The boxers are festooned with Christmas baubles and cartoon characters. Bugs Bunny, for one.

Gino says diet pills and low-fat food have knocked 30 lbs. off his 5-foot-6 frame, so his legs are buff.

Good thing, since he's on the run, pushing his first book, I Belong to the Stars (Mosaic Press, in stores this week.)

In the office of the sprawling condo, assistant Filomena Jolic, 28, pounds away at a computer keyboard. Her boss' next stop is a CBC interview.

Gino Empry is Toronto's primo publicist. A quirky legend. You know him if you have anything to do with media or the arts.

He has been PR man for stars from Tony Bennett to wrestler Chyna, Peggy Lee to Jack Lemmon.

If you don't know Gino, a first encounter likely would be memorable. He is an unusual looking fellow.

There is the hair, a rich chestnut brown mound of curls.

"It's mine," says Empry, patiently. "A little colour, maybe, but it's mine."

There's the famous schnozz. Bombshell Jane Russell says in the book: "He is the first man I've met who has a nose big enough to fit my cleavage."

Besides, it's Roman. Gino claims a line to four Caesars.

There's the faint scars around his ears. Facelift? "Abscesses," he tells me.

There's the age thing. "I'm 49," he says, sinking into a big white sofa. He has been telling us that for years.

Funny, I find a clipping that says Gino was 36 in 1974. My math is shaky, but 49?

"Well, why not?" he says, a-twinkle. "I don't care about getting old as long as I don't lose my faculties. But people want young people. Besides it's gotten to be a bit of a joke."

Nearby is a small Jackson Pollock.

The artist peed in the paint before putting it to canvas, Gino says. And you thought Van Gogh was weird.

There is another question Gino has heard before.

You gay? "I know people think so, but no," he says, reminding me he has a longtime girlfriend, a psychic named Nikki.

Anyway, hair, nose, face, age, what does it matter, really? It's part of the creation, the character that is Gino Empry.

"Underneath it all, he's a very, very nice man," says our veteran entertainment editor, Kathy Brooks.

Yes, he is. And a shy one.

He was born near Dufferin and Davenport, then a sort of little Little Italy. His mom was 15, his dad 27.

"He spoke no English and was very shy. I didn't even realize I had a father, just this man who slept with my mother."

This led to a lifelong affection for cops. "They were like father figures." At one of his famous parties, he says, six sergeants soaked in his condo's hot tub.

Richard Gere once crashed in a spare room. He thanked his host with a coin bank shaped like a spermatozoa. A sperm bank. It is part of a mix of collections: Masks, plates, bronzes, matchbooks, caricatures, paintings.

The book, too, is a marvellous mish-mash.

There's Gino the Voyeur munching popcorn, watching the Happy Hooker romp with a dozen guys and gals.

There's Gino the Fixer calling his cop buddies to clear a path from the airport for Frank Sinatra's limo.

There's Gino the Pal roaming Yorkville with Jack Lemmon, singing Italian songs.

There's Gino the Faithful buying hashish for Peter O'Toole.

Ella. Yul. Cosby. Cher. Dietrich. Anne Murray. The Imperial Room. The Mirvishes, who canned him after 25 years as their powerful publicist. Phyllis Diller. On and on.

Ella request

And my favourite, Mike Peake. He took the photo for this column.

In 1988, he was working up courage to propose to girlfriend Martha. He took her to an Ella Fitzgerald concert.

Gino got Ella to dedicate a song to them, and Mike popped the question.

The marriage didn't last, but Mike, now 50, and Gino remain friends. Part of a great publicist's network.

Once-great? Well, Gino Empry's power is not what it was, say, 10 years ago. But he does corporate work and still has his Playboy deal. He is always calling about special lingerie editions, Playmates of Canada, and such.

On a wall in his condo is a quote: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence."

Or a trim set of legs.