Da Vinci Code Not Really That Ripped-Off, Author Admits

The court case about whether Dan Brown ripped off the story of The Da Vinci Code is rumbling on, with an author admitting that he "exaggerated" arguments that Brown pinched his ideas during an interview.

This is courtroom drama at its most blisteringly scintillating. A man who wrote a book about Jesus basically says that he didn’t really lie when he told someone else that another man copied all his ideas to write another book about Jesus with. That’s the kind of edge-of-your-seat excitement that money just can’t buy.

The Da Vinci Code (Books), if you didn’t know, is being dragged through the
courts by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, who claim that Dan Brown
nicked all his ideas for The Da Vinci Code from a book they wrote
called The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail. There’s a chance that Baigent
and Leigh are just annoyed that Ron Howard didn’t want to make a movie
starring that lovely Amelie woman about their book, but that’s just
completely unjustified speculation on our part.

The court case started just over a week ago, and had been on hold
for a week so that the judge could read The Holy Blood And The Holy
Grail and The Da Vinci Code - possibly making the judge the only living
creature on the face of the Earth who hasn’t read the bleeding thing
anyway. But now it’s up and running again, and the focus of the first
day back was an interview that Michael Baigent gave where he claimed
that 15 important points from his book had been directly lifted and
dropped into The Da Vinci Code.

But James Baldwin, a lawyer for Random House books - which is being
sued alongside Dan Brown - took the time to count the points, and said
in court that only eight points were the same. Baigent then admitted:

"In that case you are correct. I think my language was infelicitous and I think I have to
agree with you on that."

If
Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh win their lawsuit, the release of the
forthcoming Da Vinci Code movie may be affected. But, whatever the
outcome, Baigent and Leigh’s book is bound to start selling many more
copies than ever before, the publicity for the Da Vinci Code movie will hit
new heights and Random House - which published both The Da Vinci Code
and The Holy Blood And The Holy Grail will probably make a bundle of cash.

Read more:

Da Vinci Code claim ‘exaggerated’ - BBC

[story by Stuart Heritage]