A bizarre mix of speculation and innuendo involving sex and drugs has had a surprising effect on New York Gov. David Paterson’s reputation: It has made him a sympathetic figure for perhaps the first time in his troubled 22 months in office.

For more than a week, Paterson has been under intense pressure to respond to rumors about him that have played out not in the gossip of political insiders but on the front pages of the New York tabloids. The rumors concern what’s in a supposedly forthcoming story in The New York Times that has taken on almost mythic dimensions before it has even run.

Tuesday afternoon, Paterson sought to seize control of a story that hasn’t run, and allegations that no one except the Times knows is in it, reporting on his interview with a Times reporter before the Times could.

"I was interviewed for that piece. No such questions related to any of that information was asked of me at any interview," Paterson said in a press conference called immediately after the interview with Times Albany bureau chief Danny Hakim.

Paterson said he'd asked Hakim about the rumors. "He said he would leave all that speculation for other news sources," the governor said.

Paterson went on to excoriate the Times for failing to clear the air about the rumors and to cast himself — credibly — as the victim of an out-of-control press.

"They don't seem to be interested in addressing it or doing anything about it — I think it's appalling," Paterson said of the Times. The press, in floating the rumor, denied him “what I was owed as a human being,” he said.