Huh! You'd think LeAnn Rimes would be in a better mood, considering she and Eddie Cibrian are "beyond happy and in love" and, incidentally, getting ready to tie the knot.
This afternoon, the singer unleashed an impressively long chain of tweets directed at E! News to express what we're interpreting as sour grapes because we broke the news not only that she's engaged, but that Eddie is "pissed" that they missed out on selling the exclusive to another outlet.
First, let us take you back 24 hours in time to explain why we're standing by our reporting...
On Thursday afternoon, E! News got it from a most reliable family source that Eddie and LeAnne are engaged.
Next step was to contact reps for both. Eddie's didn't respond, but Rimes' rep replied with a "no comment."
After publishing the exclusive last night, we heard back from our source this morning that Eddie was "pissed" that E! News got the jump on his proposal—thereby getting in the way of whatever monetary deal he and LeAnn may have been working out with another outlet.
Ever hear that ol' Shakespeare line, "The lady doth protest too much"?
"Ok, I've about had it with the lack of 'reporting' with E News," LeAnn went off on Twitter today. "The fact that our 'engagement' has spread so furiously over the past 24 hours off of an E News article that is 150% untrue just shows you the lack of credible 'sources' they seem to find and build a story around. When CNN is calling my publicist off of a lie E News has reported, the media world seriously has a problem with their lack of responsibility to the public to actually report the truth."
CNN got in on the action, too? Neat!
Meanwhile, we're thinking this all makes perfect sense so far—especially when you factor in the couple's twit pic from Halloween—a "practice run", LeAnn called it—and the news that Eddie's ex-wife, Brandi Glanville, would be getting together with LeAnn next week to "sit down and talk."
When contacted about Eddie's twit pic last week, LeAnn's rep said explicitly it was "just in Halloween fun."
And yet our latest engagement query was met with a "no comment." (And today, the rep stuck to the talking point of the hour—LeAnn skipped a Shape party last night because she was under the weather.)
Meanwhile, things seem awfully wonderful over in paradise, according to LeAnn's Twitter rant (although she does appear to be on the verge of breaking up with E!):
"Eddie and I are beyond happy and in love and look forward to one day sharing such private news with you all," she wrote, insisting that "nothing has been 'exclusively' broken E News except maybe some of your credibility, sorry...I'M PREGNANT TOO!!! LOL"
Hmmm...
"Thanks to all of our wonderful fans for the premature congats," she concluded, "but for now, let's all be happy we're happy and still and will remain together! Eddie and I felt we couldn't let this rumor go on any longer."
Wonder how long they'll put off their engagment announcement just to spite us...
Any takers?
—Additional reporting by Ashley Fultz
(Originally published Nov. 5, 2010, at 5:20 p.m. PT)