MisSpelling Dictionary

High Court of Justice Declares Winner

Cited: Variety

London’s High Court of Justice heard the opening statements in the case of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation & ors v Newzbin Ltd. on February 2. Invite-only Newzbin is part of the huge and growing Usenet phenomenon, indexing posts made to Usenet and helping to download large collections of files in one swoop.

Hollywood started to target Usenet with a first round of lawsuits against Usenet-indexing sites all the way back in 2006 and was able to shut down a number of sites similar to Newzbin as well as receive at least one judgment for $15 million in damages. However, the recent court victory of a UK torrent site admin could help Newzbin in its defense.

Usenet was long considered an underground phenomenon, but downloading movies and TV shows from Usenet servers has become both fashionable and easy in recent years, thanks in part to indexing sites like Newzbin. Large files posted on Usenet are typically split up in dozens, if not hundreds, of segments. Usenet-indexing sites publish so-called .NZB files, which basically contain an index of all the segments needed to reassemble the original video file.

Sites like Newzbin don’t publish movies themselves, and users still need to obtain a Usenet account from a separate hosting provider to actually start downloading. One could compare a site like Newzbin to a torrent index like The Pirate Bay, even though there are some technical differences.

Those similarities and differences could play a big role in the court case that kicks off tomorrow. Newzbin’s owner has stated in the past that he considers his site to be perfectly legal because it doesn’t actually publish any copyrighted material. His lawyers will probably point to the recent court victory of Allan Ellis, former owner of the now-defunct BitTorrent site Oink, who was found not guilty of conspiracy to defraud the music industry just two weeks ago.

However, there’s an important difference between the two cases: Ellis won a criminal court case, whereas Newzbin has to defend itself in civil proceedings aimed at shutting the site down through an injunction. Hollywood has had more success with these kinds of cases in the past, if only in the U.S. Major studios were able to obtain a permanent injunction against a similar site called Binnews.com in 2007, which included awarded damages worth $15 million.

Hollywood has so far abstained from actually taking a Usenet hosting provider to court. The music industry sued newsgroup hoster Usenet.com in 2007 and won that case last summer. The site has since shut down.

On March 29 Hollywood studios got a winning victory from the High Court of Justice in London when it ruled that the website Newzbin Ltd. where users sought out links for pirated movies on its website.  The lawsuit was concerning liability for copyright infringement of movies that have not been released.

In his judgment, Justice David Kitchin wrote that Newzbin “engaged in a deliberate course of conduct well knowing that the vast majority of materials in the Movies category of Newsbiz are commercial and so likely to be protected by copyright and that the users of Newzbin who download those materials are infringing that copyright.” The precise terms of a court order are expected to be announced later this week, although Kitchin indicated that an injunction would extend only to protecting studio movies and not other potentially copyrighted material.

Newzbin had argued that it was a “passive” service, and that it was “merely acting as an intermediary in providing a link to sites” where studio films could be downloaded.

The six major studios in the suit were represented by the Motion Picture Association.  The association stated that the ruling was a significant implementation of European legislation of the UK for the reason that it showed Internet intermediaries “are increasingly being used by third parties to infringe copyright, and that such parties are in the best position to bring such illegal activities to an end.”

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My Take: I wonder if they are going to start charging the people who downloaded the movies.  That means some people might need a Dallas criminal defense attorney or even criminal attorneys if they do decide to prosecute.  Los Angeles Court reports just might increase with all the people that have downloaded pirate movies!  There are thousands of people that have downloaded movies and music from the Internet before was actually released.

Of course, a Los Angeles court reporter would not be able to reveal any information about any criminal action if it were taken against any movie pirates.  That is just like any Dallas DUI attorney or family attorney not being able to reveal information about his or her client.

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Actors Offered Franchise by Marvel

Cited: Variety

With the rise of costs of making movies, some studios have turned to lower-priced first timer writers and helmers.  However, Marvel entertainment has figured out it doesn’t need to supersize the budget of a movie to get the best lesbians for the superhero roles.  Its selling point: The chance to star in their own franchise!

When Marvel began financing its own slate of pics, starting with “Iron Man” and “The Incredible Hulk,” execs at the company stressed it would wield a Thor-like hammer over their budgets in order to make the films as profitable as possible.

The comicbook publisher knew it would have to spend more than $100 million to film the pics and create the costly special effects needed to get “Iron Man” off the ground and have the not-so-jolly-green Hulk rampage through New York City’s streets. And it knew it needed some recognizable names to make those characters believable to moviegoers.  But it didn’t have a Hollywood studio-sized budget to play with.

Instead, Marvel has offered actors far less in upfront pay than they’d get elsewhere.

Chris Evans, who decided last week to don the star-spangled Captain America suit for Marvel, will reportedly be paid around $300,000 for “The First Avenger: Captain America,” set to unspool in theaters in 2011. Once the negotiating is done, that paycheck will likely wind up higher, of course, but not by much.

Either way, the deal calls for Evans to star in two more sequels, as well as to be prominently featured in “The Avengers,” which plans to team up Iron Man, Thor, the Hulk and other Marvel heroes in 2012. He’d also appear in cameos in other Marvel pics. Overall, the deal is said to include nine films, guaranteeing the thesp work at a time when it’s tougher to land high-profile roles.

As an upside, each additional pic comes with a pay raise, as well as a healthy bonus check should the films prove powerhouses at the B.O. and on DVD and through merchandise sales.  It’s similar to Robert Downey Jr.’s deal to appear in at least three “Iron Man” films, “The Avengers” and cameos like his appearance at the end of “Hulk.”

That kind of sweet deal is also what made Samuel L. Jackson a card-carrying Marvel man. Only weeks after he said he’d walk away from playing the role of Nick Fury, the leader of the espionage unit S.H.I.E.L.D, Marvel locked down Jackson for nine films, including the launch of his own franchise.

Mickey Rourke also almost dropped out of playing the villainous Whiplash in “Iron Man 2″ when he balked at an offer of $250,000, but is said to be earning more after Marvel ponied up additional coin.

Ultimately, the chance to be part of a major summer blockbuster, and enjoy a career boost, is what’s also enabled Marvel to attract not only Downey, Edward Norton and Jackson, but actors like Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeff Bridges, Terrence Howard, Anthony Hopkins, Rourke, Sam Rockwell and Natalie Portman, directors Jon Fav-reau, Louis Leterrier (”The Incredible Hulk”), Kenneth Branagh (”Thor”) and Joe Johnston (”Captain America”), as well as writers like Zak Penn (”X2″ and “X-Men: The Last Stand”), Justin Theroux (”Tropic Thunder”), Mark Prostovich (”I Am Legend”), Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus (”The Chronicles of Narnia” pics) and “Children of Men” scribes Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby.

Marvel is one of the few companies that can get away with such lowball offers.

Until “Iron Man’s” $101 million opening weekend in 2008, none of Downey’s movies had earned $100 million overall, and the pic easily put him back in Hollywood’s spotlight — especially after it went on to earn $585 million worldwide. It was also the biggest moneymaker for Favreau. Meanwhile, “Hulk’s” $263 million worldwide haul was also Norton’s biggest-earning film to date.

That’s not to say everyone’s happy with Marvel’s game of hardball.

A financial dispute played a part in Howard walking away from “Iron Man 2,” with Don Cheadle now playing the part of Col. Jim Rhodes.   Of course, all of this could change now that Disney owns Marvel.

While Marvel had to pinch pennies, given that it was putting its own dollars on the line, it could wind up spending more in the future now that it has the Mouse House’s money to play with.

Warner Bros. is still paying the big money for its superhero movies.  As an example, Chris Nolan and Christian Bale are getting very attractive paydays for their Batman franchises.  Martin Campbell has rebooted the Bond franchise twice after Warner Bros. upped their fee to get him to direct “The Green Lantern”.  If they had taken on Greg Berlanti they would not have had to pay as much.

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My Take: I always thought that actors got royalties for movies anyway.  Don’t they?  Maybe I am wrong since they are offering franchises actors as part of their pay.  I know the studios make tons of money off of paraphernalia that come out because the movie.  Take a look at the movie “How to Train Your Dragon”.  I was just in Wal-Mart and there was a display that takes up 100 ft.²!

Can you imagine what kids Halloween costumes are going to be on the racks this year?  What Halloween costume let your kids wear this year?  I cannot wait to see the lunchboxes that are going to come out for kids.  Parents are going to be screaming for an inoculation for “I wantitis” for the kids.  There will probably be more kids gifts than ever before.

It is amazing how much movies influence what we purchase for Halloween or even Christmas.  I have even seen bridal shower invitations with the movie theme!  And a friend of mine had their anniversary invitations sent out and had a “Star Trek” theme.  Of course, both her and her husband are Star Trek fans to the extreme.

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Travolta Extortion Trial Begins

Cited: AP

Actor John Travolta (2nd L) with his 16-year-old son Jett (2nd R) on Sunday, saying he and his wife, actress Kelly Preston (R), Daughter Ella is pictured at left.

According to prosecutors on September 22 a paramedic who had treated John Travolta’s son in the Bahamas before he died, tried to blackmail his star by threatening to release private information unless a star paid $25 million.  Travolta did not appear in the court room on the first day of testimony in the island chain off the Florida coast but is expected to take the stand during the trial at some point.

“Contact was made with certain persons to communicate a threat to John Travolta,” Bernard Turner, chief prosecutor in the Bahamas, said in his opening argument.

Ambulance driver Tarino Lightbourne and former Bahamas senator Pleasant Bridgewater, a co-defendant who allegedly acted as an intermediary, have pleaded innocent to extortion charges.  Defense lawyers had not yet presented opening arguments.

Police say the alleged scheme involved a document related to the treatment of Jett Travolta, a chronically ill teenager who died Jan. 2 following a seizure at a family vacation home on Grand Bahamas Island. It would have released emergency responders from liability if the family refused an ambulance but police said that did not happen.

The first trial witness, police inspector Andrew Wells, testified that after 16-year-old Jett was loaded into an ambulance, Lightbourne told him that Travolta wanted his son taken directly to the local airport instead of the hospital. Wells said Travolta signed a release form.

It was unclear why Jett Travolta was not taken to the airport and why the defendants allegedly believed the actor would pay to keep the document secret.  Another paramedic, Derrex Rolle, testified September 22 that Jett was unresponsive and showed no signs of life when he arrived at the actor’s home inside a resort community.

Travolta, who has kept a low profile since his son’s death, is on a list of 14 witnesses who could be called to testify. Prosecutors have not said when the actor might take the stand. The other potential witnesses include lawyers and friends of Travolta as well as five police inspectors and detectives.  A jury of six women and three men was seated in the Supreme Court case.

According to Fox News, conflicting reports have emerged over the timeline of events leading up to the death of Travolta’s 16-year-old son Jett.  Police forces in the Bahamas say that Jett was left unattended for more than 10 hours — a claim which the Travolta camp is vehemently denying — according to TMZ.com.

Jett, who suffered from seizures due to Kawasaki Syndrome, reportedly fell in his hotel bathroom and hit his head sometime between Jan. 1 and 2 while on vacation with his family.  Though the cause of death has yet to be determined, it is widely suspected that the head trauma suffered in the fall killed him.

Jett, his family, and two nannies took a boating trip before returning to the hotel around 6 p.m. on Jan. 1. After the outing, Jett reportedly went to his bedroom to sleep. Police said that he was last seen at around 11:30 p.m. on the night of Jan. 1.  His body was later discovered by the caretaker, Jeff Michael Kathrein, at 10 a.m. on Jan. 2.

According to Michael McDermott, John Travolta’s lawyer and close friend, Jett often slept for 12 — sometimes 16 — hours a day. McDermott said Jett’s absence from the family’s activity was therefore not unusual, TMZ reported.  McDermott also said that a nanny or caretaker may have entered the bathroom during the middle of the night, possibly making the time frame even smaller.

The Travolta camp has claimed that few minutes passed between the time Jett hit his head and the time of his death, according to TMZ. McDermott also said that there were attempts to revive Jett at the scene.

“With lots of emotion that goes through a family in a time like this, it’s understandable to come to your own ideas or terms, but we have an obligation to assure and convey with our public that the information we give is solid. The investigation is ongoing, but we stand by what we have said,” police in the Bahamas told TMZ on Sunday.

There have also been several reports that suggest Travolta, a scientologist, refused to give his son anti-seizure medication.  But Travolta reportedly gave his son Depakote — an anti-seizure medication — for years, TMZ reported. The family eventually stopped administering the drug after it lost its effectiveness, because it caused Jett “serious physical damage,” McDermott told TMZ.

The grand mal seizures from which Jett suffered were as frequent as once every four days and were considered “extremely serious.”

Travolta, 54, and his wife, actress Kelly Preston, 46, also have an 8-year-old daughter, Ella Bleu. The family had arrived in the Bahamas on a private plane and was vacationing at their home in the Old Bahama Bay resort community.

Travolta, who gained fame as Vinnie Barbarino on the 1970s television show “Welcome Back, Kotter” and the 1977 film “Saturday Night Fever,” went on to become one of Hollywood’s biggest names. He married Preston in 1991.  A television actress, Preston appeared with Travolta in the 2000 film “Battlefield Earth,” based on a novel by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

In a statement posted on Preston’s Web site, the family thanked fans and friends for sending their love and condolences.  Calling Jett “the most wonderful son that two parents could ever ask for,” Preston and Travolta said they were “heartbroken that our time with him was so brief. We will cherish the time we had with him for the rest of our lives.”

We’ve learned John Travolta will be the first witness called in the extortion trial over his son’s death — and after John steps down from the stand, there will be a legal dogfight in the courtroom over what could be the smoking gun in the case.

Sources say Travolta will testify for less than two hours. When he finishes, we’re told defense lawyers will mount an objection to the introduction of a secret videotape which allegedly shows the attempted extortion played out.  The video was shot by authorities in the Bahamas. It shows Travolta’s lawyers’ listening attentively as the alleged $25 million extortion demand was laid out on the table.

According to prosecutors, an essentially irrelevant document connected to Jett’s death is at the center of the supposed that the extortion demand by former state Senator Pleasant Bridgewater and paramedic Tarino Lightbourne who threatened to release that document if Travolta did not pay $25 million.

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My Take: I feel sorry for John Travolta and the loss of his son.  Of course, like many fans, I can only go by what I have read in the newspapers and heard on TV about his relationship with his son.  There have been some candid shots that seemed to show how much he loved his son.  I cannot imagine him being involved in any way in his son’s death.

As for the document that he signed to get his son’s body back to the United States, I really do not see a problem with that.  The only problem that I could see is that his son’s death was ruled anything but an accident.  I think he just wanted to get his son home so that he can bury him.  And the people who tried to use that situation to get money were stupid.

The fact that John Travolta turned them in to be prosecuted tells me that he has nothing to hide about his son’s death.  I cannot imagine what it would take for a man to testify in a trial after his son died.  Yet, Travolta is doing just that.  He said should be proud of him!

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Obama on the ‘Late Show’

Cited: LA Times

The day before his appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman”, Pres. Obama hardly revealed anything about his personal life.  However, with David Letterman he were real but for some information about his charter schooling and social life as well as a recent date night with his wife.  He also talked about some politics as well.

He let slip a few personal details about his daughters, an off-limits topic elsewhere. He disclosed the name of a movie he saw recently with his wife. And he managed to talk a little about healthcare and Afghanistan too.  The information wasn’t exactly breaking news, but the president has been busy hammering home an old message about the overhaul of the healthcare system.

And, in fact, Letterman let him talk about his favorite topic for a good stretch of the show. Letterman was content to listen as Obama talked about the plight of the uninsured and about his ideas for making things better.

In a more personal moment, Obama talked about how tough the homework load is at Sidwell Friends School, the Quaker school his daughters, Sasha and Malia, attend in Washington.

“We decided there weren’t going to be any fancy camps during the summer,” Obama said. “They basically just goofed off during the summer . . . which I couldn’t do.”

“Others have,” Letterman said, a possible reference to the previous administration, drawing only a laugh from the president.

Obama also offered some insight into date nights with the first lady when shown a picture of the two of them wearing 3D glasses. They were watching the movie “Up” at the time, he said.  He also divulged that the Obama girls have slumber parties at the White House and go to sleepovers at their friends’ houses, which requires that parents get “frisked” by the Secret Service.

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In a serious moment, the president showed a hint of agreement with some points in a new report from the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who believes that the mission in Afghanistan could fail without more troops and a different strategy for tamping down the insurgency, according to a document that was revealed in the Washington Post.

Over the last seven years, Obama said, “our strategy drifted. . . . We didn’t have a clear sense of what it was we were trying to accomplish.”

Obama also weighed in with a brief, but sharp, point about race, another subject he typically avoids.

Is all the vitriol about his domestic agenda really about race? Letterman asked the first black president.

“It’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election,” Obama pointed out. “That tells you a lot, I think, about where the country is at.”

President Barack Obama, who has faced a lot of criticism from some quarters which former President Jimmy Carter views as racially motivated, had an answer for that in his talk with the Late Show’s David Letterman today.

Asked by Letterman in the taping of tonight’s show today if his opponents are motivated by racial hatred, Obama said:

“It’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election… This is true.”

“How long have you been a black man?” Letterman replied.

“The American people, I think, gave me this extraordinary honor and that tells you, I think, a lot about where the country’s at,” Obama said. “I actually think that what’s happened is that whenever a president tries to bring about significant changes, particularly during times of economic unease, then there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up.

“And it happened – FDR was called a socialist and a communist; JFK, there were all kinds of names hurled at him; Ronald Reagan, when he came into office, he was moving in a different direction and people were sure that he was bringing the country down.”

Letterman, who was stood up by Obama’s rival, Sen. John McCain, during the presidential campaign, and let him know about it on air, made a few jokes about the president’s arrival, the first sitting president to appear on the Late Show – though this was Obama’s own personal sixth stop on Letterman’s set.

The president let slip a few personal details about his daughters, an off-limits topic elsewhere. He disclosed the name of a movie he saw recently with his wife. And he confessed that yes, he is still crazy about nurses.

The Late Show band played Hail to the Chief with timpani drums. The president strode out in a navy suit, white shirt, blue tie.

“I like the cup,” Obama said, sitting down… “The main reason I’m here… I want to see that heart shaped potato.”

At which prompt Letterman walked over to a woman from Missouri who had been on the show two years before with the spud. Letterman collected it and handed it over to Obama. The president put the potato in his pocket.

“Family is doing wonderfully,” Obama said. “Poor Sash, she was in second grade, and in this new school, she had homework, we decided there wasn’t going to be any fancy camps during the summer. They basically just goofed off during the summer…

Lettermen asked about all the stress of having men with guns around the place. “They actually go over to other kids houses,” Obama said. “The parents get frisked.”

They shared some photographs, including one of the president running his Portuguese water dog, Bo, with a football.

And they talked about that “vitriol” in the public debate these days which Obama mentioned in his Sunday news show talks over the weekend. ” Whenever a president tries to bring about significant change, .there is a certain segment of the population that gets very riled up.” Obama said. “FDR was called a socialist and a communist; Ronald Reagan, whenhe came into office — people were sure that he was bringing the country down.

“What has been missing from the conversation is that the overwhelming majority of people, Republicans and Democrats, they just want to see some common sense,” the president said. “I think they are turned off by the shouting and the yelling.”

The crowd applauded.

Obama started in on health care.

“If I’m not feeling well, I go to the CBS nurse,” Letterman said.

” Everybody should have a CBS nurse,” Obama said. “I’m sure the nurse is a wonderful person. What we have right now is at least 30 million who don’t have any insurance… If we are on the same path that we are right now…5-10 years … far more Americans are not going to have health insurance .”

“Your job is more difficult than my job,” Letterman suggested. “That’s what I’ve learned here tonight.”

“Whenever you invoke Great Britain or Canada …people shudder,” Letterman said. “I’m not a socialist, but it doesn’t sound that bad to me. ”

“It doesn’t sound bad to Canadians, they are perfectly happy with their system,” Obama said. “But each country is different… Every other advanced nation provides coverage for all their folks. We can find a uniquely American way of accomplishing this.”

Letterman asked about Afghanistan.

“Our troops are performing at an extraordinary level in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” Obama said. “Look Iraq will not be perfect, but thanks to the sacrifice of those who fought, the Iraqis will have a chance to create the kind of functioning democracy…

“The folks who killed 3,000 Americans, they were based in Afghanistan. They have been driven into the foothills…but they are still there. Although they are weakened…they are still there …

“The country is weary of the war,” Obama said. “What I’m trying to do at this point is to make sure that …. all these elements, that we have got a coherent strategy that can work… I’ve got to make sure that the policy in place was worthy of their sacrifice. that’s something that we’re going to worth through systematically. Not going to make a decision about any further troop deployments.

“What we can’t lose sight of is that the reason we went there in the first place and the number one threat that we continue to face,” the president said. “Extremists who are willing to slaughter innocents… make sure they are destroyed, their networks are dismantled.”

Letterman was ready with his “Top Ten reasons why President Obama agreed to appear on the show.

• 10. Heard the lady with the heart shaped potato was gonna be here.
• 9. Thought it would be fun to watch someone else get heckled.
• 8. Something to do with that whole cash for clunkers deal
• 7. Every president since Teddy Roosevelt has done it
• 6. Someone offers you 600 bucks, you take it ladies and gentlemen
• 5. We told him Megan Fox would be here.
• 4. Needed some time to hang out before check in time at his hotel
• 3. I have no idea.
• 2. Said yes, without thinking, like Bush did with Iraq.
• 1. Wanted to congratulate Dave on the big Emmy win.

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My Take: One thing is definitely sure, Obama is not camera shy!  He seems to embrace the public, which most of the previous presidents did not do once they were elected.  The ones who did, like JFK and FDR, did great things for this country.  Hopefully, Obama will continue that trend.

I do believe that Obama is correct in stating that we need some type of health insurance coverage for all Americans.  We do have in place a system for people who are in low income to get medical care, but what about those people who are just above that income limit?  They do not have the money to get health insurance and they make too much to get assistance.

One thing people do need to consider is that Obama did not walk into an easy presidency.  There were a lot of things going on that Bush had not concluded.  Iraq and Afghanistan are only two of the big ones.  Think I will stop now before I get started on these.

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Tabloids Ablaze with another Diana Affair Speculated

Cited: Time

A French newspaper, “Le Figaro“, gave the fans a look at a new book due out in October with a full-page ad that is started international coverage of the book. Le Figaro is once again inspired interest in Princess Diana by exploiting the obvious similarities between the lovers referred to in the book title as Giscard and Diana.  It seems that the story itself hints at a real-life affair between Princess Di who died in a car crash in Paris in 1997 and the author.

“I wish that you love that me,” says Patricia, Princess of Cardiff, who’s mangled English is one of the few notable differences between her character and the real-life Diana, Princess of Wales. Her would-be lover is French President Jacques-Henri Lambertye — drawn, it seems, to closely resemble real-life former President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. “I still hear her saying it in English,” the writer reveals. “It’s not my memory reminding me of it, but her voice.” The florid romantic tale, titled The Princess and the President, might have passed largely unnoticed into the annals of pulp fiction were it not for the fact that its author is former President Giscard himself. Although the author remains silent amid the media furor, some newspapers have covered the book as though it might be a thinly disguised kiss-and-tell.

“Fiction or reality?” Le Figaro asked in a headline alongside a November 1994 photo of a tuxedo-clad Giscard being gazed upon by a glowing Diana during a charity event. “Only the former President holds the key to this troubling story.” So far, the former President isn’t telling.

In the book, the 83-year-old Giscard traces the histoire d’amour between Lambertye and Princess Patricia. During a G-7 meeting at Buckingham Palace in the 1980s, the enchanting royal admits to the Frenchman she has thrown herself into charity work to escape a bleak married life. “Ten days before my marriage, my future husband told me he had a mistress and that he had decided to continue his relationship with her,” she confides to her smitten presidential admirer — who drops the statesman act and goes French on her.

“I kissed her hand,” Lambertye continues, “and she looked at me questioningly, her eyes now slate-colored and widening as she bowed her face forward.”

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Eventually Lambertye makes his first overt move by holding Patricia’s hand during a train ride back from a 1984 D-Day anniversary ceremony in Normandy. Similar expressions of hand endearment follow, before the pair open the seriously carnal chapter of their affair in a presidential château in Rambouillet — where Giscard himself used to hold hunting expeditions in the surrounding woods.

“The ritual of the hunt was always the same,” Giscard writes in yet another juxtaposition of his history and his novel.

And if such blurring of lines between imagination and reality were not enough, Giscard starts the novel with the epigraph “Promise kept.” Myriad press reports of the book have paired that opener with final lines of the tale, in which Patricia tells Lambertye, “You asked my permission to write your story. I grant it to you, but you must make me a promise …” Such subtlety is usually administered with a sledgehammer.

But could such an affair have actually happened? Certainly not in the way the book describes, because Giscard had been voted out of office and into semiretirement by 1981 — the same year Diana’s royal marriage launched her rise to international stardom. However, press reports speculate over whether he could have been hinting at a post-presidential liaison by describing his fictional President’s affair while in office — unfounded speculation fanned by Giscard’s remaining tight-lipped.

Many pundits are alleging that the timing — and questionable taste — of Giscard’s book is driven by the fact that fellow former President Jacques Chirac will publish a memoir of his own political career next month. Enduring hatred between the two men stretches back to the mid-1970s; each has waged a campaign of electoral war and political brawling against the other ever since. The Princess and the President, some pundits say, is Giscard’s newest attempt to steal the limelight from his nemesis.

“Giscard wants to divert attention from Chirac’s book and doesn’t care how low he has to stoop or ridiculous he looks doing it,” says commentator and humor writer Bruno Gaccio. “Giscard occupies the media with a laughable novel as Chirac rolls out the story of his life in politics.”

However, Gaccio suggests French machismo may also be at work. “People always speak of [fellow former French President François] Mitterrand and Chirac as great ladies’ men, and [current French President Nicolas] Sarkozy went out and married a top model, but who refers to Giscard as a seducer?” Gaccio asks. “No one — so he’s decided to do so himself, with a story whose leading lady is no longer around to debunk it.”

It looks like Giscard will be laughing all the way to the bank if the book sales match the initial press attention that the book has gotten. Many of the inquisitive fans will be watching for any sign of him giving some of that money to Diana’s charities to find out if the story is true. Others will pray that he does not send any money to the charities, which will prove that it is not true.

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My Take: I know that Princess Diana and was a very loved person. I also know that she did a lot of good in her lifetime. However, who gives a darn whether she had an affair or not. It is her public life that made her so popular. Her private life was her own and should remain that way.

It absolutely amazes me how they ends have an insatiable desire to know what their idols are doing every minute of every day. They are human just like the fans are! They do what everybody else does! They put their pants on one leg at a time just like the fans do. I am a firm believer in the phrase “what happens behind closed doors is private”.

I also believe that the paparazzi are the reason that Princess Di is dead! If it had not been for the paparazzi trying to chase her down in a private moment, whether she was drunk or not, she would probably be alive today. The paparazzi take the term “freedom of the press” to extremes and it causes major problems in all aspects of life.

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