American hunger artist

last updated 8 January 2015

London

Brooklyn-born illusionist David Blaine emerged this week from the box above London where he spent 44 days fasting and enduring British taunts. The bearded Blaine, who lost more than 60 pounds on his water-only diet, was promptly taken to a hospital and put on intravenous feeding. Londoners seemed disappointed that the ordeal was over, as Blaine baiting had become a national sport. Every day, crowds of onlookers mooned him, flipped him off, and pelted his box with food. “All in all,” one London Times columnist wrote of his countrymen, “it has been quite a magnificent effort.”