If you're going to straight-up steal the name of a grumpy old man's book, make sure he wasn't best buds with noted Satanists Aleister Crowley and Anton LeVay. Darwin Porter wrote an "updated" version of Kenneth Anger's 1959 scandal classic Hollywood Babylon, and now he has the forces of eternal darkness to contend with. "It's very bizarre, but a close friend of Kenneth told me he's come out with Satanic incantations against me. I have to protect myself. He was a friend of Aleister Crowley, the Satan worshipper who drank the blood of virgins."

"Hollywood Babylon was an instant best-seller with its seamy tales and explicit photos of movie stars' secret gay flings, sex orgies, murder and suicide. In the 1980s, Anger wrote Hollywood Babylon II, which had a hog-fat Elizabeth Taylor on the cover. Porter had hoped Anger would see his remake-which includes dishy tales about Arnold Schwarzenegger, Tom Cruise, James Dean, Elvis Presley and Ronald and Nancy Reagan-as a tribute. No such luck.

"Anger, now 81, was also a lifelong friend of Anton Szandor LaVey, who founded the Church of Satan. Last year, he disclosed he is suffering from prostate cancer and predicted he will die this upcoming Halloween. Calls to his reps were not returned.

"'I'm going to have to be careful from now on,' Porter told us. 'I want to wish Kenneth well, but I'm going to be there for his funeral to make sure he's really gone so he can't bring me harm.'" [P6]