We'd go out for lunch and have a great gossip together.

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However, the rise of the celebrity press in France since the introduction in 2005 of magazines such as Closer, -- the French edition is published by Italian company Mondadori, part of the Berlusconi empire -- has proved that French readers have a taste for gossip too.

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In April, it shed its tabloid format and cheap newsprint, reappearing as a glossy mag designed to appeal to the sort of clever professional women in their mid-20s to mid-40s who have long yearned for a gossip sheet they are not embarrassed to be seen reading.

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Maybe if she were, she would have spotted the gossip and could have gotten the friend of a friend of a friend of her sister to take it down.

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Now, thanks to MPs' gossip, we have a glimpse of how the prime minister speaks to his party rebels.

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It can't just have been the gossip stuff, although his marriage, at 51, to a 22-year-old brightened a million television screens.

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Malicious gossip is far commoner: mean fictions that once would have circulated in a small group now spread across the world instantly through forwarded e-mails and newsgroups.

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People who aren't autistic have more accepted ways to let go of workplace stress: smoke a cigarette, grab a cup of coffee, gossip with a co-worker.

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