While I'll probably be writing about it again because it's a scandal that doesn't appear likely to go away, I think I've devoted enough time to the sordid Mark Foley affair, and I'd like to change the subject to something less controversial.

Cannibalism.

By numerous accounts, former Ugandan dictator Idi Amin was one. But some people don't think so -- especially Amin's son Taban. A film has been made about his father, and he's threatening to sue:

Last month, Taban Amin, 51, announced that he planned to sue the producers of "The Last King of Scotland" for defaming his father.

It's hard to hurt the reputation of a dead man -- especially one who is blamed for the murders of more than 300,000 of his people. Still, Taban argued, "I believe there are fabrications in (the film)."

But Forest Whitaker, who plays the late despot, says Taban should relax.

"He was afraid we'd show Idi Amin as a cannibal," Whitaker told us after the movie's screening in New York the other night. Whitaker, who researched his role by reading and meeting with Amin's family, former cabinet members and sundry girlfriends, says: "No one can confirm he was a cannibal. I think Taban will be happy with the film."

Whitaker thinks the cannibal tales "might be Western propaganda. (Genocide) isn't an African thing. Different dictators and religious leaders throughout time abused power."

Whitaker isn't excusing Amin's bloodshed. (In director Kevin Macdonald's film, Amin orders the amputation and rearrangement of his wife, Kay's, limbs. Actress Kerry Washington, who played her, kept a prosthetic thumb as a souvenir.)

"I wasn't trying to make him appealing," says Whitaker, whose performance is generating instant Oscar buzz. "I was trying to understand the way he thought."

As to Amin's cannibalism, I remember reading numerous accounts of it, and while Amin hasn't been hot news lately, an old remark I remember from him still survives:

Idi Amin A big lad who, before taking over Uganda and killing up to 500,000 of his countrymen, became the nation's heavyweight boxing champion in 1951. He lost the title after allegations that, as a soldier, he was a keen torturer. A later diet of humans -- "Tastes salty," the gourmet noted -- meant muscle turned to flab, but Tanzania's Julius Nyerere refused a fight, invaded Uganda and deposed Amin instead.

Amin was also a notorious anti-Semite who's credited with the horrid murder of Jewish grandmother Dora Bloch. I said "credited" because I've long thought that explained his comfortable retirement in Saudi Arabia.

Whether that incident made it into the film, I don't know.

It's a bit disturbing to think that the present Ugandan government might be enabling an Amin dynasty:

Although Gen. Museveni and Taban Amin now seem the best of friends -- the latter backed the general's campaign for today's election, even offering the services of the Congolese jazz band that he fronts in his spare time -- many Ugandans view their alliance as ominous. Just the presence of the name Amin in the country's security apparatus resurrects grim memories of Idi Amin's bloody eight-year rule.

Taban Amin is thought to harbor political ambitions of his own, although he told the Sunday Telegraph that Ugandans had no reason to fear him. "Amin ruled in the 1970s; now it is 2006 -- it is a different time," he said. "Amin's name is so tough in Uganda that some people are scared, but what Amin did is not what I will do: I'm his son, but I am not his heart."

I'm sorry to see any effort being made to rehabilitate such a monster.

Considering the monstrous nature of his genocide (300,000 to 500,000 Ugandans slaughtered according to CNN), I'd say Amin's cannibalism would rank as relatively minor, if there is a "relativity" scale about these things.

Whether the cannibalism accounts are adequately documented is about as relevant to Amin's legacy as whether Hitler was a vegetarian or whether Charles Manson loves animals.