Deep into the 'Code'

In Utah, the Brigham Young University Museum of Art has presented two lectures so far in a series of four on Brown's book (DVDs of each program will be for sale). The first lecture drew 700 people and museum officials turned away 300 more; last week, 1,000 people attended the discussion, some of whom were seated on the floor, said co-organizer Cheryll May.

Earlier this month, in Woodland Hills, Rabbi Rachel Bovitz was thinking of setting out a couple hundred chairs for a panel discussion on the book at Temple Aliyah, a conservative synagogue. The event, which was co-sponsored by a neighboring Catholic Church, brought in 1,000 people, including several book clubs. Bovitz, who was on a panel that included a priest and an art historian, heard people flipping through their copies of the book throughout the session.

Her congregants probably were attracted to the book because of the buzz, Bovitz said. But also, "Conspiracy theories are very in vogue. This brings in a different kind of conspiracy theory, different from JFK, from a religious perspective."

(Spoiler alert: Skip this paragraph if you don't want to know Brown's bombshell, which has been widely repudiated by experts -- Jesus and Mary Magdalene married, had children and have surviving descendants; and, if that's not enough, Christ's very divinity is challenged.)

In interviews, Brown has said the story is fiction but that he believes, after extensive research, that the underlying premises are true. On an introductory page in the book, he defines some major references under the heading of "fact," leaving readers to sort out the truth from the fiction.

In response to the craze, tour companies are building itineraries around the book's settings in Paris, while others are adding "Da Vinci"-related stops to existing tours.

Ackerman, who works as a bank officer in Philadelphia, had been considering a trip to Paris when a friend dangled the piece de resistance -- the special Louvre tour. The 2 1/2-hour tour has been offered by Paris Muse since February and has become the guide service's most popular, said director Ellen McBreen, an art historian with degrees from Harvard and New York University.

"For me, the thunderbolt came when visitors to the Louvre started asking me questions like, 'Is this the room where the curator was murdered in "The Da Vinci Code?" ' " McBreen said in an e-mail interview.