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A pornographic photo of wild Australian talk show host David Oates has been making the rounds of the web. It has become the centerpiece in a multimillion dollar law suit, and countersuit, between Art Bell and Oates. The issue at hand is, how did this nasty photo get on the web in the first place?

Two versions of the truth seem to be emerging in the Talk Show Wars between Bell and his arch nemesis, David John Oates. Neither side disputes Oates' weakness for Internet chatroom swinging. But, according to Art Bell's lawyer, Gerard Fox, Oates is claiming that Art Bell induced, or hired, two chatroom floozies to take advantage of his horny chatroom habits.

Art and his lawyer spent the better part of an hour of last night's broadcast scoffing at the notion, and Art patently denied ever knowing the two women.

The Oates' version of the story has it that a "pimpdaddy" Art put these two women up to seducing him online, and published damaging things about him to their respective web sites.

Allegedly, Melany Gavigan, a former disgruntled student of Oates' Reverse Speech school, and a rabid Art Bell fan, lured Oates into a session of steamy "cybersex," where he was persuaded to email her a butt naked photograph of himself for her to use. Playing him for a fool, she then posted it to her web site for the world to laugh at, and Art immediately linked his web site to her web site and encouraged his audience to have a good laugh too.

Another former chatroom girlfriend, Naomi Longson, who goes by the name "Skarlet" online, had such an ICQ romance going with Oates that they even met in person. She sent Pigdog a letter saying that she was even Oates' former fiancee, but broke off the engagement because of Oates' strange "world view," and scary circle of friends.

As part of Oates' complaint against Art Bell, he says that Longson accused him of murder in a statement on her web site. But according to her she did not. Instead, she recounts an intimate conversation with Oates' in which he bragged of killing several assassins who were out to get him because of the fact that he knows too much about Reverse Speech.

In the complaint he accuses Naomi Longson of being an agent of Art Bell. Bell denies this, but we wrote to Ms. Lonston to ask her whether there is any truth to the allegation, and so far we have heard nothing back, despite earlier replies from her clarifying her relationship to the case.

maclisp@pigdog.org