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• One minor good outcome of this ludicrous story could be America getting rid of "Top Gear" host Jeremy Clarkson's punching bag, the despicable Piers Morgan, who, if you don't really "do" TV, is CNN's new Larry King and also a former News of the World editor, who may or may not know plenty about phone hacking but definitely knows there's a "huge witch hunt going on" to bring down Rupert Murdoch. He's pretty much the worst thing that's been brought to America since smallpox.

• And have you not been in hysterics for the last 12 hours over this one?

So Charlie Brooks, Rebekah's husband—and the pair met at Jeremy Clarkson's house—has a remarkable bio: He is: "a former amateur jockey and trainer who once ran a sex-toy mail-order company, now writes about racing for the Daily Telegraph and is the author of a couple of racing thrillers."

He's also apparently not very... organized. Recently he left a bag with a laptop and a phone and "some papers" with a friend. This friend returned this bag to an underground parking garage under a shopping center, "yards" from the Brooks' "gated apartment block," because that's what friends do when they return laptops, they leave them in nearby car parks, but this friend was apparently not very bright, and left the bag in the wrong part of the garage, and so it ended up in the rubbish. "The suggestion is that a cleaner thought it was rubbish and put it in the bin," is what Charlie's spokesperson said. Ha ha!

Then security found it and turned it over to the police, and Charlie's very mad, because certainly no one was trying to dispose of this laptop, and its contents certainly have nothing to do with the inquiry into his now-arrested and unemployed spouse. These are some rank amateur shenanigans.

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See more posts by Alex Balk

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Again to the Guardian, which owns the story:

The payments secured secrecy over out-of-court settlements in three cases that threatened to expose evidence of Murdoch journalists using private investigators who illegally hacked into the mobile phone messages of numerous public figures to gain unlawful access to confidential personal data, including tax records, social security files, bank statements and itemised phone bills. Cabinet ministers, MPs, actors and sports stars were all targets of the private investigators.
Today, the Guardian reveals details of the suppressed evidence, which may open the door to hundreds more legal actions by victims of News Group, the Murdoch company that publishes the News of the World and the Sun, as well as provoking police inquiries into reporters who were involved and the senior executives responsible for them.

• "The Guardian understands that the full police file shows that several thousand public figures were targeted by investigators, including, during one month in 2006: John Prescott, then deputy prime minister; Tessa Jowell, then responsible for the media as secretary of state for culture; Boris Johnson, then the Conservative spokesman on higher education; Gwyneth Paltrow, after she had given birth to her son; George Michael, who had been seen looking tired at the wheel of his car; and Jade Goody." Outrageous! Jade Goody died a saint.
• Andy Coulson, chief press adviser to David Cameron (the Conservative party leader who will become Prime Minister once Gordon Brown finishes running out the clock) will be questioned in a House of Commons investigation of the matter; Coulson served as editor of News of the World during much of the period. Cameron is thus far standing by Coulson; Alistair Campbell, the sweary monster who used to be Tony Blair's strategist says good luck with that, this thing is going to be huge.
• The recently promoted Rebekah Wade is also assumed to have been involved (she preceded Coulson as editor). The Guardian's Roy Greenslade has questions that she and Coulson need to answer.
• Rupert Murdoch, widely recognized as the kind of hands-off manager who takes little interest in his print properties, on the allegations: "If that had happened, I would know about it."
• Michael Wolff is jazzing in his pants somewhere.

So, yeah, this is gonna be a pretty big story. I have a hard time believing News of the World was the only paper engaged in this kind of deceit; it'll be interesting to see what other titles come under scrutiny. Fun times ahead!

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