THE MAN WITH ON-LINE SCOOPS : `CULTURE VULTURE' PREYS ON NEWS, HOLLYWOOD.

Byline: P.J. Huffstutter Daily News Staff Writer

It's fitting that the waiters at the Musso and Frank Grill treat Matthew Drudge like a nobody. He is accustomed to feeding Hollywood's glamour crowd. And in his high-waist plaid pants and horn-rimmed glasses, Drudge looks more chemistry-teacher geek than Cosmo chic.

Even his fans, the ones who clamor to read his regular e-mail missives from Tinseltown, wouldn't recognize the lean 30-year-old. After all, the author of the Drudge Report has never posted his picture on the Net.

``I'm convinced he's a cyborg, that he's hard-wired to have this need to jack in with a news flash,'' said Ana Marie Cox, executive editor of suck.com, a San Francisco-based on-line publication.

``We talk about him in our office all the time and try to guess what he looks like.''

The real Drudge is known only by his words, his wit and his uncanny ability to weave breaking news with entertainment gossip. After all, where else can you read about Tom Cruise's sperm count, the latest twist in the Whitewater investigation and the anticipated destruction of Hurricane Edouard in the same journal?

A self-proclaimed ``culture vulture,'' Drudge is a one-man on-line media maven. He spends his days flipping through stories on the Internet, and browsing the headlines of hundreds of newspapers, magazines and Web periodicals. Fans call with story tips and flood his e-mail box with insider gossip. A constant radio feed streams out of his PC, filling the air of his tiny Hollywood apartment with the chitchat commentary of political talk shows.

``I'm just in here with my cat, typing out things with my angle,'' Drudge said.

Everything he sees and hears is fodder for the Drudge Report, a smart cross between Entertainment Weekly, the Weather Channel and ``Politically Incorrect.'' Filed ``when circumstances warrant,'' it's a thinking man's guilty pleasure, the kind of magazine you would keep in your bathroom and hide when company comes. (People can subscribe through his Web site, http://www.lainet.com/(tilde)drudge.)

There is only one kind of story that Drudge won't follow - the celebrity bedroom tale.

``Business is more fun than sex,'' Drudge said. ``Besides, it's too easy to get sued with the who's-sleeping-with-whom stuff.''

Thanks to his network of informants, Drudge has earned the reputation as the man who knows the news before it happens. A note from a reader told him, ``Connie Chung's just been fired, she just doesn't know it yet.'' Drudge broke the story nearly a week before the networks.

Some of his other scoops? NBC and Microsoft forming a joint, all-news channel; Steven Spielberg being questioned by Whitewater investigators; and - unbelievably - Jack Kemp being named as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

``A reader was a delegate from Chicago and friends with Bob Dole's campaign manager,'' Drudge said. ``I got a message that Kemp was the official pick, even though Dole hadn't given his final approval.''

Not bad for a guy with a high school diploma and limited computer technical skills.

After working a stint in a Washington, D.C., grocery store - ``produce can be very boring'' - Drudge moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1980s. He landed a job as an assistant in the publicity department at ABC, then moved over to the gift shop at CBS.

The report started in February 1995 with Drudge posting his take on current events to several Usenet news groups, including alt.showbiz.gossip and alt.journalism. Slowly, avid readers began sending Drudge insider tips and asking him to start a mailing list.

Soon after, Drudge left his job at the gift shop and pursued his on-line project full time.

In September 1995, he tried to install an annual $10 enrollment fee for the Drudge Report. Only 600 of his readers subscribed, but Drudge opted not to cut off the skinflints.

``I have a little family inheritance, so I'm not worried about making a profit with the Drudge Report,'' he said. ``I'm not about money. I'm about digging in and making trouble.''

Today, Drudge e-mails his report to devoted readers every couple of days, billing the latest storm flash and political convention behind-the-scenes buzz under labels like ``Break,'' ``Alert'' or ``Code Red.''

``I know someone at every single studio lot in this town,'' Drudge said. ``If something were happening at Sony tonight, I could get us close. Maybe not inside, but I could get us close. . . . Later, right after the event ended, someone would send me e-mail and tell me all the dirt.''

Andrew Breitbart, a subscriber and Santa Monica-based free-lance writer, said, ``I really like his anti-Hollywood vibe. It's not some Generation X affectation. It's a moral outrage about how incestuous this town can be.''

The film industry's promotional tactics irk Drudge, who recently flamed on about the push behind Madonna's star turn as ``Evita.''

``She's going to be on the cover of Vogue, she's going to be everywhere,'' Drudge said. ``If the studios could package their films with the lettuce at the grocery stores, they would. As it is, they'll force feed their product to the masses in the magazines they own, the Web sites they run and the radio stations they control.''

Drudge's accounts sometimes take on a dark tone. Last month he reported that the Jurassic Park ride at Universal Studios was ``cursed'' because it was shut down for several hours after two passengers were doused with hydraulic fluid. A few weeks later, two boats crashed into one another.

``Stories like that are beautiful because you won't see anyone else calling that ride `cursed,' '' Cox said.

His critics are equally vocal. Pop by alt.showbiz.gossip and chances are you'll catch someone snarling about Drudge's work. He's moldy. He's tired. He's lagging behind the daily newspapers and trade magazines.

``No I'm not,'' Drudge counters. ``I'm never late with my information.''

And he's rarely wrong. But when a prediction does fall flat, Drudge is the first one to laugh at his mistake and write a ``Flash!'' correction.

``I thought Microsoft would buy Netscape. I thought `Independence Day' would be a bomb and `Waterworld' would be a hit,'' Drudge said. ``When I flop, I send out a message to everyone and tell them, `Whoops!' ''

This speedy response, as well as the manner in which Drudge gathers and distributes his information, is the key to successful on-line publishing, insists Cox.

The interactive nature of an on-line format allows users to talk back. All they have to do is hit the reply button to zap off a comment or complaint. Many Drudge Report recipients are connected to the political realm, the entertainment industry or the Fourth Estate.

Though he considers himself a new-media journalist, Drudge admits he's not technologically savvy. He uses a beat-up Packard Bell 486 and three 27-inch Sanyos. And instead of opting for an automated list-serv, Drudge manually inputs all 8,000 of his subscribers' e-mail addresses when sending out each update.

``I can't imagine this kind of journalism existing anywhere but e-mail,'' said Rick Barber, talk show host on Denver radio station KOA. Barber interviews Drudge frequently.

``The line between commentator and journalist is blurred. He can get away with things that we can't - this `a source tells me this and a source tells me that,' this never attributing his sources - because his audience is limited and it's a new medium.''

But Drudge knows he's not libel-proof.

He worries about potential legal wrangling and tries to confirm the accuracy of his stories with at least two sources. Though he says studio executives have asked him to name his inside contacts, Drudge refuses to reveal their identity.

``Me talking could mean their jobs,'' Drudge said. ``I'm not willing to sacrifice their trust. They've got to stay invisible, just like me.''

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Photo

Photo: (Color) On-line media maven Matthew Drudge of Hollyw ood is the author of the Drudge Report, which weaves breaking news with the latest entertainment gossip.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News