STEAMY

Punk Icon Richard Hell Calls Ex-Lover’s Book ‘Revenge Porn’

Young Kim parlayed a brief affair into a sexy-as-hell memoir.

Punk-rock icon Richard Hell is fuming that a writer he briefly romanced has written a sleeper-hit of a sexy tell-all about their affair, telling The New York Times he considers it “revenge porn.” The author, Young Kim, was best known as the longtime partner of the late Malcolm McLaren before she penned A Year on Earth With Mr. Hell a few years ago—inspired, ironically, by Hell’s request that she write something about their steamy rendezvous. Now that the volume has gained notoriety in some circles, Hell is upset that his sex life has been laid bare. “How would you feel if you dated someone briefly, including having sex, and it turned out that they were writing about it behind your back and eventually published that misbegotten, uncomprehending—but full of false detail_account of the affair, with a focus on the sex, using your real name?” he complained to the Times. Kim, who gushes about Hell in the book, retorts: “In writing this book I have only done what men have done unapologetically (and I do not think they should apologize) since time immemorial: choose my work over my relationship.”