Late to the ball:

Finally catching up to the fact that other writers and newspapers have scooped her like a giant steam shovel, the SF Chronicle's Heidi Benson finally does some actual reporting on the J.T. Leroy hoax: she goes to the Larkin St. apartment registered to Laura Albert and Geoffrey Knoop, the figures reportedly (of course, not by Benson) behind the scam.

This bit of legwork, performed long after the story has been reported -- nay, trampled upon -- by legions of other journalists, elicited the following fascinating interview:

A woman answered but refused to open the door. Conducting a conversation from the landing of the top of the interior stairs, where she could not be seen, the woman, who did not identify herself, told the reporter that Albert and Knoop had moved to Mendocino.

"You should get them, because they must be brought down," the woman said.

Wow, wasn't that great? That really adds to the picture.

It was Chronicle writer Benson who, in December -- long after the original article by Stephen Beachy ran in New York magazine -- published a confusing piece that suggested it was more interesting and somehow more artistic to keep the Leroy mystery a mystery. Strange attitude toward journalism!

Meanwhile, last night at a benefit reading in the Mission District, local author Daniel Handler announced from the stage, "I just want to say: I am JT Leroy," to the laughter of the crowd. Handler, who is six feet tall and weighs at least 250, was perhaps the least likely suspect. The only thing he has in common with the supposed former truck-stop hooker-turned-literary-star is a certain ambiguity around gender issues: he is the nelliest straight man I've seen in a long time.

One reader I really enjoyed at that event -- a benefit for Nick Lampson, a former Texas congressman who is set to run against Tom DeLay this year -- was Suzanne Kleid. She read a story from Other Magazine about sex and betrayal. Everyone was laughing at the rollicking details of the story and Kleid, whose stutter somehow made both the comic and erotic aspects of the piece more intense, suddenly blurted out "vote for Nick Lampson, everybody!" which really cracked everyone up.

JT Leroy, Daniel Handler, Heidi Benson, journalism