Crime&Stuff

Crime&Stuff


171. Bestselling author vs. coercive controller

February 20, 2025

Emma Cline should’ve been thrilled — at 25, she’d achieved every writer’s dream. But her $2 million book deal for her bestselling debut novel “The Girls” was too much for her ex, who slut-shamed her, threw false plagiarism and cyber-spying charges at her, and dragged in friends in a years-long campaign to bring her down.


The media focus was on the plagiarism and the sex stuff, but the real issue was coercive control and male privilege, and how he was allowed to get away with it for years.


Rebecca also reviews the Sly Stone documentary “Sly Live.”