Merck’s Ghostwriting Scandal
May 23, 2008
Merck and Co. is in big trouble. The drugmaker hired ghostwriters to pen reports for its drug Vioxx, a painkiller. A new report claims that Merck paid academic scientists money to claim they wrote research articles that were actually ghostwritten by Merck’s medical writers who minimized side effects and deaths caused by the drug. Vioxx has been pulled off the market.
Merck called the reports in…
Judge Wants Settlement in Rowling Copyright Case
May 23, 2008
The judge in the copyright infringement case by the Harry Potter fansite/proposed book wants the parties to come to a settlement.
U.S. District Judge Robert Patterson Jr. said the copyright infringement case was a legal close signal, involving unresolved areas of American law, and was nearly assured to end in years of appeals.
“I think that case, with imagination, could be settled,” Patterson …
Ed Norton to Fans: The Incredible Hulk Will Be Good, Don’t Worry
May 23, 2008
Comics fans are really worried that the new Hulk film is going to be a catastrophe, what with the despised trailer and the ongoing battle within scribe/star Edward Norton and the director by the final cut. Entertainment Weekly finally got an email from Ed which tries to downplay the controversy.
“Like so many citizens I’ve loved the story of The Hulk since I was a kid, so it was thrilling when …
Cassie Edwards and Signet Part Ways
May 23, 2008
Romance novelist Cassie Edwards and her publisher Signet have parted ways as a aftermath of the plagiarism scandal that rocked the romance world. In January, allegations were made that Cassie lifted full passages in her books from other sources.
“Signet has conducted an extensive review of all its Cassie Edwards novels and due to irreconcilable editorial differences, Ms. Edwards and Signet have m…
TV Comedy Writer Seaman Jacobs is Dead at 96
May 23, 2008
TV comedy writer Seaman Jacobs has died
of cardiac arrest: he was 96. Jacobs wrote for many classic TV shows, such as The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, the Bob Hope specials, I Dream of Jeannie and many, many more.
A memorial service will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, May 9 at the Writers Guild Theater, 151 S. Doheny Dr., Beverly Hills.
by a career of more than half a century, Jacobs wrote …
Why Don’t Poems Rhyme Anymore?
May 23, 2008
Slate’s John Lundberg asks
“Why Don’t Poems Rhyme Anymore?” The spread focuses on a group called The Queen’s English Society, which is advocating a return to more formal verse. The Society is dead seat against contemporary free verse.
The President of the QES, a man named Michael George Gibson (it may be a QES requirement to use three names), recently told the British newspaper The Guardian, “Fo…
Self-Published Author Makes PEN/Ackerly Short List
May 23, 2008
For the first date a self-published author has been shortlisted
for the PEN/Ackerley prize for memoir and autobiography Who Is It That Can Tell Me Who I Am? by Jane Haynes. The book is a journal of Haynes’ experiences as as psychotherapist.
The other four titles in the running for the £1,000 prize are Ed Husain’s detail of his involvement in radical fundamentalism in The Islamist; Miranda Se…
The Obsession With Memoirs
May 23, 2008
Everyone is writing a memoir these days, it seems. Memoirs top bestseller lists and editors are still buying them. But why
are they so popular?
Why such popularity? Patsy Vigderman, a professor at Ohio’s Kenyon College, believes there are parallels amidst the memoir’s popularity and the rise of reality TV.
“For some reason, society right now are gripped by the view that [it’s better if] it’s real…
More Layoffs at The New York Times
May 23, 2008
The New York Times is facing
major cuts in staff, according to the New York Post.
The New York Times’ news room is bracing for a massacre in the next 10 days.
The word from inside is that approximately 50 unionized journalists have accepted the buyout proposal, and only another 20 non-union editorial employees have gotten on board.
That means the ax could fall on as many as 30 editorial citizens …
Cynthia Ozeck Wins Two Lifetime Achievement Awards
May 23, 2008
At the age of 80, Cynthia Ozeck has just won
two prestigious lifetime achievement awards: the PEN/Malamud short fiction prize and the PEN/Nabokov award for originality and craftmanship.
The $5,000 PEN/Malamud prize for short fiction, and the $20,000 PEN/Nabokov award for “enduring originality and consummate craftsmanship” were judged by different panels but agreed to present the honours in tandem…