Reading gossip, Liz Smith cheerily admits in the prologue to her new book, is for people with a lot of time on their hands--"for leisure, for fun." So reading the memoir of a gossip columnist may be a sign that you should start donating time to charitable work.
But Natural Blonde (Hyperion; 460 pages; $25.95), for all its starstruck reminiscences (lunch with Richard Burton! Sean Connery in the buff!), promised headline-making dish that had publishing circles abuzz last week about the top-secret book. The 77-year-old gossip queen, the woman who broke the story of Donald and Ivana Trump's marital woes,...