JANIS JOPLIN'S SISTER: `JANIS WASN'T GAY'

JANIS JOPLIN'S SISTER: `JANIS WASN'T GAY'

DENVER (Wireless Flash) -- Tomorrow's episode of "20/20" will feature an interview with a woman who claims she was Janis Joplin's lesbian lover -- but Joplin's sister, Laura, says the affair is being blown out of proportion by the press. The woman, Peggy Caserta, claims she and Janis were lovers and drug buddies and describes the relationship as "free-flowing, young [and] wild." Although Laura Joplin admits Janis was bisexual and knew Caserta, she claims Caserta is exaggerating the matter and Janis' sexual experimentation doesn't constitute a "relationship." She also thinks the "Janis was gay" rumor is wishful thinking by some gays who see Janis as a poster girl for closeted lesbians. Joplin says she asked "20/20" executives if she could tell her side of the story, but producers declined her offer.