Verbal fireworks as Da Vinci Code case nears end

LONDON (Reuters) - Some heated verbal exchanges erupted on Friday in the closing stages of "The Da Vinci Code" copyright court case, in which two historians accuse author Dan Brown of lifting their research wholesale in his bestseller. Richard Leigh took to the witness box after more than three days of painstaking cross examination of co-claimant Michael Baigent, enlivening proceedings and saying all he had wanted was proper acknowledgement from Brown in his novel. Leigh could hardly have been more different than the soft-spoken, professorial Baigent. In delivery he was clear and aggressive, and instead of dark, sober suits he appeared in court this week in a brown leather jacket and dark sunglasses. [More]