Robert Maxwell severed his connection with the Daily Mirror by falling (or being pushed) from the Lady Ghislaine. Editor Piers Morgan did it by falling out with boss Sly Bailey - after falling for a stunt that led him to print fake pictures showing British soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners.

But waving goodbye to Fleet Street turned out to have been one of the smartest moves Piers could have made (if you can be said to 'make' something that has been done for you). His career as a TV pundit has prospered mightily, culminating in his joining the mega-bucks earners in the US as a judge on Simon Cowell's America's Got Talent. With him on the panel is the former Baywatch star David Hasselhoff, to whom he bears - as you can see from the photograph above - a more than passing resemblance.

Lucky fellow that Piers is, he has also cemented a lasting partnership with the gorgeous - and very intelligent - Celia Walden, the negligee-wearing gossip columnist on the Daily Telegraph.

His rise and rise is now chronicled most entertainingly in Don't You Know Who I Am?, which has just been published by Ebury Press at £17.99. His gossip-laden diaries, The Insider, was one of my books of the year in 2005. The new one looks like making the list this year.

I particularly relish his talent to abuse. All who share in my disapproval of Kate Moss might be cheered to see her described as "a drunken, foul-mouthed, ill-mannered, paranoid Croydon Girl with a cocaine-desecrated hooter and spots". And her partner Pete Docherty? Why, he's "a filthy talentless junkie who can't sing".

After that, journalist Steven Glover must be relieved that he's only a "miserable old toad".