PETE TOWNSHEND of The Who held one EXCEPTIONALLY odd press conference this morning. That is to say, his PUBLICIST did, as Pete didn't actually attend. The Daily Mail newspaper ran a VERY interesting article this morning, discussing a kiddie porn sting that's going on with joint cooperation between the US and the UK. The article then goes on to mention that British police were investigating an "unnamed rock star" as part of the sweep. Within hours, Townshend issued a statement essentially affirming that he was the particular rock star in question, and that he had, in fact, used his credit card to join an underage "lolita" porn site. BUT... he claims he joined the site for one reason only: to do research for his upcoming autobiography. (Pretty weird, eh?) Apparantly Townshend believes that he suffered some form of sexual abuse as a child, a memory that's he's since repressed. He's currently in the process of writing a book on his childhood, and wanted to view an underage website to get a sense for the evils of child pornography. "To fight against pedophilia, you have to know what's out there." Coming from a normal person, this explanation might be hard to swallow. But stangely, coming from Pete Townshend, it sounds pretty believable.