BROUGHT TO BOOK

It is perhaps surprising that an in-your-face New Yorker like Lucianne Goldberg has enjoyed spending much of her career in a behind the scenes role, ghost-writing books and working as a literary agent.

No stranger to controversy even before the Tripp affair, Lucianne acted as agent for Alabama firecracker Judy Chavez Taylor, a call girl, who had been hired by the CIA to "entertain" Soviet defector Arkady Shevchenko.

She was also in the thick of things when she guided "Murder in Brentwood" by tainted O.J. Simpson investigator, Mark Fuhrman, to the top of the bestseller lists.

And just for good measure she penned the raunchy 'Madame Cleo's Girls", a novel about three high-class hookers, in 1992. But despite this success, Lucianne could never quite wean herself off politics and it was with relish that she advised her pal, former FBI agent Gary Aldrich, with his memoirs.

So it must have been something of a relief when the podgy-featured Linda Tripp waddled into Lucy's life.