'Elvis Is Titanic' When Bill Clinton Helps Launch a Book

Rimshot, please! Klaus sounded a little nervous as he went through his thank-yous, and talked a bit about the kids he had taught and their obsession with celebrities, such as Madonna and Michael Jackson. He probably had some insight in mind, but it wasn't totally clear what. But it didn't matter. Klaus radiates uncagey charisma, which is the best kind. He looks a little like Bill Clinton; the same wide open face, the same curly hair. But he doesn't have the same polish.

"He was the center of this group of about 50 friends at Oxford," said Daniel Baer, a friend who knew him there. "He's the kind of guy that everyone likes; but watch him. He doesn't work the room like Clinton. He's magnetic but in a very different way."

About the only person who wasn't ready to cough up an endorsement was Mr. Mezvinsky, who deflected the question "Have you read the book?" with this well-practiced and diplomatically delivered line: "I'm sorry, I don't talk to the press."

Thankfully, Bill Clinton does. A reporter from New York magazine approached and pushed before him a recent cover that featured the ex-president's face superimposed on a woman in a dress. The story was about what sort of first man the man would make. The New York reporter handed over a pen for an autograph.

"Sorry," the reporter said.

"No problem," Clinton replied, signing away. Then he said that in his high school yearbook there's actually a photo him, with a friend, in drag.

Note to Rudolph Giuliani: Get your oppo research team on this one, stat.