you folks are way behind the curve. Us old fogeys knew this decades ago. Sort of like when people rediscovered anodizing, and thought it was so novel and new.

Jessica Biel

Yeah, I knew about this, too. It's discussed in her excellent autobiography My Life in France, which was released right after her death.

I had the extreme pleasure to meet Julia Child in 1990, when I was working at an NPR radio station in Washington, DC. She came to the station for an interview with talkshow host Diane Rehm, who is also rather crush worthy, for her contributions and all she has been through...

But anyway, Julia was incredibly gracious, funny, and talked with everyone as if they were her best friend. The station seemed a little dull and forlorn after she left.

I read her autobio recently and I could almost hear that voice reading it to me. If you haven't already, pick it up.

This isn't news. I've read this before plenty of times.

can you find no better picture of Ms Child than one where she stands behind bevy of decaptitate chickens?

At least have her do something both chef and superspy-like, like work with brulee torch.

Articles like this - i have read several in recent days - are a waste of time and energy.

What Child did with the OSS during WW II has been known, and documented, for a long time. I myself have known about it for at least 20 years, maybe longer. She made no secret of it, even pointing out several times that's how she met her husband Paul. She never tried to hide or deny anything she did during the War.

So what's the big deal? This isn't news, it's decades old. So why write something that adds nothing to our knowledge and understanding of one of America's cultural icons?

Maybe jealousy, because she cooked better than you can?

dammit!

But Ms Child still look like Swedish Chef in picture.

and although I don't think she was a "hide in the closet with a camera and dagger" kind a spy (at least if the book is accurate) her life was unbeleivelbly fasinating!

Among many adventures in her life, she did work for army intellegence services and when stuck in a desk job, in India I think, got herself reassigned to more important and dangerous tasks... even ending up with the now famous flying Tigers for a while (I can't remember what her job was with them... hey it was the intellegence service... whatever they do.)

And that was just the beginning. I thought those years ago and you have reminded me that her life would make a great movie.

At least have her do something both chef and superspy-like, like work with brulee torch.

Yes, I can just picture that. Thanks for the laugh!

(And rkscher ... if cilantro tastes like soap to you, don't eat it.)

Julia talked about this in her autobiography or some other book I believe. Anyway, I've known about it for years.

Everybody loves Julia! The news about her CIA role has been out there for years. I've even heard Sara Moulton talk about it. So, this is nothing new.

Julia was just plain cool anyway you look at it. Even the famous Ackyroyd (sp) parody on the funny years of SNL was more a loving tribute than a cruel mocking. Julia gave us back fresh ingredients, taught us to love complex cuisine, and made it okay to have a glass of wine every now and then. Even in her later years, when she mostly stood there and observed while other cooks did the work, she always taught us something. She was just the Grand Old Lady of American food.

Her work for the OSS came at a time of high anxiety, while the West struggled with defining it's relationship to the Soviet Union and fought a surrogate war with both the USSR and the Chinese under Mao in Korea. Patriotism isn't bad by itself, blind patriotism is the problem. I doubt that Julia was ever blind about anything.

For myself, I miss her terribly, and I'm about as far from a girl as a human can get.

Julia's awesome.

Because I knew about the OSS posting before, from her autobiography and interviews. Doesn't sound new, unless it adds details to what she has discussed before, which would be interesting, although it really doesn't take much to make Julia Child interesting.

I used to watch her show with my Mom when it first was on PBS, the old ones in black and white. We loved it. I saw the exhibit at the Smithsonian and I remember one clip from the continuous video of her interviews and shows that they had running where she was talking about how you should eat a little bit of everything, but in moderation and the interviewer asked her, "So, you believe in red meat?" and she said, "Oh, yes. Red meat and gin."

1. Not news.

2. ENOUGH WITH THE "GIRL CRUSH." You're supposed to be writers. How about expressing admiration, respect, love, attraction, etc.? It's uncreative and it belittles real erotic feelings some women have for other women.

so it is news to me. And I grew up watching Julia Child on Saturday mornings on PBS (along with Yan Can Cook and the Frugal Gourmet.)When my parents were asleep on Sunday mornings, I would whip up crepes and I ALWAYS read the recipe aloud while I was cooking, using a combination of her voice and the swedish chef. My father caught me once; needless to say, he thought I was a freak. He wasn't the most imaginative man.

But I didn't know she was an agent, or if I did, it didn't stick in my over loaded on pop trivia brain.

What makes this "news" however, is the fact that they government is releasing the files on what she actually did as an agent, or at least thats what I'm getting from the article.

You're wasting your breath. Broadsheet writers want to have their cake and eat it too. They supposedly want to be respected as "journalists", but at the same time they want to write breezy gossip pieces and lip-flappery in the style of teen-mag "OMG-SO-serious!" pieces. That way, when female bloggers get dissed, they can whine about how they aren't taken seriously.

Childish, but there you are.

P.S. Another voice for THIS IS NEWS?? I've known about Julia Child's spy career for, oh, thirty years or so. But again, another indication of the narcissistic nature of this column. They can't be bothered to do basic research, and thus embarrass themselves on a regular basis. Places like this give feminism a bad name. Feh.