The Secret keeps on spreading. Two millions additional copies have been ordered for Rhonda Byrne's self-help phenomenon, yet another beneficiary of Oprah Winfrey, who devoted two shows to the book in early February. Released last fall by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, The Secret now has 3.75 million copies in print and for days has displaced the final Harry Potter book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," from the top of Amazon.com, where "The Secret" is currently out of stock.

"It is a testament to the powerful attraction of The Secret that it has been selling out faster than we can supply it to our customers," Judith Curr, Atria's executive vice president and publisher, said Thursday in a statement. The audio book, a four-CD set, is also selling fast, with 400,000 copies in print, according to Atria, which describes The Secret as containing "wisdom from modern-day teachers -- men and women -- who have used it to achieve health, wealth, and happiness."

Created by Australian producer Byrne, The Secret began as a DVD film, released last March and, thanks to aggressive Internet marketing, became enough of a hit to be spun off into a book, which Byrne finished in less than a month.

The order, which was issued earlier this month by the federal court in the Southern District of New York, forces eSnips Ltd. to identify the subscribers who have posted the material, the trust's lawyer said in a telephone interview yesterday. High-quality copies of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, The History of Middle-earth and The Silmarillion had been posted on the site, according to British law firm Manches, which is representing the trust.

While eSnips agreed to remove the material, it refused to identify the names of the posters without a court order, Manches's Steven Maier said. Such infringements are "damaging not only to the estate's interest, but also to the integrity of the published works," he said. "It is not something we allow."

Hagit Katzenelson, spokeswoman for eSnips, said the company, which is based jointly Sunnyvale, Calif., and Tel Aviv, has asked the Tolkien estate to give users time to object to the court order. If there are no objections, the company will hand over the information, she said.

In accordance with the U.S.'s Digital Millennium Copyright Act, eSnips removed the offending material as soon as the estate told the company about it, Ms. Katzenelson said in an e-mail. "However we care about the privacy of our users," she said. The website promises users it won't reveal their identities unless legally obliged to do so, she said. Mr. Maier now plans to contact all the eSnips users that posted Tolkien texts on the site to ask them "politely and firmly" to stop.

The book, which is adapted from the Oscar-nominated Best Documentary feature of the same name, is part of an "ultimate Oscar gift bag," said Rodale's senior marketing manager, Brent Gallenberger. Starting today and continuing through Friday, the title will be stuffed into gift bags sent to "the top 10 female movie actresses in Hollywood." One hundred copies will also make it into VIP gift bags on hand for the taking in a "luxury gifting suite" at the Executive Beverly Hills Mansion. According to a Rodale rep, the suite is expected to draw some 500 people over the three days.

Gallenberger, who confirmed Rodale paid an undisclosed fee for inclusion in the Oscar giveaways, said he and his team were able to put together the publicity plug at the last minute by working with the PR firm Madison & Mulholland, which handles select celebrity events. And while no one at Rodale expects any Oscar attendees to walk the red carpet with Gore's book in hand, getting the title to powerful people in Hollywood-a town known for its eco-friendly sensibilities-can't hurt.

"She wasn't for us," the News Corp. chairman said of Regan, who was ousted in December after an uproar over her plans to publish a book by O.J. Simpson and a novel about Mickey Mantle that Murdoch called a "pseudo, pornographic thing." Interviewed at "Media Summit New York," held at McGraw-Hill's headquarters, Murdoch recalled that he signed off on Regan's Simpson project, as long as payment would go only to the ex-jock's kids.

"I said [to Regan], 'If it really reads like a confession, he gets no money,'" Murdoch said. "It's my fault. I should have been closer to it." But Murdoch said he rarely spoke to Regan and lost touch with the project. In November, company executives reached him - at his ranch in Australia - and told him of the public outcry. He said he backed their plan to scuttle the book, noting what he called a "clever working up of public opinion by the families" of victims Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

"It was a mistake," Murdoch said of the $1.1 million book-and-TV deal, from which Simpson was reportedly paid. But the Simpson fiasco was no reason to fire Regan, Murdoch said, because he had given the green light early on. However, when her plans to publish the Mantle novel came to light, as Murdoch put it, "I thought, oh God, we don't want to go through this again. Just cancel that book."

In December, News Corp. said Regan was fired after she allegedly launched an anti-Semitic tirade at a company lawyer. Her lawyer has since threatened to sue News Corp. for libel and wrongful termination. He could not be reached yesterday. Murdoch said Regan, who was hired in 1994, turned out to be "not a team player, and that's putting it mildly. ... She wasn't for us."

Meg Cabot, who took the publishing world by storm with her phenomenally successful Princess Diaries books, heads off in a dazzling new direction with the launch of three brand-new series. As part of its "Meg Cabot Girl-World Domination" campaign, Scholastic will publish Allie Finkle's Rules for Girls, a smart, funny series for readers ages 8-12 launching in spring 2008. In addition to the Allie Finkle books, two new trilogies for teens, Airhead and Abandon, will be published in 2008 and 2009. Airhead is daring, highly entertaining and a new direction for Meg Cabot, and Abandon is a dramatic modern retelling of the myth of Persephone.

"Meg Cabot rocks," said Lisa Holton, President of Scholastic Children's Books. "Her new series are brilliant, funny, and totally fresh. We can't wait to bring Meg's exciting new work to millions of girls across the country. We will leave no feather boa unturned in our quest for girl-world domination."

"Meg Cabot has an unbelievable ability to channel girls -- readers always relate to her characters even though they're princesses or they can see ghosts," said Abigail McAden, Editorial Director, Point, an imprint of Scholastic. "Now, with Allie Finkle, she's writing for a whole new set of kids, and I'm so excited for younger readers to meet Allie, who is nine and always follows the rules. Mostly. Or she secretly makes up her own. Regardless, Allie gets in a lot of trouble, whether it's by breaking her own rules or somebody else's -- something every kid can relate to. Meg's writing is in a league of its own: it's remarkably accessible, filled with heart, and often just plain hilarious. And her new teen books are no exception: both Airhead and Abandon are fantastically absorbing and sure to be big hits with her teen readers."

Meg Cabot is the author of over forty books for adults and teens, many of which have been bestsellers including five #1 New York Times bestsellers, most notably the Princess Diaries series from HarperCollins, which is currently being published in over 37 countries and was made into two hit movies by Disney. Meg Cabot's books have sold more than 15 million copies worldwide. For teens, her books include the Mediator series, the 1-800-Where-R-You? books, All-American Girl, Ready Or Not, Teen Idol, Avalon High, and How to Be Popular, as well as Nicola and the Viscount and Victoria and the Rogue. She also writes books for adults, including The Boy Next Door, Boy Meets Girl, Every Boy's Got One, Size 12 Is Not Fat, and Queen of Babble. Her forthcoming young adult books for HarperCollins include Pants On Fire, Jinx, and a manga sequel to Avalon High. Meg divides her time between Key West, Florida, New York, New York, and her hometown, Bloomington, Indiana.

The Rebus creator has just completed a novella, provisionally entitled Doors Open, about a heist in Edinburgh. The standalone story features a cast of original characters and will be published in 14 parts in the magazine section of the newspaper each Sunday from this March or April.

Rankin follows a growing number of writers tackling the revived serial genre, such as Alexander McCall Smith with the "44 Scotland Street" series in the Scotsman, and Ronan Bennett in the Observer with Zugzwang. Orion has no immediate plans to publish the Rankin novella, but deputy CEO and publisher Malcolm Edwards said that it will appear in book form "at some time."

Previous fiction serializations in the New York Times include Patricia Cornwell's At Risk, Michael Connelly's The Overlook and, most recently, Michael Chabon's Gentlemen of the Road.

Attorneys for Philip Anschutz allege that author Clive Cussler duped the Denver industrialist into paying $10 million for film rights to the adventure novel "Sahara" by flagrantly inflating his book sales to more than 100 million copies. "Cussler and his agent had gotten away with these numbers for years," said Alan Rader, Anschutz's lawyer. "It was a lie and it doomed the movie." The claim is "ridiculous," Cussler said Thursday outside a courtroom at Los Angeles County Superior Court. "They wanted the book. They solicited us."

The allegations surfaced at the start of a civil trial that seeks to settle a dispute over who is responsible for Anschutz's company losing $105 million on "Sahara," the 2005 movie starring Matthew McConaughey and Penelope Cruz. The trial, which includes claims of sabotage, fraud, profligate spending and racism, is expected to provide a rare behind-the-scenes look at the world of moviemaking. Lawyers selected a jury Thursday and are scheduled to make opening arguments today.

Among those on the witness list are Anschutz, the secretive 67-year-old multibillionaire; former Paramount Pictures Chairwoman Sherry Lansing; director Breck Eisner, the son of the former Walt Disney Co. chairman; McConaughey, who also served as executive producer; and Cussler, the 75-year-old author. Cussler initially sued Anschutz's Crusader Entertainment in 2004, charging that producers reneged on a contract that gave the author extraordinary approval rights over the screenplay. Anschutz countersued, alleging that Cussler deliberately torpedoed the film through his repeated attempts to write his own scripts, all of which were rejected by the producers. Both sides are seeking millions of dollars in damages.

In court papers, Anschutz's attorneys claim that Cussler "perpetrated a massive fraud" to secure an "unprecedented" contractual agreement in 2000. "The essence of Cussler's fraud was simple: He lied about how many books he had sold to induce Crusader to enter the agreement," the papers state. In addition to their effect on the trial, the allegations may raise broader questions about the authenticity of publishing-industry sales figures. Although they declined to comment on the specifics of the Cussler case, New York publishing experts said Thursday that the industry had a long history of inflating book sales and hyping an author's success. But these practices have declined, they added, with the emergence of Nielsen BookScan in 2001.

What's a guy to do when he's "dated and made love to some of the most desirable, beautiful starlets in Hollywood" but still can't find love? If you're Scott Baio, you find two co-writers to package up your pinhead thoughts and try to sell a book. Perhaps emboldened by the success of early '90s casualty Tori Spelling, who sold her memoir to Simon & Schuster for $300,000 in December (albeit, after asking for $2 million), Baio is shopping around his own, poignantly titled tell-all, BaioWatch: How I Dated and Loved Hollywood's Most Beautiful Women and Ended Up Alone.

The book, which Radar obtained the first 60 pages of, is effectively a compendium of love advice Baio gleaned from flings with everyone from Pam Anderson to Heather "The One That Got Away" Locklear to, um, Liza Minnelli (A taste: "Take it from me, when a woman says, 'I need time to think,' it's over. You're f**ed. That train has left the station. Cry for two days, then find someone else.")

Those looking for a little Baio lovin' to put next to their Charles in Charge: Season One DVD will undoubtedly be thrilled if he happens to find a publisher (though, a publishing source notes, "several have already passed.").

*****

On the exact moment he knew his relationship with Pamela Anderson was over: "One day Pamela came home and said, 'I'm thinking of getting my boobs done.' Admittedly, I was surprised. My initial response, 'Reduced?' She already had large, beautiful, natural breasts. At that moment I knew our relationship would soon begin to crumble. Pamela had finally gone Hollywood-or whatever it is that happens when a woman becomes a hot celebrity."

*****

Perhaps most bizarre, however, is an exchange he details in which a 51-year-old Minnelli tries to get Baio to become her surrogate baby daddy: "'I really want your sperm. You're a talented, good-looking Italian guy. That's what I want my child to be.' I was incredulous. 'What are you gonna do with my sperm?' 'Well, I'm going to take my egg and put it into somebody else's body.'"

The one-time wife of former New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey is writing a memoir about her life with her ex-husband. "The Silent Partner" is expected to be published by Hyperion Books in May, according to a press release.

In August 2004, Dina Matos McGreevey stood silently behind her husband while he admitted to having an affair with a male staffer while in office. He resigned three months later. Ms. McGreevey has been out of the public eye since that admission but feels that the time has now come for her to share her side of the story.

In a statement issued Wednesday through Hyperion, McGreevey writes, "two years have passed and still I am the subject of much speculation as to the nature of my relationship with my husband. Enough is enough." Hyperion would not disclose the financial details of the deal.

Since separating from her husband in 2005, Ms. McGreevey has been living with her daughter, now 5, in New Jersey. She is the executive director of the Columbus Foundation in Newark. Former Gov. McGreevey's own book on the scandal, "The Confession," was published by Harper-Collins last year and reached No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list.

"We feel our authors will be best served by being integrated into HarperCollins," Michael Morrison, president and group publisher of Harper/Morrow said Wednesday in a statement. "Our talented, dedicated staff will work hard to ensure a seamless transition."

Regan's lucrative, scandalous reign at ReganBooks ended abruptly when she was fired last December amid allegations that she made anti-Semitic remarks to a HarperCollins lawyer. In November, Regan's planned Simpson book and television interview were canceled by corporate head Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. in response to widespread public outrage. Regan has denied making any inappropriate remarks and her lawyer, Bert Fields, has said she plans to sue her former employer for wrongful dismissal and, possibly, for libel.

Her many best sellers have included Jenna Jameson's "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star," Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" and Jose Canseco's "Juiced." Books scheduled for publication include Douglas Feith's "The Best Defense" and Peter Golenbock's "7: The Mickey Mantle Novel," a raunchy account that has angered Mantle's family and apparently led to Regan's final clash with HarperCollins. According to Fields, Regan was told that "7" was "unpublishable." A News Corp. spokesman has said the book's status is under review.

In his crude, expletive-laced account, Simpson suggests Nicole all but drove him to kill her. He describes her as the "enemy." She is taunting him with her sexual dalliances, he says, and carrying on inappropriately in front of their two children.

On June 12, 1994, Simpson attends his daughter Sydney's dance recital. He writes that he is in a foul mood after the performance, stewing over the behavior of his ex-wife. He is due to fly to Chicago late that night. But first he races to Nicole's Bundy Drive condominium in Brentwood. He parks in the dark alley behind her condo and dons the knit wool cap and gloves he keeps handy to ward off the chill on the golf course. He also has a knife in the Bronco, protection against L.A. "crazies." He intends to scare her. He enters through a broken back gate-he's told her a "million times" to get the buzzer and latch fixed?and encounters Goldman, who is returning the glasses of Nicole's mother, Juditha. She had left them at Mezzaluna, where the Brown family dined after Sydney's recital and where Goldman is a waiter. Simpson accuses Goldman of planning a sexual encounter with Nicole, which Goldman denies. Nicole tells Simpson to leave him alone. Goldman's fate is sealed when Kato, Nicole's Akita, emerges and gives him a friendly tail wag. "You've been here before," Simpson screams at Goldman.

At Simpson's criminal trial, to explain how one man could have killed two people, the Los Angeles County coroner theorized that Simpson knocked out Nicole, then quickly slit her throat before turning to Goldman. If the book's account is true, the coroner's hypothesis was correct-almost. Simpson writes that his ex-wife came at him like a "banshee." She loses her balance and falls hard, her head cracking against the ground. Goldman assumes a karate stance, further angering Simpson. He dares the younger man to fight. Then, in the book, Simpson pulls back. He writes, "Then something went horribly wrong, and I know what happened, but I can't tell you exactly how."

Simpson writes that when he regains control of himself, he realizes he is drenched in blood and holding a bloody knife. Both Nicole and Goldman are dead. Simpson heads back to the alley but before getting into the Bronco to flee, strips down to his socks. He rolls his bloody clothes and the knife into a small pile. (That's an important detail. The police never recovered those clothes or the murder weapon, but they did find Simpson's socks-with Nicole's blood on them-at the foot of his bed at his Rockingham estate.) As he nears his house, Simpson sees the limo that will take him to the airport for his Chicago trip. He steals onto his estate via a darkened, hidden path that takes him directly behind the guesthouse where Kato Kaelin is living. Simpson describes how he stumbles into an air conditioner for Kaelin's room, making a terrific racket-just as Kaelin told police he had heard.

The Virginia Supreme Court ruled yesterday that John Grisham must face a jury for his actions in a real-life whodunit. Grisham, author of "The Pelican Brief," "The Firm" and "The Runaway Jury," among other bestsellers, lives outside Charlottesville. His son attended the private St. Anne's-Belfield School, where he played baseball for Alan Swanson, the head coach. Grisham and Swanson became friends, according to court papers, and Grisham is on the school's board of trustees.

In 1996, Swanson's wife, Donna Swanson, began receiving harassing anonymous letters, which included allegations that her husband was cheating on her, according to the ruling. Grisham also received an anonymous letter. In 1998, according to a lawsuit, "Grisham was intrigued by the idea of trying to 'get to the bottom' of who was writing them, and he decided to play amateur detective." Grisham and the Swansons targeted another St. Anne's parent, Katharine Almy of Charlottesville, who has three children.

Grisham and the Swansons took the letters to a handwriting expert, who told them that he needed more samples. Both sides agree that Grisham and Alan Swanson then obtained enrollment and medical release forms from the school filled out by Almy and stamped "strictly confidential." They provided the forms to the handwriting expert, who issued a report saying the letters "possibly" were written by Almy, the lawsuit states. Grisham provided the expert's report and the letters to the Albemarle County police, and a detective visited Almy. The lawsuit states that she was horrified that she was being investigated and repeatedly denied writing the letters. The detective reportedly told her to stop writing the letters. The lawsuit says that Almy provided handwriting samples to another examiner, who cleared her, and that she passed a polygraph test.

The new books follow Fiddy's memoirs released as a collaboration with MTV/Pocketbooks, From Pieces To Weight: Once Upon A Time In Southside Queens. He told allhiphop.com: "Last year, my memoirs, From Pieces to Weight, marked the beginning. Now, I'm rounding up some of the top writers, same way I rounded up some of the top rappers in the game, to form G-Unit and take this series to the top of the literary world."

"The stories in the G-Unit series are the kinds of dramas me and my crew have been dealing with our whole lives: death, deceit, double-crosses, ultimate loyalty, and total betrayal. It's about our life on the streets and no one knows it better than us. Not to mention, when it comes to delivering authentic gritty urban stories of the high and low life, our audience expects the best."

"It's about our life on the streets and no one knows it better than us. You know I don't do anything halfway, and I'm going to take this street lit thing to a whole other level. Are you ready?"

A CIA panel has told former officer Valerie Plame she can't write about her undercover work for the agency, a position that may threaten a lucrative book project with her publisher. Plame's outing as a CIA officer in July 2003 triggered a criminal probe that culminates next week when Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby goes on trial for perjury and obstruction.

But in what could be a precursor to a separate legal battle, Plame recently hired a lawyer to challenge the CIA Publications Review Board, which must clear writings by former employees. The panel refused Plame permission to even mention that she worked for the CIA because she served as a "nonofficial cover" officer (or NOC) posing as a private businesswoman, according to an adviser to Plame, who asked not to be identified discussing a sensitive issue. "She believes this will effectively gut the book," said the adviser. Larry Johnson, a former colleague, said the agency's action seems punitive, given that other ex-CIA undercover officers have published books. But even Plame's friends acknowledge that few NOCs have done so. CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said the panel was still having "ongoing" talks with Plame to resolve the dispute. "The sole yardstick," he said, is that books "contain no classified information." A spokesman for Simon & Schuster, Plame's publisher, declined to comment.

U.S. District Judge Manual Real barred Simpson from spending his advance at least until a January 24 hearing on the lawsuit, said David Cook, Fred Goldman's attorney. Cook said that at the hearing the judge could order Simpson to pay the advance money to the Goldmans or keep it frozen until a trial on the matter. Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, could not be reached for comment.

The amount of the advance was never disclosed, but some reports have put it at around $1 million (515,000 pounds). Simpson has said he was paid less than that, and that he already spent the money. A public furore over the book If I Did It, in which Simpson muses over how he could have killed his ex-wife and Goldman, prompted News Corp. media tycoon Rupert Murdoch to scrap it and an accompanying television special in November.

Simpson was acquitted of the murders in 1995 after the so-called "Trial of the Century" but found liable for the deaths by a civil jury in 1997 and ordered to pay a $33.5 million judgement to the victims' families. The Simpson book deal and television interview were brokered for News Corp.-owned publishing house HarperCollins by Judith Regan, who was fired about a month later amid accusations of anti-semitism.

Goldman's lawsuit claims that Simpson set up a straw corporation called Lorraine Brooke Associates to collect the book advance from HarperCollins so that he could avoid paying the $33.5 million judgement

With the exception of some copies pilfered from warehouses, the entire 400,000 print run of If I Did It ? in which Simpson "hypothesized" how he would have killed his ex-wife Nicole and her friend Ron Goldman ? was slated to be destroyed. As with most celebrity tell-all tales, however, Simpson's rights to the material will eventually revert back to him. Though the exact contractual language has not been made public, a source close to Simpson tells TIME that O.J. gets certain rights returned 12 months after the original publication date ? which means he should be in a position to resell his book before next Christmas.

Several European publishers are said to be clamoring to print the story in their respective territories. Murdoch's high-profile rejection has only made the book more attractive. (Imagine the cover blurb: "The book that Rupert Murdoch doesn't want you to read!") Indeed, soon after the cancellation, says the source, Simpson's camp asked Murdoch's representatives to surrender the rights earlier than the original deal stipulates so that Simpson can cash in overseas.

Fred Goldman, Ron's father, filed a lawsuit last week against both Simpson and Lorraine Brooke Associates, described by Goldman's lawyer as a "sham entity" formed to funnel the book's proceeds to the ex-football star. Goldman hopes not only to retrieve the $880,000 he says News Corp. paid Simpson as an advance, but he also wants Murdoch's company to give him all rights to If I Did It ? print, audio and other peripheral sources of income from the project. "There was originally an indication they might be open to such an idea [turning all profits over to the victims' families]," says Goldman. "If they want to be through with this, they should have no problem turning over those rights to us." Adds Goldman's attorney, Jonathan Polak, "We're seeking to unwind all the transactions, including the transfer of the intellectual property." And so, alas, we will have to expect new chapters in the history of the crime of the last century.

"I think everyone is familiar with the phenomenon of the boss from hell, the over-the-top person who can ruin your professional and personal life," said Clark, 29, who worked with Regan in New York for almost a year. "I'm sure this happens in many jobs, but you do hear a lot of stories about it occurring in the world of publishing."

Perhaps it was just a matter of time. If Lauren Weisberger's vicious portrait of Anna Wintour and the fashion world in "The Devil Wears Prada" could be turned into literary and cinematic gold, why couldn't the book world ? teeming with behind-the-scenes intrigue and a rogue's gallery of opportunists ? offer similar literary fodder?

For the record, Clark said her book is fiction and is not a specific portrait of anyone. But she concedes that "it's based on things I've lived and things I've imagined. It's pretty much out there by now, what she [Regan] is like. And I think the O.J. Simpson thing was truly a low point. But I don't have much more to add."

The New York gossip world, however, has been buzzing ever since galleys of Clark's 274-page book began circulating last month. The publisher, Warner Books, has openly touted the Regan connection, sending reporters a juicy item from Lloyd Grove, a former New York Daily News columnist, who described Vivien Grant, the novel's main character, as "a wildly abusive, foul-mouthed, pantsuit-wearing publisher who favors down-market bestsellers about strippers and pimps, boasts about her sexual escapades to overworked staffers and carries on an extramarital affair with a New York City public official who ? presumably unlike Regan's onetime paramour, former Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik ? likes to be photographed wearing lipstick and lingerie." Claire Truman, the young protagonist in Clark's book, thinks she's heard it all as she comes to work for Grant. But nothing prepares her for a boss who calls at all hours, makes brazen intrusions into her private life and throws vulgar tantrums.

With Judith Regan's authors still reeling from their publisher's abrupt dismissal, the sparring between the headline-making Ms. Regan and her former employer, the News Corporation, grew more intense, more personal and more specific on Monday over accusations that she had made anti-Semitic comments that prompted her firing. The News Corporation, controlled by Rupert Murdoch, released what it described as notes of a heated telephone conversation on Friday between Ms. Regan and Mark Jackson, a lawyer for HarperCollins, the corporation?s publishing division that includes the ReganBooks imprint.

According to the notes, Ms. Regan protested that the publishing house had not supported her during a firestorm last month over a confessional book by O. J. Simpson and a related television program, which the News Corporation canceled after public protests and growing unease among affiliate television stations. "'Of all people, the Jews should know about ganging up, finding common enemies and telling the big lie,'" Ms. Regan said, according to the notes Mr. Jackson made as the conversation unfolded; the notes were provided by Gary Ginsberg, an executive vice president of News Corporation.

According to the notes, Ms. Regan then said that the literary agent Esther Newberg; HarperCollins? executive editor, David Hirshey; HarperCollins? president, Jane Friedman; and Mr. Jackson ?constitute a Jewish cabal against her." A lawyer for Ms. Regan, Bert Fields, denied Monday that she had said there was a "Jewish cabal against her," saying that she had used only the word "cabal" in the conversation, and that was done in response to Mr. Jackson's using the word in a question to her. But Mr. Fields acknowledged that during the heated conversation by phone last Friday, she had made some version of the first statement, drawing attention to the fact that her boss and others involved in the controversy over the aborted O. J. Simpson project were Jewish.

He denied, though, that this reflected any anti-Semitism. "There is nothing insulting to Jewish people in saying that Jews should particularly understand what it is to be victims of the big lie," Mr. Fields said. "They were looking for an excuse to fire her, and they fired her, and called it anti-Semitic. It ain't anti-Semitic."

No one woke up Friday morning and discovered that Ms. Regan had bad, if lucrative, taste. But when her O. J. Simpson deal went south, she refused to go away quietly even though Mr. Murdoch had already taken a bullet, then continued to complain that she was being undermined long after the story had quieted down. The News Corporation had profited handsomely from Ms. Regan's tendency to shoot from the hip, but when she started firing inside the corral, well then, that was another matter.

If she did it, here's how: Ms. Regan first responded to public opprobrium over the Simpson project with an unhinged eight-page defense of her interview. And then, after the plug was pulled on Nov. 21, she failed to accept the decision. (When Mr. Murdoch says something is dead, put away the paddles and pull up the hearse.) Instead she railed against HarperCollins, the News Corporation book division that owns her ReganBooks imprint, while taping her Sirius Satellite Radio show, according to Ron Hogan, an editor at GalleyCat, which is a book-oriented blog. And finally, she made offensive remarks in a phone call to one of the company?s lawyers on Friday, according to a report in The Los Angeles Times. "I think someone looked a little bit down the road and saw train wrecks everywhere," said a HarperCollins executive who declined attribution because the case might end up in litigation.

That someone was Jane Friedman, the head of HarperCollins, who gave Ms. Regan the gate last Friday night in a two-sentence statement. It was made in a hurry ? there were no expressed accommodations for the authors and 40 employees of the ReganBooks imprint ? which suggests that the decision was made in a hurry, as well. (The company said on Saturday that the division will continue operations under Cal Morgan, the editorial director of ReganBooks.)

*****

Ms. Regan always lived her public life as if it were one big MySpace page, which she filled with outrageous personal and professional behavior and intemperate words. Part of it seemed like shtick, but she seemed to cross a line bordering on mania after her motives in interviewing Mr. Simpson were questioned. First, she issued a statement that compared her own alleged victimization as a battered woman with that of the murdered Nicole Brown Simpson. "The men who lied and cheated and beat me ? they were all there in the room. And the people who denied it, they were there, too." (It sounded a little crowded in there.)

Word of Regan's dismissal from News Corp.-owned publishing house HarperCollins came in a terse press release headlined "Judith Regan Terminated," according to online accounts published by the New York Times and Daily Variety. The statement said her termination was effective immediately, both outlets reported. No explanation was given, and The New York Times said it was unclear if she was fired only from HarperCollins or from all News Corp. units.

News Corp and HarperCollins representatives were not immediately available for comment. But the move followed ill-fated plans unveiled last month for a book, titled "If I Did It," and accompanying television interview featuring Simpson giving a hypothetical account of how he would have carried out the 1994 murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend, Ronald Goldman. The book had been set for release by Regan's imprint at HarperCollins, ReganBooks, on November 30, following a two-part interview of Simpson by Regan on News Corp.'s Fox network.

But the publishing and TV venture drew a firestorm of criticism accusing News Corp. of seeking to capitalize on a human tragedy. Days after plans for the book and TV special were revealed, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch personally weighed in to announce both projects were being scrapped. Murdoch said then that the book and TV deal were "ill-considered" and he apologized for any harm caused.

Crown Publishers, an imprint of Random House, said on Wednesday it will publish the upcoming biography of Winfrey by Kelley, who has already tackled the Bush family, the British royals, Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra and has been credited with inventing the unauthorized, unflattering biography.

"Oprah Winfrey has fascinated me for many years," Kelley said in a statement. "As a woman, she has wielded an unprecedented amount of influence over the American culture and psyche. There has been no other person in the 20th century whose convictions and values have impacted the American public in such a significant way."

*****

In her biography of Nancy Reagan, she famously wrote that the first lady had long private "lunches" with Sinatra in her private quarters, using the quotation marks around the word lunches to emphasize her innuendo. In her book on Sinatra, she portrayed the beloved actor and singer as a violent misogynist who fraternized with mobsters. In 2004's "The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty," she wrote that President George W. Bush had snorted cocaine at Camp David while his father was president.

That assertion was credited to Sharon Bush -- the former wife of the president's brother Neil -- who subsequently denied sharing those juicy details with Kelley. Critics have accused her of stretching the truth and engaging in tabloid journalism. Online magazine Slate called her the "colonoscopist to the stars."

It isn't just politicians who want to read "The Iraq Study Group Report." Within hours of the report's release in book form Wednesday, it had soared to No. 18 on Amazon.com, after being at No. 4,101 on Tuesday. Anne Messitte of Vintage Books said the study was already in a second printing, although she declined to give any exact numbers.

"We are continuing to receive orders all the time and will work to keep up with demand," said Messitte, executive vice president and publisher of Vintage, a paperback imprint of Random House, Inc.

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The Iraq book has a suggested retail price of $10.95, and Vintage announced Wednesday that a "portion" of the proceeds would be given to the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit organization that assists members of the military and their families.

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The study group, a 10-member, bipartisan commission led by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a Republican, and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., offered a blunt, bleak assessment that called for an urgent diplomatic attempt to stabilize Iraq and allow withdrawal of most combat troops by early 2008. After nearly four years of war and the deaths of more than 2,900 U.S. troops, the situation is "grave and deteriorating" and America's ability "to influence events within Iraq is diminishing," the commission warned.

"I've always seen the trilogy not as three books, but as a very long novel with an international setting. The action of The Dark River will take place in New York, London, Berlin and in a variety of other unusual locations. My goal is to show familiar places in a way that may surprise some people." --John Twelve Hawks

He has also revealed that the Irish Harlequin, Mother Blessing, will be a crucial part of the conflict between the Tabula and the Harlequins and that some of the characters won't survive the whole trilogy.

"Houghton Mifflin is thrilled to be publishing Philip Roth's ninth and last Zuckerman novel in October 2007, 28 years after the publication of "The Ghost Writer," Houghton Mifflin publisher Janet Silver said today in a statement.

According to Houghton Mifflin, Exit Ghost is a "portrait of the artist as an old man." "Bedeviled by the powers he's lost, fearful of losing the powers that remain -- and that are vital to his vocation -- Nathan Zuckerman returns to New York after 11 years of living as a solitary, reclusive writer in the rural hills of western Massachusetts.

"His encounters in New York with a new generation of writers and with an old, dying friend produce revelations that gravely unsettle him and make of the final Zuckerman book a moving study of obsession, forgetfulness, resignation, and ungratifiable desire," the statement reads.

Reports have been circulating for about a month that a purchase was in the works. Under the structure of the deal, a newly formed company, HM Rivergroup, will acquire both HM and Riverdeep, forming a new company that will be named Houghton Mifflin Riverdeep Group. HM Rivergroup is paying $1.75 billion in cash for HM and will assume $1.61 billion in debt. The three equity groups that own HM bought the publisher from Vivendi in December 2002 for $1.7 billion.

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Tony Lucki, chairman, president and CEO of HM, will continue in those roles and will add the title of vice-chairman of HM Rivergroup. "Riverdeep represents an excellent strategic fit with Houghton Mifflin, bringing its high-quality electronic courseware offerings to our core basal textbook and supplemental products business. This combination will differentiate us from our competitors and will enable us to participate as one of the leading players in the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. school education market," said Lucki. The deal is expected to close before the end of 2006.