Andrew Morton

For months, Angelina Jolie's face has been looking out from billboards alongside a single question: "Who is Salt?" The tagline refers to the new thriller, "Salt," about a CIA agent suspected of being a Russian spy (the movie has an identity crisis of its own, the main character was originally cast as a male). But the genius in the marketing, of course, is that we're asking the same thing about the actress herself. Enter "Angelina," the unauthorized biography by Andrew Morton, who has penned celebrity biographies of Tom Cruise, Monica Lewinsky and Princess Diana.

For months, Angelina Jolie's face has been looking out from billboards alongside a single question: "Who is Salt?" The tagline refers to the new thriller, "Salt," about a CIA agent suspected of being a Russian spy (the movie has an identity crisis of its own, the main character was originally cast as a male). But the genius in the marketing, of course, is that we're asking the same thing about the actress herself. Enter "Angelina," the unauthorized biography by Andrew Morton, who has penned celebrity biographies of Tom Cruise, Monica Lewinsky and Princess Diana.

Looking back on his whirlwind relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, British author Andrew Morton ponders the young woman whose life and times he has just chronicled. What kind of personal feelings did the two have for each other? "I think, after all of those months working together in Los Angeles and New York, we were very much like an old married couple," Morton says. "Lots of arguments. No sex." The author, whose "Monica's Story" (St.

People lie, certainly. People forget. People make mistakes. One difficulty in following the narrative of the past year's scandal--which is both utterly frivolous and the gravest threat to our constitutional system in living memory--is that the major characters are not, and as it turns out, never have been, President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. They have always been, it is now clear beyond question, Linda Tripp and Kenneth Starr.

This never would have happened if Prince Charles had married me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Diana, Princess of Wales. I stayed up all night to watch her wedding. I admired her metamorphosis from gawky upper-class frump to soignee fashion queen. I'm impressed that she made AIDS her pet cause, and I give her high marks for being a hands-on mother while her hands-off husband is blowing away grouse at Balmoral. I even concede that she looks better in a tiara than I. Still, the princess portrayed in the three biographies rocketing up the best-seller lists--"Diana: Her True Story," "Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows" and "Diana: A Princess and Her Troubled Marriage"--is a woman who needs to get a grip.

Monica S. Lewinsky and Princess Diana's biographer have agreed to collaborate on a book about Lewinsky's sexual affair with President Clinton, St. Martin's Press said Monday. St. Martin's declined to disclose the value of the book deal, but the New York Post quoted sources as saying it is in the seven-figure range. The working title is "Monica's Story by Andrew Morton," and it may be on book shelves in February, St. Martin's spokesman John Murphy said.

The Queen of England is worth well over 2,000 times her weight in gold. Roughly. In mere money, the 126-pound monarch, almost certainly the world's richest woman at any weight, possesses somewhere between $1.72 billion and $2.04 billion. And--here's the good part--it's all tax free.

It was the first big blowout of the rapacious 1980s. Not only was the marriage of the dashing Prince to the blushing Lady celebrated throughout the kingdom, 740 million people also watched on the telly. But with the 1980s repudiated, we're also now learning details about happily-ever-after that we probably could do without. Truth's newest version has Princess Diana, the virgin bride, becoming a miserable matron.

People lie, certainly. People forget. People make mistakes. One difficulty in following the narrative of the past year's scandal--which is both utterly frivolous and the gravest threat to our constitutional system in living memory--is that the major characters are not, and as it turns out, never have been, President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. They have always been, it is now clear beyond question, Linda Tripp and Kenneth Starr.

This may not be the bottom of the barrel, as the saying goes, but you can certainly reach out and touch it from here. I have never been able to resist a book with a royal title in its title, but after reading the latest crop of books about the equally vapid, egocentric and whiny Prince and Princess of Wales I wanted to rinse my brain out with soap. The Prince and Princess seemed to have summoned all the Knights of the Word Processor in the Kingdom and held a tournament to see who could write the dullest, least informative, most unflattering book.

Looking back on his whirlwind relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky, British author Andrew Morton ponders the young woman whose life and times he has just chronicled. What kind of personal feelings did the two have for each other? "I think, after all of those months working together in Los Angeles and New York, we were very much like an old married couple," Morton says. "Lots of arguments. No sex." The author, whose "Monica's Story" (St.

Monica S. Lewinsky and Princess Diana's biographer have agreed to collaborate on a book about Lewinsky's sexual affair with President Clinton, St. Martin's Press said Monday. St. Martin's declined to disclose the value of the book deal, but the New York Post quoted sources as saying it is in the seven-figure range. The working title is "Monica's Story by Andrew Morton," and it may be on book shelves in February, St. Martin's spokesman John Murphy said.

This may not be the bottom of the barrel, as the saying goes, but you can certainly reach out and touch it from here. I have never been able to resist a book with a royal title in its title, but after reading the latest crop of books about the equally vapid, egocentric and whiny Prince and Princess of Wales I wanted to rinse my brain out with soap. The Prince and Princess seemed to have summoned all the Knights of the Word Processor in the Kingdom and held a tournament to see who could write the dullest, least informative, most unflattering book.

This never would have happened if Prince Charles had married me. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Diana, Princess of Wales. I stayed up all night to watch her wedding. I admired her metamorphosis from gawky upper-class frump to soignee fashion queen. I'm impressed that she made AIDS her pet cause, and I give her high marks for being a hands-on mother while her hands-off husband is blowing away grouse at Balmoral. I even concede that she looks better in a tiara than I. Still, the princess portrayed in the three biographies rocketing up the best-seller lists--"Diana: Her True Story," "Diana in Private: The Princess Nobody Knows" and "Diana: A Princess and Her Troubled Marriage"--is a woman who needs to get a grip.

It was the first big blowout of the rapacious 1980s. Not only was the marriage of the dashing Prince to the blushing Lady celebrated throughout the kingdom, 740 million people also watched on the telly. But with the 1980s repudiated, we're also now learning details about happily-ever-after that we probably could do without. Truth's newest version has Princess Diana, the virgin bride, becoming a miserable matron.

The Queen of England is worth well over 2,000 times her weight in gold. Roughly. In mere money, the 126-pound monarch, almost certainly the world's richest woman at any weight, possesses somewhere between $1.72 billion and $2.04 billion. And--here's the good part--it's all tax free.

Angelina An Unauthorized Biography Andrew Morton St. Martin's: 328 pp., $26.99

* This Sunday: Renata Adler on "Monica's Story" by Andrew Morton. Plus Carlos Fuentes on two Spanish-language novels, Neil Baldwin on the life of Diego Rivera and Hector Tobar on the Mayas.