestselling author) Paula Froelich is leaving her perch at the New York Post's Page Six "to focus on freelance writing and television projects." Godspeed! [Fashion Week Daily]

Maximilia "Ava" Cordero, alleged underage lover of billionaire perv Jeffrey Epstein, sued the New York Post two years ago after it ran a story saying she was born a man, and was slutty. The decision is in! Sexlaw frontiers, here.

With all of this tabloid love for Michael Jackson today, which brave soul shall stand up and proudly fly the "Sicko!" banner of dissent? Hark! Andrea Peyser still exists.

Jeffrey Epstein, the shadowy money manager who pleaded guilty in 2007 to soliciting underage teen girls for sex, is expected to leave a Florida prison in a couple of weeks. (Not that he's been spending much time behind bars in recent months: As part of a work-release program, he's been allowed to leave the jail from 10am to 10 pm, six days a week, to "work" out of his "office" in West Palm Beach.) But while Epstein has something to be cheerful about these days, one of his old acquaintances was handed a major defeat last week. Maximilia "Ava" Cordero, the transgender teenager who sued Epstein and claimed she'd been forced to engage in "bizarre and unnatural sex acts" with the billionaire in exchange for his help advancing her career as a model, just lost her libel and defamation lawsuit against the New York Post.

No, argues one columnist who's not afraid to tell it like it is: