Rating the New Richard Johnson Gossip

Where’s the first big scoop? That’s our question after keeping an eye on the initial efforts of former Page Six grand poobah Richard Johnson for Rupert Murdoch‘s The Daily.

With Johnson sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the west coast with the likes of TMZ and Radar Online, it’s going to take more than tired rehashes of the Kim Kardashian-Prince stage dance story and bad Spider-Man Broadway reviews to make a mark. Another “Flash” item today about Adam Sandler snubbing print reporters at the red carpet premiere of Just Go with It is a real reach (it’s not unusual for A-listers to do only TV promo-ing), and like the other two tidbits, is anchored in New York.

Earlier this week, Johnson had a bit more luck when he looked at how estate lawyers are getting rich over bogus Michael Jackson lawsuits and shared the directorial aspirations of GEICO caveman commercial actor Ben Weber. Weber wants to make Heirloom, a personally relevant drama about Huntington’s disease

Still, none of this really registers on the Mel Gibson-Michael Richards #@$&! scale. Only when the blogosphere is furiously rewriting a celebrity claim first shared via “Flash” will Johnson’s new LA out-Post have truly arrived.

Update – 02/10/11: With help from reporter Hunter Walker, Johnson unveils today what he proclaims may be a photo of the elusive Nikki Finke. But colleagues Sharon Waxman and Anne Thompson, as well as others like photographer Ron Kaye, have all quickly discredited the photo.

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