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Anti-Defamation League Attacks Judith Regan
From: www.writerswrite.com

" Somewhat surprisingly, the Anti-Defamation League has weighed in on the Judith Regan/HarperCollins battle, issuing a statement condemning Ms. Regan's allegedly anti-Semitic remarks to a HarperCollins attorney, that Ms. Regan denies ever having said.

"If Ms. Regan did make the charge that a Jewish cabal was conspiring against her, she clearly stepped over the line by employing the age-old anti-Semitic canard that Jews conspire against non-Jews," ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman said. "She also gives credence to the conspiracy theory that Jews control the media. Whatever her dispute with HarperCollins, the Jewishness of her critics had absolutely no relevance to the matter at hand, which leads one to question why she resorted to raising the Jewish issue."

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[Attorney Bert] Fields, whose other clients have included Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg, told the AP Tuesday that he "was really alarmed" by Foxman's remarks and found them "quite harmful to the Jewish cause. And I feel free to say that because I am Jewish." Fields acknowledged that Regan had used the word "cabal," but denied she said "Jewish cabal." Even if she had, he said, her comments would not be anti-Semitic. "I am quite stunned at what I think is a super thin-skinned response (by Foxman)," Fields said. "If a Jewish person is in a cabal, I don't think it implies that all Jews are conspiring against her. And to say that is silly."

Meanwhile, publishing industry insiders were speculating about Regan's next move and whether she would remain in Los Angeles. In her weekly column, Publishers Weekly Editor Sara Nelson wrote that she doubted "we've heard the last of Judith Regan," speculating that she will land at a TV network, movie studio or another publishing house.

Others doubted a quick return to publishing, though. "Right now she's pretty radioactive for the book world," said an executive at a large publisher, speaking anonymously. "My guess is that she's not going to be linking up with a major house in the short run. But in the long run she could." Both Walter, who spoke with Regan on Sunday, and Fields said the former publisher had not decided her next professional move. Nor whether she will remain in Los Angeles, they said.

"My guess is she's going to take some time off," Walter said. "She has a lot of decisions ahead of her. If she goes back into publishing, I'd expect her to do something small. She wants to break free from how publishing works, to be more nimble and to produce books faster based on news as it breaks."

16 months after Hurricane Katrina, the southern city that inspired Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, John Kennedy Toole and Anne Rice risks losing its unique place on the literary landscape. The city's recovery is plodding and many writers remain in exile around the United States. "This applies not just to literature, but to music and all of the art forms that owe something to the character of New Orleans -- they're all going to be different," said John Biguenet, author and English professor at Loyola University in New Orleans.

"When we talk about New Orleans culture, we're not talking about a place but a community. If the people who taught the next generation to make the gumbo, to sing the songs and sew the costumes for Mardi Gras don't come back, that's the end of that tradition." Novelists, poets and playwrights are struggling to save and rebuild their scene in the city that was setting for classics like Williams' "Streetcar Named Desire," and Toole's "A Confederacy of Dunces" and Rice's popular "Interview With the Vampire."

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Relatively cheap housing in the city known as the Big Easy lured those who could no longer afford sky-high rent in other literary hotspots like New York and San Francisco. But after the storm that flooded 80 percent of the city, homes and jobs disappeared, problems that still threaten the recovery as the population remains at half the pre-storm number.

Neighborhoods popular with the artistic community, like the French Quarter, Faubourg Marigny and Bywater, did not flood. But rents there have risen by 50 to 100 percent, said author Robert Smallwood, who is also executive director of the Louisiana Writers' Foundation. "If writers were scraping by with odd jobs, they can hardly make it now," he said.

Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the award marks Bryson's contribution to literature. Bill Bryson is one of Britain's most popular and best-loved authors," she told the presentation ceremony in central London.

"Despite having been born and raised in the United States, he has become a true British institution. He has not only delighted the British public with his witty and insightful writing, but educated and informed them as well." Bryson said it was "a great honor" to receive the award, which is honorary because he is not a British citizen.

A former journalist, Bryson is best known for Notes on a Small Island. A 2003 poll of British readers chose the book about modern Britain as the work that best described British identity and the state of the nation. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Bryson first came to Britain in the early 1970s during a backpacking tour of Europe. He returned in 1975 and worked as a journalist until 1987, for both The Times of London and The Independent. After living in the United States for a time, he returned to Britain.

Bryson has also written on the history of the English language and science in A Short History of Nearly Everything. He is a commissioner for the preservation group English Heritage and was made Chancellor of Durham University in northern England in 2005, succeeding actor and director Peter Ustinov.

Key actors from the show lent their likenesses for "Desperate Housewives: The Game," while actress Brenda Strong provided the same spooky narration she delivers on the TV series. In the game, players assume the role of a new female neighbor that moves into the neighborhood. She interacts with the characters from the series to solve a new mystery. "When you are writing a video game, you are both trying to lead the player in the direction of the solution to the mystery," says Tobis, who also has worked on the "Housewives" TV series. "Over the course of the game, you're also trying to lead them astray to have fun, allowing them to mingle with the characters from the show."

Like many TV scribes, Tobis says that he tends to overwrite his scripts. He was pleasantly surprised to learn that video games are one medium where length is not a problem. "Video game writing takes a very different path than traditional entertainment because you want to lead the audience to a solution, but you deviate by offering a lot of different paths," Tobis says. "It's a bit like creating a family tree, or more accurately, a spread sheet."

The intricacy and depth of storytelling found in some contemporary games reflects the influence of a new generation of writers like Tobis, who move freely from penning film and TV projects to games.

"The game developers are starting to understand that the dialogue in games can't be the kind of dialogue that existed 10 years ago," Tobis says. "It's important to the future of gaming. Writers of video games, and some of them may come from Silicon Valley rather than Hollywood, are bringing a new level of sophistication and complexity to games."

For 60 years, pre-readers have enjoyed Highlights magazine alongside their older siblings or with the help of parents. Now preschoolers have their own monthly magazine that is like Highlights, but every page is developmentally appropriate.

"We believe that children are the world's most important people," said Kent S. Johnson, CEO of Highlights for Children, Inc. "Creating a publication that celebrates early childhood while encouraging children to develop a love of reading and become lifelong learners fits perfectly with the mission of our company - to help children become their best selves. We are delighted to offer a magazine that is wholly dedicated to the very young child."

Highlights High Five, published monthly, offers a mix of read-aloud fiction stories, including stories that introduce the Spanish language; poems; simple nonfiction; puzzles; easy crafts and cooking activities; finger plays; and action rhymes. Also included are new versions of features familiar to Highlights readers, designed especially for preschoolers: "The Adventures of Spot," featuring the dog from "The Timbertoes," and "My First Hidden Pictures." Beckoning young children with brightly colored illustrations and photographs, the playful, user-friendly magazine is meant to be enjoyed by the child with an adult or older sibling. Many features can be enjoyed independently by pre-readers after they have been introduced to them.

"The way I look at it, almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney," Surnow said. "The other side hasn't been skewered in a fair and balanced way."

The working title of the show has been "This Just In," but that will change because AOL just launched a broadband comedy channel by that name.

The pilot segs will be co-anchored by comedians Kurt Long and Susan Yeagley and feature a family of correspondents. "There will be some elements of 'The Daily Show' and some of 'Weekend Update,'" Surnow said.

Surnow originally pitched the show to Fox Entertainment prexy Peter Liguori, who is searching for latenight programming for the Fox network. Liguori passed but connected Surnow with Roger Ailes, who in addition to Fox News Channel also runs Twentieth Century Television and the Fox stations group.