In January 1980, Mary McCarthy in a television interview with Dick Cavett was asked for an example of an "over-praised" writer. She named Lillian Hellman, stating "who I think is terribly overrated, a bad writer and a dishonoest writer." When Cavett asked what she meant by "dishonoest," McCarthy responded, "everything ..... every word she writes is a lie including 'and' and 'the."
Subsequently, Hellman sued for libel in a $2.25 million lawsuit, later dropped at the time of Hellman's death in 1984. McCarthy apparently felt put out, stating: "I still feel disgusted by the amount of lying that didn't stop. I wanted it to go to trial, so I was disappointed when she died."
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