Did Robert Kennedy Jr return to his philandering ways? Did an ambitious reporter set him up? Or was this a mutual 'Fatal Attraction' scenario stopped short of the boiling bunny?

Better question: Which entertainment platform will make the inevitable TV movie -- Hallmark or Cinemax?

Four days ago, New York Magazine suspended star political reporter Olivia Nuzzi for her admission of an undisclosed sexting relationship with RFK. Since then, the story has only gotten stranger, with competing narratives about where the blame lies. Initially, the reports indicated that the relationship was mutual, which made sense given Kennedy's history of, ah, sexual liberation from the institution of marriage.

Two days ago, the Daily Beast seemed to confirm that impression, reporting that Kennedy had bragged about getting "intimate" images of 31-year-old Nuzzi in the course of their SMS relationship. That report is paywalled, but Page Six picked it up shortly afterward:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. allegedly bragged about having “intimate” images of New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi amid their sexting affair.

According to the Daily Beast, the 70-year-old politician told his close friends about the pictures the political correspondent sent him, which led to the scandal blowing up....

Nuzzi, 31, was reportedly confronted about the images by the magazine’s editor-in-chief, David Haskell, during a one-on-one meeting on Sept. 13.

Haskell explained he learned Kennedy had been talking about the photos and telling people he was in a romantic relationship with Nuzzi.

Was Kennedy bragging -- or complaining? New reports over the last day make it sound like the latter. Kennedy's friends -- and even one of Nuzzi's -- have pushed back on that narrative that this was consensual. They now claim that RFK got victimized by an "obsessed" Nuzzi, prompting pushback by her allies:

“She went after him aggressively,” the source said Saturday. “She targeted him pretty hard. Bobby was blocking her continually. It was a little scary. She was obsessed with him. I think she still is.”

Nuzzi’s camp pushed back on allegations the situation was a “Fatal Attraction” type of scenario or that she instigated the relationship — but did not deny that the digital fling was tumultuous, suggesting both parties may have stopped texting each other at times.

“It’s absolutely untrue that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of how high pressure and high risk the circumstances were and for that reason their communication was very on and off,” a person with knowledge of the situation said. 

Another (presumably former) friend of Nuzzi's accused the reporter not of obsession but of deliberate political manipulation. Jessica Reed Kraus struck up a friendship with Nuzzi over their shared political interest in RFK, but Kraus claims she began to sense something amiss early on. She began to feel manipulated by Nuzzi, especially when gossip she passed along in confidence began appearing in media reports. Kraus' narrative meanders quite a bit, but she eventually accuses Nuzzi of using seduction as a weapon to get dirt for her own purposes, and offers an unnamed source for corroboration:

Another anonymous source (an extensive subject during Olivia’s coverage of the Trump administration) spoke critically on a call today about Nuzzi's tactics, questioning the ethical boundaries she frequently crosses. “I’ve never met Bobby, and I don’t know him or any of his people,” the source stated, establishing a lack of vested interest. They expressed concern about Nuzzi's approach, highlighting an unsettling dynamic in their interactions.

“Olivia contacted me during a period of significant political upheaval in the last decade. We spoke several times and met in person. Two things stand out: She’s undeniably talented — but she was flirtatious with me, and not in a professional way.”

Clarifying that the flirtation wasn’t overtly sexual, the source elaborated, “I’m not saying she was inviting me to sleep with her, but working with Olivia is very different from any other journalist, male or female. There’s a fine line between sexual seduction and informational seduction — and she crosses it. All the time.”

One might have expected some of these complaints to come to light before now if Nuzzi had a pattern of such manipulation. After all, you don't get to Nuzzi's level of media and politics without making people angry, and this pattern would be an easy line of attack for critics and wronged subjects. After several years of increasing success, this is the first time in memory that allegations of either stalking or acting as a kind of a honey-pot manipulator has come to the fore. Of course, this may be the most high-profile situation in which either or both may have applied, too.

Nuzzi insists, through her allies, that neither the stalker nor the honey-pot scenario applies to her:

Nuzzi has vehemently pushed back on the idea that she made Kennedy the victim in a “Fatal Attraction” scenario — in which she’s the “obsessed” other woman who is relentlessly stalking the environmental lawyer-turned-anti-vaccine campaigner, as the New York Post reported. People close to Nuzzi deny that she single-handedly instigated their “digital relationship,” though they acknowledged that the relationship could, at times, be tumultuous.

“It’s absolutely untrue that she was the aggressor, but both parties were aware of how high pressure and high risk the circumstances were and for that reason their communication was very on and off,” a person with knowledge of the situation told the Post.

“Olivia’s point of view is that to call this a relationship or affair is completely inaccurate. It was at most a flirtation,” another source close to Nuzzi said.

That could very well be the case, too. So far we're not seeing much in terms of actual evidence for any of these scenarios. The only stipulation thus far that both parties have in common is that inappropriate and intimate communications took place. The only way to settle this firmly would be to have the texts published in their entirety, preferably with any images redacted. That would give us the true sense of the engagement between Nuzzi and RFK, rather than the spin coming from the Anonymice from all of the camps.

Will we see that? Perhaps, if Kennedy is serious about suing Nuzzi. The New York Post reported yesterday that he'd hired Gavin de Becker to gather enough evidence for a lawsuit against Nuzzi. Talk is cheap in this case, perhaps more so than in most other cases, but at least that might clear the air.