Ever play that telephone game?

You know that one, where you whisper something in someone's ear, like, "Hey that guy's got a nice hat -- it's blue" and it gets whispered around to other people, getting twisted and changed, until it arrives back at you as something insane like, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

I actually hadn't played that particular childhood pastime for a long, long time.

Until a couple of weeks ago -- and that was inadvertently.

Prior to the Black Eyed Peas' Saddledome show, I spoke with vocalist Fergie about a number of things including published reports she was engaged to Josh Duhamel from Las Vegas -- not the city, but the show where everyone looks like a porn star, except for James Caan, who looks more like a porn director.

Fergie denied the report and it was printed in the newspaper as thus:

"Oh, no," Fergie (Stacy Ferguson) tells the Sun during an exclusive interview to promote tonight's Saddledome show.

"No, no, no -- I'm not engaged.

"That's all a rumour ... it's crazy. (I can) entirely dismiss that right now.

"I'm not engaged -- there's no time to have a wedding right now."

End of story, really.

We moved on and discussed many other things including, if I remember correctly, her fetish for portly, aging music writers and her desire to one day retire and live out her life with such a man in his parents' basement, cleaning up after him, bringing him beer and making him nachos.

I think. Don't quote me on that, though.

But that other part -- yes, yes, you can quote, as long as you do so in the proper context and cite your source.

You see, somehow those comments from Fergie wound their way around the world, and made their way to websites, which then sent them out into the world as their own.

Sure they got the quotes, for the most part right, but they superimposed their own emotions on them.

For example, a UK website "reported":

The Where Is the Love? singer, 30, is horrified by the rumours, insisting she hasn't got enough time to get married.

She fumes, "No, no, no. I'm not engaged. That's all a rumour it's crazy. I can entirely dismiss that right now.

"I'm not engaged -- there's no time to have a wedding right now."

Another site led with: "Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie has slammed reports she's engaged to her actor boyfriend Josh Duhamel."

Horrified? Fumed? Slams?

Um, no -- actually she giggled.

Or laughed. Or chuckled, snickered, roared, chortled, chuckled, guffawed, snorted or tittered.

But not fumed. She'll do that when people report she and I are engaged and living in my parents' basement.