Pulse: The Gossip Wars

In early June, the nearly forgotten Alycia Lane/Rich Eisen bikini e-mail drama was revived when more flirty messages between the newscaster and the married NFL correspondent turned up in Alycia-v.-CBS court filings, landing the “Latina bombshell” once again in New York tabloids. But going unreported from the same filings was a curious e-mail exchange between Lane and Inquirer gossip columnist Michael Klein. Lane expressed concern to Klein over questions she’d been asked by Dan Gross, Klein’s competition at the Daily News, about a friendly meeting she and Klein had just had at Starbucks. Klein’s e-mailed response belittled Gross: “He’s probably in the men’s room, working off an erection,” he wrote, also telling Lane that by midnight or so — hours before anyone on the street would see the paper — he could tell her what Gross would be printing that day. Gross believes this wasn’t the only time Klein offered Lane an early peek at the DN column — an allegation Larry Mendte also made in his suit against the Daily News and the Inquirer, and one that Klein denies. Gross says he’s “saddened though not surprised” by it all. Klein, when asked for comment about the e-mails, offered none.