Who did he know and when did he know them?

The great god Google certainly comes in handy for background research on today's bizarre story that a freelance writer for the Murdoch-owned New York Post Page Six gossip column is being investigated for extortion:

New York Post Page Six writer Jared Paul Stern is accused of demanding a series of payments from Yucaipa chief Ron Burkle in exchange for a year's "protection" against inaccurate and unflattering items in the gossip column. William Sherman reports the deal was monitored on videotape by the U.S. attorney's office and the FBI, who are now investigating the extortion attempt.

Because the writer seems to have had some interesting company for some of his NY Post material [this month last year]:

DISGRACED former White House reporter/male escort Jeff Gannon can't believe no one has invited him to tomorrow's White House Correspondents Dinner. "It seems to me to be odd to exclude the one person who has brought more attention to the White House press corps than anyone else in years," Gannon tells PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern.

UPDATE: We're not giving up on the Republican connection; the billionaire Stern is accused of attempting to extort is a Democratic fundraiser. And unrelatedly, there's an aristocrat angle:

Mr. Stern named Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax films, and Ronald O. Perelman, the chairman of Revlon Inc., as being among those who have had their coverage on the page finessed. Through a spokesman, Mr. Weinstein flatly denied any improper relationship with the column and its main editor, Richard Johnson.

Mr. Perelman's company once hired Mr. Johnson's fiancée, Sessa von Richthofen, whom he is marrying today, as an administrative assistant.

A Kos diarist expands the wondering a bit. Finally, if two makes a trend, then there is a trend of bizarre media-political overlap in two criminal investigations this week. And (really finally), a whole bunch of new links at Romenesko, including a LA Times story which notes:

For 10 years, Stern has cut a noirish figure in gossip circles, affecting a fedora, pocket watch and a preference for rye whiskey. His writing is racy and caustic, evoking Walter Winchell, whose broadcasts beginning in the 1930s routinely wrecked careers and marriages.

Remind you of anyone?

2nd UPDATE: Still no proven link to Republicans, but the Republican News Channel is certainly acting like there's a link -- no coverage on Fox News.

UPDATE 23 MAY: It's thematically easier to link to a somewhat cluttered other Stern-Burkle-Clinton post here, and to note yet more evidence of a political motive for going after Ron Burkle; today's New York Times has a much pilloried article about Bill and Hillary, which includes the line:

Nights out find him [Bill Clinton] zipping around Los Angeles with his bachelor buddy, Ronald W. Burkle, or hitting parties and fund-raisers in Manhattan

Definitely one angle as to why Republicans might have targeted Burkle. Mickey Kaus certainly sees the potential.

UPDATE 30 JULY: Without Stern to feed him material, Kaus is now reduced to peddling Google searches as the source for Clinton rumours.

FINAL UPDATE: Let's close the book on Kaus's transparent scandal-mongering, as he spends a pointless week speculating about a clearly preposterous report that then President Bill Clinton had bugged Princess Di's phone calls via her alleged dalliance with Republican magnate Ted Forstmann. So with Ron Burkle, the Democrat, the obsession with the snooping is whether there was really something he was hiding. With Forstmann, the Republican, the obsession is what it might say about the alleged snooper, Bill Clinton.