British sour on Blaine's stunt

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LONDON -- American illusionist David Blaine is finding that hanging high above a river provides amusement aplenty for a jeering public as the eggs, golf balls and rotten tomatoes whiz by, and sometimes smash into, his lofty perch.

Yesterday, a clever tormentor rigged a catapult on a nearby building and scored a direct hit with paint-filled balloons on his clear Plexiglas cage.

Some initially speculated the 30-year-old one-time street magician had become a target for anti-Americanism, but now pundits write it off as just a reflection of British disdain for showoffs and folks who they think are getting too big for their boots.

Mr. Blaine, who entered his 6-by-6 Plexiglas cage 40 feet above the Thames River 2 weeks ago, intends to stay there for 44 days without food.

It was to search for "truths" -- not to mention the $1.5 million-plus that a British TV network is paying him -- that Mr. Blaine climbed into his plastic prison with only water, a quilt and pillow, a journal, diapers, a change of clothes and a photograph of his mother to keep him company.

It perhaps was not in his calculations that "Blaine-baiting" would become what one newspaper described as "the new national sport."

First came the eggs and spoiled tomatoes and apples, a barrage of them, hurled at him from the seething humanity along the water's edge.

Estimated crowds have exceeded 30,000 in the first two weeks alone. The sullen, droopy-eyed magician could only stare down at his tormentors, feebly waving on occasion.

At one point, some smart aleck got the idea of teeing up golf balls on nearby Tower Bridge and driving them at the hapless Mr. Blaine. Police stopped that quickly.