Thanks Everybody for this fruitful debate;
I �d like to go further with this. I really spent all night long searching this grammatical controversial issue. Eventually, I had an approximate conviction that we are dealing with two different approaches. In Classical British English (Fowler) the verb is always singular; in modern English (especially with Quirk) the verb form depends on both number and gender of two subjects.

Neither is a word that causes endless problems not only for writers but also sometimes for those who wish to guide them. The style manual for the London Times, for instance, states flatly that "neither takes a singular verb, e.g., �Neither Bert nor Fred has any idea. �" That is true enough, to be sure, for examples involving Bert and Fred or any other two singular items, but what if the items are plural?

According to the Times guide, we would have to write, "Neither the men nor the women is dressed yet," which would be irregular, to say the very least. And what if there is a mixture of singular and plural? Again, according to the structures of the Times Guide to English Style and Usage, as it is formally known, we would have to write, "Neither the farmer nor his fifty cows was in the field," and again we would be grammatically eccentric.

The rule, as you will gather, is slightly more complicated than is sometimes taught --- but not so complicated that it should cause such persistent problems. Briefly put, in neither ... nor constructions, the verb should always agree with the noun nearest it. Thus, "Neither De Niro nor his agent were available for comment" should be "was available for comment." Since the noun nearest the verb (agent) is singular, so the verb should be singular. However, when the noun nearest the verb is plural, the verb should also be plural: "Neither the President nor his advisers were available for comment."

Then neither is used on its own, without the nor, the verb should always be singular: �Neither of the men was ready;� �Neither of us is hungry.�

In short, more often than not a singular verb is called for but that singularity is by no means invariable. Try to remember that neither emphasizes the separateness of items. It doesn�t add them together, at least not grammatically.

--- From Bryson�s Dictionary of Troublesome Words/ Bill Bryson (�2002, Broadway Books)