The Rise and Fall of Liz Smith, Celebrity Accomplice<br />In the past we were able to identify important people and stars.”<br />Two years ago, a website called AfterEllen described Ms. Smith as “the most powerful queer woman in media who you’ve never heard of.”<br />Ms. Smith, who appreciates a well-packed phrase, was amused.<br />“I don’t think my name could sell anything now,” Ms. Smith said in the apartment where she moved<br />after her stroke in January, from her longtime digs above a Tex-Mex restaurant in Murray Hill.<br />Ms. Smith still loves famous people, including Gloria Steinem (“one of my idols”), Larry Kramer (“a superior person”), Jennifer Lopez (“I just love her”)<br />and Michelle Obama (“If I were energetic and young and Liz Smith again, I would go after Michelle Obama”).<br />But with the internet and social media, she said, “most people have forgotten about so-called powerful people like me; we served our time.”<br />Which put Ms. Smith at an existential crossroads: If a gossip columnist dishes in the forest and no one repeats it, does it make a sound?<br />Mr. Zarem, who, when asked to comment for this article, said, “I hope it’s for an obituary,” added that as Ms. Smith rose, people bowed to her.<br />I don’t feel like myself at all.”<br />Mary Elizabeth Smith was born in 1923 in Fort Worth<br />and grew up enthralled by the radio broadcasts of Walter Winchell, aching for “the glamour and the excitement of New York,” she said.<br />“I know people who wouldn’t care if Liz Smith killed somebody as long as she mentioned their names in her column,” he said.
