This Is Getting Scary . . . I’m Gonna Shoot Somebody

This Post thing seems to be getting more complicated:

Mr. Stern, 34, an admirer of Walter Winchell who is fond of fedoras and three-piece suits, had been working for The Post since 1997.

. . .

On the tapes, Mr. Stern asks Mr. Burkle to invest in his clothing line at one point, according to a person who said he knew what was on the tapes. He lives in a house in the Catskills which he bought in 2002, with his wife, Ruth Gutman, who Mr. Stern referred to as Snoodles, the nickname of a character from the 1942 movie The Palm Beach Story.

Actually, that’s just the ridiculous part. The complicated part follows:

But while the accusations against Mr. Stern were serious, it was the specter — raised by at least three people who said they knew what was on the tapes — that Mr. Stern implicated several celebrities and New York power figures in an undisclosed, symbiotic relationship with Page Six that prompted an extraordinary day of full-throated and at times gleeful gossip among those who love, hate and avidly read it.

Those who said they know what is on the tape said Mr. Stern named Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax films, and Ronald O. Perelman, the chairman of Revlon Inc., as among those who had finessed their coverage on the page. Through a spokesman, Mr. Weinstein flatly denied any improper relationship with the page and its main editor, Richard Johnson.

Mr. Perelman’s company had once hired Mr. Johnson’s finance, Sessa von Richthofen, to whom he is getting married Saturday, as an administrative assistant. The executive who hired her said today that she had not been pressured into hiring her.

. . .

In their meetings, Mr. Stern described three levels of “protection” he could offer to Mr. Burkle, according to those with knowledge of what is captured on the tapes.

When Mr. Burkle pressed Mr. Stern to explain how this would work, Mr. Stern at first cited a few examples involving his boss, Mr. Johnson. He said, for example, that Mr. Johnson, his boss, had a “script deal” with Mr. Weinstein — something Mr. Weinstein denied today. “The New York Post and Page Six have always been above board with our company,” said a Weinstein company spokesman. “There was never any script deal.”

He also said that Ms. von Richthofen was employed by Mr. Perelman, the financier.

(R. Kelly reference meant to underscore the faux gangsterism of the situation and a sense of disbelief about the incomprehensible turn of events, not to mention the fact that fedoras and three-piece suits are rather fey . . .)

(I suppose at this point it’s not a bad idea to reacquaint yourself with Sweet Smell of Success, in which case alternate titles for this post could include “The Hunsecker Proxy” or “Sweet Smell Of ‘Finesse'”.)