Is there an ongoing attempt to cover up a huge Hollywood scandal?

Contradictory stuff culled from various entertainment news websites:

Star Wars producer Rick McCallum's recent comments when asked in a radio interview, "Is it true that N*Sync shot some scenes for Episode II but they ended up on the cutting room floor?": "No, totally untrue. They’ve never actually done an album at Skywalker Ranch but they come and do, you know if they have a show they’re doing in London and have got some stuff they have to pre-record they’ll come up to Skywalker Ranch and actually do their music and they’ve always been great fans. And they came down on the set while we were shooting in ILM some miniatures and of course then everything goes out of control."

...and when asked about the same thing in a recent interview with Empire Online: "That was such a complicated, longwinded, unbelievable bunch of wank. I don't know where that came from. It is interesting. The only two people - and this is an absolutely true story - the only two people who have ever fact checked with everything that has ever been written about Star Wars is you guys and the National Enquirer. That's just amazing. I mean I don't get it but you guys are the only two people who have ever fact checked."

If that's true, then why did a Lucasfilm representative tell media outlets that they had in fact been filmed as extras in a scene, and that it was McCallum himself who had offered them the part?

Again?

And again?

(Note that the Lynn Hale credited with confirming the rumors in the E! Online articles is quoted on numerous articles from legitimate news sites and credited at StarWars.com itself as Lucasfilm's director of communications. Were these quotes by her completely fabricated? Could she have been lying? Deliberately misinformed by someone? Why on earth would anyone want people to think that this was happening if it really wasn't?)

Why did members of Nsync supposedly themselves seem to think they'd appeared as extras in scenes filmed for the movie?

So... is this some kind of huge hoax designed to make Star Wars fans mad? To embarrass the Nsync guys? Is there a concerted effort at Lucasfilm to backtrack over this whole sordid affair? Or is McCallum simply trying to cover up his involvement in this attempted crime against cinema? Who are we to believe? How the heck is "*N'Sync" spelled anyway? Will the truth ever be known? More importantly, does anyone really care? I sure don't. I do however think it's been funny following all this and watching everyone scramble to backtrack and vehemently deny everything about something so stupid. I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear about this.

(I still haven't seen Attack of the Clones yet, but it has been widely reported that NSync does not appear in the final movie.)