Mark "The Maverick, when it comes to blogs and also finance" Cuban is proclaiming his innocence, in detail! Cuban, the mouthy tech billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks, was charged with the world's least sophisticated insider trading scheme by the SEC earlier this week. He issued a rote statement the same day denying the charges, and lamented that he wished he could say more. Well now he's saying more! Cuban's basic defense: Yes, I sold a bunch of stock after the CEO of a company I partially owned told me confidential, nonpublic information that I knew would hurt the stock price. But I never agreed to keep the information confidential, so there! Then he says (through his lawyer) that the CEO of said company is full of shit because he can't even remember the conversation. They posted this excerpt of an interview with the CEO:

Over the weekend, Mickey Rourke and Evan Rachel Wood demonstrated markedly different ways of attacking rumors about a romance blossoming from their deep, combustible chemistry on The Wrestler. You probably don't need the accompanying video to know which one played the "Tell that faggot who wrote all that shit in the paper I'd like to break his fucking legs" card versus the other party's "We are proud of the film we made together and I hope people will focus on the film and not get distracted by any nonsense," but just in case any ambiguity persists, let it be clear: Rourke has been and always will be a one-woman-at-the-Chevron kind of guy. Period.

As if Page Six's blind items weren't problematic enough, NY Post film critic Lou Lumenick last week offered a fun one from Cannes that found our refined hunch-dar betraying us. "Members of the press were lining up at the entrance to the announced venue well more than a hour before [Two Lovers] began," he wrote. " 'I'm not going to wait an hour for f—-ing James Gray,' one major U.S. film critic declared, before storming off, of the film's American director, who is much more popular among critics in Europe than he is in his native country." There's a pretty short list of "major U.S. film critics" these days anyway, but the anecdote provoked visions of the NY Times' Manohla Dargis protesting to the Cannes overlords. However, as Dargis assured us this morning, "storming" is not her style; she indeed waited an hour just like everyone else for fucking James Gray. So it's back to the blind-item drawing board for us, alas. Was Rex Reed at Cannes? [Defamer]

It’s a rare day at Defamer HQ when we receive a denial from an A-lister’s publicist that actually makes us fall in love with them a little. Referring to our post last week suggesting Nicole Kidman may be posing nude and pregnant for a major glossy magazine cover (à la Demi Moore), we received the following note in our inbox from her rep, Catherine Olim of PMK: “Nicole is amused at this story, but it is ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE. She is not posing nude for any magazines, has not done so, will not be doing so, pregnant or otherwise. Heaven only knows where this came from! Seriously. Do quote me.” And quote you, we will. Our apologies, we should've never assumed that Nicole Kidman would drop trou for anyone other than Stanley Kubrick. Or Steven Shainberg. Or Jonathan Glazer. Or Anthony Minghella. We could keep going, but that's what Mr. Skin is for. [Defamer]

Earlier today, we wondered aloud as to what Tina Fey could have possibly seen in Josh Hartnett's body of work that would lead her to think that he would be a suitable love interest for her character on 30 Rock. Well, it turns out that our speculation was for naught, as we have recently learned that the original OK! Magazine piece that ran this morning appears to be patently false. In an email communication just sent to Defamer HQ, an NBC spokeswoman told us that there's "Absolutely no truth to this story. OK magazine has it wrong..." Phew! This news not only soothes our irritable tummies, but it also fills our hearts with joy. While we bear no ill will towards Mr. Hartnett, we must admit that we can think of at least two dozen actors off the top of our heads who would make a better suitor for Liz Lemon. Yes, even Ashton Kutcher!

That was quick! Aniston's flack is quashing the baby banter. "She is not pregnant," says she. Spies also tell the tab that Jen has been spotted drinking martinis and getting her hair dyed, both no-gos for the gravid. Another update since the last post: Brad and Angelina had ten more kids and a water horse. [Us Weekly]

Record exec/talent scout/television mogul/dedicated Kool cigarette smoker Simon Cowell is denying reports that his tantrum torpedoed an American Idol publicity photo shoot budgeted at $50K. Cowell spoke to Extra in between drags on his minty cancer stick:

Having, like the rest of us, caught wind of a story circulating that Queen Latifah was finally going to make an honest woman out of her longtime personal-training companion, a Sun Times reporter at a junket for The Perfect Holiday gathered the nerve to ask the actress/torch singer/hip-hop architect whether the rumors were true:

Ian McEwan, the serious literary yet still sort of airport-y author of Atonement, whose books all hinge on one dramatic moment when something terrible happens tells the Wall Street Journal today that his books don't all hinge on one dramatic moment when something terrible happens. "All it really says is that in my novels something happens. It got said, and then it got into the loop. It's a truism, really. It's true of any novel." Well, any novels that are made into big weepy holiday blockbusters.

The Observer's Spencer Morgan is being mocked by New York mag's Daily Intel today for his investigative thinkpiece on visiting a model apartment ("No, we're girls, we are not talking about politics. Sometimes we talk about shows we have done. Every morning, we talk about what clothes to put on"). Those New Yorkers even accuse him of committing "that most basic of all Fashion Week fouls—farting in a room full of models." But! "I did NOT fart," Spencer tell us. "You weren't meant to infer that they were 'giddily discussing my charms,' as they all ditched me in the living room. The farting allegation is as ludicrous as the allegation that I am an aspiring rake, as I have NEVER farted. My guess is after two hours of answering questions and being tape recorded, they had had enough."

In June, our crack videographer/reporter Alex Goldberg happened upon one Whoopi Goldberg on the streets of Soho, waiting in line to buy an iPhone. He asked her about becoming the host of The View. And then look what happened today! We'll never believe anything else she says!

Apparently, merely yearning for the sight of Scarlett Johansson lovingly devouring pounds of sweaty ladyflesh does not make it so. Johansson's reps are swiftly, stiffly nipping in the bud all rumors that she will step into porn star Jenna Jameson's edible panties:

From Jason Gordon, the Williamsburg-based online marketing specialist who Eric Schaeffer has retained to help promote his book, comes this email:

In the grand tradition of Lindsay Lohan's Gore-entreating, fully adequite call to arms, and Courtney Love's 53 New Year's Resolutions Towards a Less Demon-Plagued Me, comes yet another worthy addition to the canon of incomprehensible celebrity manifestos. This time, the author is Lost casualty and repeat DUI offender Michelle Rodriguez, who responds on her website forum to lesbian magazine Curve for outing her based on "their own suspicions." Well, despite Kristanna Loken's unsubtle hints in the past that the two had been shacking up, it's simply not so, says Rodriguez. We think: