Lily Allen vs. Guardian Columnist

Last week, a press release was sent out about Lily Allen's upcoming sophomore album, It's Not Me, It's You. The document contained a phrase calling Allen "the Wordsmith of the MySpace generation."

Marina Hyde, a journalist who writes for Britain's The Guardian newspaper, took issue with this and posted a blog on The Guardian's website ridiculing the phrase. Her column included quotes from Murray Chalmers, who wrote the press release, saying it was not a parody and was sincere.

Allen read the column and posted a comment (we know it's her because Hyde later confirms it in another comment) at the end of it, lacing in to Hyde. Here's what she said:

"i think that what you wrote earlier was thoughtless and uncalled for. Murray was an all too easy target, he has a lot of respect for me and was only trying to be enthusiastic about something he feels passionate about. It's quite obvious the part of his press release you referred to was 'tongue in cheek'. As we all know, it would be ridiculous to compare me to Wordsworth or Bennett and your poking fun at his reference was cheap, really. Personally i don't care , i'm perfectly used to people poking fun at me, but Murray doesn't put himself in front of the camera, and in my opinion didn't deserve the ridicule. It's hard enough being my press officer at the best of times, and i don't think anyone would appreciate their friend or business associate being called "madam" by someone who had never met them. it's plain rude. i wonder if maybe there is some other agenda in the guardian blog office regarding myself, as it seems the things i have read there always tend to be quite negative? Well anyway , i hope we can put this all behind us and that you can move on to writing something else that makes other people feel stupid , and you feel more clever.
"lily allen

"p.s i wish you had called me earlier , I would have quoted Upon Westminster Bridge (maybe the most popular of Wordsworths poems,but arguably the best) down the phone at you word for word. it was the first poem i recited at school and has always stuck with me. It was, in fact the inspiration behind my song LDN . I have never been a massive fan of Bennett though."

Hyde later responded with a comment in which she said, "No one is 'attacking' anyone, Lily. Your PR, not one of lifes noted ironists, compared you to Wordsworth in a round robin press release to hundreds of people, in order to sell your album.

"This is a bit silly.

"Its ok to have a joke about it.

"That is all. It is worthy of a giggle, and Im very sorry you cant see that. Would Wordsworth have been able to? It makes me so sad that well never know."

Allen responded with another comment, but that was later deleted. Further down the page, she comments again, talking about being sober. But the bombshell comes later in the comment, when she says she may reveal an alleged affair that Hyde is said to have had with former Daily Mail editor Piers Morgan.

"please don't delete this as I am so intrigued i might start it as a debate on my myspace blog, there are 250,000 subscribers to that blog ."

This now looks more scrappy than Lily Allen vs. Elton John, even though that was on video.