ROBERT SHAPIRO, the defence attorney who represented the notorious non killer OJ Simpson, is expected to address the TCD Philosophical society later in this academic year.

Shapiro, who usually charges a speaking fee of $12,500, agreed to waive the fee after some minor confusion over the matter.

"He wrote back giving us his fee but we faxed him back saying that we weren't really that type of organisation," says Joe Guerin, president of the Phil. "He said he would do it and work around it around a holiday in Ireland."

Shapiro is expected to address the Phil on public opinion, the media and the law in 1997.

He is one of a number of high profile speakers visiting these shores in the coming months, although he is probably not the most controversial. That honour is likely to fall to Geoffrey Fiegar, defence lawyer for Dr Jack Kevorkian. Kevorkian, known as "Dr Death" to his friends and, presumably just plain "Death" to everyone else, has assisted in 34 cases of euthanasia, so his lawyer must be a busy man.

Kevorkian's date with, once again, the Phil, has yet to be confirmed.

Of more immediate concern to fashion victims like myself is the impending arrival of the ageing enfant terrible of British fashion, Vivienne Westwood, purveyor of transparent clothing (it didn't catch on) and bum extensions (oddly, they didn't catch on either).

Westwood will be facing comedienne Jo Brand, who tends to favour tee shirts, leggings and a hairstyle like an explosion in a rat's nest. On Thursday October 24th, in the GMB in Trinity, they will be debating the motion "that the catwalk degrades women".

The eternally unfashionable Michael Winner, who gave the world Death Wish, Charles Bronson's moustache and the solution of social problems by hitting them over the head with a weighted sock, is expected in the Phil this Thursday.

In UCD, most sights will be set on Friday, October 25th, when Sir Patrick Mayhew, Ken Maginnnis, John Alderdice, Catherine McGuinness, Proinsias De Rossa and Geraldine Kennedy of The Irish Times will discuss the way forward in Northern Ireland under the barrier of the L&H.

Sinn Fein have been excluded, apparently at the request of some of the guests.

This Friday evening in the L&H Alan Dukes, barrister Shane Murphy and John Lonergan, governor of Mountjoy Prison, will debate blaming the criminal and not society, while Friday November 1st sees the annual colours debate with my old alma mater, TCD.

According to the L&H, the motion will be "some variation on how crap Trinity is". It's nice to know the art of debate is not dead.

The Procter and Gamble intervarsity, meanwhile, takes place in the L&H on November 29th.