A decade ago, Vanity Fair wrote, “In many film circles, Sweet Smell’s devastating portrait of Walter Winchell is considered just as devastating as Orson Welles’ take-down of William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane.” In this 1957 classic, Burt Lancaster plays one of his very best roles as ruthless gossip columnist J.J. Hunsecker, the cinematic approximation of Winchell who lords over friends and foes alike – and especially over obsequious press agent Sidney Falco, played with perfect smarm and nervousness by Tony Curtis. (“Match me, Sidney!”) One noteworthy legacy of this film is when the late, great Spy magazine was in operation decades ago, one of its most vicious (but accurate) gossip columnists employed the pseudonym “J.J. Hunsecker.” Though rumored to be a reporter at the New York Times, that columnist’s true identity has, to my knowledge, yet to be confirmed. And we can rule out Mark Felt.