A.J. Benza Is Gossip Columnist and Television Host

Alfred Joseph “A.J.” Benza (born June 2, 1962) is a gossip columnist and television host. He was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, though he moved with his family to West Islip, New York on Long Island shortly after his birth. He has two sisters, Rosalie and Lorraine.He is married to his second wife, Virginia Folk, and the couple have one child, a girl named Roxy.

During college he began writing for Newsday and was soon hired full-time as a gossip columnist for that paper and eventually for the New York Daily News. It was as a gossip columnist that he began appearing on E! Entertainment Television's The Gossip Show in the early 1990s. This led to appearances on Geraldo, Hard Copy, Montel, The Maury Povich Show, and various other television talk shows. He was later fired from the New York Daily News by editor Pete Hamill.Benza later appeared on the Howard Stern radio show, where he also sat-in as a replacement for Jackie Martling as did dozens of comedians and personalities.

Benza also had an acting role as L.C. Luco in the 2006 film Rocky Balboa. He also is working on a second book which is tentatively titled Star Trip.Benza appeared on the sixth season of Celebrity Fit Club on VH1, where he lost 12 lbs.In April 2008, Benza premiered his new YouTube video series called "The Real Guys Movie Review", with his writing partner, Neil Gumpel.In 2008, Benza appears in Gimme My Reality Show, a new reality competition series on Fox Reality that will follow a group of D-list celebrities with previous reality credentials as they battle for their chance to shine with their own show.