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Got to love M.I.A., a.k.a., Maya Arulpragasam. New York Times Magazine contributor Lynn Hirschberg, wrote an fascinating and intimate piece on the Sri Lankian-by-the-way-of-London artist. In it, Hirschberg writes about Maya’s past and how it influences her work today. The writer also seems a bit cynical about if Maya is always telling the truth about how she came to be — Hirschberg seems to have found a few holes in her story, especially concerning her father’s past.
Apparently, M.I.A. found the profile rather unflattering and biased, so in response she tweeted Hirschberg’s phone number making it seem like it was her own.
Of course, Hirschberg is no stranger to controversy. Back in 1992, she wrote a profile on Courtney Love (which is asking for it, if you ask us) for Vanity Fair. In it, she wrote that Love admitted to taking heroin even after she knew she was pregnant with Kurt Cobain’s child, a claim that to this day Love denies.
The New York Times profile on M.I.A. is nowhere near as controversial as Love’s profile, but we can see how Maya sees it as a bit unfair. Still, that’s no reason to publish someone’s phone number via Twitter, so we are going to have to side with Hirschberg on this one.