and revealing she and now-88-year-old former Senator Ed Brooke had an affair back in those halcyon days. Walters seems as proud of this as she is of everything, and we're no prudes here but Brooke was actually married, albeit in a bad one. Does anybody really care? That a journalist got into bed with someone she covered? That it's now the canny hook for promoting her new book, "Audition: A Memoir." And she's showing up in her old hometown, and mine now, of Brookline at Brookline Booksmith Thursday  May 22 at 7. Now, you might be thinking the 'smith's basement - where most readings are held - is a tiny spot for a writer of such fame. Don't worry. She's not reading. She's signing. Not anything, mind you. She's just signing books - her book - that you buy on the premises. Maybe she'll smile at you or something, but you're getting nothing much more than getting close in the Six Degrees of Separation game various presidents, actors, crooks and dignitaries that she's interviewed ("If you were a flower, what kind of flower would you be?") over the years. At least it's free. Except for the book, which probably costs $25 or so.

279 Harvard St., Brookline, 617-566-6660 www.brooklinebooksmith.com