If there is a gossip flag somewhere on this blog, it should be noted that it is currently flying at half-mast. Famed New York gossip columnist, Claudia Cohen, lost a six-year fight against cancer on Friday. The 57-year-old passed away with her ex-husband, Ron Perelman, as well as her family, by her side at the Memorial-Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
"Claudia was a remarkable, dynamic woman, a terrific mother and also our best friend. She will be missed by everyone who knew her," Perelman said.Cohen's friend Bob Colacello, a Vanity Fair writer, said although "Claudia came from a wealthy family, married a billionaire and knew the most famous people in the world, she was always a girl from the Jersey suburbs. She never put on airs."
Cohen first began her career as a writer at the New York Post, writing for the Page Six column, earning herself a promotion to editor of the page a few years thereafter. Not too much longer after that, she moved to The New York Daily News, where she wrote her own column, entitled, "I, Claudia." Here are some pictures of the celebrities who paid their respects to the former newswoman. If I were to go right now, I'd be lucky to get a few "Flavor of Love" rejects to stop by at my funeral. And maybe a "Deal or No Deal" girl or two. If I paid them.
(WENN)
Many more photos (Carolina Hererra, Liz Smith, Mark Consuelos, Calvin Klein, Diane von Furstenberg, Joy and Regis Philbin, Lorainne Bracco, Ellen Barkin, Melania and Donald Trump, Jon Bon Jovi and Ron Perelman) of the celebrities arriving for Claudia Cohen's funeral are after the jump.
Pink says:
RIP Claudia
LaTica says:
Is it me or does she look like Lindsay Lohan? Well, a classier version without all the drugs and alcohol and generally poor behavior...
zekers says:
I was thinking more like Ann Margaret...
sasha says:
her ex was at her side you no what his ass is thinking no more alimony bitch. You know he did not pay settlemeent lump sum. He is a happy motherfucker right about now.
sam says:
sasha- i dont know what planet you live on, but u must not be a relavent member of new york, because if you were you would know that claudia and ronald were best friends. they were always on vacation together and seen together at dinner at least once a week. he read her eulogy and as an attendee at the funeral i can tell you that you would be lucky if you could find someone who loved you that much. the man could barely move he was crying so hard. you are a seriously deranged person to think that someone who just lost their best friend could be happy. does he look happy in the pictures that are posted on this page???????
sam says:
HERE IS AN EXERPT FROM AN ARTICLE BY ROGER FRIEDMAN AT FOX NEWS.COM, RECALLING THE FUNERAL, AND PERELMAN'S RELATIONSHIP TO CLAUDIA
"But it was Perelman, speaking first, who made the most impact. Divorced from Cohen for many, many years, he told the crowd -- most of whom were in disbelief because Claudia had kept her seven-year illness a total secret -- the chronology of what had happened.
It appears that throughout his marriage to Barkin, the Revlon chairman was immersed in trying to find a cure for Cohen, who had ovarian cancer. He went so far as to commission a vaccine privately -- something only a billionaire could do.
"I learned everything I know about business from my father," Perelman said, "but everything else [about the world] from Claudia."
For a man who's lived his personal life in the New York tabloids for 20 years, it was a stunning, disarming account of the life no one sees behind gossip headlines. It was quite remarkable. Just like Claudia's life. "