Louella Parsons may not be well known today, but at one time she was called the First Lady of Hollywood and was one of the most influential people there. She was not just a gossip columnist, she was the first movie gossip columnist and it was said that she had the power to make or break a star's career.

At the height of her career, her gossip column was syndicated in 1,200 newspapers worldwide, with 40 million readers daily. Someone once said of Louella Parsons, "Maybe she's just a nice lady that got caught up in a dirty business." "Yes,"" came the reply, "except she invented the dirty business."

Louella's career chronicles the history of the movies. She began as a script writer for silent films and even wrote the first book on screen writing. Moving to a job in the newspaper business in 1914, she established herself as the "person in the know." Louella wrote her column until 1965, rubbing shoulders with anybody who was anybody in the movie business. Karen Vuranch will bring this remarkable, although little known, woman to life. She will regale you with stories of Hollywood legends from Clark Gable to Marilyn Monroe. You will hear about William Randolph Hearst and Louella's famous feud with another gossip columnist, Hedda Hopper. But you will also learn how the gossip industry has changed over the years from the early days of Louella Parsons to today's mixture of innuendo and sensationalism.