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Fawcett: False Tab Reports Add Pain to Cancer
Actress describes sting designed to catch leakers to Enquirer
By Harry Kimball
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Posted May 11, 09 7:13 PM CDT
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(Newser)
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Farrah Fawcett’s battle with the prying media runs a close second to her battle with cancer. In an August interview with the Los Angeles Times published today, the actress slammed the National Enquirer’s often-inaccurate reporting of her condition and describes a sting she and her doctors designed to prove that an employee at UCLA was feeding information to the tab. If she had an eye test, they reported she was going blind; when she had a Pap smear, the story was she had a hysterectomy.
The paper's hysterical reports led to a barrage of phone calls and letters from friends and fans. When the tabloid reported that she wanted to die, she got plaintive letters from fellow sufferers. “I would never say something like that," she said. Fawcett's trap resulted in the conviction of an employee, whom the hospital had said it must defend. “More than your patients?” she asked. Her cancer has spread since August; she is now bedridden and her longtime partner Ryan O’Neal says her treatment has essentially ceased.