Feeling a little confused over the future of Star magazine? You're not alone. This morning, the New York Daily News became the latest outlet to claim the tabloid will be moving its offices from New York to Boca Raton, Florida. Gawker, a New York gossip site, reported the same yesterday.

The volume of rumors seemed to require some sort of response from David Pecker, chief of Star parent American Media Inc., and today he gave it, addressing the staff in person to assure them that, no, their jobs won't be moving to Florida. (Whether they were actually reassured is another question.)

Ironically, all this fear and loathing comes at a moment when Star's newsstand sales are actually showing some signs of life. Recent issues, beginning with the Jan. 8 edition, have been up over last year. Some insiders attribute the uptick to contributions to the newsgathering operation made by David Perel, editor in chief of the National Enquirer. Perel has been overseeing Star's West Coast bureau since December, and it's thought he would most likely take command of the magazine if it returned to Boca. But partisans of editorial director Bonnie Fuller dismiss that scenario as spin aimed at influencing Pecker. Says one, "Everybody at AMI knows it's David Perel behind all those stories."

Photo: Patrick McMullan

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