“Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t”

“Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t” has usually been credited to Earl Wilson (1907-1987), who wrote a New York (NY) Post syndicated entertainment column titled “It Happened Last Night” from 1942 to 1983. However, Wilson’s column in August 1954 credited singer Eileen Todd:
 
“EARL’S PEARLS (...) “Gossip,” claims Eileen Todd, ‘is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.’”
 
Celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s were often associated with clever lines to keep their names in the entertainment columns, so it’s not clear if Eileen Todd originally came up with the line.
 
 
Wikipedia: Earl Wilson (journalist)
Earl Wilson (May 3, 1907–January 16, 1987), born Harvey Earl Wilson, was an American journalist, gossip columnist and author, perhaps best known for his nationally syndicated newspaper column, It Happened Last Night.
 
Born in Rockford in Mercer County in western Ohio, Wilson attended Heidelberg College and graduated from Ohio State University in 1931 with a B. S. in journalism.
 
Wilson’s column originated from the New York Post and ran from 1942 until 1983.
 
9 August 1954, The Times Recorder (Zanesville, OH), Earl Wilson syndicated entertainment column, pg. 4, col. 5:
EARL’S PEARLS (...) “Gossip,” claims Eileen Todd, “is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.”
 
8 March 1970, Augusta (GA) Chronicle-Herald, pg. 3C, col. 6:
UNQUOTE: “Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.”—Broadus Street.
 
1 October 1973, “Big Spring (TX) Herald,  “Around the Rim” by Tommy Hart, pg. 6, col. 5:
Can’t gossip be defined as hearing something you like about someone you don’t? In other words, don’t we all like to be first with the worst?
 
24 July 1974, Pampa (TX) Daily News,‘Earl Wilson,”  pg. 1, col. 3:
Gossip (explains the cynic) is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.
   
Google News Archive
28 November 1980, The Blade (Toledo, OH), Liz Smith syndicated entertainment column, P-7, col. 1:
“GOSSIP IS WHEN you hear something you like about someone you don’t,” to quote Earl Wilson, the boy from Ohio.
   
Google Books
The Mammoth Book of Great British Humor
By Michael Powell
Philadelphia, PA: Running Press
2010
Pg. 111:
Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.
Jane Seabrook
 
Google Books
Gossip:
The Untrivial Pursuit
By Joseph Epstein
New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company
2011
Gossip, as the old New York Post gossip columnist Earl Wilson once put it, “is hearing something you like about someone you don’t.”
 
Google Books
Tweet This Book:
The 1,400 Greatest Quotes of All Time in 140 Characters Or Less
By Sayre Van Young and, Marin Van Young
Berkeley, CA: Ulysses Press: Distributed by Publishers Group West
2011
Pg. 88:
Gossip is when you hear something you like about someone you don’t.
Earl Wilson