Richard Johnson

Richard Johnson

Celebrity News

Cindy Adams nails it at the Journalism Hall of Fame

It was the two-minute warning for my esteemed colleague Cindy Adams – and she scored a touchdown!

After being inducted into the New York Journalism Hall of Fame, Madame Adams kvetched that she was given only two minutes to speak, and then ran with it.

“Nobody has given me two minutes since my wedding night,” she quipped at the annual Deadline Club luncheon at Sardi’s on Thursday.

The former beauty queen, and widow of funny man Joey Adams, then regaled the crowd with the story of how she launched her career at The Post in 1979 with an exclusive interview with the deposed Shah of Iran.

“It was a huge story that went worldwide … and I never got paid,” she said.

Cindy later got scoops on Gen. Manuel Noriega of Panama and Imelda Marcos of the Philippines. “I’m very big with dictators,” she explained. “If you’re not indicted, you’re not invited.”

The other honorees included Jimmy Breslin, Graydon Carter, Bob Herbert, Bill Moyers and Norman Pearlstine, the new chief content officer at Time Inc. Pearlstine said he recently went to Manila to interview Imelda Marcos. “The first thing she said to me was, ‘You’re from New York. Do you know Cindy Adams?’ ”

Tucking into the crab soup and steak were Barbara Walters, Rosanna Scotto, Sue Simmons, Pete Hamill and some ink-stained wretches who had to leave early because they actually had a deadline.