Florence “Flo” Anthony, longtime AmNews columnist, trailblazing celebrity journalist dies at 74

Florence “Flo” Anthony, the pioneering celebrity journalist who broke barriers at the New York Post’s Page Six and became a defining voice in African American entertainment journalism, has died. She was 74.

Jack Hirsch, biographer for her husband, boxing legend Michael Spinks, confirmed that she died early Thursday, Aug. 6. The two had worked together on Michael “Jinx” Spinks: An Authorized Biography, which was released in March. He said that she recently disclosed to him that she was battling cancer.

Her weekly “Go With The Flo” column became a fixture in The New York Amsterdam News dating back to 2001, as well as in publications including the Philadelphia Sunday Sun and the Columbus Times. She also contributed entertainment news to the New York Daily News, served as publisher and editor-in-chief of Black Noir magazine, and acted as editor-in-chief of Black Elegance magazine.

CNN entertainment journalist Lisa Respers France posted her reaction on social media upon learning of Anthony’s passing, saying in part: “As a Black woman who covers pop culture, I am deeply indebted to Florence ‘Flo’ Anthony, a syndicated columnist and author who did more than just cover gossip. She was so important to the culture.”

A woman of firsts

Anthony was known to walk into newsrooms and departments whose doors had once been barricaded against people of color—and particularly against African American women. She entered spaces where few people looked like her, where her presence alone challenged entrenched ideas about who could report the news, break a story, command a television screen, or become a trusted voice on celebrity culture.

She became the first woman to work in the sports department of the New York Post and the first African American to work in the newspaper’s entertainment and world‑renowned Page Six departments, according to her own account of her career. She also made history as the first African American woman to write a column for a supermarket tabloid, penning “Eye on the Stars” for the National Examiner.

For an African American woman rising through the overwhelmingly white, male, and notoriously insular world of tabloid journalism, these achievements were not merely promotions, but breaches in a wall.

Before becoming one of America’s most recognizable celebrity journalists and media personalities, Flo worked in public relations as a publicist for some of boxing’s most formidable figures, including Spinks, whom she began dating in 1987 and married in January 2026; Muhammad Ali; Larry Holmes; Butch Lewis; Mike McCallum; Matthew Saad Muhammad; Saoul Mamby; and Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. Her publicity work gave her a deep understanding of the relationship between journalists, publicists, and public figures, allowing her to fight for a client’s visibility long before she sat on the other side of the desk.

Many publicists owe some portion of their careers to Anthony, with a number of young representatives securing an early placement because she answered their call, opened their email, or recognized the potential in a story.

A graduate of Howard University, Anthony  initially came to New York with dreams of becoming an actress and also worked as a teacher. Her work with talent manager Tobe Gibson eventually expanded into publicity, sportswriting, and a position as an agate clerk in the New York Post’s sports department. From there, she began a historic ascent through sports, entertainment, and celebrity journalism.

Legendary journalist

Over the course of her career, she reported hundreds of exclusives, including the marriages of Mike Tyson and Robin Givens, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, and John McEnroe and Tatum O’Neal, as well as the news that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were adopting. Flo did not regard gossip journalism as the careless recycling of rumors. To her, a gossip columnist was a reporter who broke stories—and she took the responsibility of getting those stories right seriously.

Her influence expanded far beyond print. During the 1990s, she became a familiar and authoritative presence on daytime television, appearing on shows hosted by Joan Rivers, Ricki Lake, Rolonda Watts, Geraldo Rivera, Sally Jessy Raphael, Maury Povich, Leeza Gibbons, Tempestt Bledsoe, Bertice Berry, Vicki Lawrence, and others. She appeared on Court TV, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel, and HLN, and contributed to entertainment‑news programs including “Inside Edition,” “The Insider,” and “Entertainment Tonight.”

For six seasons, she appeared as a contributor and later a co‑host on E! Entertainment Television’s “The Gossip Show,” and was featured in numerous installments of “E! True Hollywood Story.” She became a regular contributor to TV One’s “Unsung,” “Unsung Hollywood,” and “Life After.” Her television work placed an authoritative African American woman at the center of national conversations about celebrity, scandal, and popular culture at a time when such visibility remained far too rare.

Through her company, Dottie Media Group LLC, Flo extended her voice into syndicated radio with “Gossip on the Go With Flo” and “Flo Anthony’s Big Apple Buzz,” which aired in approximately 20 markets and introduced millions of listeners to her combination of insider knowledge, brisk reporting, and unmistakable personality.

At the Amsterdam News, she was more than a byline. She was family.

Flo was also the author of four novels: “Keeping Secrets, Telling Lies,” “Deadly Stuff Players,” “One Last Deadly Play,” and “Last Call for a Deadly Diva.” The books transformed decades of observing fame, ambition, deception, and power into fiction, bringing the practiced instincts of a journalist to the suspense and intrigue of a novelist.

“I’ve broken in roads that will never be broken in again,” Anthony said in a 2013 interview with Urbanbridgez.com. “So if I never wrote another sentence or got on radio again in life or got on TV, I would miss it yes but I feel I’ve done a lot of what God put me on this earth to do.”

— with reporting from AmNews contributor Jason Gonzalez.