So Harvey kindly offered to become a guest columnist for a day and take over this space as his own to straighten out a few points. He even penned a blind item:

"Just asking: Which bespectacled weekly Gotham editor was so miffed that her most talented editor and other staff were hired away by a Brit-helmed monthly startup, that she assigned a kill piece about the dashing backer of the new magazine? (I love dashing, it's my new favorite word.)"

Could Weinstein, who launched Talk, be referring to New York editor Caroline Miller, whose No. 2 Maer Roshon (and sub-editor Drew Lee) were hired away by Talk editrix Tina Brown?

We couldn't possibly fit all of the dashing Weinstein's other words, but here are some highlights.

* "In the New York piece, Martin Scorsese is portrayed as having thrown a phone out of a window after 'Harvey Weinstein's steadfast refusal to let . . . "Gangs of New York" run 31/2 hours long.' In truth, I could not be more honored to work with Marty. In the piece, I said that working with Marty 'is like going to film school.' Marty threw the phone out the window in Italy because he became frustrated with production snafus. I was in New York at the time.

"As for the length of the film, Marty goes on to say in the story, 'the person I am fighting over the length of the movie is me, not Harvey.' Marty, as noted, has final cut on his movie."

* "As for the Merchant-Ivory film 'The Golden Bowl,' it is true I thought the film was too long. So did most critics.

"It is completely false that I 'demanded changes based on a single screening.' Moreover, Miramax was gracious enough to let Merchant-Ivory realize their vision and buy back the film to release it their way. In the end, the film cost $14 million and grossed $3 million."

* "Finally, the PAGE SIX item noted, 'Gwyneth Paltrow takes [Weinstein] to task for pressuring her to don S&M gear to sell the first issue of Talk.' . . . I had nothing to do with the photo shoot or choices of the layout, which was going to be inside the magazine.

"Talk wanted to put Gwyneth on the cover, and I was dispatched to talk her into it. Gwyneth agreed even though she had a prior commitment to another magazine. She felt it was wrong to be on the cover, and I subsequently agreed. In the New York story, Gwyneth went on to say, 'I think for every bad story you hear about Harvey, there are three great ones.' " This was just one of them.