Newsmakers of the week

A waste of a good book

Koji Suzuki, one of Japan’s most celebrated horror writers, has teamed up with Hayashi Paper Corp., a Japanese toilet-paper manufacturer, to publish his latest terrifying novella on rolls of loo tissue. Drop is a nine-chapter story about an evil spirit who lives in a toilet bowl. “I’ve read the story, and it’s very scary,” said Takaki Hayashi, vice-president of the paper company. An earlier work by Suzuki, about a videotape that results in certain death for anyone who views it, was the basis for the 2002 Hollywood film The Ring, starring Naomi Watts. Drop is printed on blue toilet paper spattered with what is meant to look like blood—the story is repeated every 86 cm. It costs $2.50 per roll.

Burning bridges

Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni was poised to become the first member of the Arab world to hold the top job at UNESCO, the United Nations Paris-based culture agency, when his past came back to haunt him last week. In a newspaper column in France’s Le Monde, philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, director Claude Lanzmann and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Elie Wiesel jointly accused Hosni of espousing deeply anti-Semitic views. Last May, after a member of the Egyptian parliament confronted Hosni about Israeli books in Egyptian libraries, the distinguished trio quoted Hosni as having said: “Let’s burn those books; if there are any, I will burn them myself before you.” They also quoted him as having spelled it out more explicitly in 2001: “Israeli culture is an inhuman culture; it’s an aggressive, racist, pretentious culture that is based on a simple principle, stealing that which does not belong to it and then claiming it as its own.” In his rebuttal, also published in Le Monde, Hosni wrote that the comments were “hyperbole.”

The mean girl wins

At 67, Archie Andrews, the comic book heartthrob, is finally ready to tie the knot. In August, Archie Comics will celebrate the 600th issue of its flagship title by marrying off Archie and his wealthy sweetheart Veronica. Not that the squeaky-clean comics publisher is encouraging underage marriage; this will be a flash-forward to “Archie and his friends after they graduate college.” The wedding will take place in part one of a six-issue series, which gives the fickle Archie plenty of time to switch his proposal to Betty, Cheryl Blossom, and every other girl in Riverdale.

The O’Reilly factor

On Sunday, George Tiller, the Kansas doctor notorious among pro-life groups for performing late-term abortions, was fatally shot in the lobby of his church in Wichita. Within 24 hours, media observers began to ponder the degree to which Fox News pundit Bill O’Reilly was responsible for making Tiller a target of violence. According to Salon.com columnist Gabriel Winant, O’Reilly had taken opportunities on-air to compare Tiller to a Nazi, to dub him “Tiller the baby killer,” and to warn him of “judgment day.” While O’Reilly never advocated violence, his critics say he put Tiller at risk by making him the target of a movement with a violent history (Tiller survived a previous assassination attempt in 1993). Winant called O’Reilly’s use of inflammatory language “sensationally irresponsible.” Scott Roeder, 51, has been charged with the murder.

‘Childlike’ thinking

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will serve as honorary chairs of the U.S. Library of Congress’s 2009 National Book Festival, an annual celebration of reading in the Washington area. One person who won’t be in attendance, however, is hip-hop artist Kanye West. Last week, the Grammy Award-winning rapper said in an interview, “I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life.” West’s aversion, however, didn’t stop him from writing a newly published 52-page book of his own, Thank You and You’re Welcome, his personal philosophy for living, including such pithy nuggets as, “Get used to getting used!” and “I hate the word hate!” West, whose mother, the late Donda West, was a university English professor, credits his hatred of reading for allowing him to draw on a “childlike purity” in the penning of his own book.

That’s amore

The latest chapter in the always colourful love life of Silvio Berlusconi finds the Italian prime minister accused—by his wife and others—of having engaged in an affair with an underage aspiring model named Noemi Letizia. Berlusconi was reported to have attended Letizia’s 18th birthday in Naples earlier this month and given her an expensive necklace, provoking his wife to announce to the media, “I cannot remain with a man who consorts with minors.” Berlusconi says he only attended the party because he was in town and Letizia was an old family friend, but photos later turned up of the two of them together at social events last year, when she was only 17. Last week, Berlusconi managed to succeed in having the photos blocked from publication. Other evidence said to be found among the 700 photos seized from a Sardinian photographer, Antonello Zappadu, includes shots of young women at Berlusconi’s private New Year’s party, some of whom are topless, taken by Zappadu with a high-powered lens. Berlusconi confirmed that Letizia did attend his New Year’s party, but he denied they ever had “a spicy or more than spicy” relationship. “I have sworn this on the lives of my children,” he told Italian press. “I am aware that, if this were perjury, I would have to resign a minute later.”