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When Inquiring Minds Wanted to Know

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<i> Bruce McCall is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker</i>

What if tabloids had reigned when Cleopatra, Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Napoleon and Rasputin did--and how would they have conjugated the conjugal antics of yesteryear’s society headliners?

1810: Josephine fights back after Napoleonic spokesmen announce that her marriage to Bonaparte is annulled:

36 BC: Mark Antony comes eyeball to eyeball with Cleopatra on a state visit to Egypt and . . . .

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1536: Henry VIII’s tempestuous relationship with wife Anne Boleyn finally comes to a head . . . .

1588: Elizabeth I of England--was she or wasn’t she the Virgin Queen? Only the tabloids knew for sure.

1915: It ain’t only religion that Rasputin brings to the Imperial Russian Court!

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