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The Liz Smith Column | 06/29/2009 11:00 pm

Liz Smith: Going to the Dogs With Janice Dickinson

Also from Our Gossip Girl, summer in Central Park with Anne Hathaway … Angelina and Brad – giving millions to charity!
Janice Dickinson © Getty Images
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have been said to be splitting up at least once a month since they got together several years ago. The tabloids yell "Now Their Fight Becomes Public!" and cataclysmic stuff of that nature. Inside one magazine, they’re shown at a party and the description under pictures of them chatting with guests is used to suggest they seem sexually interested in people other than one another. This is so silly.

Nobody at these publications bothers to note that Brad and Angelina, making a movie now in Washington, DC, recently gave $1 million to the United Nations refugee agency for Pakistanis who are fleeing the Taliban.

***

In my sympathetic and adoring retrospective of Michael Jackson, which ran last Monday, I forgot an era when I didn’t feel so great about Michael. The Daily News writer Mike Lupica remembered, however, and immortalized me, like this: "Before all the grotesque plastic surgery, before Liz Smith finally – and famously – wrote, ‘Who do you suppose gives Michael Jackson the creeps?’"

So, I do take the blame, or the credit, for writing that, because Michael did get very creepy indeed after 2001. This doesn’t change the fact that he was one of the greatest entertainers of the 20th century.

***

So those reality show demi-celebrities, Jon and Kate, are now divorcing. Good. Just so I don’t have to take custody of either one of them!

29 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Laura Ward
Jon and Kate are probably grateful for the Michael Jackson news now letting them regroup privately.
By Laura Ward on 06/30/2009 1:39 am
darcus grey
Janice Dickenson is nothing if not interesting. I’ve tuned in to that show just to watch her in action.
By darcus grey on 06/30/2009 1:40 am
trishiegirl trishiegirl
And I turn off immediately, anything that has her stretched face and old-lady armpits on display. When you’re that ugly, you should learn to be kind and charming so everyone doesn’t run from you.
By trishiegirl trishiegirl on 07/01/2009 6:27 am
Victoria J
Trishie girl, don’t be so judgemental.  Janice is a kind of stimulus package all her own. She is the ultimate new age entrepreneur. People who are notoriously untalented, jobless, sell their tortured lives to reality show television. And, guess what Americans eat this up.  Then we bitch and moan about how awful these people are…well, folks you get the televsion you deserve. 
By Victoria J on 07/02/2009 12:06 pm
Lin Cercone
HEY LIZ:  Janice Dickinson, UGH - she showed herself to be a thief, liar, and WHEN was she a super model?  The only thing super about her is her inflated ego.  Yuck!  I totally agree re: Jon and Kate - who cares.
By Lin Cercone on 06/30/2009 5:57 am
Washington  Cube

I would think Lisa Fonssagrives would have been the first super model, and she was certainly before my time, but I still know who she was, and Carmen Del Orifice makes Janice look like Kibbles and Bits…even now, later in her career. And what about Dovima?  All elegant, aristocratic looking women. Swans. Janice? Quack.

I used to love seeing Shakespeare outdoors in the summer.  I wonder why I don’t do that anymore?

I’ve been surprised hearing about Jerry Brown.  Hasn’t his peace, love, and harmony sun grope dancing time passed?  My instinct tells me he doesn’t stand a chance.

By Washington Cube on 06/30/2009 6:30 am
L. C.

Janice has learned how to keep re-inventing herself. She has mastered extending 15 minutes of fame!

Jerry Brown let it go! Your  political sun has set. There are many ways to give back. Volunteer, hold citizen empowerment workshops etc.

Good for Angelina and Brad. I believe it’s our responsibility to give back It’s a human thing!

By L. C. on 06/30/2009 7:04 am
Sharon R.
My sentiments exactly on ALL counts!  Thanks!!!
By Sharon R. on 06/30/2009 9:52 am
Deena B.

The term Supermodel is so over used that it really has no meaning. 

Like Washington Cube, it has been a very long time since I attended an outdoor Shakespeare production.  I need to remedy that.

By Deena B. on 06/30/2009 7:52 am
Maggie W

"Brown says America’s real anger over unemployment has yet to be unleashed."

Sheesh!  Same old Jerry with the same old babble that makes no sense whatsoever.

By Maggie W on 06/30/2009 9:45 am
Slinky Binx

Janice D was not the first supermodel.  Sheesh.  Janice was hotter than hot in the 70s, but what about Jean Shrimpton or Twiggie or Varushka from the 60’s? Or Suzy Parker, who was the little sister of Dorian Leigh from the 40’s/50s?  Janice’s drug use has pickled her brain!

She messed up her face with all the surgery too, so her former beauty is gone, gone, gone.  

By Slinky Binx on 06/30/2009 11:35 am
darcus grey
IIRC, Janice claimed to be the first supermodel because, according to her, she coined the term. She claims that she first used it when exclaiming to her agent, "I’m not a model. I’m a super model!", after her agent expressed concern that she was over taxing herself and needed to slow down. That I know this tidbit should bother me.
By darcus grey on 06/30/2009 1:00 pm
Kristy B
Janice likes so many other people are way past their 15 minutes of fame but yet they keep finding ways to back out there.
By Kristy B on 06/30/2009 11:54 am
KatyDid Wells

Liz has a good sense of what’s important and what’s not.  I don’t give a tinker’s damn about whether Angelina and Brad are fighting, but the fact they have given a large sum of money to those fleeing the Taliban?  Now that’s worth reporting.

Janice Dickinson puts herself on a higher pedestle than anyone else ever could.  She also treats people terribly and though that seems to be what people enjoy watching these days, personally, I can think of better ways to spend my time.

I’ve stated on more than one occasion that I think the media blitz over Michael Jackson is too much (not a surprise, mind you, but still…) but amidst all the press, I do have to say one thing.  Though I respected Jackson as a young performer, the fact that he became beyond "creepy" (as Liz puts it) completey colored my thinking of him.  Now that he’s gone however, and I see how the media is acting, how his family is acting (his father is a piece of work), and the push and pull of all of those close to him, I almost understand and feel sorry for him.  If this is the way people treated him throughout his life, no wonder he left reality.

Jerry Brown?  Hmmm… I think this will be a very telling campaign for California. 

By KatyDid Wells on 06/30/2009 1:36 pm
Victoria J
Katydid…don’t continue the rumor that Angie and Brad are fighting. They are not. But the story sells stories and as fewer celeb mags are being purchased…the more they try to hype the three or four people who are guaranteed to sell mags…AJ/BP  JA and the President…and oh those gossip people…6 people who have names I have never heard of…:))
By Victoria J on 07/01/2009 3:46 pm