So, Morrissey could indeed be taking the NME to court over those previously reported defamation claims, which is very exciting, it's been ages since we've got to report on a decent defamation case. I may have to buy a new hat.
As previously reported, Morrissey's people claim the music weekly sexed up an interview with him to make comments he made about British identity sound kind of racist - well, anti-immigration. Some reports suggest that the guy who did the interview, freelancer Tim Jonze, backed up Mozza's claims. That said, other comments attributed to Jonze suggest that while he wasn't happy with the NME's edit of his interview (he insisted the actual article be credited to "NME" rather than him), Morrissey did make some of the more controversial remarks attributed to him.
Morrissey's legal types demanded the NME publish a retraction of the article by 1pm yesterday, presumably on NME.com, but no such retraction has been forthcoming and NME publishers IPC seem to be standing their ground. One assumes they have a recording of the interview for their lawyers to be backing such a stance.
Morrissey's lawyer told reporters yesterday afternoon: "The NME had until 1pm today to print a suitable apology to Morrissey. Their only response to this deadline was to say that they 'do not have time to respond to the allegations'".
IPC had earlier told reporters: "We can confirm that Morrissey's legal representatives have been in contact with NME and, pending the outcome of these discussions, we won't be commenting any further".
Roll on the libel suit I say. Though give me time to get that hat first.