Woman Who Told All Not Willing To Bare All

The high life of a woman who says she was at the Kennedy villa the same night an alleged rape occurred hit bottom yesterday.

Michele Cassone, 27, playing the talk-show circuit, kneed a television interviewer in the groin and bit two of his fingers. She didn't like the photographs he took from his coat. They reportedly showed her topless and engaging in sex.

After the uproar on the television broadcast "A Current Affair," taped Tuesday in New York, Cassone flew home to Palm Beach, Fla. - only to get into a fight with her roommate at 3:15 a.m. yesterday. Police say she was abusive and drunk, but they filed no charges.

And for the first time since a Jupiter, Fla., woman accused William Kennedy Smith of rape March 30, Cassone went into seclusion.

For three weeks, Cassone told the world about her adventure at the Kennedys' Palm Beach estate that night. She said Patrick Kennedy, son of Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., took her to the mansion for drinks about the same time the Jupiter woman said she was raped. Cassone also said the senator greeted her dressed only in a buttoned-down shirt.

So Tuesday, over lunch at the 21 Club in Manhattan, Cassone agreed, for her standard $1,000 fee, to be interviewed on "A Current Affair" by Steve Dunleavy.

That afternoon, on camera, Dunleavy brought up the widespread reports that Cassone was negotiating for a nude layout in Penthouse.

"Anybody who knows me knows I am not that type of person. I will not pose nude for anyone," Cassone said.

At that point, Dunleavy produced four color snapshots that brought a gasp from Cassone, who demanded, "Where did those come from?" "A Current Affair" staff members said the photos show her topless in a backyard swimming pool and engaging in sex with a man.

She then tried to take the pictures from Dunleavy, kneeing him in the groin, pulling his tape-recorder wire over his neck and biting two of his fingers. Cassone failed to get the photos.

"Erase those last 10 minutes," she demanded as the sound man bleeped some of her language. The taped segment aired last night.

Dunleavy said he got the photos from a man who appears in two of them. They were "not purloined and not purchased," he said.

Penthouse Publisher Bob Guccione said yesterday his magazine is not interested in any pictures of Cassone. "Penthouse did not negotiate with nor express interest in having Michele Cassone appear nude in our magazine."

After the Tuesday taping, Cassone called Seattle station KOMO-TV to cancel a talk-show interview, said producer Liz Rocca.

"She said she was going back to Palm Beach," Rocca said. "She said: `My life is a mess now. My ex-fiance sold me down the river, and I'm going to go home and make him pay for it.' "

A few hours later, Cassone arrived at her apartment. Her roommate, Gwynne Gaynor, 36, told police Cassone began to yell at her and hit her five times. Someone called police.

Said Officer Sherry Madden: "Cassone continued to be abusive while we were there and appeared to be extremely inebriated."

Police have been called to Cassone's apartment before for similar incidents, Palm Beach police spokesman Craig Gunkel said.