Actually, Burkle IS Sexy to 'Star' Readers

After last night's report that Star magazine had removed the results on an online poll, which appeared to be none-too-flattering to billionaire Ron Burkle, I got a call from Kevin Hyson, American Media Inc.'s chief marketing officer.

Hyson was calling to inform me that, in fact, Burkle -- who is very possibly going to own a big portion of AMI soon -- has been faring quite well in the most-eligible-bachelors poll since the company removed its results from view for completely unconnected reasons.

With 770 responses in, the Yucaipa Cos. chairman is running fourth out of 30 billionaires, behind only Oakley founder James Jennard, Star Wars director George Lucas and Dreamworks mogul David Geffen. That must be a relief to AMI chief David Pecker, who surely has no wish to antagonize his future boss. (Of course, one might argue that Geffen's high ranking constitutes prima facie evidence of digital ballot-box-stuff.)

The final results will be published in the issue that goes on sale a week from today, says Hyson. "It was never the intention to put them up online," he adds.