Dan Gross | Clayton Morris leaving Fox 29

C

LAYTON MORRIS

, co-anchor of Fox 29's "Good Day Philadelphia," will be leaving the station at year's end, a Fox 29 spokeswoman confirmed yesterday. He'll continue to co-anchor the 5-to-to 6 a.m. portion of the show, with

Sheinelle Jones

, until then, but the station yesterday announced the hiring of

John Anderson

, not to be confused with

Yes

singer

Jon Anderson

, as the show's new co-anchor.

He's formerly worked in Cleveland, Omaha, and Minneapolis.

Your Humble Narrator, and several of Morris' Fox colleagues, were surprised the entertaining anchor wasn't re-signed. Morris did not return our call yesterday.

Stephen A. amassing attorneys

ESPN's Stephen A. Smith, who's been on leave from the Inqwaster since the paper stripped him of his column in August, has retained the counsel of Willie Gary, a prominent litigator based out of Florida, sources tell us.

Smith's primary counsel remains Washington, D.C., attorney Johnine Barnes. What he's doing with the lawyers remains unclear. Smith did not respond to our request for comment yesterday. Inqwaster editor Bill Marimow declined comment.

Phawker.com reported Aug. 20 that Smith was asked to return to sports reporting. What with his cabal of attorneys, we're guessing he probably ain't interested.

Out and about

Erykah Badu, Big Daddy Kane, and MC Lyte were among guests at Black Thought's birthday party at the Lounge at La Veranda (31 N. Columbus) the other night. Black Thought's fellow Roots member ?uestlove shared DJ duties with Cash Money. The party was organized by Tayyib Smith of Two.One.Five magazine and Little Giant Media.

* Speaking of La Veranda, Eagles

linebacker Takeo Spikes watched the Cowboys/Bills on "Monday Night Football" there.

* Chase Utley and wife Jennifer

and Pat Burrell and fiancee Michelle Fonseca stopped by Downey's (Front & South) late Monday night where the Phillies sipped Bud Lights and were thanked for an excellent season by the bar's staff.

Movie business

Jerry Blavat was at Heery Casting yesterday reading for a role as a 1970s radio DJ for Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones," which starts shooting here next month. We're told producers of the film, starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel Weisz, were impressed by his audition.

* Director Wes Anderson, his co-writer Roman Coppola and actor Jason Schwartzman will field questions after the 7 p.m. Friday screening of their new "The Darjeeling Limited," at the Ritz East (127 Sansom).

G-N, her rack, give away swag

Wired 96.5's G-N Kang, of the "Chio in the Morning" show, has launched clueaday.com in which she gives out designer fashions,

iPods, and other swag to those who solve riddles. Kang posts her clues in video clips, and is seen wearing only a bra in several. As we told you in July, she's very happy with her newly implanted D-cups. So are male visitors to clueaday.com.

Anton's up for ad campaign

South Philly-raised Anton Moore, a production assistant on BET's "Rap City," is competing for a spot in a Rocawear ad campaign. The Bartram High grad is among those telling stories online at iwillnotlose.blackplanet.com of overcoming adversity to follow his dreams.

Vote there in an online poll.

DJ Diamond Kuts wins award

Big ups to Power 99 DJ Diamond Kuts, who won the Female DJ of the Year award at the 2nd annual Black Girls Rock Awards in New York Saturday. The event was hosted by actresses Regina King and Gabrielle Union.

Jawbreaker endorses Jawfaker

Jawfaker, a three-piece Jawbreaker tribute band, which plays the Khyber (56 S. 2nd) tomorrow night, has been blessed by the defunct punk band it covers. Drummer/singer Charles Levingston, who works at the Federal Reserve Bank, says that when the three-piece group formed, it created a MySpace page and went to the My-Space page of Jawbreaker, seeking its approval. "Nice work, fellas. We're tickled," Jawbreaker drummer Adam Pfahler replied to them. *

If you have something you'd like to share with Dan, call 215-854-5963, or e-mail grossd@phillynews.com. To read Dan's recent columns, visit http://go.philly.com/ dangross.