It's been nine days since George Clooney supposedly entered the blogosphere as a proud liberal, seven days since The Envelope broke the story that Clooney did not actually author the blog post that bore his name (and the subsequent removal of the offending fauxblog), and five days since Arianna Huffington apologized to her readers for ClooneyGate. Still, the scandal that won't die refuses to...die...as The Envelope today once again challenges Huffington on her version of How George Clooney's Unattributed Quotes Became A Blog. Their report is long and complicated enough to resist easy blockquoting, but here's a taste anyway:

· The already five-flavors-of-genius site StuffOnMyCat.com takes an evolutionary leap of the dreamy-eyed kind. [via Gilded Moose]
· Relentlessly quotable nutjob Sharon Stone sez: "In America we tend to erase women after 40, and it's a period when women become their most interesting." Especially when they're still willing to do the kind of exploitative full frontal scenes that they did in their early 30s.
Natalie Portman's chrome-domed (but still freakishly hot) turn in V for Vendetta will almost certainly challenge the all-time bald chick box office record.
What does Sienna Miller have to do with high-performance radials? Who the f cares? She's naked.
· ClooneyGate: The Inevitable T-Shirt.

"This is the blogosphere. I report to you from a world wobbling on its axis. Fighting broke out just one short day ago, when Oscar-winning actor (and damned fine looking man) George Clooney went to war against Greece (in the person of Arianna Huffington). While casualties were initially expected to be few, the conflict has entered a dangerous phase: Threats on both sides have resulted in a resumption of hostilities, and no one quite knows where it will end. While Huffington has made noises about negotiations, it's clear that, for the other side at least, the gloves have come off, and now the whole world watches anxiously to see if things can resolve themselves peacefully. All this reporter can do is wait and hope. From The Blogosphere, where the bombs are falling, I'm Lloyd Grove. Good night, and good luck."

Like a slasher movie psychopath refusing to be put down despite a liberal amount of shotgunning and a wrought iron fireplace poker to the eyesocket, ClooneyGate shambles forward once again, however briefly. NY Daily News JV gossip Lloyd Grove talked to the "spitting mad" non-blogging actor, who expressed his defiance in the face of pressure from HuffPo host Arianna Huffington:

Oh, if we had a nickel for every time we tried that line, George...

HuffPo patsy/general do-gooder-about-town George Clooney has decided he can live without the wide assortment of pricey and useless luxury goods and services crammed into his Oscar gift bag, and will instead donate its contents to charity:

The disappointingly short-lived ClooneyGate is more or less over except for the hysterically overblown graphics and our desperate attempts to stoke the feeble flames of semicontroversy for another fifteen or so seconds, but we nonetheless note that the HuffPo has removed Clooney's entry (excerpt still available here) from the site. According to an update on scandal-breaker The Envelope, Team Clooney didn't ask for the deblogging, but responded to Huffington's explanation thusly: "This wasn't a misunderstanding. It was misrepresentation." As of this posting, however, Clooney's rather lengthy contributor bio is still up at HuffPo—just an oversight that will soon be corrected, or a subtle signal that Arianna's door is always open should Clooney ask his publicist to whip him up a blog post? Developing...

Just a couple of days ago, we celebrated George Clooney's brave coming out to the blogosphere, in which the actor used Arianna Huffington's lefty cocktail party to proclaim himself a proud liberal. There's only one problem with Clooney's very public breaching of his blog-cherry: Sure, he said those things that wound up on the Huffngton Post, but to other, MSM sources, and never wrote a blog entry for Arianna. The LAT's Styles & Scenes blog lands the scoop:

Director/activist/protoliberal Rob Reiner is being pilloried for allegedly misusing $23 million in public funds to buy TV ads promoting preschool in California, Reiner's passion project; according to the LAT, he's now finding politics to be even more brutal than the notoriously harsh skullfuck-and-leave-you-for-dead-after-a-bad-opening-weekend world of Hollywood:

Black and White Clooney, perhaps bitter about being shut out at the Oscars while showier twin Fat Clooney walked away with the Best Supporting Actor trophy and needing to feel a little more loved, today joined Arianna Huffington's stable of celebrity bloggers by proudly outing himself...as a liberal. [Ed.note—Gasp! But he looks so normal!] Writes the HuffPo's highest-profile Hollywood recruit:

• Oscar-winner George Clooney takes to the Huffington Post, where he lobs an eloquent "fuck you" to all Democrats who voted for the war. If Clooney blogs, does that make it sexy? Or does it make him less sexy? Discuss. [Lowdown]
• Lindsay Lohan insists she's not wearing hookerpants, but she does find "the act of love" to be "groovy." If we didn't know better, we'd say that sort of talk reeks of virginity. [R&M (2nd item)]
• Britney Spears tightens husband Kevin Federline's allowance, only giving him enough to buy three wifebeaters a day. [Page Six]
• Is the end nigh for Florent, the original gem of the Meatpacking District? [Gatecrasher]
• Alexis Glick, a former contender for Katie Couric's Today show throne, has been banished to MSNBC. [Page Six]
• Sharon Stone says her nude scenes in Basic Instinct 2 should be "disturbing." No worries there. [Scoop]

Reports from the Oscar after-parties are still trickling in (we'd never begrudge our spies a day to nurse their hangovers), with dispatches from a reader who found herself in the middle of George Clooney's post-ceremony celebration at Dan Tana's and another from an attendee of Rolling Stone/Us Weekly bash at the Pacific Design Center:

· Brandchannel.com hands out its Product Placement Awards (yes, it's really come to this), with the Charlie Kaufman Meta Award for Self-Reflexive Product Placement going to Calvin Klein and The Island for their mind-bending use of the real-life Scarlett Johansson, her clone character, and the actress character from which she was cloned (give up, it's not worth it) to make you believe you weren't being sold CK crap in the middle of a movie.
· Overlawyered looks at the havoc that some angry, litigious Claymates might wreak on possibly closeted celebrities.
· We didn't actually get to the part where the ninja explains why his people hate George Clooney, but we did find ourselves wondering why he sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger.
· The Gilded Moose also took a virtual stroll through the Oscars greenroom.
· Why do we feel like we know way too much about the kinky shit that turns on Quentin Tarantino?

We fear that George Clooney, who last week so humbly admitted that had he had such wild success at an early age, he likely would've succumbed to the siren call of eyeball crack, may be the victim of an ugly, negative campaign intended to keep the charismatic, self-effacing triple-threat Oscar-free on Sunday night:

A curious theme seems to be emerging in actors' self-consciously humble Oscar campaign stump speeches: "Thank God I wasn't a big star when I was young, because I would have done enough drugs to kill an elephant." On last night's 60 Minutes, Philip Seymour Hoffman memorably thanked his lucky stars for late-coming fame ("I have so much empathy for these young actors that are 19 and all of a sudden they re beautiful and famous and rich. I m like, Oh my God. I d be dead. "), and at the BAFTAs on Sunday, George Clooney echoed the sentiment:

Gossip Fodder blog notes that at a recent press conference for his new movie Candy at the Berlin Film Festival, Heath Ledger was asked what George Clooney might win at the Oscars. Ledger reluctantly admitted Clooney deserved the Best Supporting Actor trophy for his work in Syriana, which, of course, is the category his Brokeback co-star Jake Gyllenhaal is competing in. The festival website offers video evidence (the Jack Twist diss occurs precisely at 14:30). A partial transcript of his response:

Oscar triple-threat George Clooney's nominations aren't just good for him, they're a boon to people trying to turn a quick buck by digging around in the dark corners of his career. A memorabilia collector seems to think the media attention Clooney's getting in the lead-up to the awards ceremony means that the actor's infamous Batgimp suit from the franchise-killing Batman & Robin could go for $100,000:

It was visual effects supervisor geeks' one big chance a year to hit up Charlize Theron for her phone number yesterday (though they would have to get past her mother Gerda first) at the annual Oscar nominees luncheon, held at the Beverly Hilton. In addition to receiving their "nomination certificates" and official Oscar nominee sweatshirts (keep your eyes peeled and your "Oscar memorabilia" search preferences saved, eBayers!) the luncheon also provided the giddy nominees an opportunity to clown around and enjoy themselves, free of the eyes of the broadcast's oft-touted audience of "one billion viewers." Triple-nominee George Clooney even managed to squeeze in a potshot at the Vice President, which, while not quite as inspired as his Golden Globes "Who would name their kid 'Jack' with 'off' at the end?" Jack Abramoff-skewering knee-slapper, still managed to have the crowd in stitches:

Maybe Tom Ford did know what he was doing with Vanity Fair, just not with the cover. A gay man pretending to enjoy taking a bite out of a big ol' fake titty is about as Hollywood as it gets.
· Knowing that his Fat Clooney ploy might not finally land him an Oscar, George Clooney's working on some equally handsome-dampening looks for his next project.
· Headline of the day: Bening convincing as zonked-out killer.
· Even the Freakonomics guys are annoyed by Jessica Simpson: "On a separate note, another passenger on this same flight was Jessica Simpson. Without going into too much detail, I will say this: if you are a fan of hers who complains that the media unfairly portrays her as more obnoxious than she really is, you need to come up with a new line of defense."
· Finally, the Butterscotch Stallion returns to the tabloids.