GOSSIP MONGER LEARNS HIS PHONE WAS HACKED

One of Britain’s most notorious gossip mongers says he was shocked when Scotland Yard informed him that his phone had been hacked by The News of the World reporters. Kelvin MacKenzie, writing in Spectator magazine, said that the pin number of his mobile phone was so complicated that the reporters “must have had inside help from the phone [companies].” MacKenzie, a longtime former editor of the Sun, a sibling newspaper of the NoW, said that he had developed nerve endings that had “become encased in cement” during his tenure. “But, oddly, I felt quite threatened by this invasion and understood more clearly why celebrities — no matter if they were A- or Z-listers — felt they had been violated.” While at The Sun Mackenzie published an article claiming that Elton John had sex with underage male prostitutes. (John sued and was awarded $1.6 million in damages.) He also accused Liverpool fans of provoking a riot at a football match in which 96 persons were killed. “Some Fans Picked Pockets of Victims” and “Some Fans Urinated on the Brave Cops” were two of the newspaper’s headlines — which were subsequently retracted.