Irrepressible columnist Liz Smith, this month's guest programmer, has been called "The First Lady of Gossip" and "The Grande Dame of Dish." Formerly a radio news producer for Mike Wallace and entertainment editor for Cosmopolitan magazine, Texas-born Smith has written columns for New York Daily News, Newsday and New York Post. Syndicated nationwide in more than 70 newspapers, she has won an Emmy for television reporting and published two books, the memoir Natural Blonde (2000) and a study of celebrities and food called Dishing (2005). At one time she was reported to be the highest-paid woman in print journalism.

Smith will appear with TCM host Robert Osborne on September 12 to introduce four of her favorite films, each featuring a strong-willed female. Dustin Hoffman plays an actor who goes in drag to become a soap opera diva in the cross-dressing satire Tootsie (1982). Barbara Stanwyck creates the quintessential film noir femme fatale in Double Indemnity (1944), luring weak-willed Fred MacMurray into a plot to murder her husband. Smith favorite Ginger Rogers does double duty as Fred Astaire's wife and reluctant dancing partner in The Barkleys of Broadway (1949), and as Christopher Marley's "working girl" heroine in Kitty Foyle (1940).

by Roger Fristoe