Larry King's Untold Tale

We thought we knew everything about the colorful life of CNN's Larry King: Brooklyn childhood, rags-to-riches career, seven marriages to six women. But there's one secret he managed to keep from all but a few friends: His oldest son, Larry King Jr., with whom he reunited 14 years ago.

The 46-year-old business executive first quietly appeared at his father's side in 1994, but the two never talked about their history -- and no one asked. Now the talk show icon, with help from his namesake, is sharing his family's story in an autobiography coming out next year.

Larry Jr. was born in 1962 to Annette Kaye, one of the few love interests whom King didn't marry. At the time he was married to Playboy bunny Alene Akins, and Kaye was determined her son would have a normal childhood in Miami.

"It was very important to her that once their relationship ended, she wanted to keep it private," Larry Jr. told us yesterday. "She was always very protective of me." Father and son knew about each other, but it wasn't until 1994 that Larry Jr. reached out to his dad after his dying mother told him: "Look, I gave you 33 years. It's your father's turn."

The two men quickly bonded over a mutual love of sports, and entered each other's lives with open arms and apparently no drama, which is why they never turned up in the tabloids. "It was very seamless," said the Florida resident, who joined the board of the Larry King Cardiac Foundation and became its president four years ago.

They've saving any juicy details for the book, but don't expect dirty laundry. Last week, Larry Jr. took his three children and his half-brothers -- Chance and Cannon, King's young sons with wife Shawn Southwick-- on a family vacation.

Don't Spend It All In One Place, Girls

Barack Obama, fiscal conservative -- at least when it comes to his daughters. In the upcoming issue of People magazine, the candidate shares details about family finances: Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, get $1 per week allowance for chores -- and no birthday or Christmas gifts from their parents.

Why? The Obamas say they spend "hundreds" on a day-long slumber party (movies, pizza and swimming) for each girl's birthday, where they get plenty of gifts from friends. Apparently, at Christmas it's Santa who leaves all those goodies under the tree -- but nothing from Mom and Dad. The Obamas say they "want to teach some limits."

Okay . . . but what happens when they outgrow slumber parties and figure out exactly how the Santa thing works? Probably a good thing tweens don't have the vote.

THE SOURCE QUOTE

Stephen Colbert: Of the two candidates coming up, McCain and Obama, which one of them would leave most child behind?

Margaret Spellings: Well, obviously no one is for leaving children behind. Maybe you, but they're not, they're not --

Colbert: Not all of the children! Just the one that smells like bologna. You know that kid, every school's got one.

Spellings: No, well, they become television personalities.

By Paul Wood -- Department of Education

-- The secretary of education, drawing a big oh-no-she-didn't "oooohhhhhhh!!!" from the studio audience during her Tuesday night appearance on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report."

LOVE, ETC.

· Born: A daughter, Carys Emmanuelle Kang, to WRC (Channel 4) anchor Eun Yang and her husband, Robert Kang, director of the North Korea Aid Mission, Monday afternoon. The Montgomery County native was on-air through various ice-cream cravings as recently as Saturday morning, station sources say. The little girl (whose name is pronounced care-iss) joins brothers Jacob, 3, and Ben, almost 2.

THE SOURCE QUOTE, 2

"I really hate jaywalkers. I despise them. Since I don't run the country, all I can do is yell at 'em. The other option is to run 'em over, but as a compassionate conservative, I would never do that."

-- Columnist and pundit Robert Novak, quoted in 2001 by our Reliable Source predecessor Lloyd Grove, after an incident in which he shouted at a pedestrian. Novak was cited by police for striking a man downtown yesterday morning with his Corvette convertible (see Page B1).