BIG BARTELS "NEWS"

Def Jam ruler Steve Bartels was spotted by Page Six hosting a dinner at Emilio’s Ballato in Soho Wednesday night. It’s hardly newsworthy in itself that Bartels would break bread with RCA President/COO Tom Corson, MTV/VH1/Logo GM Amy Doyle, BMG COO Ira Sallen, AEG’s Adam Lublin, Kanye West’s manager Izzy Zivkovic and headhunter Warren Wasp—so this bastion of journalistic integrity fabricated some, shall we say, fake news to put some there there.

Bartels “could be wooed by Epic as a new CEO,” the story offered, attributing “some spies who saw Bartels powwowing with music bigs at his dinner” and then imaginatively jumped to that conclusion.

Then, in typical Page Six fashion, the item immediately refuted the bombshell it had just fired off.

“I suppose Steve could be a choice, but that’s just speculation,” an industry source said, while a Def Jam spokesperson is quoted as stating, “Steve is not being courted for a job at Epic. It’s not true.”

The unasked question is, did Bartels pick up the check, or did he ask that the diners split it six ways?