POTS AND KETTLES

Margo Kaufman’s review of “Poison Pen” (Sept. 8) fails to address a key issue raised by George Carpozi Jr.’s biography of Kitty Kelley: How accurate are Carpozi’s charges of journalistic sloppiness on Kelley’s part?

I am loath to defend Kelley, but as the author of “Peter Lawford: The Man Who Kept the Secrets,” I think I should point out that many of the claims that Carpozi makes about Kelley’s inaccuracy in regard to Lawford are simply incorrect.

Kaufman mentions Carpozi’s charge that Kelley claims to have interviewed Peter 12 days after he died, but a simple check of her source notes reveals that she was referring in that notation to Joseph Shimon, not Peter Lawford, who precedes Shimon on the list.

There are a number of other errors in Carpozi’s book, and thus I was disappointed in Kaufman’s review because I believe the key point about “Poison Pen” is that a book written to expose another author’s journalistic sloppiness, unconcern for accuracy and graceless writing style turns out to be sloppy, inaccurate and gracelessly written. That may be all Kelley deserves, but shouldn’t a well-informed reviewer point that out?

JAMES SPADA

LOS ANGELES