Say it ain't so, Al. No sooner does Newt Gingrich give up an unseemly $4.5 million advance from HarperCollins and settle instead for a token $1 than another publisher, Hyperion, announces the August publication of "Enough Is Enough: Pasta, Potholes, and Other Things Worth Fighting For," by Sen. Al D'Amato.
As HarperCollins is owned by a media magnate, Rupert Murdoch, who has dealings before Congress, so Hyperion is owned by Disney, which may seek to curry favor on the Hill should it go through with its threat to revive the Disney's America theme park.The senator's editor at Hyperion, Brian DeFiore, denies a quid pro quo. Did D'Amato get a $4.5 million advance? After he stopped laughing, DeFiore replied: "We certainly paid him more than one dollar and we certainly paid him less than $4.5 million - it's closer to the former than the latter."
And what exactly does the book say about pasta? "He's very fond of it, and his mother makes a damn good one." But no recipes will be forthcoming unless we plunk down our $22.95, as much as 15 percent of which will line the senator's pockets.