OK, I'm working on a non-fiction book due to come out next year from Continuum (if I ever get it finished) and I have two similar stories in it that I need to figure out if or how I can include them.

1. The first story is that Person A claims in an interview that Famous Comic Book Writer sold him a very rare comic book for $1.50 when they were both kids in the 1960s. I contacted FCBW by email to fact-check it, and he wrote back briefly that he did know Person A when they were kids, but never sold him any comics, much less the one in question. He added "I'm sure it's just a faulty memory of his and I'm sure I still have it here...somewhere." Naturally, Person A no longer owns the comic book in question, so there's no way to prove it either way. So my question is, if I include FCBW's response, can I include the story in my book and be safe legally?

 2. This is a separate story with different people in a different chapter. Person B made a little-seen parody film of a then-current famous movie in the 1970s. He eventually met the Very Famous Director at a party, and claims the director chewed him out because he was so hurt by the parody. I have no way to contact the Very Famous Director, and even if I could, I doubt he'd consent to an interview about a conversation he had almost 30 years ago (if he even remembered it), and if he did, he'd surely not admit that he blew his stack at a nobody in the middle of a party.

So can I include any of this story at all? How does the fact that he's a famous person affect it, if at all? Am I liable for someone else's claim (which I have on tape) if I recount it word-for-word? As you can imagine, I'd like to use the story, but not if it's gonna mean I'll get sued and be unable to feed my two-year-old.

Any ideas? Help!