UPDATE: LeAnn Rimes denies giving statement to TMZ about ‘X Factor’

Credit: FOX

We’re hardly two days out from the “Iffy Performance Seen ‘Round The World (In Far Fewer Homes Than Saw The Finale Last Year, But Still More Than Any Other Show Wednesday Night)”, as LeAnn Rimes took the stage to sing a duet of her hit “How Can I Live?” on part one of the two-night live finale of The X Factor on Wednesday night, alongside eventual first runner-up, Carly Rose Sonenclar. In the immediate aftermath of the performance, many online outlets theorized that Rimes, fresh out of a 30-day stint in rehab in August for anxiety and stress, was under some kind of influence. In response, she gave a statement to TMZ, along with her permission to post it, in which Rimes puts the awkwardness of the performance on the shoulders of a nervous Carly Rose.

Now it appears that LeAnn Rimes is refuting ever having given a statement to TMZ in the first place, as she sounded off before last night’s finale.

Here’s the deal — after reports surfaced that LeAnn may have been wasted during her performance with 13-year-old Carly Rose Sonenclar, we called Rimes’ rep for comment.

The rep gave us a quote that we were told we could put on TMZ.com and attribute to LeAnn Rimes. We were told LeAnn was NOT impaired and if there was any awkwardness it was only because “I was trying to help this 13-year-old girl who was having some trouble with the song.”

But moments ago, Rimes posted a message on her Twitter page saying she has NOT given the media a quote — noting, “It’s a shame that gossip and lies are overshadowing the performance of Carly.”

She added, “It was an amazing opportunity to share this experience with Carly and I know I’ll be watching for her to win tonight.”

I can’t really speak, personally, to the journalistic integrity of TMZ, but unless they got scammed by a “rep” who wasn’t really a “rep” for Rimes, then I can’t see how they would just make this up. These are the people who broke the deaths of Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger before any other legitimate news organization. So they’re usually on the ball about this sort of thing, even if their stories lean towards the salacious, far more often than not. That said, thanks to a comment in last night’s post about this very story, I can kind of see how Carly might have been having trouble with the song, requiring Rimes to alter her own vocal so that Sonenclar could keep pace. Regardless of how this all pans out, stories like these are ephemeral, so I wouldn’t be worrying that I’d never work in this town again, if I were Rimes, especially since nobody seems to really hold her affair with Eddie Cibrian against her, these days. Odds are, it’ll all have blown over by breakfast, that greatest of meals we partake in each day. For there truly is no meal greater.

Full story: TMZ