All who love tabloids will be delighted that the best and sassiest of the New York Post’s most irreverent headlines have been put together in a HarperEntertainment book entitled, naturally, Headless Body in Topless Bar.
Once upon the time, the Post’s headline writers were far more staid, but that was before Rupert Murdoch bought the sputtering newspaper in 1976. He brought along a posse of Brit and Australian Fleet Street veterans to give the paper heavy-duty shots of adrenaline augmented with testosterone. The paper’s stars included Neil Travis, who created Page Six, Roger Wood, and Steve Dunleavy who is still there turning in an occasional rant. [In the interest of full disclosure, I must acknowledge that they were all occasional drinking buddies of my husband.]
The current editor Col Allan, an Australian, quoted in the book’s preface, said: “We’re delighted when the headlines entertain. Remember the very purpose of the headline is to draw the readers into the story, to make them want to read the thing in the first place.”
Among the favorites are:
“No Nudes is Good Nudes”: Supreme Court bans topless bars
“Chillary”: Clinton marriage strained by Lewinsky scandal
“Bite of the Century”: Mike Tyson chomps Evander Holyfield’s ear
“Holy Shiite”: Newsweek retracts false story of a Koran being flushed at Guantanamo
“Wacko Jacko Backo”: a Michael Jackson comeback
And so many more.