People Will Talk

Goldberg's second foray (after Madame Cleo's Girls) into the private lives of the rich, famous and unscrupulous is a sexy, witty and thoroughly engaging romp. When Lolly Pines, the doyenne of gossip columnists, meets an accidental death while moving a marzipan bust of Kim Basinger, her assistant, Kick (for Katherine) Butler, inherits not only Lolly's cavernous apartment but also entree into the lives of her ``friends.'' Meanwhile, fledgling gossip reporter Baby Bayer, determined to take over Lolly's column for the New York Courier, is trading sex for influence with shifty celebrity lawyer Irving Fourbraz even as the editor-in-chief of the Courier, who used to sleep with Babe, is falling in love with Kick. For her part, Kick has a score to settle with Irving, who once got her unjustly fired. And just about everyone is mixed up in the hunt for Maria Lopez, the starlet/hooker who was pushed off a hotel balcony by the subject of Lolly's last interview, a TV heartthrob. If Baby finds the starlet, she has Lolly's job; if Kick finds her, she gets her revenge on Irving. With a plot as dizzying as the shenanigans of real-life celebs and gossip hounds, plus an outrageous cast of characters (some recycled from Madame Cleo's Girls), this savvy novel celebrates the glitterati as it skewers them-and is bound to win Goldberg a host of new fans. (Dec.)