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"Carly Simon. *Photo via PatrickMcMullan.com.*\n\nOn February 26, the news sites were ablaze with the “revelation” that David Geffen was the fabled gavotte-ing stud that “You’re So Vain” was written about. “Huh?” was the almost unanimous response among fans and media alike ([*New York* magazine](http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2010/02/carly_simon_ruins_our_day_with.html?f=most-commented-24h-10) complained: How dare Carly dash everyone’s decades of high expectations with a “corporate\nbald\nhomosexual\\!”). Over the course of the day, however, the Geffen “revelation” had been downgraded to “rumor” and then the rumor [petered out](/online/daily/2010/02/update-everyone-owes-david-geffen-an-apology) to “debunked.” (To which all those rooting for Beatty, Jagger, et al, emitted a collective “phew.”)\n\nI [weighed in](/online/daily/2010/02/fun-and-games-with-the-david-geffen-rumor-about-carly-simons-youre-so-vain) on these pages, scything through the grapeviney forest of “You’re So Vain” among Carly’s friends. Now, Carly (freshly back from London, where that latest rumor originated) has e-mailed me that we’d all misheard the first syllable of that name…Carly writes:\n\n> \n\nI said “Ovid” [emphasis ours] both front- and backward together on the CD, and it came out sounding like “David’ to some, I guess. But I meant it as an allusion to metamorphosis, and that this group of songs was rechanneled into a different cockroach. Kafka? Coffee? Clouds? I know it’s boring, but that could be good\\!\n\nThe word game, ovid-entally, continues.\n\nIn the meantime, you can make your own “You’re So Vain” video on Carly’s [Web site](http://www.carlysimon.com/), which would mean maybe the song really is about … you.\n\n**RELATED:** [Read an excerpt from Sheila Weller’s book *Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon—and the Journey of a Generation.*](/culture/features/2008/04/musicgirls200804)\n\nSheila Weller is a contributor to Vanity Fair.\n\n"
<https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2010/03/carly-simon-herself-answers-the-david-question>