PR firm giant Weber Shandwick Worldwide will represent McDonald's in the United Kingdom. WSW will address food safety issues and how McDonald's will deal with the UK's plan to restructure its agriculture sector in the aftermath of mad cow and foot and mouth disease.

The credibility of university research is on the line as corporations step up their funding. One issue is academic freedom. Corporations that fund university research often demand the right to control what scientists can say publicly about their work. "They're like bullies in a sandbox who take away their toys when you don't agree with them," says David Kahn, a researcher at the University of California-San Francisco who was sued for $10 million by the company that sponsored his study, after he published a report that the AIDS drug he was testing was ineffective.

"PR Man," which opened in New York city on June 15, will run for the next two weekends through July 1. Written and directed by Robert Lyons, and based on Toxic Sludge Is Good For You by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, the play examines one PR man's strategic damage control surrounding a grassroots protest of "bio-soil" -- toxic sludge used as fertilizer. Bogus experts, seduction, and crafted deniability fuel a momentum that even he can't control in this fast-paced, sexually-charged comic drama.