Letter: A small matter...

Letter: A small matter...

IT'S A small thing, I know, but can I put matters straight on the subject of the actor Ian Holm's penis? In an interview with your paper (Eye, 19 March), he again claims - as in other recent interviews - that I wrote of his nude scene in King Lear: "I fail to see how Mr Holm could have possibly fathered three children with a member that size."

Apart from being biological nonsense, no such line ever appeared under my name. In a piece supposed to be about the bravery of actors playing naked, I quoted a member of the audience expressing surprise after the storm scene that Mr Holm had had three wives. Perhaps this is biological nonsense too, but is a general prejudice and was what the man said.

Incidentally, if I were Mr Holm's spin doctor, or wife, I'd advise him that the comment would be completely forgotten by now if he didn't keep dragging it up (inaccurately) in every interview.

MARK LAWSON

The Guardian

London EC1