Kaavya Emptor

Just when you thought it was safe to read this blog...

Okay, I was of two minds about this. I had two stories I could conceivably write about today. One was the Kevin Costner jack-off scandal, and the other was the latest installment in the Kaavya Viswanathan plagiarism epic.

I opted for Kaavya. So sue me. If you really want to hear what I think about Kevin Costner whacking off in the middle of a massage in Scotland in 2004, let me know and I'll think about posting a blog item on it.

Anyway, back to Kaavya.

After her rather dubious mea culpa of the other day, one would think that this story would be over. She made a mistake, she admitted it and claimed that her "borrowing" from the books of Megan McCafferty, whom she professes to deeply admire, was "unconscious." She says she's sorry, she's rectifying the error -- let it go at that.

There's only one problem with this.

McCafferty's publisher isn't buying it.

According to a story in the New York Times, Steve Ross, the publisher of both novels by Megan McCafferty that are at issue here, has called Viswanathan's apology "troubling and disingenuous."

Ross claims that more than 40 passages in "How Opal Mehta Yadda Yadda Yadda" (which is a hell of a lot more than the Harvard Crimson originally reported last weekend) "contain identical language and/or common scene or dialogue structure from Megan McCafferty's first two books."

McCafferty's publisher is not ruling out legal action, and her agent has made a statement that the Times quotes, saying that "It is understandably difficult for us to accept that Ms. Viswanathan's plagiarism was 'unintentional and unconscious,' as she has claimed."

So the story is not over. We can only wait and see what strange turns this tale will take in the days to come.

And you don't really want me writing about Kevin Costner jerking off in front of a Scottish masseuse, do you?

Do you?

Tom Moran