Jhumpa Lahiri and the Author Interview From Hell

Posted on May 12, 2005

The New York Post's Page Six reports on a bizarre incident yesterday at an annual fundraising lunch to benefit the New York Public Library. Moderator Dick Cavett's odd behavior and outrageous comments turned the event from a staid luncheon into the weird event of the literary season. Panelists for the discussion included novelists Jhumpa Lahiri, Gish Jen and Gary Shtengart.

"He did a long, crazy introduction about how he couldn't print out the notes to introduce the panelists off his Macintosh so he simply just didn't introduce them," tattled our spy. Our miffed mole added that Cavett then "told a long story instead about how he did the first commercials for Apple back in the '80s and now how he wished Steve Jobs would walk by his window so he could throw his computer on top of his head." Then, Cavett shocked the audience when he asked Jen to comment on how the loss of her baby mid-pregnancy affected her writing. "Mouths hit the floor," said our source. Cavett then complained that no one got an "Oscar reference" during one of his many blab-a-thons. "No one understood what he was talking about. It sounded as if he thought he were addressing a lunch of show business people," our source said.

Drugs? Illness? The rumors are flying. For Dick Cavett to be anything but smooth is unusual, to say the least.

Our Readers Read section also has an interview with Lahiri about The Namesake.

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