Mackenzie Phillips Scores

Okay, let's not shy away from it: Mackenzie Phillips, and whether she did or did not sleep with her father, is the big news.

As it happens, whenever we follow an incest story at Newser it becomes the biggest story. The Phillips story is even bigger because it's not just an incest story but also a disputed incest story. And because there are famous (well, sort of famous) people involved. Incest stories involving complete unknowns are big. With a famous parent-child ménage, you're off the charts.

So what's the attraction here?

It seems unlikely that incest is a hidden American passion, although I could be wrong about that. On the other hand there is, I think it's fair to assume, a voyeuristic interest in lots of forms of kinkiness in this country. (Actually, there is a great interest in voyeurism.)

And there is an interest in drug addiction, or stories about drug addicts, which both Mackenzie and her father surely were. Mackenzie's stepmother, Michelle Phillips, who disputes Mackenzie's account of a 10-year affair with her father and the desecration of his pop memory, points out that Mackenzie has had a needle stuck in her arm for the past 35 years. While that might make Mackenzie's story a little suspect, the history of drug-related memoirs, even with the dubious provenances, indicates that the did-it/didn't-it-happen factor doesn't make them less interesting. People eat this Potemkin-village stuff up.

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