Bernini was an Illuminatus...
at least, so Dan Brown claims.  I read Angels & Demons today.  I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that it's the third Dan Brown novel I've read, but at least I haven't paid money for any of them.  I'm fascinated by his awfulness, I guess. 

On a somewhat related note, I perused a copy of The DaVinci Hoax (Carl Olson and Sandra Miesel, Ignatius Press) in Barnes & Noble yesterday.  There's a suggestion in there that either hadn't occurred to me before, or hadn't surfaced in my mind for sometime: what makes us think Mary Magdalene was a young woman?  Couldn't she just as well be eighty?
I enjoyed looking at the book, and also Mr. Olson's lecture at GU last spring, but I'm temporarily boycotting Ignatius, because they refused to publish a book by a friend of mine.  I'm sure I'll be back buying from them again soon, but I'm a little sore at them just now.