what was dishonest about lillian hellman, he asked? cabot knew hellman reasonably well. he had occasionally had dinner with her, he had previously interviewed her on his show and claimed to like her a lot. mccarthy answered, everything. i said once in some interview that every word she writes is a lie including "and" and "the." the audience laughed, the moment passed, and cabot went on to other arenas. the network lawyer complemented him afterwards on a nice show, and the tape was stashed away in preparation for be its scheduled air time on january 24th, 980. 1980. two months later, alone in her bedroom, lillian watched the show on a cold saturday night. ill with emphysema and almost blind, she listened to mary mccarthy accuse her of being a liar. worn down by the axises of stalin -- the ax sayings of stalinism, tired of the never ending negativity about her personal life andsensitive about her rumored greed and self-aggrandizing nature, she was unprepared for this new assault. the following morning she picked up the phone and called her old friend and lawyer, ephraim lo