Cindy Adams

Cindy Adams
Cindy Adams and her dogs Jazzy and Juicy at the premiere of Spiderman 3, 2007.
Born	New York City
Residence	Manhattan, New York
Nationality	United States
Other names	Cindy Heller
Occupation	Gossip columnist
Years active	1965-
Employer	New York Post
Home town	New York City
Known for	Gossip columnist/biography writer
Spouse(s)	Joey Adams

Cindy Heller Adams is an American gossip columnist and the widow of comedian Joey Adams.

Early life

Born in New York City, her mother divorced her father when she was a year old. Her mother, Jessica Sugar (December 5, 1906 - April 15, 2001), worked as an executive secretary in the NYC water department, and was a single parent until her remarriage to insurance agent Harry Heller. Cindy Heller grew up on Washington Heights and Jamaica Estates. She left Andrew Jackson High School at the age of 15 without graduating (she was academically qualified but the principal reportedly refused to graduate her unless she learned to sew). She began to work as a photographer's model in Manhattan, meeting her future husband, Joey Adams, a year later when they appeared on the same radio show. Married on Valentine's Day 1952, they had no children, and Joey Adams died in 1999 following a long illness.

Career

Cindy Adams currently writes a gossip column for the New York Post and contributes to WNBC's Sunday Today in New York. She had previously contributed twice a week on WNBC's Live at Five until the newscast took on a new format on March 12, 2007.

Her husband was a prolific humor author, and wrote a newspaper column for the Long Island Press in New York, and later the New York Post. Cindy also wrote for local papers, eventually writing for the Post (beginning in 1979) at the same time as her husband. In 1965 she co-wrote an English language autobiography of Indonesia's President Sukarno, about whom she wrote another book two years later. In 1975 she published a biography of Jolie Gabor, mother of Eva Gabor and Zsa Zsa Gabor. Among those she interviewed in 1970 was the Shah of Iran, while she later became friendly with Imelda Marcos.

Adams became a syndicated columnist in 1981; she was an original contributor to the tabloid TV show A Current Affair and has appeared often on Good Morning America. In 1990, Adams served as a panelist on the television game show To Tell the Truth.

Personal life

Adams lives and works from a nine-room penthouse with a 1,000-square-foot (93 m²) verandah at 475 Park Avenue. The Adamses bought the property in 1997 from the estate of billionaire heiress Doris Duke. Parties at the apartment are a reliable source of social news items. Due to the apartment's connection with Duke, Adams hosted the wrap party for the 2008 Duke biopic, Bernard and Doris.

Works

• Soekarno (Sukarno) and Cindy Heller Adams. Sukarno: An Autobiography. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, (1965)
• Cindy Heller Adams. My friend the dictator. Indianapolis, Bobbs-Merrill, (1967)
• Cindy Heller Adams. Lee Strasberg, the Imperfect Genius of the Actors Studio. Doubleday (1980)
• Cindy Heller Adams and Susan Crimp. Iron Rose: The Story of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy and Her Dynasty. Dove Mass Markets (1997)
• Cindy Adams Perfume. The Gift of Jazzy. St. Martin's Press (2003)
• Cindy Adams. Living a Dog's Life: Jazzy, Juicy, and Me. Macmillan (2007)