After being thoroughly embarrassed on Thursday when the draft manuscript for his killed memoir, Dangerous, started circulating Twitter—complete with Simon & Schuster editor Mitchell Ivers’ scathing notes for revision—Milo Yiannopoulos responded the only way he seems to know how: by accusing the editor of hitting on him.
After Splinter published its highlight reel of choice comments by Ivers, who’s edited books by Donald Trump and Fox News host Tucker Carlson for the New York publishing house’s conservative imprint, a public relations person reached out on Yiannopoulos’ behalf with a statement hitting back at Ivers and Simon & Schuster, along with screenshots of text messages that purportedly show Ivers praising the manuscript and projecting massive sales.
The hired Milo flack also enclosed a photo that appears to show Ivers with two other men, one of whom is dressed in what seems to be an exceedingly poor attempt at drag.
The statement attributed to the former Breitbart editor reads (emphasis added):
‘Don’t quote me but you done good’ is what Simon & Schuster told me about my manuscript barely two days before dumping my book in February in breach of contract. S&S executives also quoted Hollywood agents who said I’d shift half a million copies and agreed with me about the ‘virtue-signaling’ Left.
Mitchell Ivers, the liberal gay editor Simon & Schuster put in charge of neutering its edgier conservative authors, hates Republicans and thinks they are all virulent homophobes. He told me so himself.
Ivers said one thing in manuscript edits, but quite another when he was giggling and flirting with me. I look forward to prevailing in court.
Yiannopoulos was referring to the $10 million breach of contract lawsuit he brought against Simon & Schuster after the company canceled its publication of Dangerous.
Although the text messages provided do in fact show Ivers praising the book—which makes perfect sense, given that he signed onto the ignominious project of laundering the alt-right figure’s white supremacist views through a lens of Serious Conservativism in the first place—they do not show “flirting,” at least by any standard definition.
When asked whether Yiannopoulos was indeed offering the text messages as evidence of Ivers’ alleged “flirting,” Yiannopoulos’ spokesperson didn’t respond directly, instead reiterating that Yiannopoulos had provided the messages and statement for Splinter’s use.
One thing is certain: You’d have to have an insanely oversized ego, insanely low standards, or both to read Ivers’ messages—or his tense, exasperated comments on the book—as flirting. In other words, you’d have to be someone like Milo.