Athletes, actors and other celebrities have lucrative contracts for all types of endorsements, including putting their names on products. One of the most prolific is Justin Timberlake, who is an investor and/or endorser of clothing, fragrances, restaurants, tequila and other products, including Audi car, Callaway golf and Sony electronics. The men’s and women’s fragrance section of a department store looks like the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One of the most successful is Martha Stewart.
Which celebrities influence you in buying products?

Dick Van Dyke, 87, married Arlene Silver, 40.  Larry King, 79, is married to Shawn Southwick, 53. William Shatner’s fourth wife is 28 years younger. The most famous May-December marriage (more like January-December) was actress Anna Nicole Smith, who was 20 years old when she married 89-year-old J. Howard Marshall. These “trophy wives” sometimes are called golddiggers. Women who marry younger men are called cougars.
What do you call men who marry women who are much younger? Let’s come up with a better name than cradle robbers.

One of the most famous magazine covers was the August 1991 issue of Vanity Fair with a nude, very pregnant (and beautiful) Demi Moore. Photos of celebrities who are nude and pregnant, known as The Demi Pose, have included Cindy Crawford (W, June 1999), Britney Spears (Harper’s Bazaar, April 2006), Christina Aguilera (Marie Claire, January, 2008), Claudia Schiffer (Vogue Germany, June 2010), Maria Carey (Life&Style, April 18, 2011), Nia Long (Ebony, November 2011), and Jessica Simpson (Elle, April 2012). Snooki of Jersey Shore is pregnant. Prediction: She will do a Demi Pose.
Who else is due?

Klout analyzes a person’s influence, based on the number of people who are active followers on that person’s social networks. Register at klout.com and get your score. Other influence evaluators include Kred, PeerIndex, TwitterGrader and TwitterElite. My Klout score is low. Baffling.

What’s your score?

“The Greatest Gossip” is the headline of a review (in the December 2011 issue of The Atlantic) about a book of essays by John Updike. The title of the anthology, “Higher Gossip,” is based on a quip by Updike that book reviewing was “gossip of a higher sort.” Updike was a superb writer but he wasn’t the world’s greatest gossip. Contenders include Samuel Pepys, Nigel Dempster, Dominick Dunne and Walter Winchell.

Who do you nominate?

Most of us now share more than ever before about our private lives and gossip about others. We expose ourselves with chatter on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks but complain when others expose us. Many sites have privacy controls. Do you use them?

Psychologists categorize gossip as sympathy gossip (compassion), envy gossip (jealousy), veneration gossip (respect), shame gossip (embarrassment), and slander gossip. The first three categories are positive gossip. Envy is a major stimulus for gossip. It encourages the listener to reply in the same manner. Shame and slander are negative gossip and usually are more memorable.

How would you describe most of your gossip?

A spate of recent articles from business and etiquette writers warn about the dangers of office gossip and advise workers how to avoid it. In fact, most gossip in the workplace is positive or innocuous. (For example, Have you seen Jane? She looks terrific!) Gossip about potential layoffs, plant closings and other problems can be helpful to employees and serve as alerts to management. Considerable research by sociologists and others indicates that gossip bonds workers and enhances morale.

Do you gossip in your workplace?

The invasion of privacy is a significant problem, particularly by anonymous users of the Internet. In his new book, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, Jeff Jarvis argues that we have become obsessed with the issues of privacy and “publicness” improves interpersonal relationships.

Do you agree that friendship bonding and other benefits of gossip outweigh the invasion of privacy?

The Forbes list ranks Lady Gaga as number one, followed by Oprah Winfrey, Justin Bieber, U2, Elton John, Tiger Woods, Taylor Swift, Don Imus, Simon Cowell, Lebron James, Angelina Jolie, Katy Perry, Johnnie Depp, Kobe Bryant, Leonardo DiCaprio, Black-Eyed Peas, Donald Trump, Phil McGraw, Tyler Perry and Paul McCartney. Among the other 80 are James Patterson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Christopher Nolan, Toby Keith, Lionel Messi, Chuck Lorre, Jeff Dunham, Danica Patrick and Hugh Laurie. If  you can identify all of these celebrities, you are a better gossipist than I am.