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Politics : CONSPIRACY THEORIES -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: sea_urchin who wrote (353)	10/6/2005 10:34:21 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 418

Re: Boy wizard Harry Potter has made author JK Rowling richer than the Queen, according to The Sunday Times Rich List. The 37-year-old has more than quadrupled her personal fortune in the past two years. Her £280m makes her the wealthiest woman in showbusiness and Britain's 122nd richest person - 11 places higher than the Queen. LOL... and you've swallowed it all hook, line and sinker!! Even if you adduced an abstract of accounts of Ms JK Rowling showing that she "owns" a £280m deposit in Barclay's bank it'd still prove nothing.... There could still be a contract confidentially entrusted to a lawyer's safekeeping that stipulates that all the money is lodged as collateral for a Swiss bank or a Cayman shell.... Straight from the ghost's mouth: If you do decide to use a ghostwriter, you're in good company. According to Wikipedia, here are just a few famous ghostwritten books... * Barbara Feinman was the ghostwriter for It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us by Hillary Clinton. Clinton later won a Grammy Award for a recording of her memoirs, Living History. * William Shatner used a ghostwriter for his science-fiction books. * The novelization of Star Wars was credited to George Lucas but was written by Alan Dean Foster. Not only actors, singers and politicians, but also some of the highest-paid and most well-known authors, use other writers to help create their work — in some cases, even after they're dead! The famous novelist Robert Ludlum, author of The Bourne Identity and numerous other intrigue/thrillers, died in March of 2001, but he's still "publishing" novels. (Which makes you wonder, who's the "ghostwriter" here?) Actually, his past several novels were ghostwritten from outlines he had produced, presumably before his death. Many other extremely busy, prolific and very-much-alive authors also produce outlines or synopses, and then hand the project over to a ghostwriter for completion. The resulting book is no less "theirs," legally or ethically, than it would have been if they had painstakingly labored over every word themselves. [...] home.swbell.net

To: sea_urchin who wrote (353)	10/6/2005 10:46:16 AM
From: GUSTAVE JAEGER	Respond to of 418

Follow-up.... Contracting out one's novels to ghostwriters can be quite profitable. For instance, Paul-Loup Sulitzer --the French Robert Ludlum-- also used to swank around and show off his money... until he got into trouble with French justice: Paul-Loup Sulitzer perd à Montréal une bataille l'opposant à son ex-épouse à 10h44 HAE, le 18 août 2005. Paul-Loup Sulitzer perd à Montréal une bataille l'opposant à son ex-épouse MONTREAL (PC) - Se disant ruiné, l'auteur et éditeur français Paul-Loup Sulitzer a perdu une importante bataille, mais il promet de se battre. Au Palais de justice de Montréal, un juge de la Cour supérieure a décidé vendredi dernier qu'il devrait faire son deuil des 6,5 millions $ qui avaient été placés dans une fiducie gérée par son épouse montréalaise. L'accusant d'avoir touché l'équivalent de 300 000 $ en liquide pour avoir prodigué des conseil à un revendeur d'armes - il est aussi conseiller en investissements -, la justice française avait saisi une bonne partie de son argent se trouvant dans un compte en Suisse. M. Sulitzer avait également un compte aux Bahamas. Il avait rapidement transféré la fortune qui s'y trouvait dans un compte d'une succursale montréalaise de la Banque Nationale. Il n'existe pas d'entente fiscale entre la France et le Canada. Le fisc français ne pouvait donc plus s'emparer de son argent. En 2001, son épouse Delphine a créé à Montréal une fiducie vers laquelle Paul-Loup Sulitzer avait accepté de transférer 6,5 millions $. Les bénéficaires devaient être les deux enfants du couple. Toutefois, quelque temps après, ils se sont séparés et elle lui aurait dit qu'il ne reverrait jamais son argent. M. Sulitzer a alors demandé le divorce. Il a aussi demandé à la cour de faire en sorte que la banque ne puisse disposer des 6,5 millions $ qu'en sa faveur. Selon la cour, l'auteur n'a pas prouvé ses allégations. Il ne peut doncpas récupérer son argent et, de surcroît, il devra rembourser les frais juridiques de la Banque Nationale, s'élevant à 34 000 $. L'écrivain de 59 ans est considéré comme une star en France. Il a vendu 30 millions d'exemplaires de ses romans. Il en a écrit une trentaine, qui ont été traduits dans 40 langues. tqs.ca Granted, $6.5 million is peanuts compared to Rowling's alleged £280m but then, the French book market is but a fraction of the English one and Sulitzer's thrillers belong to a niche market (spy/financial intrigues)....