Over the past year or so book publishers have tangled plenty with the press over the sanctity, and enforceability, of embargos on newsworthy books.

In the strangest twist yet, Doubleday is threatening legal action against Newsweek for the opposite – choosing not to run a prepublication story on their Tuesday release, Kitty Kelley’s “The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty.”

A letter from parent company Random House general counsel Katherine Trager to Newsweek, quoted by the AP, maintains that Newsweek was given an advance copy of the book, and promised in exchange to run an article but not otherwise reveal the book’s contents.

But earlier last week, Newsweek Editor Mark Whitaker had told the Washington Post’s Howard Kurtz, “we passed. We weren’t comfortable with a lot of the reporting. We will write about it if it becomes a phenomenon and looks like it will have some impact on the campaign debate, not to further publicize the reporting in it.”

Mr. Whitaker acknowledged that a reporter had signed a confidentiality agreement in order to the see the book, but said it was done without his approval.

In the same letter, Ms. Trager says, “Doubleday turned down an offer from Newsweek’s major competitor (Time) to publish a news story. This flagrant disregard of basic principles governing the pre publication review of books is unprecedented.” She writes that Doubleday is due “substantial damages.”

Time Managing Editor Jim Kelly told the Post said he had not seen the book, and felt that “you obviously would have to fact-check the hell out of it.”

The actual embargo was broken a week ago Sunday by London’s Daily Mirror, but no one is threatening it with legal action.

The newspaper said the book alleges that President Bush “did coke at Camp David when his father was president, and not just once either.” It also charges that while serving in the National Guard, he “liked to sneak out back for a joint or into the bathroom for a line of cocaine.”

By last Thursday, the New York Times had also obtained a prerelease copy by unspecified means, but it chose not to quote from the book, or cite any stories from the text.

It’s the first time we can recall a major news organization announcing that they have broken a big embargo without sharing any revelations with their readers. The paper simply said, “Ms. Kelley treats subjects as far-flung as the pranks the younger George Bush played at boarding school at Andover and his jocular use of obscene language in the years before taking office. But she also discusses questions about how he avoided serving in Vietnam, about excessive drinking and whether he used illegal drugs and about his business career. It is a fast-paced, gossipy narrative that relies on second-hand or unnamed sources for much of its new and most vivid details.”

In any event, retailers have reacted well to the prerelease publicity, and the publisher has ordered additional copies, bringing them to an announced 722,500 copies in print for starters. Ms. Kelley begins a three-day appearance on the Today Show this morning, along with a big lineup of other interviews. Within a day or two, any further allegations should be well aired.