YEAR IN REVIEW 2000: SIDEBAR

An Olympic-Sized Scandal In 1999 it appeared that the Olympic Games might take the gold for the century's widest-reaching and most notorious sports scandal. Years in advance of each Olympic Games, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) elect a host city from among those bidding to hold the event. The right to hold the 2002 Winter Games was won in 1995 by Salt Lake City, Utah, which was later alleged to have bought or influenced the vote at the cost of Olympic ideals. In November 1998 local Salt Lake City reporters discovered that relatives of some IOC members had been given university scholarships. It was eventually revealed that more than $1 million of Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC) funds had been paid out for college costs, ghost-hiring schemes, a political campaign, vacations (including Super Bowl tickets), shopping sprees, and other gifts, as well as direct payments to IOC members and their families. Jean-Claude Ganga of the Republic of the Congo was alleged to have been the largest recipient, taking in a reported $250,000 in gifts and wire transfers. It was also revealed that Salt Lake City firms and retail stores had donated over $1 million in value-in-kind items to visiting IOC members. An SLOC Board of Ethics report placed most of the blame on Tom Welch and Dave Johnson, respectively the president and vice president of the SLOC and of the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee. Welch, Johnson, and Frank Joklik, Welch's successor as SLOC chairman, were among those forced to resign. Criminal charges also were brought against local business executives. The bad press in Utah upset Olympic supporters and made some companies wary of Olympic sponsorship, which in turn caused belt-tightening in Sydney, Australia (site of the 2000 Summer Games), and anxiety for the marketing arm of the IOC as well as for the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), which earned millions of dollars from broadcasting and advertising deals. Thus, international damage control began; there were gag orders issued, advertising campaigns inaugurated, reforms planned, and investigations supported, including inquiries by the IOC, the USOC, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. Department of Justice. An IOC subcommittee recommended a complete overhaul of the selection process, and several IOC and USOC members were expelled, reprimanded, or compelled to resign. The president of the IOC, Juan Antnio Samaranch (see Biographies), also was sharply criticized. Still the scandal widened. It was reported that the election of Nagano, Japan, to serve as host of the 1998 Winter Games was influenced by expensive entertaining and costly gifts, such as video cameras. After an initial denial, officials in Atlanta, Ga. (site of the 1996 Summer Games), admitted some misconduct, while officials in Sydney and Lillehammer, Nor. (host of the 1994 Winter Games), released reports that indicated minor infractions but no widespread corruption in the bids by those cities. It was alleged that large sums of money had been spent by bidding committees in Toronto, Amsterdam, and Athens (chosen to be host of the 2004 Summer Games) to entertain visiting IOC members and influence their votes. Some officials of those cities denied wrongdoing while admitting that IOC limits on gift giving were not followed. In late 1999 several investigations were still pending, and it was uncertain how far or how high the scandal would ultimately reach. Stephen P. Davis Bollywood Formulaic story lines, expertly choreographed fight scenes, spectacular song-and-dance routines, emotion-charged melodrama, and larger-than-life heroes were the hallmark ingredients of Bollywood films, which in 1999 continued to flourish in India and found a growing audience among British Asians in the U.K. as well as American Asians in the U.S. This was Bollywood, the Indian moviemaking industry that traced its roots to Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1930s, produced as many as 1,000 feature films annually in all of India's major languages and in a variety of cities, and was often disparagingly compared to Hollywood, owing to what many perceived as Bollywood's narrow focusmaking box-office smash hits. Nevertheless, the cultural inflections and narratives of Bollywood films were unique to the world of film, and the three-hour movies offered viewers time-honoured values, continuity, familiarity, and a chance to escape from everyday pressures. In 1934 Bombay Talkies, launched by Himansu Rai, spearheaded the growth of Indian cinema in the 1930s and '40s. By the 1990s Bombay talkies or masala movies (masala is a mix of spices) referred to the Bollywood films that featured mythology, melodrama, romance, action, suspense, and the expression of sexual feelings (no overt sex or nudity was allowed) in numerous songs (rarely recorded live) and dances, including one standard number in which the star would appear coyly from behind a pillar or a tree. Visually lush, there were also numerous costume as well as global venue changes throughout the films. Over the years several classic genres emerged from Bollywood: the historical epic, notably Mughal-e-Azam (1960), featuring an erotic love scene of Madhubala (the Venus of the Indian screen) and Dilip Kumar; the curry western, where, for example, Sholay (1975) was Bollywood's answer to Hollywood's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; the courtesan film such as Pakeezah (1972), highlighting stunning cinematography and sensual dance choreography; and the mythological movie, represented by Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), the mother goddess. It was the megastars rather than the plots that remained the driving force behind the films. Beginning in 1936, when Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani emerged as the first major star pair, and continuing with such male heartthrobs as Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Dev Anand in the 1950s and '60s, Rajesh Khanna in the '70s, Amitabh Bachchan in the '80s, and Shahrukh Khan in the '90s, the starstruck public developed an insatiable appetite for news about their screen heroes. The new generation of male idols, however, were younger (previously performers in their 40s and 50s had had starring roles) and more Westernized in their manner; though many traveled more, frequented discos, and sported girlfriends, they also adhered to traditional cultural mores. The female icons that sent fans into frenzies included Madhubala in the 1950s, Mumtaz in the '60s, Zeenat Aman in the '70s, Hema Malini in the '80s, and Madhuri Dixit and Kajol in the '90s. India, perhaps the only country where Hollywood films took a backseat to ones that were homegrown, found Bollywood's popularity outside India spurred by television exposure highlighting Indian cinema as well as magazines and Web sites showcasing Bollywood stars, who influenced everything from street fashion to social values. In 1998 Dil Se became the first Bollywood film to capture a spot on the U.K. cinema top 10 list. Karen J. Sparks DNAthe Forensic Tool of the '90s The 1990s saw the evolution of one of law enforcement's greatest investigative toolsthe use of DNA testing as evidence in criminal trials. First introduced in the courtroom in the late 1980s, this new technology was used not only to gain convictions but also to free many who had been wrongly incarcerated. By mid-1999 more than 60 people had been released from American prisons following postconviction analysis of DNA evidence. Many of them had already served a number of years behind bars. A DNA profile is created by first collecting a sample of an individual's cells, frequently from blood, tissue, or saliva. A DNA molecule is removed from a cell, purified, and then cut and processed to reveal a pattern that is unique to that individual. This profile is then available to compare with a DNA sample from a crime scene. The reliability of DNA evidence was initially met with some skepticism, but by the end of the 1990s a number of advances, which included comparing a greater number of sites on the DNA molecules, rendered a DNA match essentially 100% conclusive. Additionally, much smaller samples than before could be used to link criminal and crime; even minute amounts of salivasuch as those found on the rim of a coffee cup or the back of a postage stampwere enough to be analyzed and used as evidence. Recognizing the crime-solving potential of DNA testing and the success of a similar British program started in 1995, the FBI in October 1998 launched the National DNA Index System (NDIS), a nationwide computer database, into which states could submit samples both from known criminals and from unknown persons at crime scenes. Some three months after its introduction, the database had already been used to solve about 200 crimes, and this number was expected to increase significantly once all 50 states had joined the system. Although all states had laws requiring at least some convicted criminals to provide DNA samples, many did not have the resources needed to collect and process them. Fewer than one-third of the states were submitting samples to the national system, and a backlog existed of more than 400,000 DNA samples that had been collected but not processed, as well as an additional 200,000 that needed to be retested owing to changes in technology. Although many both inside and outside law enforcement strongly endorsed the formation and expansion of a national DNA database, some civil rights groups voiced opposition, citing privacy concerns as well as the potential for misuse of database information. To help examine the issues surrounding this evolving science, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno in 1997 called for the formation of the National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. The advisory committee, which was composed of a number of policy makers and other concerned parties, was continuing its investigation at the end of 1999. Sandra Langeneckert Dumb?Like a Fox In the 1990s two publishers discovered that ignorance was not only bliss but also very profitable. IDG Books Worldwide and Macmillan U.S.A. were responsible, respectively, for the series of books for dummies and guides for the complete idiotinstructional manuals that had cash registers ringing as readers sought to master everything from personal computers to personal ads. Written in basic language and infused with a dose of humour, the books proved to be a tonic for those struggling to keep pace in the Information Age. By 1999 they together accounted for more than 750 titles, covering topics as diverse as software, Shakespeare, sex, and sports. Already translated into dozens of languages, Dummies and Idiot's guidebooks were found around the world and rang up some $150 million in sales. The Dummies books, which debuted in 1991, were the pioneers of textbooks for the allegedly mentally challenged. The series was developed by John Kilcullen, cofounder of IDG Books Worldwide, who recognized consumers' frustrations with trying to keep pace with the ever-changing computer industry. Kilcullen's idea for a manual that made learning both easy and entertaining resulted in DOS for Dummies. The book, however, was initially met with resistance from book chains and industry experts who questioned the wisdom of insulting potential buyers in the very title of the book. Kilcullen responded that dummies was a term of endearment, and readers, recognizing the joke and reassured by the simple format that it suggested, returned the affection, making the book a best-seller and the most successful title in the Dummies series to date. A number of computer books, all in the trademark bright yellow and black cover, soon followed, and Dummies became synonymous with straightforward and humourous texts. In 1994 IDG applied the formula to a noncomputer subject. Personal Finance for Dummies was a hit, staying on the best-seller list for more than two years and paving the way for manuals on a variety of topics. Macmillan launched its own infotainment series, The Complete Idiot's Guide, in 1994. Following the Dummies example, it initially offered basic and lighthearted instruction on computers before tackling more creative subjects, such as how to get a good night's sleep and how to become a psychic. An obsession with connoisseurship fueled the manuals' success. Although Dummies was clearly the championwith some 500 titles and more than $120 million in sales, compared with the Idiot's 280 books and some $30 million in revenueboth series proved that the market for knowledge was limitless. By the late 1990s some 150 new Dummies and Idiot's titles were hitting bookshelves each year, helping create a new breed of expertsknowledgeable on such subjects as lawn care, angels, and quiltsand a profitable industry. Other similar series had also entered the market, with some, such as Macmillan's The Lazy Way, pegged for book buyers' other intellectual shortcomings. Amy Tikkanen