The Leveson Inquiry — a series of hearings on press standards in England, mostly centered around tabloid information-gathering via phone hacking and trash-rifling — dipped its toes into he-sad/she-said territory on Wednesday, as Heather Mills, the ex-wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney, issued a statement denying that she had played Piers Morgan lovelorn voicemails the rock legend had left for her. which eventually became the focus of a 2006 story in The Daily Mirror:

CNN host Piers Morgan was grilled Tuesday by the Leveson Inquiry over his alleged involvement in phone hacking. The ethics panel questioned Morgan over how the former tabloid editor got a hold of a voicemail of Paul McCartney pleading to Heather Mills to hold off divorcing him — even going as far as singing “We Can Work It Out”, but Morgan held his ground, saying he would not compromise his source.

On Monday night’s Conan, CNN’s Piers Morgan made a public apology over the whole dustup involving Paul McCartney‘s ex, Heather Mills, and her claims that a reporter working for a newspaper then edited by Morgan hacked her phone. “I introduced her to Paul McCartney,” Morgan revealed, telling Conan that Mills and McCartney attended an event organized by Morgan’s paper, the Daily Mirror. “I actually introduced them…and that one decision by me cost Paul McCartney fifty million dollars.” Morgan suggested Mills ought to be thanking him for the cash, and then made his mea culpa. “I do want to apologize, but to Paul, for introducing him to Heather.”

I was beginning to think this whole British phone hacking scandal had lost its intrigue and excitement. Where’s the celebrity? Where are the salacious details? Where’s all the fodder for the gossip rags? Well, a new twist in the allegations over widespread phone hacking has now connected CNN host and former tabloid editor Piers Morgan to the Beatles. Well, sort of.

Back in the day, Paul McCartney and John Lennon used to use nonsensical working lyrics when putting together a song. Eventually, when the music was completed, those lyrics would be swapped out for something much more sensible (like about an Eggman or something). Last night, Jimmy Fallon got McCartney to join him for a rendition of “Yesterday” but they used the original lyrics. So, instead of singing about the aching pain of an ended relationship, they sang about the wonders of breakfast food.

Katie Couric opted to go easy on Tony Blair at the beginning of “Tony Blair in Conversation with Katie Couric” at the 92nd Street Y, easing him into the more hard-hitting questions about foreign affairs in the Middle East and Europe. Blair responded to questions about his reflections, writing process, and intentions for his new autobiography. He revealed that he wanted the book to be more “personal” than others in the genre that he admits he’s found “easy to put down.”

You may recall that during a concert at the White House last month, attended by President and Mrs. Obama, Paul McCartney topped off his performance by announcing to the crowd that “it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.” Obama had reportedly left the room before the remark was made, but clip inevitably made the morning show rounds. One place you apparently won’t see the clip is on PBS.

Meet Paul McCartney: political flashpoint. McCartney performed for President Obama, the first family and a number of other stars at the White House last night as part of a show celebrating his winning the Gershwin Prize. After the show — and apparently after the President had left the room — McCartney thanked the audience and noted how nice it was to receive the award from the Library of Congress, and “in fact, after the last eight years it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is.”

Suddenly, The Beatles are culturally relevant again. Not that their achievements have faded a single bit since they disbanded, but the upcoming release of video game The Beatles: Rock Band (Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii) stands at the crossroads of music distributing and video game revolution — and it’s the first significant step by The Beatles towards distributing their music digitally.

Daniel Radosh is the well-liked proprietor of Radosh.net, author of Rapture Ready! Adventures In The Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture, contributing editor at The Week and frequent byline in the pages of the New York Times, the New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Salon, and Slate, plus a hot piece for Playboy called “Bone Up Your Shakespeare: [...]