Names and faces
Not many people owned a copy of The Cuckoo’s Calling before word leaked out over the weekend that author Robert Galbraith was, in fact, J.K. Rowling. But a handful who did have a signed edition. And that could mean a lot of money. Rowling spokesman Nicky Stonehill said Tuesday that Rowling, the Harry Potter author, signed “a few copies” of her detective novel as “Robert Galbraith.” Wishing to keep her identity secret, Rowling made no promotional appearances for the book, published quietly in April, and Stonehill declined to say how any reader obtained a signed copy. Bids for a signed first edition have topped $1,000 on eBay. “Yes, those books will have value,” said Angel Webster of Bauman Rare Books in Manhattan. “The first edition is already a scarce commodity, and she only signed a handful of them under vague circumstances.” Webster added that it was too soon to know how much money a signed first edition might be worth. Signed first editions of the first Harry Potter book, published in 1997 in England as Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, are worth thousands of dollars. Webster said the value of a signed Cuckoo’s Calling will depend on how well the novel ends up selling and whether it becomes the first book of a series.
One of the vacancies on ABC’s longtime daytime television talk show The View has been filled by Jenny McCarthy, the former Playboy centerfold and actress. The show’s creator, Barbara Walters, announced on the air Monday morning that McCarthy would become the next co-host on the hit program. McCarthy will fill one of the empty chairs left by the departures of Joy Behar and Elisabeth Hasselbeck, both of whom had long been regulars on the program. Hasselbeck left for Fox News last week, and Behar is to leave next month. McCarthy will start on The View on Sept. 9. To accept the position, McCarthy had to obtain a separation from the VH1 network, where she had been hosting a late-night show. That show has not been scoring big ratings. McCarthy, 40, has had roles in a few short-lived situation comedies but is probably best known on television for the game show Singled Out on MTV, where she was a host in the 1990s. But McCarthy has also been the subject of intense criticism from groups associated with autism for her frequent statements tying the condition — from which she has said her son suffered — to vaccines for immunization. That much-debated and widely disproved theory has led to unnecessary illnesses in children, according to child-health experts.