Renee Zellweger signs autographs in the lobby while waiting for Page Six meanie Richard Johnson (Photo: reneesfansite.com)

Stars are always dropping by Reeler HQ with cookies and cakes and bottles of top-shelf bourbon and the occasional sexual demand, but René Zellweger wielded none of those things when she reportedly paid a visit to my influential rivals at Page Six. In fact, if Page Six is to be believed (and why the hell not?), the newly single Oscar-winner had some scores to settle regarding the column's coverage of her alleged serial dating:

THE voice yesterday morning was breathy with a mild Texan twang. "This is René Zellweger," she said. "I'm in the lobby, and I wonder if you could come down because I want to talk to you." Pause. She sounded like the Oscar-winning actress. "You're probably lying," PAGE SIX said, "but I'll come down because I don't mind being pranked." A minute later, we were shaking hands with a petite blonde wearing shorts and sneakers (great legs) and no makeup. It was definitely Zellweger.

"I just wanted to tell you that story was hurtful about me being with another man," she said. "It wasn't true, and it made me look slutty." On Monday, we had picked up a Women's Wear Daily report that recently separated René was planning a trip to Ireland "to visit her new beau, Irish singer Damien Rice." Turns out Zellweger and Rice are old friends. Nor is she romantically involved with the guy she accompanied to a Red Sox game, although she confessed to being a Sox fan: "It's my brother's fault. He was crazy about Jim Rice and he gave me his baseball card."

God?who would not be be confused with all these Rices being thrown around? Anyway, it was refreshing to see Page Six deflect blame to the appropriate party, because you know any gossip institution that is so famously accurate "99 percent of the time" would not fuck up her love life on its own.

Meanwhile, The Reeler hears that Zellweger headed from Page Six straight over to Cinematical HQ, where she was determined to correct the cruel, compounded rumors that make her sound like a bad actress.