"I'm Not Dead Yet," Salman Rushdie Announces
(Adds, "I Feel Happy! I Feel Happy!")

Having wowed them in England, The Da Vinci Code is now banned in Lebanon. Catholic leaders in the country have apparently convinced "security officials" that keeping the book in stores was an affront to Christianity. But I think the head of the Lebanese Publisher's Union is overselling his case just a touch when he insists, "Salman Rushdie is forgotten in the annals of history, whereas Islam stayed on and Dan Brown will go, too, and Christianity will stay on."

Meanwhile, the French are gaga over DVC, though most of the hoopla actually seems to be about crafty Frenchies making money off American tourists who want to see the part of the Louvre where the old art guy buys it and other real-life locations depicted in the novel. Louvre management, however, isn't entirely thrilled by having to hit up rich American thriller fans for donations: "You see," he sniffs, "I would say that these are people who are not necessarily of the milieu of culture."