In the realm of Twitter insults, it was at the far end of mild. ''Much as I admire and adore the chap, they are a bit ... boring,'' a Twitter user called brumplum wrote Saturday, speaking of the tweets of Stephen Fry, the British writer, actor and television personality. But that little tweet set off a frenzy of vitriolic attacks and counterattacks...

THE UNWRAPPING: So what did you get for Christmas, book-wise? Inside the List asked a few best-selling novelists what they planned to give this season. Ken Follet replied: ''I will give 'The Bad Girl,' by Mario Vargas Llosa, to someone I am attracted to, because it is sexy, romantic and sad.'' Jan Karon said she is giving ''the exquisitely witty...
For You, Too, Fame May Be Waiting at YouTube YouTube, the video-sharing Web site, is rolling out the figurative red carpet for the creators of characters like Lonelygirl15 and Geriatric1927, The Associated Press reported. YouTube announced yesterday that it would honor the best user-created videos of 2006 with the first YouTube video awards. Honors...