IT'S NO LONGER such a hoot, is it?
Gossiping about Alycia Lane and Larry Mendte is no longer fun now that serious accusations have overshadowed the giddy scandal.
Mendte was fired Monday amid allegations that he illegally accessed Lane's e-mails and leaked them to the media to destroy her.
Lane was fired six months ago and told her side of the story for the first time in a lawsuit filed against CBS 3 last week.
And so it appears that while Lane was being publicly ridiculed, Mendte was the one who was allegedly behaving in a scurrilous, perhaps criminal, way.
Lane, it appears, may have been a victim of character assassination, not of her own character flaws.
In which case, those of us who feasted on this smorgasbord of gossip ought to learn something from it.
We won't, of course, but we ought to.
Alycia Lane was portrayed in the media as a troubled ditz without the stability or credibility to be a news anchor.
She e-mailed photos of herself in a bikini to a sportscaster, which invited the wrath of his wife.
She sacrificed her dignity to appear on Dr. Phil's show to confess her relationship troubles.
She allegedly assaulted a New York police officer, called her a gay slur, and attempted to intimidate her with her power.
Lane's antics qualified her for the caricature we apply to most gorgeous, successful, famous women, especially in the entertainment field: narcissistic, emotionally immature, deeply flawed and self-destructive.
That portrayal is a coping device for the rest of us who can feel reassured that although we don't have Lane's looks, fame, money, talent or success, we're better than she is!
And if we had what she did, we'd sure appreciate it!
That simplistic moral is also why we're riveted by the story of Jocelyn Kirsch, the "Bonnie" of "Bonnie and Clyde," the couple accused of stealing identities and money from friends and strangers. She, too, has privileges most of us don't, and look what happened to her!
But Lane's side of the story portrays her quite differently.
The e-mailed bikini photo?
It was an unflattering snapshot, sent to the sportscaster while he and Lane were on the phone, so he could see if he knew the other person in the picture.
The Dr. Phil appearance?
Forced upon her by station executives eager to exploit her popularity. Her tearful entreaties that the segment not be broadcast were ignored.
The incident in New York?
Never happened the way the police said.
Her complaints that someone was accessing her e-mails?
Dismissed by her superiors as paranoia.
