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As the Big Lebowski says, new shit has come to light. Sarah Lacy, who co-wrote the BusinessWeek cover story "How this kid made $60 million in 18 months" (about Digg founder Kevin Rose, who now jokes constantly with friends and Digg users about the $60 million he doesn't have), will leave the magazine for a year to work on her book about Web 2.0, she said in an e-mail.

Also, a separate source says Lacy definitely took six figures (probably $100-200k, says the source) for the book.

Finally, someone at BusinessWeek mentioned that the bubblicious article was Lacy's first cover story, theorizing that she got it thanks to co-writer Jessi Hempel, a more seasoned writer with some covers under her belt.

Granted, Jessi is the one who went around the blogosphere defending the story, then passing the buck for the story's most egregious exaggerations (especially the $200 million valuation of Digg) to Lacy and BusinessWeek's editors. If that's how a seasoned writer acts, maybe giving this green one a book deal is so crazy it might work.

Earlier: Scoop: BusinessWeek bubble blower gets book deal [Valleywag]