Last Laugh

Staffers at the now-shuttered News of the World apparently ignored orders from above to avoid mocking News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks in the tabloid’s final edition, managing to slip a few knocks into the paper’s puzzle page.

The Telegraph reports that clues for the Quickie puzzle included “Brooks,” “stink,” and “catastrophe,” while the Cryptic Crossword contained more explicit slights like “criminal enterprise,” “mix in prison,” “string of recordings,” and “will fear new security measure.”

Perhaps most obvious was the clue for 24 Across: “Woman stares wildly at calamity” — believed to be in reference to a now-iconic photo of Brooks leaving News International HQ after News of the World‘s demise was announced.

An unnamed NotW source who spoke with The Daily Mail said two Sun journalists were under orders from Brooks to peruse the paper in search of such “tricks.”

“She brought in two very senior Sun journalists to go though every line on every page with a fine tooth comb to ensure there were no libels or any hidden mocking messages of the chief executive,” said the source. “But they failed and we’ve had the last laugh.”