Unraveling Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code

What is it these days about the premise of an original idea? Do they still exist? It seems that the literary world is taking a hit recently, first with the admission of Oprah's favorite writer, James Frey in that he kind of stretched the truth a little with his hit novel A Million Little Pieces. Now we may have another potential bombshell coming down the pipe with the recent allegations of plagiarism involving Dan Brown and his super mystery thriller, The Da Vinci Code.

Dan Brown was just like every other struggling writer out there, until he penned the runaway blockbuster The Da Vinci Code and then that's when things changed, as he instantly became a multi-millionaire and the highest paid writer in the world. Up until 1996 Brown's real focus was his job as an English teacher and budding musician, but one day he read The Doomsday Conspiracy, by Sydney Sheldon and decided he could do better. He obviously proved that he could do better and skyrocketed to fame and fortune, which may be short-lived as he found himself in London's High Court on Monday to face charges of plagiarism by scribes, Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh centering on their 1982 book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail.

The case so far has shed some light at least on the interesting approach that Brown takes when it comes to writing, in a NY Daily News article an excerpt of a 69 page witness statement from the trial Brown outlines his daily routine, which involves getting up at 4 am., writing seven days a week and using an antique hourglass to remind him to do sit ups and pushups every hour, "I find this helps to keep the blood (and ideas) flowing." The statement goes on further to reveal that under cross examination Brown was quoted as saying, "I'm not so much of a details person, I like the big ideas. My wife was reading entire books, highlighting exciting ideas and urging me to read the material myself and find ways to work the ideas in the plot."

It is probably still too early to tell if any form of plagiarism has actually taken place, but one thing is for certain, if The Da Vinci Code didn't make any money or ended up being turned into a major motion picture, starring Tom Hanks, we probably wouldn't have heard from Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh. ABC News reports that Brown was totally shocked that this was happening and in an earlier statement presented by the author's lawyers he is quoted as saying, "Baigent and Leigh are only two of a number of authors who have written about the bloodline story, and yet I went out of my way to mention them for being the one who brought the story to mainstream attention." He goes on to say, "I have been shocked at their reaction; furthermore I do not really understand it."

An interesting side note is that the third author of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, Henry Lincoln is not involved in the case and the plaintiffs lawyer, Paul Sutton has been tight lipped as to reason for Lincoln's absence. Maybe that's where the real conspiracy is. The worst part of this whole affair is that if Baigent and Leigh do succeed in getting an injunction, movie-goers everywhere anticipating one of this year's biggest Hollywood releases will be left out in the cold as the movie version of The Da Vinci Code, which is due to hit theatres May 19, 2006, will have to be put on hold.

[Sources: NY Daily News; ABC News]