CNN host Piers Morgan has responded angrily to remarks made by Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Paul McCartney, implicating him in the widening telephone-hacking scandal in the U.K. On Wednesday, Mills said in an interview with the BBC that she had been contacted in 2001 by a journalist -- not Morgan -- working for newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror who admitted hacking her phone and confronted her with a message left on her voicemail by McCartney. At the time, Morgan was the editor of the Trinity Mirror newspaper the Daily Mirror. Responding to Mills's comments, Morgan said that she had "made unsubstantiated claims about a conversation she may or may not have had," adding that she "has a history of making somewhat extravagant claims." He then reiterated a previous denial "I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, nor to my knowledge published any story obtained from the hacking of a phone. ... What I can say and have knowledge of is that Sir Paul McCartney asserted that Heather Mills illegally intercepted his telephones, and leaked confidential material to the media." That did not satisfy several British lawmakers who are looking into the hacking scandal and who indicated today (Thursday) that Morgan should return to the U.K. and answer some of their questions instead of simply issuing statements of denial.

04/08/2011