Arianna Huffington has said she's really, really sorry to her readers and promises to never run unattributed quotes on her HuffingtonPost blog site again.

But she's never apologized to George Clooney. And she still maintains she had permission to run his quotes as a blog.

But Camp Clooney is pleased as punch that their March 15 statement about her blog being nothing more than recycled interview quotes, not a blog written by Clooney, has sparked discussions about blogdom ethics, honesty and the attribution of quotes.

Clooney’s publicist Stan Rosenfield maintains, "For the hundredth time, what Huffington calls a misunderstanding was, and still is, a blatant misrepresentation. She did not have permission to use George’s quotes and make it look like he wrote a blog,” says Rosenfield. “We asked her to clarify this on March 13 and when she refused, George released his statement on March 15.”

So before we bid "Good Night, and Good Luck" to the George Clooney blog brouhaha, there are a few statements Arianna made that bear examination for the public record.

In a March 15 Envelope blog item, explaining why she sought permission from freelance publicist Lisa Taback to use Clooney's old quotes in a blog, Huffington explained: "I had met Lisa Taback at every “Good Luck” event and she was always with George. She told me to just send her the compiled quotes for the blog and that she would run it by George. The fact that it was for a blog was very unambiguous. Naturally, I didn't think twice about it."

After reading the story, Taback told The Envelope,  “There are a couple of inaccuracies,” including Huffington's description of their meeting and phone conversation.

Taback said that while she had met Huffington years ago when doing PR for a Michael Moore film, she didn't meet Huffington at any “Good Luck” events, not even the only “Good Luck” event Taback organized at the GM penthouse in the Beverly Regent Wilshire. The Feb 12 reception was hosted by talk show host Larry King and honored Clooney and “Good Night, and Good Luck” co-screenwriter Grant Heslov.

"Arianna didn't attend,” says Taback. "Her sister did." Huffington's producer pal Lawrence Bender brought her sister, Agape Stephanopoulus, to the reception.

That week Huffington called Taback about using a quote from Clooney for her blog. Taback sent an email on Feb. 17 to her Warner Independent Pictures boss Laura Kim seeking permission  to reprint a partial quote from the Guardian.

A copy of Taback's email fowarded to The Envelope from Kim indicated that after Huffington's sister attended the "Good Night" event, Huffington's interest was sparked in reprinting Clooney's Guardian quote.

Kim's Feb. 18 response gave Taback the go ahead.

Kim explained to The Envelope: "Arianna requested to use an attributed quote from The Guardian. Larry King's interview was never brought up. I gave the okay because everyone does that, uses a quote and links to the original article."

Taback also recalls a phone call prior to the Clooney blog posting, when she asked Huffington about quote attribution. “I said, "You are going to source the quotes to the Guardian, right?' And Arianna replied, “Naturally.”

In an interview with The Envelope, Huffington denied that this phone conversation took place. "All our contact was done by email," Huffington said.

On March 13, the day the faux blog went up, Taback says she spoke to Huffington by phone in the Caribbean and emailed her boss, Kim, who sent us a copy of the missive:

"I spoke to Arianna --  She is on a boat right now...     They are moving the blog down to the bottom of the HuffPost immediately.  She is afraid if she removes it completely that it will cause more attention.   They are replacing the item on Yahoo immediately.   It will be removed completely from the blog by tomorrow.     Arianna is sorry if it was misleading – they never attribute where comments originally appeared.  (although I told her it was misleading.....)Please call me if you want to discuss more..."

So we think that ends this chapter from our end. Over to you, blogosphere.

Photo Credit: Hey, maybe Arianna Huffington got permission for Clooney's Larry King quotes from Shawn King, whom she really did meet at Shawn’s Skybar album launch party.
(Eric Neitzel/WireImage)

Finally! 

On the Huffington Post today, Arianna Huffington does a mega mea culpa to her HuffPost readers, commentators and bloggers about George Clooney's faux blog:

“At the beginning of the week, I was so focused on making it crystal clear that we did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog that I was blinded to another extremely important issue: that a blog, where the source of the material is not clear, diminishes the amazing work of bloggers who day in and day out put their hearts and souls into writing their blogs."

On her blog, she goes on to say that, from now on, she will always identify repurposed material, source and link to it, will not create helpful sample blogs for green bloggers and if she reads, hears or see information she thinks should be put up, it will be put into her blog.

Huffington used the tried-and-true “I’m new at this” tact: “We've been doing this for ten months, and the learning curve has been enormous. Consider this a major lesson learned. I get it and have taken it to heart."

Well, thank heavens that’s over.

Or is it? Her statement says "that I did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog." But if you ask Clooney and his publicist Stan Rosenfield, they'll maintain that all Arianna ever had was Clooney's permission to use his old sourced quotes. But enough already.

Photo Credit: Arianna Huffington says she's learned her blogging lesson, seen here with a strange disembodied hand on her shoulder at the 2006 Independent Spirit Awards on March 4.
(Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)

The ongoing tussle between George Clooney and Arianna Huffington isn't cooling off. It’s heating up.

This week Clooney told New York Daily News columnist Lloyd Grove that he's furious after his phone conversation with the Huffster. He said Arianna told him that all this publicity since his statement denying writing a blog for her Huffington Post website - a blog she compiled using several of the Oscar-winner's unattributed past quotes - could be "bad for his career."

But judging from the responses of Arianna’s readers to this incident posted on her site, it looks like it’s her blog career that may be in jeopardy.

Respected blogosphere denizens, such as the The New Republic's "The Plank" blog and web-guru Jeff Jarvis, are baffled less by her blunder in not securing approval from Clooney and his uberpub Stan Rosenfield than by her  insistence that it was kosher to post Clooney’s quotes without attributing the sources, Britain's Guardian newspaper and Larry King’s CNN talk show.

“Public domain” is how she justified using his unattributed quotes in our March 15 phone conversation for a March 16 story in the LA Times Calendar section. C'mon. Every journalist knows they're not supposed to run quotes without attributing them. Writers have been forced to resign from major newspapers, including USA Today, when it was discovered they'd used quotes from other sources without attribution.  And bloggers routinely link to their sources when referencing stories and/or quotes. It's not just ethical and non-copyright infringing, it's also polite and inclusive.

Arianna’s stubborn insistance that she did nothing wrong is raising hackles. And suspicions.

“She got caught because Clooney wouldn't let get her get away with it,” an inside source told me.  “Now everyone is wondering if this is the first time this has happened. Given her arrogant reaction, she may have bull-dozed her other celebrity bloggers like this - used past quotes - and they've just kept quiet about it.”

And people are wondering about the other celebrity bloggers on her long contributor list that includes Walter Cronkite, Diane Keaton, Nora Ephron, Bill Maher, John Kerry, Norman Mailer and Chris McMillan, Jennifer Aniston's hairdresser. So if any of you famous folks are unhappy, now's the time to speak out.

On the surface, Arianna getting people to write for her site who know nothing about blogging, including etiquette and ethics, appears to be a generous attempt to include, in her words, “some of the most interesting voices of our time that are not already there.”

Gosh, how else would the voice of Larry David, whom she says phones his blogs in from a cell phone when he's on the set of his HBO show “Curb Your Enthusiasm, be heard?

But make no mistake. Famous names are also a huge draw for her almost 1-year-old blog site. And admitting that she goofed using unsourced quotes for Clooney's concocted blog might hurt business because it raises the issue that this is the norm, not the exception, on HuffPo. But that 's exactly what's happening with her staunch refusal to take responsibility for a serious mistake.

The bottom line on the Clooney/Huffington tussle is this: if Arianna would simply admit making an error and apologize - to Clooney and her readers - for not crediting the quotes, all would be forgiven. Of course, she should also promise never to do it again. Ever. Since she's relatively new to the blog world, it’s almost a slam-dunk that she'd get a pardon. Or at least a second chance.

Gosh, has the longtime political observer learned nothing from watching politicians such as Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush, even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger do that always winning “Admit and Apologize” act?

Photo Credit: Arianna Huffington and HBO's "Real Time" host Bill Maher, also one of her many celebrity bloggers, pose for the  paparazzi outside Vanity Fair's star-studded Oscar bash on March ,5 2006.
(Eric Charbonneau/WireImage)

One of the biggest questions inside Hollywood is why Arianna Huffington would seek permission to post George Clooney's blog item from Lisa Taback — an independent publicist working on the “Good Night, and Good Luck” Oscar campaign — and not from Clooney's personal publicist, Stan Rosenfield.

Rosenfield, infamous for deftly handling stars who don't need publicity — also known as 'The Keeper of the Clooney” — is, and rightfully so, fiercely protective of his superstar charge. Is it really possible that Arianna didn't know that Stan is the go-to guy for all things George?

“I had never spoken to Stan before Monday when he called,” says Huffington, speaking from the Caribbean for a piece on the blog brouhaha that will run Thursday, March 16, in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section.

“Hollywood is not my beat so I had never heard of him before,” she explained. “But I had met Lisa Taback at every “Good Luck” event and she was always with George. She told me to just send her the compiled quotes for the blog and that she would run it by George. The fact that it was for a blog was very unambiguous. Naturally, I didn't think twice about it.”

Huffington sent Taback, not Rosenfield, the blog item, exactly as it would eventually appear on her site. Three days later, Taback responded with "Of course this is fine, Arianna." Huffington even emailed the email correspondences to this writer as proof.

"Once I got the approval from Lisa, I went ahead and ran it: George Clooney’s words put into blog form," says Huffington.

Bet she won't do that again.

Oscar winner George Clooney may make politically provocative films like "Syriana." But he doesn't write politically provocative blogs.

So imagine his ire when Arianna Huffington used some of his recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site.

"He doesn't object to the quotes," says Stan Rosenfield, Clooney's rep. "He said those things and those are his views. Arianna asked for permission to use the quotes and he gave it to her. What he didn't give permission for was the use of his quotes without source attributions to make it appear that he wrote a blog for her site. Which he did not. When he saw the posting Monday, we called and asked her to make the change, to simply attribute the quotes and make it clear that he did not write a blog. But she refused. And it's now Wednesday."

Rather than keep waiting, Clooney got proactive and issued this statement:

"Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog. With my permission Miss Huffington compiled it from interviews with Larry King and The Guardian. What she most certainly did not get my permission to do is to combine only my answers in a blog that misleads the reader into thinking that I wrote this piece. These are not my writings — they are answers to questions and there is a huge difference."

In the pulled-from-interviews quotes, Clooney criticizes the Democrats' failure to speak out about the Iraq invasion for fear of being criticized for being unpatriotic.

And the "Good Night, and Good Luck" writer-director-star also invokes Edward R. Murrow: “When you hear Murrow say, ‘We mustn’t confuse dissent with disloyalty’ ... it’s like he’s commenting on today’s headlines.”

Or today's blogs.

UPDATE: George is wrong, sez Arianna, and here’s her side of the story just emailed to "The Envelope" via publicist Ken Sunshine’s office.

“When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of "Good Night, and Good Luck" in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked. So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on 'Larry King Live' and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.

"A publicist working with George on the promotion of 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' emailed back saying, “I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything.” Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: 'Of course this is fine, Arianna!'

"And once we had the approval, that’s what we ran: George Clooney’s words put into blog form.”

According to Shawn Sachs at Ken Sunshine’s office, Clooney's camp asked her to issue a statement saying she lied and misled Clooney, which she refused to do. “They also asked us to take down the blog which we did.”

Then why is it still up?

“It is?” asked Sachs.

Yup. Just click on the Huffington Post link in the item.

“Oh, you’re right. Here it is. I’ll call you back.”

UPDATE No. 2:

: Arianna Huffington has posted a full response on her blog, calling it an "honest misunderstanding." You can read her full statement here.

UPDATE No. 3- 11:34 AM PST: Ken Sunshine's office has emailed The Envelope to say that the Clooney blog is being removed from Huffington Post.

But Arianna's defense does not impress Clooney rep Stan Rosenfield much: "I read (Arianna's) response. This wasn't a misunderstanding. It was misrepresentation."

Clooney's camp insists they did not ask HuffPo to take down the item or to release a statement about lying and misrepresentation. They say they only asked for a posted qualifier explaining that the item was not written by Clooney but was a compilation of quotes from past interviews with Larry King and The Guardian.

So there.

Photo: No, George Clooney is not carrying a box of his political blogs. Because he doesn't write them and don't ask him to! He's actually filming his new movie "Michael Clayton" in New York.
(RJ Capak / WireImage.)

Now that the Oscar dust has settled, which designer was the most popular on the red carpet?

You could call it a tie. Dior dressed two big names: presenter Charlize Theron and the adorable first lady of the evening, best actress Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon.

Theron’s forest green silk gown with a benign tumor-sized shoulder bow didn’t win over most style seers. But Witherspoon’s honestly vintage 1955 beaded Dior frock was a major thumbs-up, despite criticism that the gown was "too much dress" for the petite actress.

But Vera Wang also dressed two important ladies — both best actress nominees — and both of her creations were wildly hailed. "Brokeback Mountain" nominee Michelle Williams wore a Wang curry-hued '30s-inspired chiffon gown. And "Pride & Prejudice" nominee Keira Knightley looked to-the-manor-born in Wang’s fishtail hem burgundy gown.

And here's a surprise: Versace, usually deemed a bit too racy for the Oscars, came in third, designing for three presenters: Jessica Alba's gold gown, Salma Hayek's blue wrapped gown and Hilary Swank's strapless black number.

Other fashion forces at the 2006 Oscars:

Photo: Michelle Williams won fashion favor at the Oscars for her curry-colored Vera Wang chiffon gown.
(Steve Granitz / WireImage)

Director Kevin Smith got all gooey at the recent 2006 Independent Spirit Awards. Seems he took his now-wife Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith to the Spirits on their first official date eight years ago. “We actually fell in love in this tent at the Spirits,” he recalled onstage.

They’d met a few weeks earlier when the leggy brunette journalist interviewed the Gen X filmmaker (“Dogma,” “Mallrats,” “Jersey Girl,” “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”) for a USA Today profile.

And yeah, since you were wondering, Smith did get lucky that night. For more details, read his official website, Silent Bob Speaks.

Smith couldn’t help but wonder if his good luck at the time might have had something to do with the fact that he took home an award that night for his "Chasing Amy" screenplay.

“But I'm not winning anything tonight so all you people holding awards have a really good shot at f---ing my wife. All I ask is that I get to watch. From under a glass table.”

At the IFC after-party at Shutters on the Beach hotel, Jennifer rolled her eyes at Kev’s comments. “I’m pretty used to being the brunt of Kevin’s jokes,” she said, giving one of those patient wife smiles.

And she got used to roughing it recently while shooting “Clerks II" on a tight budget. She has a small role in the film, making it well worth the price of admission. “We stayed in Days Inns and the only star is Rosario Dawson.”

What, no Matt Damon or Ben Affleck? Darn. Double darn.

Expect Weinstein Co. to have their hands full releasing "Clerks II". Smith says he's releasing the sequel unrated. Yikes! (Or, Oh, boy! depending on your point of view.) But it may not be all that queasy-making. After all, the original “Clerks” was an NC-17 back in '94 before it came down to an R.

The always-unrated Kevin couldn't resist pushing the Indie Spirits envelope to the point of audience unease. Praising the show’s hostess Sarah Silverman and her vag rinse jokes, Smith announced, “Finally, an award show host you’d like to ----. Although, Jon Stewart’s not bad either.”

Later, he confided that he probably had a better shot at Jon than Sarah.

“I actually think I’d do better with Jon because I’m kind of a cuddly bear and Jon usually responds very well to that.”

Photo: Jennifer Schwalbach-Smith cuddles up with her teddy bear Kevin Smith on the eighth anniversary of their first date at the Independent Spirit Awards.
(Mychal Watts / WireImage)

The 2006 award season may be officially over. But red carpet couture will live on.

C'mon, admit it. You're just dying to slide into Heidi Klum’s Vanity Fair Oscars party frock. How about Pamela Anderson's vintage Bill Blass Golden Globes gown? Or maybe you'd like to unbutton Oscars host Jon Stewart’s Ralph Lauren tuxedo?

Now’s your chance.

Clothes Off Our Back is doing another one of their inexplicably successful online auctions in which stars donate their ABW (already been worn) award show clothing and people actually bid good, hard-earned money for the celebrities' used duds, money that goes to marvelous causes supported by the various celebs. Just check out clothesoffourback.org.

Other award show-worn garments on the block: Peter Jackson's Kenneth Cole dress shoes worn to the Globes, Ellen DeGeneres' Grammys sneakers, Joss Stone’s Grammys gown worn onstage to perform (hopefully dry-cleaned); Joaquin Phoenix’s Globes tux, Jessica Alba’s Golden Globes dress and last — but most certainly not least — Scarlett Johansson’s red Jimmy Choo heels worn to the Globes.

Too bad the offer isn't Johansson's spectacular red Globes gown. In case you don’t remember, that particular couture creation got foppish fashionista Isaac Mizrahi, E!'s current red carpet critic, into deep doodie.

Mr. Miz got scathing reviews for his impertinent questions to Ms. Scarlett about her strapless dress and a verbal hand slap from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for daring to reach out and touch her treasure chest during their carpet chat. As a result, he was noticeably reined in — at least in manners — for the Oscar carpet.

In Style magazine and Clothes Off Our Back children’s charity founders “Malcolm in the Middle” star Jane Kaczmarek and her “West Wing” husband Bradley Whitford, showed off all the to-be-auctioned awardsware last week at Republic restaurant in Los Angeles. And to sweeten the pot, Saturn tossed in a 2007 Sky roadster customized by fashion designer Richard Tyler.

But just because you weren’t invited to their show off party, do not despair. You can still bid on all this stuff — including the car — until March 31.

Just one word of caution when buying celebrity cast-offs: These people are very, very small. Klum's gown, for instance, is a size 2-4. Anderson is also a size 4. Most women may have better luck fitting into Camryn Manheim's size 18-20 Mon Atelier Globes gown.

Photo: For a good cause, you could look just as "smokin'" as Heidi Klum does in this Michael Kors gown at the Vanity Fair Oscars bash.
(Eric Charbonneau / WireImage)

Talk about a mensch.

As if attending all the recent award shows with his wife — the continually nominated (Globe, SAG and Indie Spirit winning) actress Felicity Huffman — wasn’t enough, William H. Macy presented an award at the 14th annual "A Night at Sardi’s" benefit.

The guy’s indefatigable. But he had a darn good reason for being there: to present an award to Shonda Rhimes, creator of “Grey's Anatomy,” for the hit ABC show's ongoing awareness-raising Alzheimer's disease storyline.

On the show, Meredith Grey's mother, played by Kate Burton, has Alzheimer's. And — as Macy announced to the Beverly Hilton ballroom audience of 1,000 — his father also has the mentally and physically crippling fatal disease.

This year’s event — themed around the Broadway hit “Funny Girl” — featured Peter Gallagher, fresh from singing a lewd “Brokeback Mountain” ditty “On Top of Old Brokeback” at the Independent Spirit Awards last weekend.

He sang a duet of “You Are Woman” with Ricky Lake, and Chandra Wilson, who plays "The Nazi" on “Anatomy,” belted out “Coronet Man” at the event which raised $1.1 million for the Alzheimer’s Association's research, patient and caregiver support programs.

Macy’s wife Huffman had been set to attend the Wednesday awards benefit. But, frankly, she’s flat exhausted from the awards, the parties, taking care of her two kids and her day job — playing overworked Lynette Scavo on “Desperate Housewives.”

Besides, she needs a serious fashion break. And the Emmys (Aug. 27) are practically right around the corner.

Photo: William H. Macy rallies for the Alzheimer’s Association cause at A Night at Sardi’s, posing AA chairperson Laurie Burrows-Grad in a Bradley Bayou gown and Martin Katz bling.
(Amy Graves / WireImage)

Sunday night wasn’t a complete wash-out for Chanel.

Even though there were no Chanel frocks on carpet-walking actresses, "Munich" star Eric Bana and his wife Rebecca Gleeson wore sparkling Chanel watches and jewelry to the Oscars.

Gleeson chose a pair of Chanel’s LaPluie earrings with a matching ring and watch, while Bana wore Chanel’s Superleggera watch.

Several other stars — Marisa Tomei, Selma Blair and the Olsentwins — sported Chanel sparkles at some of the hot post-Oscar parties.

Blair wore Camélia Jumelle earrings and a diamond ring. Mary Kate Olsen wore a Camélia Cachalong ring and a black diamond ring.

Ashley Olsen wore two Matelassé bracelets and a Camélia Dome diamond ring and Tomei wore dangling Matelassé diamond earrings and an Ellipse diamond ring.

Hey, if ya can’t garb them, gem them.

Photo: Marisa Tomei sparkles in Chanel jewelry at the Vanity Fair after-party on Sunday night.
(Gregg DeGuire / WireImage)