Born: Toronto, Ont.

Can't live without: My cell phone

My inspiration: My mother

Motto: Coincidence...or conspiracy?

"etalk is providing a gossip education to the Canadian public! Why wouldn't I want to be a part of that? It's a great show to be a part of because we celebrate Hollywood and we honour our own Canadian talent at the same time. What's not to love?"

And really, what is not to love about self-proclaimed "gossip smuthound" Lainey Lui? With an immensely popular website, www.laineygossip.com, Lui has been breaking entertainment news with the help of credible sources in Hollywood and Canada. Seeing Lui's talent, etalk hired her on as a special correspondent in 2006, adding to its expanding team of experts.

What started as a simple mailing to her friends and colleagues soon grew to a website with millions of subscribers from around the world. The site now receives an average of 500,000 unique visitors per week, making it a leading international celebrity gossip source and was selected as one of Entertainment Weekly's 100 Websites to Bookmark Now in 2006.

"Celebrity gossip has been around for ages - it's only the status of the subjects that change," says Lui. "Hundreds of years ago, we gossiped about royalty. Then we gossiped about politicians. And now we gossip about celebrities. Gossip is immortal."

Lui also regularly shares her gossip updates with CTV News British Columbia and 93.5 FLOW in Toronto - and is also a "Style Watcher" for Celebrity Style, a weekly feature in Vancouver's TV Week. A graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Lui lives in Vancouver with her husband and Beagle Marcus, and is a Consultant for Convenant House, which offers shelter and services for homeless people.