M.R.: Who do you think is the most fun celebrity to gossip about these days?

Musto: My favorite is Britney Spears . . . Everyone laughs. because she doesn't even realize what she's doing. She insists she doesn't want to be part of somebody's Lolita complex, but it's like, hello! On her TV special, they panned the audience and there were these 4-year-old girls putting their hands on their hips and singing "I'm not that innocent." What is going on with this girl? I love her. Diana Ross embodies the same kind of contradiction. I mean, reach out and touch, but don't touch too close.

M.R.: Especially if you're a woman in an airport. Laughter.

Walls: I love Angelina Jolie.

Smith: Yes. I'm always waiting to see what crazy weirdo thing she does next.

Molloy: Yeah, Angelina and Billy Bob are my favorites, too. Because Billy Bob was also one of the few male anorexics, and I'm obsessed with that. At one point, he was eating practically a lettuce leaf a day. Also, I saw Billy Bob do one of the most bodacious things I have ever seen a celebrity do. At the Miramax party at the Oscars several years back, his wife was sitting at the table, and he was holding hands with Laura Dern on the other side.

Walls: Oh! He's horrible!

Smith: I sort of discovered Billy Bob, you know. Elizabeth Taylor kept raving about him. But his romance with Angelina Jolie will burn out really fast, I think.

Molloy: What do you give it?

"Most actors crave publicity, however much they piss and moan. They're like heroin addicts. They complain constantly about how fame ruins their lives, but the truth is they can't live without it. Whenever they go for a while without it, they've got to get another little fix." -- Jeannette Walls

Smith: Six months.

Musto: Six months, yeah.

M.R.: Is that your final answer?

Walls: Can I say four?

M.R.: Has the Internet made your jobs harder or easier?

Molloy: Well, the thing that really irks me are the celebrity Websites now, where if you do an item about, like, Barbra Streisand, bam, the next morning she's like, "This is all lies!" Recently a friend of mine dropped an egg on Streisand while she was filming something, and told me about it. The next day her Website claimed the entire item was fabricated. "Nobody dropped an egg on Barbra." But I knew it was true!

Walls: Celebs have Websites allegedly devoted to countering the gossip about them, but I think they're really devoted to feeding the stars' ego. I mean, Michael Douglas's Website is hilarious. And you've got to pay $39 for it.

M.R.: What do you get? His measurements?

Smith: I don't pay any attention to any of that. The only thing I read off the Internet is Jeannette.

Walls: Oh, bless your heart!

Smith: I don't read anything else, because I don't believe anything else I read. In the beginning I thought I was missing out when I wasn't reading Matt Drudge. Then I found out that all Drudge did was write a little teeny item a day. . . .

Walls: He picks up all the rest from us.

M.R.: Then how come he's stolen so much thunder from the rest of the gossips?

Musto: He'll throw anything against the wall to see if it sticks. Sometimes it will be a big scoop, and sometimes it will be totally untrue.

Walls: His fifteen minutes are over, I think. Not a minute too soon!

M.R.: Do you examine the motivations of your sources?

Walls: There's about five or six different reasons people leak items -- usually it's to manipulate you. They want to give out good information about themselves or bad information about their enemies.

Smith: I listen sometimes to the most incredible, horrible things about people, and I'm thinking, "Why is this person telling me these things?" After a while, you get good at discerning motive. You develop a shit detector.

Molloy: I also have a credo, "No story too weird to check out." Like, one time somebody called me up and said, "Kirstie Alley made her publicist express breast milk for her pet ferret." I was like, "That is really disgusting." But I checked it out and the publicist said, "It's absolutely true, and I'm proud of it!" Laughter.

M.R.: You must have checked out some pretty gross stories, Michael!

Musto: On the new season of Sex and the City, the Sarah Jessica Parker character goes out with a politician who wants her to urinate on him. So naturally I called Candace Bushnell and said, "Is this based on Al D'Amato?" Because she went out with Al D'Amato.

Molloy: A lot of people were wondering about that.

Musto: Everyone was buzzing at the premiere that it was D'Amato. Candace went ballistic on me! She began yelling, "That's really cheap. I have nothing to do with the writing of the show. How dare you? Al is a really nice guy." As if water sports means you're a bad person.

Walls: As if!

Musto: I'm not the one who made the whole world my gynecologist. The show is based on her sex life!

Walls: I was with Candace one time when she used the urinal. She loves to use urinals. Laughter.

Molloy: That's funny. I saw her use a urinal, too.

Smith: Lovely. Did you print that?

Walls: No, I didn't. She was like, "Here, do it like this; it's faster." Laughter.

Smith: I always use the men's room. You avoid the lines that way.