In any social milieu, people may be occupied in gossip for a substantial part of their every day lives. Recognizing, since *Malinowski, that studying the world of the everyday is the key to an understanding of how people behave, anthropologists have...

A gossip’s mouth is the Devil’s mailbag. (Irish) A gossiping woman talks of everybody, and everybody of her. (Portuguese) Do not blab abroad what is said in drink. (Scottish) From my gossip’s bread a large piece for my godson....

This is no longer used as a term of address, though in Shakespeare’s time it would have been quite normal, especially when linked with a surname. Married women who were friends seem to have been the main users of the term: ‘What hoa, gossip...

The listener makes the backbiter....

Gossip consists of casual or idle talk between friends. While ostensibly value neutral, the term often specifically refers to talk of scandal, slander, or schadenfreude relating to known associates of the participants, and discussed in an underhand or...

It's the third spring since our rebirth as Whole Earth magazine; wisteria drooping glamorously from the native oak, warblers gone upland to court and mate and lay some eggs. Stewart Brand and his (rife Ryan called at midnight on their cell phone to...

Heaven knows we try, but there's nothing to prepare anyone for the wild, wacky and wonderful world of gossip. There's just so much of it. Woody and Mia and the kids. Madonna and her book. Paula and her weight. Michael, La Toya and Janet...

When friends and gossip rub shoulders, strange things happen.For the worker bees at Us Weekly, when news broke recently that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston were splitting, they knew their weekends were ruined. And indeed, the breaking up of Hollywood's golden couple translated into a...

Justin Timberlake blames celebrity magazines for turning his personal life into juicy gossip fodder. "I despise what they do," the 26-year-old singer tells Details magazine in an interview in its April issue. "They create soap operas out of people's lives. ... It's a spin game,...

Gossip has always been a huge phenomenon and is widely known for its destructive potential and effects, yet could easily draw anyone in. For some it's an attitude, for some it's a mere hobby and for some it's a lifestyle.