Maureen Dowd in Times row

A colossal row between the New York Times political columnist Maureen Dowd (pictured) - one of America's best-known print journalists - and Michelle Henery, a little-known reporter for the Times of London, appeared to have been settled today by the London paper pulling a contentious article from its website.

Henery, a black American, claimed that Dowd had mistaken her for Barack Obama's wife, Michelle Obama. She says it happened in the press room after last week's Clinton-Obama TV debate in Los Angeles. Told about Henery's article, Dowd was furious - not just because the incident never occurred, she says, but because Henery then mused on the likelihood of white Americans electing a black president if "they" could not tell "us" apart.

The First Post has been unable to read the full original article, headlined 'She's taller and older but hey, Michelle Obama and I are practically twins', because it has now been removed from Times online. But according to sites which excerpted the column before it was taken down, Henery claimed that Dowd - whom she described as "one of my journalistic heroes" - came up to her "smiling warmly, greeting me like a long-lost friend".

Henery went on: "My mind went into overdrive trying to figure out why the world-renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times uber-columnist... was speaking to me. The shock of the encounter left me momentarily speechless, but in those few seconds Maureen's sweet smile turned into embarrassed confusion and she scampered off."

Henery, who left the States seven years ago after graduating from Georgetown University to work in England, then told how she emailed a group of American friend to ask whose doppelganger she might be. "They all agreed: 'She [Dowd] must have thought you were Michelle Obama.' "

Running with this theory, Henery continued her article: "Of course! I mean, despite her [Michelle Obama] having almost 15 years on me and more than three inches in height, not to mention that she should be immediately recognisable having had her face plastered across every newspaper in America for the past three months, we're like twins... I wondered how white America was going to elect a black man for president if they could not even tell us apart."

An angry Dowd told today's New York Post: "[It's] total fiction. I never went up to this woman, or mistook her for anyone. I've been covering Barack and Michelle Obama for a year, and I know what they look like. And I would never expect to see a candidate or a spouse in the press room at a debate because that never happens. It's outrageous conjecture."

Dowd said she planned to ask the Times of London for a correction. At the time of writing, no correction was visible on the Times website - but the offending article had vanished.