Weird website of book biggie's son

by RICHARD JOHNSON

SIMON & Schuster editor-in-chief Michael Korda is proud of his family -- his book "Queenie" was the thinly-veiled story of his aunt Merle Oberon. But he's fairly secretive about his only child, Chris -- self-proclaimed leader of the cannibalism-advocating Church of Euthanasia.

Korda, 62, the kingpin who's edited best-sellers such as Mary Higgins Clark and David McCullough as well as written his own, fathered Chris, 32, when he was married to his first wife, Carolyn Keese.

Re-married to former model Margaret Mogford, Korda has been one of the most high-profile names in book publishing since his meteoric rise through the ranks -- and is about to release his own account of his victory over prostate cancer, "Man-to-Man."

In spite of the brutally honest confessions in his tome, and the many articles about Michael's accomplishments over the years, Chris, a computer debugger, has rarely ever rated more than a passing mention.

But call up the Church of Euthanasia's home page on the World Wide Web (http://churchofeuthanasia.org), and behold Chris' strange writings that advocate euthanasia, sodomy, abortion and cannibalism -- dubbed the "Four Pillars" -- as ways to reduce the exploding population and save the earth in the name of biodiversity."

Michael did not want to comment about his son -- although a spokesman assured us he was aware of our story in the works.

Chris could not be reached. Simon & Schuster's spokesman would not elaborate on whether the web site photo of a woman, captioned "Chris Korda," is him in drag.

According to its literature, the "church" was "inspired by a dream, in which Rev. [Chris] Korda confronted an alien intelligence known as The Being who speaks for the inhabitants of Earth in other dimensions."

Warned of the eco-system overload, Chris awoke and coined the slogan, "Save the planet -- Kill yourself." Believing that war and epidemics can't halt the population explosion, the group advocates "voluntary forms of population reduction, including suicide, free abortion, and sodomy, which they define as any sexual act not intended for procreation."

Needless to say, Chris' cult is "fiercely vegetarian, and supports cannibalism for those who insist on eating flesh," the home page notes.

Michael's wife Margaret did give Vanity Fair a single, intriguing quote on Chris in last month's profile on her spouse. Asked about Michael's vasectomy after they first got married, she said, "It was the way we wanted to live. Michael has a son by his first marriage. And I don't really like children, so we didn't want any more..."

We haven't met Chris, but it sounds like Korda shouldn't have worried about replicating him -- he's one of a kind.