• ...Kudos to The Smoking Gun for thinking up a buzz campaign actually worth buzzing about. To promote its new book, The Dog Dialed 911, Bill Bastone's investigative squad mailed out limited-edition, numbered bookmarks to members of the press. Each one features a postage-stamp-sized square of fabric from a prison uniform once worn by mobster John Gotti. According to TSG, a former inmate at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Ill., pilfered the garments from the prison laundry...
• ...It seems journalist Kim Green caught some flak for speaking up about her role as ghostwriter of illiterate American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino's "autobiography." Green—who talked to Radar about the book just as Barrino's father, unbeknownst to her, was preparing to file a $10 million defamation suit over its depiction of him as a deadbeat—released a statement to smooth any ruffled feathers. "I feel the need to clarify what may possibly be misinterpreted by my recent statements. I must say that I had a wonderful experience working with Fantasia," she says. "I spoke up about my involvement, not to get more credit for myself, but only to lend credibility to a project that had lost credibility due to the nebulous handling of the book's authorship ... And just for the record, I am not 'disgruntled,' maybe just amused at lack of common sense." Translation: Please don't sue me, anybody.
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• Fantasia's Ghostwriter Seeing Green