Possible Clues:

• Rays
• Solar radiation
• It can bathe people in warmth
• Foreign article held by small beams
• Disparaging remark about a French count's biggest fear
• Paper not serious, but it's illuminating
• It provides the body with vitamin D
• Growth promoter, foreign one, cut imports
• Start of series: funny, occasionally amusing, it will brighten things up
• Ray perhaps is small and perversely heavy