Nancy Reagan

NANCY REAGAN: The Unauthorized Biography. By Kitty Kelley. Simon & Schuster. 604 pages. $24.95.AFTER READING Kitty Kelley's "Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography," I feel as though I've just browsed the underwear drawer of a stranger. I don't feel guilty, either, which worries me even more.But this is Kelley's talent. She takes me on a tour of Nancy Reagan's every sin -- both documented and rumored, with little distinction between them -- and persuades me to keep reading because this is political history.

Founding MythEditor: At a time when the majority of Americans were in favor of the war against Iraq, Ray Jenkins chose to publish someunpopular opinions concerning our nation's history and belief in its own moral superiority. After an extremely negative and totally predictable reaction, he again had the courage to express his opinions in print. I congratulate him.Concerning the overwhelming reaction to his opinions, allow me to quote from Marie-France Toinet, author of ''Does Anti-Americanism Exist'':''.

I ASKED MY favorite bookseller to save me a copy of "Nancy Reagan The Unauthorized Biography" by Kitty Kelley. "Okay," she said, "But you won't like it. It's boring."Boring? I'd heard a lot of criticism of the book, but not that it was boring. Just the opposite. It was too sensational.The first thing I noticed about the book was that it's cheap. Simon & Schuster ought to be ashamed to have manufactured a book so inexpensively made. The inside front of my copy came unglued from the spine the day after I got it. If it were a car, it would be recalled.

Sure, we're a little ashamed of our prurient fascination with the latest gossip about Nancy Reagan, but, hey, there are two serious points here. On the evidence of Kitty Kelley's unauthorized hatchet job: (1) The Reagans were hypocrites, presuming to stand for family virtues even as they turned the White House into Peyton Place on the Potomac, and (2) Mrs. Reagan's "petticoat presidency" usurped the powers of the man we elected.So what else is new?The stuff about Frank Sinatra is interesting, though based on innuendo.

Washington. Kitty Kelley, who battens like a leech on the lives of famous people, is a professional retailer of falsehoods. Her remunerative work in the sewers of journalism exploits the fact that public figures can be recklessly written about with impunity.To prevent a ''chilling effect'' on public discourse, courts have made it almost prohibitively difficult for public figures to defend themselves from even reckless and malicious disregard for the truth. Many public figures have had this experience: An absurd, injurious and easily refutable rumor is reported as fact, and the publisher says, ''Well, we accurately report rumors.

NANCY REAGAN: THEUNAUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY.Kitty Kelley.Simon & Schuster.603 pages. $24.95.In this much-anticipated filleting of Nancy Reagan, the formefirst lady is depicted in childhood as chubby, unpopular, pathetic. As a Hollywood starlet, we see her as conniving, talentless and pathetic. As a mother, cold, selfish, pathetic. And as a first lady, greedy, domineering, deceitful and yes, of course, pathetic.But then, we'd already heard all that. If the books by former Reagan aides didn't succeed in unmasking Mrs. Reagan's unadorableness, her memoirs "My Turn" -- in which she skewers everyone around her and thus, herself -- certainly did.Still, even if the major revelations found within Kitty Kelley's 1,000-plus interviews -- most notably, stories of extramarital affairs and drug use -- are few (and either unsubstantiated or merely alluded to)

MORE THAN 100 years ago, a great man did something that great men sometimes do. He fell in love. The problem was that he was married at the time and had 10 children, and that his beloved was an actress many years his junior.But the larger problem was that he was considered a kind of god, and that part of his elevation sprang from his image as champion of home and hearth.His solution was despicable. He insisted his wife was mentally ill, he took away their children and attacked as vicious gossip the stories about his attachment to the actress.

By a margin of almost 3-2, Evening Sun readers and other callers to SUNDIAL think that the allegation of an affair in the White House between Nancy Reagan and Frank Sinatra is just Kitty litter.In her new book on the former first lady, celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley charged that Mrs. Reagan had an affair with Sinatra.Out of 522 responses yesterday to an "It's Your Call" question, 304, or 58 percent, think that the author was just repeating idle gossip. Almost 42 percent, or 218 callers, believe the book.

Boston -- Did Teddy Kennedy Have Anything On Underneath His Oxford Shirt?Did Nancy Reagan Have An Affair With Frank Sinatra In The White House?Do I Have Your Attention Yet?Gossip and news. News or gossip? Not even my dictionary makes a very helpful distinction.Gossip is mildly defined as ''the casual talk about other people's affairs.'' News is staidly described as ''information about recent events.'' Tell me where one ends and the other begins, and I'll make you editor.This week, the Kurds are dying in the Middle East while the headlines are focused on whether it was a rape or a romp at the Kennedy Compound in Palm Beach.

AT B. DALTON in The Gallery, the book stands in the window, featuring a certain slender woman in red."There's the book! Fifteen percent off!" chortles a businessman to his friends, and they all swing into the store for a closer look.A high school girl drifts in with her friend, points at the book and says, "Did you hear the writer interviewed a thousand people for the book?"Two women, each immersed in a copy of the book, jump apart with guilty laughter when asked what they are doing.Yes, "Nancy Reagan, The Unauthorized Biography," has Baltimore enthralled.