still in a fury, she called dick cabot demanding to know why he hadn't defended her. she would be suing the whole damn bunch of you, cabot recalled her telling him. mary mccarthy, at home in her paris lawsuit, heard rumors of a pending lawsuit and at first laughed them off. on february 18th a process server knocked on her door and handed her the formal notice. she claimed disbelief. cabot's question had caught her unaware, she protested, and lillian's name came to the forefront accidentally. surely her opinion was not actionable. notes from cabot's assistant that today suggest that mary mccarthy was lying. several days before the interview the assistant noted she had offered mccarthy a range of questions including the one about overrated writers. when i asked if she'd like to discuss which writers are overrated and which underrated and suggested that it could be like a game, she was delighted, the assistant alerted cabot. after ward mccarthy continued to deny that lillian had been on her mind, but that seems highly unlikely. for more than 40 years, the two had shared a