National Enquirer

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. said Thursday that it has agreed to sell Star magazine for $400 million in cash and stock to the publisher of its saucy rival, the National Enquirer. The would-be buyer, GP Group Inc., said it plans to "maintain the Star's editorial independence" and will continue to publish it from the magazine's current location in Tarrytown.

NBC anchor Brian Williams' train was just pulling into Washington's Union Station on Thursday afternoon when he read an urgent bulletin on his BlackBerry: U.S. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. was contemplating stepping down, according to a report on RadarOnline. "It struck me as odd," Williams said. "What I know about Radar does not include their Supreme Court reporting." Still, the possibility that President Obama would have to fill another opening on the bench put Williams, a Supreme Court buff, into breaking-news mode.

Joan Lunden says she is not leaving "Good Morning America," getting a divorce or even having an alien's baby. Lunden told viewers of ABC's morning show all this Tuesday after she said National Enquirer reporters were asking her colleagues if she seems troubled lately. "It was a preemptive strike," she said afterward. "I told them I could either do that or just be a wimp and sit back and let them make up whatever they want and print it." Ian Calder, editor of the tabloid in Lantana, Fla.

As I read the March 22 story, "Unbrotherly Feud Erupts as the Winn Empire Falls," I wondered just how tacky The Times could get. To air a family's personal problems in the Business section? This story could have come from the National Enquirer--it's not one you would expect to find in The Times. Also, I took great exception to the slant on Ted Nelson. I have known Ted for several years. I have always found him to be a sensitive, straightforward, caring person. Certainly he is not the wounded, "brash gunslinger" you characterized him to be. The entire story was tasteless and definitely out of place in the Business section.

Sharon Bernstein's Feb. 28 article "Some Discord in Philharmonic's String Section" is what I would expect to find in the National Enquirer, the Star or some other trashy tabloid. Not the Los Angeles Times. It reeked of gutter-level gossip and innuendo. Shame on the Liebermans for allowing their lawyer to go public with such a personal situation and double shame on Calendar for printing it. MARK WATTERS, Canoga Park Bernstein's article centered on a married couple's charge that they are being harassed by a woman with whom the husband was romantically involved when he was single.

The National Enquirer may let Lisa Bonet's lawyers look over a photographic negative of her baby daughter to prove her claim against a drugstore chain. Bonet contends the negative was sold to the tabloid by a Reseda drugstore clerk from a roll of the actress' film brought in for developing. The Enquirer initially refused to let lawyers see the negative, but they may now allow a peek, said William Weston, a lawyer for American Drug Stores Inc.