This story has gone through a number of spasms since it first broke. First, everyone jumped to the conclusion the movie depicted a real rape. Then people said, OK, there was no rape but Brando did sexually assault her with the butter. Then people admitted that that didn't happen either and that there was no sexual assault.

Those that wrote the first lurid stories however are unwilling to apologize and retract what they wrote. Instead, they now point out Bertolucci wasn't very nice to Schneider and are pretending this was always the story.

For me, the interesting question is how did this story explode the way it did? How did so many otherwise intelligent people so wildly misread what Schneider and Bertolucci had said? It's like those fake news stories that suck in so many conservatives--this one aimed at progressives. If you are a liberal and you have ever mocked Trump supporters for believing stories like "Pizzagate", remind yourself you don't have to be right wing to be credulous.