In a celeb-obsessed world, the cellphone is fast-emerging as the perfect tool for keeping abreast of gossip. In a lengthy feature, the IHT covers the number of gossip magazines and web sites turning out mobile versions, and how their runaway audience numbers are reshaping existing media properties.

The numbers certainly are compelling. According to Nielsen Mobile, TMZ.com, which launched a mobile site in April 2007, had 1.1 million visitors in July, while Online’s mobile site attracted 1.2 million visitors. In June, Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Entertainment had 2.9 million visitors, compared with two million visitors to Yahoo Sports and 1.5 million to Yahoo Finance. Four out of ten searches on Yahoo! oneSearch is for celeb or entertainment news.

In comparison, People.com’s mobile site only attracted 771,000 visitors in July, but then users must first pay $3.99 to download its mobile application to view the gossip. People however, is planning to relaunch in November, and drop the pay model, in hopes that the mobile site will bring more traffic to its web offering, which in turn will mean the company can charge more in ads. It will also have the technology to put in banner ads on the mobile site. Both People and E! are saying that cellphone audiences are no longer just early adopters and that audiences are increasingly mainstream, and “middle aged.” People reports that 30 percent of its magazine audience, access its mobile site.

This, of course, is great news for the sites, but maybe not so good for those celebs who actually want to keep a low profile. As CBS (NYSE: CBS) Mobile general manager Jeff Sellinger, puts it, “We are all going to be walking television stations,” with more celeb gossip likely coming in from “regular” people. Video blogging company Seesmic is rolling out a new cellphone service in which anyone can record a video of a celebrity they’ve spotted and upload it to the internet to share with their friends and other Seesmic users. In July, papparazi agency Big Pictures launched a feature that allows amateur paps to send in their camera phone pictures of the stars directly from their mobiles to its web site, in return for a cut of any sales. And for those celebrities who already feel hounded by fans, it’s just going to get worse as GPS makes its way into more and more phones; it’s not hard, for example, to imaging a celebrity sighting tracking service. As Seesmic CEO Loïc Le Meur, notes, “I think we will have to be very careful. Some people will love following celebrities around.”

• Paparrazi Agency Big Pictures Launches Mobile Site