The man who rose to fame singing about how he "can't believe the news today," will soon become a regular Times contributor, editorial-page editor Andrew Rosenthal told a group of Columbia University Journalism School students last night. According to an Intel tipster at the event, Rosenthal — surprisingly upbeat after a harrowing day in which a letter addressed to him at the Times provoked an anthrax scare — giddily relayed to students that he'd just inked a deal with the U2 front man for six to ten op-eds over the next year. Somewhat surprisingly, Saint Bono won't be using this platform to opine on his pet issues of AIDS, African debt relief, global warming, and assorted other world ills — instead, he's actually been assigned to write about music. We know what you're thinking, struggling freelancers: How can the struggling Gray Lady afford such a marquee name? True to form, the man whose Times bio describes him as "a one-man state who fills his treasury with the global currency of fame" won't be taking a paycheck. He's doing it out of the famous goodness of his heart.

UPDATE: Radar has more details