In an unusual departure for the health-and-lifestyle—oriented house, Rodale's Leigh Haber, who comes with her own show-business ties (she was Steve Martin's editor at Hyperion) has signed HBO-TV's irreverent Bill Maher for a book of satirically comic musings called New Rules, based on the segment of the same name in his popular show Real Time. The book will contain material already used on the show as well as substantial new writing by Maher and his writers; the aim is clearly to ride on the huge success Warner continues to have with America: The Book by Jon Stewart and his Daily Show cohorts. Haber went after Maher by way of Steve Lafferty at CAA and Marc Gurvitz at Brillstein-Grey, who sold her world rights, and plans to publish as soon as this fall.
Meanwhile, over at Warner, publisher
Jamie Raab, the buyer of America, and chairman
Larry Kirshbaum signed another luminary,
Billy Crystal, to do a book based on his hit Broadway one-man show
700 Sundays. This was a six-figure deal for publication late this year, made with
Jennifer Joel at ICM, North American rights.
