My friend Gordon Kent writes to ask…
Your comment about Julie Nixon Eisenhower being Deep Throat raised a thought. I'm not nearly the aficionado of D.T. that you are — but how many women have been considered for the part (so to speak)? And what do you think the chances are that D.T. is a woman?
I don't think that's possible. When they were making the movie of All the President's Men, they cast Hal Holbrook as the mysterious informant. The story is that Robert Redford (or someone involved in the movie) went to Bob Woodward and said, in effect, "Look…we know you can't tell us who Deep Throat is, but for God's sake, we don't want to be about to release this movie and suddenly it comes out that it was a midget or a black guy or a woman or something like that." And Woodward, it is said, assured them that Holbrook was safe casting.
More to the point: Over the years, a number of things have been revealed about Deep Throat. In their book, Woodward and Bernstein refer to their friend as "he" and they say he drank Scotch and smoked, and they give a few other hints. They've said that nothing in the book is a fib to throw people off the scent. I don't think they're dumb enough to give all that info out, swear by it, and then declare that Deep Throat was an Amish woman. No one would believe them, and the rest of the news community would rip them apart. Which may happen anyway, but I can't imagine Woodward and Bernstein making it that easy.