McSteamy Gave Lip Service -- For Free!

There's a story going around that Eric Dane -- aka Dr. McSteamy on "Grey's Anatomy" -- may have sold the painful story of a skin lesion on his lip to OK! magazine.

But a source close to Dane tells TMZ that all that lip service -- painful though it was to recount -- was given freely, and that no money changed hands. Dane told OK! that the malignant lesion was frozen off by liquid nitrogen -- ouch -- and that he lost 10 pounds after the procedure, because it's difficult for him eat. Nurse!