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J.K. Rowling Wins Invasion of Privacy Case Against Daily Mirror
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" J.K. Rowling has won her privacy complaint against the Daily Mirror.

Britain's Press Complaints Commission has ruled the Daily Mirror improperly published a photo of author J.K. Rowling's home. The creator of Harry Potter registered a complaint with the commission charging a July 14 Daily Mirror article, which included a photo of her property and named her street, was a violation of her privacy.

Rowling's attorneys said the author had been "subject to security threats" in the past and the information revealed by the tabloid again put the author and her family at risk, the Mirror reported Wednesday. In ruling in Rowling's favor, the commission said the newspaper noted in its article she had "gained her fair share of stalkers and obsessive fans."

In the three months since he was named interim executive director of the Writers Guild, West, Young has adopted the kind of disruptive tactics traditionally used by blue-collar unions. In September, writers staged a protest outside Advertising Age's "Madison and Vine" conference in New York that included protesters dressed as reality TV stars Donald Trump and Martha Stewart.

Twenty guild members later crashed a panel of reality TV producers at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, handing out leaflets and briefly engaging panelists in discussions about poor working conditions and pay in the reality genre. Writers also leafleted the Museum of Television & Radio in New York to protest what they believe is excessive product placement in TV.

Although Young's tactics have succeeded in getting publicity, they garner mixed reviews within the 9,500-member union. Supporters believe they draw attention to the guild's gripes and help galvanize members. But critics see them as pointless gimmicks inappropriate for writers.

"We're not Teamsters, we're not textile workers," said former board member Larry Gelbart, a veteran writer whose credits include the TV series "MASH" and such movies as "Tootsie" and "Neighbors." "The last thing we want is to be turned away at the door because someone is afraid we're going to make a scene."

Gotta get to work in a transit strike? No problem if you're a telecommuter. Just fire up the laptop in the virtual office and work away.

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With this strike being "the latest in a long series of business interruptions," telecommuting isn't such a "big leap" as it once was for employers, said Gil Gordon, a telecommuting consultant in Monmouth Junction, N.J. "You could argue that to some extent the strike has less effect today than it would have had 10 years ago."

In fact, for some employers, the notion of working remotely is business as usual. "It's second nature," said Steve Silverstein, northeast regional operations director for Deloitte Services LP. Of that firm's 5,000 employees in Manhattan, he said, about 75 percent worked remotely yesterday, either from home, client sites or other Deloitte offices.

After Sept. 11, 2001, when 3,500 staff members were displaced from their lower Manhattan office, many employees adopted the nomadic work style, Silverstein said. All professionals who didn't have laptops were issued ones. And bosses were trained in how to manage remotely.

Spencer's character will have a central role in the next original episode of the program, which is scheduled to air Jan. 8. The episode entitled "Running Mates," taped in mid-October, will revolve around a debate between Spencer's Leo McGarry, who's on the ticket of Democratic presidential nominee Matt Santos (Jimmy Smits), and Gov. Ray Sullivan (Brett Cullen), the Republican running mate of Sen. Arnold Vinick (Alan Alda).

Suffice it to say, Spencer's death has not only thrown the show's staff into emotional turmoil, but a strategic one as well -- and both must be balanced simultaneously.

"Wing" writers will not only have to develop a new story line -- one that could determine whether the program will get picked up for an eighth season -- but perhaps incorporate a new character as well. It's unclear when the show's fictional election will take place; speculation on the Web has centered on a March "election," though an NBC spokesman Monday said that was inaccurate.

"The best crime writing is as good as anything else in the literary canon, and right now crime writers around the world are confronting society's deepest problems, worries and uncertainties in a way the 'literary' novel sometimes avoids."

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Rankin said: "Authors would be lying if they said prizes don't matter and prizes are a recognition of the genre's worth, another step out of the ghetto." He added: "People aren't as snobby about crime books as they used to be, but they still aren't taken as seriously as some people think they ought to be. But then, crime authors can just say look at my sales figures and weep!"

He said that his books had probably been considered for the Man Booker prize, which is currently worth ?50,000. "I'm sure I've got looked at by the Booker judges from time to time," he said. "And if they gave me a Booker, I doubt I'd say no. I'm not that stupid!"

But Rankin said he hoped that the next generation of authors and critics would be more open minded as universities began to include crime books on their reading lists.