Philly Gossip changes hands: Welcome Jenny DeHuff
Also: Kerry Barrett lands a new job, a Wire actor stumps for Doug Oliver and Kobe gets a documentary.
DEAREST Daily News readers,
I want to let you know that this is my final column.
I had a wonderful time delivering all the good gossip to you over the past few years, but it's time to hand the column off to someone new.
Meet Jenny DeHuff: a former City Hall reporter who will certainly give her own exciting spin to this beloved space.
You should hit her up with any and all juicy tidbits. Email her at DeHuffJ@phillynews.com, give her a call at 215-854-5917 or follow her on Twitter, @PhillyGossipDN.
As for me? I'll always have that time Nicki Minaj tweeted emoji my way.
Kerry Barrett's new gig
Former Fox 29 anchor Kerry Barrett has landed a new gig. Barrett will head to NBC 4 New York's "Today in New York" in March.
Barrett's tenure here lasted from 2008 to the end of last year, when her contract expired and she decided to leave the station after holding positions as a night anchor, later moving to morningside.
Barrett reported many stories, but perhaps her most powerful was discussing her struggle with miscarriages while trying to conceive a second child. She gave birth to healthy baby boy John Jay Barrett IV last year.
'Wire' actor stumps for mayoral candidate
Tray Chaney, who played the drug-dealer-turned-straight-and-narrow Poot Carr on HBO's "The Wire," will be touting mayoral candidate Doug Oliver tonight from 7 to 9 at Indigo Blue (3911 Lancaster Ave.).
Oliver's campaign reached out to Chaney because of his new involvement with Emerging Leaders United, a program launched by the United Way geared to helping needy families access resources to education, financial stability and health care.
"I like what Doug is doing and I think it is important for young men to take the mantle of leadership for our generation," Chaney said.
He's not the only celebrity who plugged the youngest mayoral candidate this week.
Former Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter took to Twitter yesterday to tout the young underdog.
"Check out my man Doug Oliver (@DO2015PHL) running for mayor of #Philadelphia. This guy is the change we need for Philly. #DO2015," he wrote.
Kobe: Bala Cynwyd 'shocked the s--- out of me'
In "Kobe Bryant's Muse" (9 p.m. Saturday, Showtime), the new documentary that the Lower Merion High alum made with Gotham Chopra (son of Oprah guru Deepak Chopra), he talks about moving from Italy, where his father played basketball, to Bala Cynwyd at age 13, the Daily News' Ellen Gray tells us.
"I didn't understand the slang," Bryant said. "I was a little Italian boy, I didn't understand the fashion.
"And I couldn't spell, so the teacher told my mother I was probably dyslexic. It was like somebody took me and dropped me in a bucket, in a tub, of ice-cold water. Because it shocked the s--- out of me," he says. He recalls sitting "at the lunch table all by myself."
The once-again injured 36-year-old L.A. Lakers star, who recently told the Hollywood Reporter that he'll play only one more season, comes across as introspective - to a point.
Not surprising for a film on which Bryant's an executive producer, "Muse," which follows his recovery from a 2013 injury, doesn't go into detail about the 2003 sexual-assault charges against him, which were later dropped. He does say, though, that it nearly cost him his family and that he blames himself for wife Vanessa's subsequent miscarriage.
Vegan cheese-whaaat?
The People Paper's own "V for Vedge" columnist Vance Lehmkuhl appeared on Fox 29's "Good Day Philadelphia" yesterday to promote the second annual Best Vegan Cheesesteak competition. Learn more about the contest on Page 23. To cast your vote for your fave, go to philly.com/vegancheesesteak.
On Twitter: @PhillyGossipDN
Online: ph.ly/DNGossip