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Zoë Heller and James Wolcott

the breakfast table
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from: Zoë Heller

The Motive of Pundits When It Comes to Condit

Posted Monday, Aug. 6, 2001, at 6:33 PM ET

Dear James,

Yes, there was a grim fascination in watching the tabloids abruptly shift tone when Grubman's mother died--all those mean little grimaces melting into droop-eyed sympathy for "Lizzie's heartbreak."

About Condit: Of course subterfuge is an aphrodisiac, but I don't buy your picture of the Condit women as these free-spirited jaunty types who chose Condit because they got a kick out of clandestine sex. The reason that the catatonic air stewardess is on the telly all the time is because she's angry with Condit. She's angry because the sneaking around didn't end up, as she surely hoped it would, being a prelude to his divorcing his wife. She'd had enough of the friendly skies--she wanted a gracious ranch house in Ceres.

Also, you seem to imply that pundits are afraid, for reasons of correctness, to question the motives of Condit's mistresses. I disagree. In the general run of things, pundits are quite happy to attack loose women who steal other women's husbands. It's just that to do so at the moment would get in the way of their more urgent priority--which is to shit on Condit from a great height. Plus, of course, Chandra is missing. If she were to turn up, all bets would be off.

Ann Coulter is the one with the long, long blond hair, and the haughty, flared nostril thing going on, right? I have a kind of anti-crush on her. She never fails to make me apoplectic; I find her opinions utterly despicable. And yet I have to watch her. I used to feel this way about the Give Me a Break man on 20/20, but it's faded. Now I just loathe him and wish they'd sacked him when they found him out telling fibs about organic food or whatever it was he did.

One last thing. Don't you think the New York Post under this new Australian editor is horrible? They haven't had a decent front page in weeks.

the breakfast table
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from: Zoë Heller

The Motive of Pundits When It Comes to Condit

Posted Monday, Aug. 6, 2001, at 6:33 PM ET
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Zoë Heller is a columnist for the London Daily Telegraph and author of the novel Everything You Know. James Wolcott is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and author of the novel The Catsitters.
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