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Posted 6/1/2005 10:28 PM
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By César G. Soriano, USA TODAY
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For more than 30 years, one of America's best-kept
secrets has remained a pop culture mystery. No, not
Deep Throat. We're talking about Carly Simon and her
hit song You're So Vain. Who was she singing about?
Music
Simon says she'll
never reveal the
answer, not even
when she or the
song's subject
dies. "I don't see
why I ever would.
What would it
advance?"
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Columbia Records
"It's about Mark Felt!" Simon, 59, joked by phone
Wednesday from her home in Martha's Vineyard,
referring to the former FBI official who has said he was
Deep Throat.
Vain was a No. 1 hit in January 1973, six months after
the Watergate break-in that led to President Nixon's
downfall.
But unlike the Watergate principals, Simon says she'll
never reveal the answer, not even when she or the
song's subject dies. "I don't see why I ever would. What
would it advance?
Other pop culture mysteries
1. Why did Tom Cruise and Nicole
Kidman divorce after 10 years of
marriage?
2. Who is the father of Jodie
Foster's two sons, or for that
matter — who is the mother of
Michael Jackson's youngest son?
3. Where are Jimmy Hoffa and
Amelia Earhart?
4. Who broke Alanis Morissette's
"I wrote that song in
the days when people
kept confidences to
themselves, whereas
now, people expose
them so easily and
readily for the benefit
of their next movie
sale."
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Officially, only three
people know: Simon,
Classifieds
4. Who broke Alanis Morissette's
heart to inspire You Oughta
Know?
the ex-lover and NBC Sports president Dick
Ebersol, who paid $50,000 for the answer at a
charity auction. (He was sworn to secrecy.)
5. What led Paris Hilton to ditch
best friend Nicole Richie?
Over the years, Simon has dropped a few hints:
The man's name contains the letters A, E, and R,
suggesting Warren Beatty and Mick Jagger, who sings background vocals on the
track. But she won't confirm that the song is about one partner or a compilation of
men.
"It's almost beside the point whether or not we find out who she was writing about
because it's a really good song," says Thom Geier, Entertainment Weekly senior
editor.
Some things are best left unanswered, says Paul Aron, author of Unsolved
Mysteries of American History. "What would we all write about if these things could
be answered?
Simon has long since moved on. She's been married since 1987 to writer James
Hart. She conquered breast cancer. Her new standards album, Moonlight Serenade,
is out July 19.
She finds it "bizarre" that fans are still speculating about her lyrics three decades
later. "If people knew who it was to begin with, it might not have become a hit."
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