Friends in high places

Celebrity supporters are coming out of the woodwork to support John Kerry: Whoopi Goldberg, Bruce Springsteen, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond, Billy Crystal and Lee Roystone.

If you haven't heard of Roystone, an aspiring novelist and former Kerry girlfriend, you will. Under her pen name (her real name is Lee Whitnum), she has a Web site where she hawks a couple of books and describes a 20-month relationship with the presidential candidate. Think junior high diary. Some excerpts:

• Under a picture of an envelope is the caption, "A note to me from John (it's private). John's hand wrote my name on the envelope."

• Under a newspaper clipping about Earth Day 1990 is the caption, "It was also the day he met Teresa Heinz. Earth Day brought me to him and Earth Day brought her to him."

• "In the beginning we had pet names. He was Michael and I was Katherine. This was to keep our friendship private."

As for her new book, "Hedge Fund Mistress," Roystone describes it thus: "After a heart-wrenching romance with a United States senator, Nicki Matthews wanders the United States eventually ending up in Greenwich, Conn. Although it is years later, the repercussions of that relationship influence her future and that of a nation."

In her blog on the site, Roystone writes rather mysteriously that the book "is in a safe place. You may pre-order the book. I still not sure what to do. In the event something happens to me, the book is still scheduled to go out." However, it "will ship Nov. 2, 2004, so as not to influence John Kerry's campaign."