Please Don't Buy Crystal's Book

You've probably forgotten the saga of Crystal Magnum by now. If so, good for you.

Magnum is the college student and escort service stripper who falsely accused 20 Duke University lacrosse players of gang raping and beating her, a number later adjusted downward to three lacrosse players, but which thanks to an overaggressive district attorney left a path of pathos and destruction took on a life of its own.

Well, this hapless lass has written a book -- Last Dance For Grace: The Crystal Magnum Story -- and to do a little prejudging of my own, it looks like a real stink bomb.

A press release speciously claims that no one ever asked Magnum for her take on the scandal (as it is she kept changing hers) and there is nothing to indicate that Magnum feels even a wee bit remorseful.

There is, however, a good bit about her own pain and suffering, including these precious lines:

"This book is an important tool to discuss race, class, sex and the judicial process. It also provides very important lessons for any young person trying to make good life-choices.

"Crystal Magnum is donating one dollar from the purchase of each book to help battered women."

Hey, for all I know maybe Magnum is the next Alice Walker, but this book is obviously all about making a buck, not making a clean breast of things.

I bit whole on her story when it first came out because it seemed all too plausible based on what I know about the off-campus Duke culture, so you'll have to excuse my sense of betrayal. Or at least understand that I don't like to be diddled.