Timely Gossip

"Leaders come and go, governments rise and fall; only the people endure, only the people are eternal."

EVERY WEEK. Time magazine features cover stories an leaders as they come and go Every week. Time reports on the rise and fall of entire governments And every week, when Time arrives in my mailboy. I quick flip past the cover story, past the "Nation" and "World" stories, to somewhere around page61. There, tucked between "Economy and Business" and "Religion" I find the enduring staple of my periodical menu the "People" section.

This is no new habit. The people have endured for me as long as I can remember Even before I could read. I would nab the magazine as soon as the mailman delivered it, and look for the pictures of the movie and TV starlets lurking under the big heading. "P-E-O-P-L-E" Call me a populist if you must. I love the "People" section. And I've got a pretty good hunch that I'm not the page's only fan. I think everybody reads it.

The reasons are obvious. We are a nation obsessed with fame and notoriety We watch the lives of the stars with the curiosity and nosiness of small town folk. Such as extreme infatuation with a famous is a uniquely American phenomenon.

It's no surprise then, that the weekly barometer of the nation's goings on should pay attention not only to the leaders and the government, but to the people, as it were. Before we can even think about the economy or the situation in the Middle East, we simply must know what Brooke Shields is up to And what of Elizabeth Taylor

The "People" section is of the people and for the people. It captures out attention by pointing out exactly who the people are, using boldface, like Nancy Reagon, Robby Brnson, John McEnroe.

It tells us what the people say, loading its columns with delightful quips. Says a young woman after meeting Prince Edward. "He's in Czecholovakia: "The biggest challenge was to get by without fresh vegetables." And so on--in the veritable language of the common people.

The :People" section also shows us how the people dress--or don't. Just to keep reader interest piqued only once in a while the section sports a photo of a scantily clad Cheryl Tlegs of Christle Brinkley wearing a see-through bathing suit--or nothing at all.

Like it or not, the "People" section is America-But so, one might note, are a whole slew of magazines dedicated t the heady stuff of glamorous gossip-People, Us, The National Enquirer, and others. Why don't i read them? These mindless mags may contain the same tasty tidbits Time brings us, but they suffer from another peculiarly American phenomenon, overkill. There's just too much there, and besides, the average Time reader has qualms about sporting a copy of this week's Enquirer on the coffee table. There are image problems.

Time's general acceptance and tidy layout, on the other had, legitimizes the nation's gossip. You can, after all, skim an item on Gary Coleman or Princess Di without fear of public humiliation when it's sandwiched between a cover story on nuclear awareness and a feature about the effect of home computers on education.

The "people" section is eternal. As long as there are people and intrigue, one E, Graydon Carter will continue to extoll the elite stars among us. And i will continue to flip directly to this section, no matter how many governments get overthrown. Joseph Stalin