McCarthy and Hellman, at it again

It is almost thirty-five years since Mary McCarthy appeared on the Dick Cavett show on PBS and said of Lillian Hellman "every word she writes is a lie, including 'and' and 'the.'" Ms. Hellman was not amused, and filed a suit for $2.25 million, which was about $2.25 million more than Ms. McCarthy had. However, before the case reached the court, both women had departed this world, to continue their literary cat fight wherever aging writers go.

But other writers continue to find the story compelling. A dozen years ago, there was a play called "Contentious Minds" based on the affair, and Nora Ephron even wrote a musical version, called "Imaginary Friends." Now there is another play in New York, written by Brian Richard Mori, with the straightforward title "Hellman v. McCarthy."

In this production, Roberta Maxwell plays Hellman, Marcia Rodd is McCarthy, and Dick Cavett is...well, Dick Cavett. Who better?

What many accounts have failed to note is that Hellman may have thrown the first dart, although a much milder one, when, on the same show, she dismissed McCarthy's work as "women's magazine writing." (Not that, as Seinfeld and friends would have said, there's anything wrong with that.)

The real blood feud of the mid-twentieth century in US culture was between Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers. An interviewer suggested to Dalton Trumbo that this would make a powerful play or film, and Trumbo agreed, but so far, it hasn't happened.