[PHP-DB] distinct - how to do

[Barry Rumsey]

I have the following query:
$query = "SELECT  * FROM xp_topics, xp_stories WHERE xp_topics.topicid = 
xp_stories.topicid AND xp_topics.artistname='Faith Hill' ORDER BY topictext DESC LIMIT 
0,20"; 
It returns the lot but a lot of doubles.
 I want to put a DISTINCT call the query, but if I put it after the select ( select 
distinct * from.......) it returns nothing. How do you do a DISTINCT?