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CLAUDIA Lynn Cohen, who passed on at the age of 57, was an American gossip columnist, socialite and TV reporter. The daughter of businessman Robert Cohen, president of the Hudson County News Company, a magazine wholesaler, and his wife, Harriet, Claudia was raised in Englewood, New Jersey. She attended the Dwight School for Girls (now Dwight- Englewood School) and the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the New York Post in the late ‘70s as a reporter for its gossip column Page Six. Noted for going for the jugular, creating a column with a savvy and sharp edge, Claudia is credited with putting Page Six on the map.

She left the Post in 1980 to begin her own gossip column, I, Claudia at a rival Manhattan daily. While that column failed, it did further Claudia’s profile in the Big Apple’s entertainment scene. She got married to corporate raider Ronald Perelman in 1985 and had a daughter, Samantha, together. After nine years the marriage fell apart. Claudia walked away with a reported US$80 million (RM265 million) settlement. Despite her massive wealth, she went back to journalism, appearing regularly on the morning talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee to talk about entertainment gossip and society news. She died on June 15 last year from ovarian cancer. Her ex-husband, Perelman, recently asked the University of Pennsylvania to rename the historic Logan Hall, next to College Hall, as the Claudia Cohen Hall, much to the shock of Penn faculty, alumni and students.