For the last fucking time, celebrities, vaccines do not cause autism.

It is fine and noble to say "we should look into what (beyond better, earlier detection and diagnoses) is causing all this autism!" and even "we should make sure we are testing these vaccines extensively!" but to just go around shouting, without evidence, and in spite of evidence to the contrary, "VACCINES CAUSE AUTISM" is 9/11 Truther hysterical idiocy at its dumbest.

But hey, all you non-doctors with absolutely no understanding of the scientific method or medical research can just go ahead and keep using your massive platforms to convince parents not to vaccinate their kids, because what is the worst that could happen?

Last week official figures showed that 1,348 confirmed cases of measles in England and Wales were reported last year, compared with 56 in 1998. Two children have died of the disease.

Good work, Arianna, letting this famous person promote his little pet cause on your website, thus is the vast potential of the citizen-driven new media landscape realized.

You can't effectively govern the people in public if you can't effectively govern yourself in private. Period. End of story. How can we allow you to make decisions that affect the private lives of others when you can't even control your own? [...]

I'm not preaching. I'm no Puritan. I'm just saying, if you can't follow the law, you gotta get out. [...]

We need leaders who are not going to be distracted by the explosion of their shadow lives.

That's not canned emotion you sense: It's legitimate outrage at the shameful acts of our hypocritical elected officials. Those high n' mighties could certainly learn a thing or two about integrity from the world of Hollywood agenting, where every Harry Winston-abetted gesture of fidelity towards one's spouse is fueled by genuine love and appreciation of the sacred and exclusive bond they share, and not guilt over that cater-waitress you happened to let blow you behind the wrap-party tent in exchange for a solemn promise to get her package "to the right people."

[Photo: WireImage]

• Governor, Govern Thyself! [HuffPo]

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.

The Envelope also claims that Huffington has still not apologized to Clooney, which is truly the greatest tragedy of this entire sordid tale of blogging and betrayal. We expect a report on the long-overdue conciliatory fruit basket by the end of the week.

• Before we say Good Night, Arianna [The Envelope]
• Previously: ClooneyGate: Clooney Will Not Be Threatened By Arianna Huffington [Defamer]
• ClooneyGate Coverage [Defamer]

...or, you know, not.

• Previously: ClooneyGate: Actor Declares, "I Am Not A Blogger!" [Defamer]

"He doesn't object to the quotes," says Stan Rosenfield, Clooney's valiant 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 pro-active 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."

Huffington has already responded to the charges on the HuffPo, dismissing ClooneyGate as "an honest misunderstanding":

This was an honest misunderstanding. But any misunderstanding that occurred, occurred between Clooney and the publicist. We based our decision to post on the unambiguous approval we received in writing. There was no room for misunderstanding in that.

We're relieved that (as per usual) a publicist can be scapegoated to resolve an ugly situation. We'd hate to see Huffington's relationship with other Oscar-winners willing to have sound-bites from previous interviews compiled into uninteresting blog posts damaged; it would be quite unfortunate to lose the HuffPo's planned reprinting of Reese Witherspoon's musings on global warming to Seventeen and Redbook over a silly little misunderstanding like this.

• Clooney to Arianna: I Did Not Blog [The Envelope Styles & Scenes]
• Previously: George Clooney Joins Blogosphere, Immediately Outs Himself [Defamer]

A Wall Street Journal editorial: "Meathead Economics."

A Sacramento Bee column: "Reiner latest in long list of those who misused public funds?"

And a Marysville Appeal-Democrat editorial: "Time for Reiner to go back to school."

Sure, getting knocked around for being politically active is rough, but you know what really hurts? The fat jokes:

And if that's not enough, Reiner was recently lampooned on Comedy Central's "South Park." They called him fat. [...]

Some days, especially lately, Reiner's wife, Michelle, wonders if it's all worth it.

"They take jabs at him that are very personal it bothers me," she said. "We've spent millions of our own money and countless hours on this. So when I hear people saying he misused political funds, or that he's fat I get angry . It's like 'No good deed goes unpunished.' "

You'd think that after a quarter-century of Meathead jokes, the personal attacks wouldn't sting anymore. Maybe it's time for Reiner to embrace the brave trail blazed by fellow Huffington Post blogger George Clooney just yesterday, and proudly declare, "I am a liberal. A fat liberal. There, I said it!" to the entire world.

• Compared with politics, comedy's easy [LAT]

I am a liberal. And I make no apologies for it. Hell, I'm proud of it.

Too many people run away from the label. They whisper it like you'd whisper "I'm a Nazi." Like it's dirty word. But turn away from saying "I'm a liberal" and it's like you're turning away from saying that blacks should be allowed to sit in the front of the bus, that women should be able to vote and get paid the same as a man, that McCarthy was wrong, that Vietnam was a mistake. And that Saddam Hussein had no ties to al-Qaeda and had nothing to do with 9/11.

This is an incredibly polarized time (wonder how that happened?). But I find that, more and more, people are trying to find things we can agree on. And, for me, one of the things we absolutely need to agree on is the idea that we're all allowed to question authority. We have to agree that it's not unpatriotic to hold our leaders accountable and to speak out.

That's one of the things that drew me to making a film about Murrow. When you hear Murrow say, "We mustn't confuse dissent with disloyalty" and "We can't defend freedom at home by deserting it at home," it's like he's commenting on today's headlines.

We applaud Clooney's bravery in finally speaking publicly about his political leanings, as no one respects a closet case who pretends to be stepping out to watch some Fox News at the corner bar, then spends the whole night cruising around and making breathless phonecalls to Air America from a dimly lit parking lot.

• I Am a Liberal. There, I Said It! [HuffPo]

I’m very frustrated. And this time it’s personal. As you can no doubt tell from my posts, I’m not real big fan of the president or his administration. So anything that even remotely links me to them is irksome, to say the least. Especially something as close to me as my name.

For years I had to endure the unconscious connection people made between me and the Bush White House’s press secretary, Ari Fleischer. It’s happening to this day, with some HuffPost commentors saying that “Ari’s Frustration/Confusion of the Day” has led them to think that the other Ari was venting here. So you can imagine how happy I was when he left the administration — and the public eye (although he might make a comeback should Scooter go to trial).

Then I read in this morning’s paper that Dick Cheney has appointed his counsel, David Addington, to replace Libby as his chief of staff. My first thought was, Wasn’t that the name of Bruce Willis’s character on Moonlighting (actually it was David Addison). My second thought was, Here we go again! You see, Addington is my wife’s maiden name. I feel like Pacino in Godfather III: I keep trying to distance myself from any connection to this president… But just when I think I’m out, they pull me back in!

True, the man is merely an agent, and no one expects him to create anything of value on his own, but a Moonlighting reference and a clichéd Godfather III quote? If he's just going to phone it in like this, maybe he should downshift his output to a single frustration per week and spare himself the humiliation of having Endeavor's assistants whisper about how the old man's finally lost it.

• Ari's Frustration of the Day [HuffPo]
• Ari Emanuel Still Frustrated, Readers Still Confused [Defamer]
• What’s Eating Ari Emanuel? Weekend Edition [Defamer]

Time for a Presidential Intervention: "My Name is George, and I Won't Take Responsibility for Anything"

I spent some time this weekend with a friend of mine who has just taken the first big step toward recovery by joining AA, and was struck by his determination to follow that program's 12 steps. [...]

Who knows, maybe this intervention will get him to finally admit that sometimes staying the course will lead you right over the cliff — and save the country from waking up in the gutter with a nasty hangover in 2008.

I can almost hear him now: "My name is George, and I'm a shirk-aholic!"

"Sometimes staying the course will lead you right over the cliff." That's kind of catchy, isn't it? We bet Emanuel is having his assistant slap that on a bumper sticker for his Prius right now.

• Time for a Presidential Intervention: "My Name is George, and I Won't Take Responsibility for Anything" [HuffPo]
• Previously: Ari Emanuel In The News Round-Up [Defamer]