Maybe Nina Gordon is having an early mid-life crisis. We now understand that she not only bailed on Veruca Salt, but has broken up and broken the heart of Fig Dish's guitarist/vocalist Blake Smith, whom she has been involved with for the past five years. Philosophers and pulp detectives like to remind us that there are no coincidences, and all our evidence tends to support that hypothesis, since Gordon's new beau is none other than Veruca Salt's drummer, Stacy Jones, who the band appropriated from Letters to Cleo last year. It would be irresponsible for us to point the finger at this new coupling as the straw that broke the band's back, but it certainly redressed the balance of power -- even though Gordon's brother, Jim Shapiro, originally occupied that stool, and was certainly in the singer's corner.

Those who should know still maintain that the break was inevitable because of Louise Post and Nina Gordon's ongoing competition for the spotlight. "There has always been a power struggle between Louise Post and Nina Gordon since the band began. It's always that way when you have two people fronting a band. I don't think the fact that Nina took up with Stacy made one bit of difference," one intimate confessed.

Label execs have been overwhelmed at the outpouring of grief for the breakup of the band, but doubt that anyone can put Humpty Dumpty back together again. "You can't very well ask them to go to counselling, can you?" said a source at their label, DCG. "And if all those people who are lamenting the break-up of the band had bought a copy of Eight Arms To Hold You, we wouldn't be where we are today." What's that old saying? "The people are always wrong?" -Jaan Uhelszki