BIDS FOR POPE’S BOOK

POPE John Paul II, holder of the record for a non-fiction book advance, is said to be back in the market with a new eight-volume book of prayers – and a companion CD with praying celebrities.

Celebrities who are said to have agreed to be on the companion prayer and musical CD include “Lethal Weapon” actor Danny Glover, boy band *NSYNC, Jennifer Love Hewitt, James Earl Jones and Faith Hill.

The proposal, apparently authorized by the Vatican, has been making the rounds for a few days to more than a dozen publishers and is expected to go to auction early next week.

In these uncertain economic times, prayer books seem to be enjoying a resurgence. “The Prayer of Jabez” is No. 1 on the NYT advice list. Eight papal prayer books and homilies have appeared in nine years and were sold only at shops in Vatican City.

The books carry titles such as “Invitation to Prayer,” “Mountain Climbers of the Spirit,” “With You, I am a Priest,” “The Mission,” “Gospel of the Suffering,” “A Vocation of Love” and “The Rosary Hour.”

Rock promoter Rick Garson of Compulsion Entertainment is handling the U.S. sale in conjunction with literary agent David Vigliano.

“He was selected by Rogate, the religious publishing arm of the Vatican,” Vigliano told The Post.

The Pope’s last book, a memoir called “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” was sold to Alfred A. Knopf for nearly $9 million and spent 17 weeks on bestseller lists in the U.S. after it hit in October 1994. It went on to sell more than 20 million copies worldwide.

But, despite the success, the Pope is not sticking with superagent Mort Janklow, who brought his memoir to the American market last time around.

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Maer Roshan, the buzz-generating deputy editor at New York magazine, has been lured to Talk magazine to be the new No. 2 man to editor-in-chief Tina Brown.

It marks at least the third No. 2 editor since the magazine was launched in August 1999. David Kuhn, the original No. 2, left to join Brill Media Holdings shortly after he was supplanted as the No. 2 editor by the arrival of veteran Bob Wallace as editorial director.

Wallace, a veteran of Rolling Stone and TV news, is being bumped upstairs and the day-to-day operations of the magazine are being handed to Roshan.

Sources believe Roshan is being paid more than $250,000 – a big premium over his New York magazine salary.

Said Roshan, “I’m excited. I’m sad to be leaving an editor I love, Caroline Miller, and a great staff, but six years is a long time to be on one magazine.

Tina first approached him in November 1999, offering to double his then-New York salary. He stayed in place – but not before getting a generous counteroffer.

He also toyed with the idea of joining Jason Binn as the editor-in-chief of Gotham but eventually balked.

Now he’ll be charged with shoring up a staff battered by high-level defections in recent months. “There are a lot of unhappy people there,” said a source close to the situation.

Brown said she did not think the turnover was a problem: “We’re a growing company. We’ve had some people leave and more people arrive.”

She said Roshan will be “in charge of the editorial lineup working with the writers and editors.”

Said one former colleague of Roshan’s, “It’s not like he’d have a lot of macro ideas on how to fix their problems – but he can bring in newsy, splashy pieces and he knows a lot of people.”

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