more on hosts.deny

[Andrew Ivanov <c680789@showme.missouri.edu>]

Ok, this is how I wrote the files:
hosts.deny
ALL: ALL

hosts.allow
ALL: localhost

or 
hosts.allow
ALL: localhost :ALL

If I'm right, this should block any attempts to telnet/ftp/finger etc.
from the outside of 127.0.0.1
But I still can login from a different IP, and my syslog contains this:
Jan 11 14:25:36 Scorpio in.telnetd[20731]: warning: /etc/hosts.allow, line
0: missing newline or line too long
Jan 11 14:25:36 Scorpio in.telnetd[20731]: warning: /etc/hosts.deny, line
0: missing newline or line too long

when I telnet to my machine.
What am I doing wrong this time?
TIA, 
  Andrew