Riiiiight: Newsman Dan Rather made him do...

Riiiiight: Newsman Dan Rather made him do it--at least, that’s the story chemist James Campbell told the judge. Campbell, formerly of Virginia Tech, got caught cooking up the drug speed in a university lab. He told police in Christiansburg, Va., that he needed some extra money to pay off debts--including $30,000 due a former wife. So when Rather explained how speed is made on TV’s “48 Hours,” Campbell tried it too. He got probation.

Ouch: As the British economy continues to pinch, some Brits are beginning to pinch themselves over the dream income of the royal family. Fortune magazine totted up the annual take from British taxpayers as $101.5 million, although Queen Elizabeth’s personal worth is $10.7 billion--making her the richest woman in the world. Said leading royalty watcher Harold Brooks-Baker: “The monarchy is very problematic. . . . If I had to bet on there being a monarchy in 20 years, I wouldn’t do it.”

Survivor: Physicist and best-selling author Stephen Hawking suffered a broken arm when he was struck by a car last week as his nurse guided his wheelchair across a street in Cambridge, England. Hawking, 49, was hospitalized overnight and released; the nurse was not hurt. Despite motor neuron disease and having to communicate through a computerized voice box and keyboard, Hawking heads an academic department at Cambridge University.

Skirmish: An animated George Bush said a British Gulf War officer, already singled out as a favorite of Barbara Bush, received a marriage proposal from an unnamed American woman--but not the First Lady. Group Capt. Niall Irving, who shined at press briefings in Saudi Arabia, was mentioned by the President last week in a joke about the note of appreciation the First Lady had written Irving: “I think somebody offered to marry him but I think maybe he already is married.”