Thanks to Cynical C
Not sure what those two were arguing about, but things turned ugly pretty quick. According to Wikipedia they even duked it out after the show:
At the December 15, 1971 taping of The Dick Cavett Show, with Janet Flanner, Norman Mailer headbutted Gore Vidal during an altercation in which there were mutual insults and name calling between the two before both went on air. The headbutting and later on-air altercation was described by Mailer himself in his essay "Of a Small and Modest Malignancy, Wicked and Bristling with Dots."
I guess I'll have to read the essay in order to know what happened. Anyway, enjoy this amazing moment of intellectual low blows in between two great American writers.
