Warren Beatty: Sex Fiend, Maybe?

Because the Tiger Woods drama just wasn't going anywhere lately (well, there was Ashley Samson, who just claimed Tiger's rep paid her $300,000 to keep silent about her affair, but relatively speaking, America's interest level has waned the past several days), there's a clamor for a new piece of juicy celebrity gossip. Unfortunately, there's nothing quite so spectacular these days, though that's a tall order: the whole Susan Sarandon affair, and now an unauthorized biography of 60s heartthrob Warren Beatty that claims the Shampoo star slept with almost 13,000 women. Basically Wilt Chamberlain over here! How could a man possibly sleep with every woman who has ever passed through Hollywood without someone catching on?

The book, Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America, was written by Peter Biskind and is based on the author's numerous interview with the actor, who, let's face it, already had a reputation of being a hound dog and could use some good gossip to get his career revving again. That's why, Sharon Waxman at TheWrap.com claims, Beatty issued an immediate statement from his lawyer that 13,000 is an "impossible figure," but leaves the quote tantalizingly open. How about 12,000, then? After all, the book relies on Beatty's own quotes to fill its pages. The number was first released in an excerpt issued by The New York Post: "Using simple arithmetic...12,775 women, give or take, a figure that does not include daytime quickies, drive-bys, casual gropings, stolen kisses and so on."

Stolen kisses, you say? Beatty's team followed up with a rebuttal on The Huffington Post:

"Mr. Biskind's tedious and boring book on Mr. Beatty was not authorized by Mr. Beatty and should not be published as an authorized biography. It contains many false assertions and purportedly quotes Mr. Beatty as saying things he never said. Other media should not repeat things from the book on the assumption that they are true or that the book is an authorized biography."

While 13,000 women sounds like a lot, you have to remember that back then sexual taboos were a lot more loose and Mr. Beatty, now 72, was one of the most glamorous stars in America (and one whom it is known to have already slept with Madonna...once you do that, you sort of have to tack on everyone's she's slept with to your number). After all, how could anyone say no to this suave fellow?