Tony Hendra, Father Joe, and molestation

Several weeks ago, I was happy to see Andrew Sullivan's very positive review of Tony Hendra's new memoir, "Father Joe," in The New York Times Book Review. (As some of you know, Tony's a longtime toiler in the vineyards of comedy, first at the Cambridge Footlights, then at National Lampoon.) But since that time the usual black cloud that always seems to gather around Tony in times of success has found him again. First, Michael McKean took him to task on the Book Review letters page for claiming he was one of the architects of Spinal Tap. And now, his 39-year-old daughter is accusing him of molestating her as a child. The whole thing is awful and tragic, and looks to get nastier before it goes away.