Holy blood, holy legal bill

The authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, who sued Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown for plagiarizing their non-fiction book, which was published in 1982, have had their case dismissed in London and now face a hefty legal bill – almost $6 million.

Both books claim there is evidence Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a child. Initially, Brown described his dramatic account of a Harvard professor uncovering the Catholic Church's dirtiest secret as the result of eye-popping research, opening his book with this note: "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." After real scholars turned Brown's research into swiss cheese, he emphasized on his Web site that the book is a work of fiction and that the artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals all "exist."