celebrity-vendettas

'Details' Tosses Freelancer Under Ben Affleck's Hybrid SUV

Choire · 10/30/07 09:10AM

Today's Page Six provides a vehicle for Details editor Dan Peres to either school or destroy his former staffer and current freelancer Bart Blasengame. In a December editor's letter editor's note, Peres claims that Blasengame (who goes unnamed) printed a quote by Ben Affleck that Affleck "never made." Also, the article (which lacked the writer's byline) "implied" that Affleck might leave L.A.—but Peres writes that was a "statement" that Affleck never issued. A Details publicist then says that the Details editor and Ben Affleck are "good friends," and says that "Dan realized there were things taken out of context." What now? Were things taken out of context—or were they invented, as Peres says? Because there's a really serious line there to be considered before destroying someone's career in journalism to appease a snippy star. These are the kind of things that keep lawyers very busy! Blasengame did not return an email this morning. Details recently killed his story on Sarah Silverman, which then appeared in Nerve.