GOLDEN CHUTE
HOW big is Judith Miller's severance package from the New York Times? The guesses range as high as $3 million. The Pulitzer Prize winner was forced to quit after 28 years at the Gray Lady - and 85 days in jail because she wouldn't give up a source to the federal prosecutor who ultimately indicted Lewis "Scooter" Libby. One source says Miller was paid three years salary in severance, plus three years as a bonus, plus Times health benefits for the rest of her life. "Three million dollars sounds high, but it's definitely seven figures," says another source, who speculates Miller signed an ironclad confidentiality clause that will preclude her from trashing the Times in a memoir. Neither Miller nor the Times would comment.