<![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, scandals]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, scandals]]> http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/scandals http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/scandals <![CDATA[Indian Police Drop Child-Selling Case, Rather Than Place Phone Call to England]]> The father of nine-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali will not be charged with any crime for allegedly trying to sell her to undercover reporters for $300,000. Indian police couldn't track down the reporters.

It was always somewhat unclear what exactly went down in this case, and it seemed to boil down to a tabloid's word versus the word of the father, Rafiq Qureshi. So it's good to know the authorities WENT ALL OUT to get the testimony of every witness:

Police questioned Qureshi but were unable to track down the three journalists who carried out the alleged sting.

Officers looked for them at the Leela, a five-star hotel where the report said they met Qureshi but they had already left, Shaikh said.

Police traced two mobile phone numbers the trio gave the hotel to local Vodafone SIM cards, which were activated on April 16 and deactivated on April 19.

Indian police made no further efforts to contact the journalists or News of the World in England, Shaikh added.

Yep, they closed this case—which made headlines around the world—because they just couldn't get in touch with those News of the World reporters. Uh, did they try looking here?
[Pic via]

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<![CDATA[Jimmy Fallon Quiet on Alleged Pizza Fight]]> Why do you not publicly address last weekend's rumored pizza-related fistfight, Jimmy Fallon? What are you hiding? The smirking TV host has conveniently skirted the issue so far. But we have sources everywhere!

Fallon's flack talks to P6 today about how the woefully inadequate replacement for Conan O'Brien was kicked out of NYC pizza joint Posto, but totally leaves out any mention of what one tipster told us was a "nice little fistfight" afterwards:

"they could not have been any ruder. The hostess who asked him to leave was seemingly gleeful about it. Jimmy is never going back to Posto," Fallon's rep told Page Six

Blah blah blah. The fight man, what about the fight? Fallon's been quiet about it on Twitter so far. But! Another tipster spotted him after the incident and pronounced his face shiner-free:

I saw Jimmy Fallon with his wife at JFK this morning (Sunday) at 6am. We were both online at American's First Class Check in. Other than being really tired, like all of us having to be there at that hour, I didn't notice any injuries or evidence of fight. I'm sure his travel/airline etc is checkable. I wrote this note only b/c I was amused by the coincidence of seeing him this morning and now reading the post (I'm in SF at the moment) ….

Fallon is indeed on vacation this week. So come out with it, Jimmy: what happened out there? Twitter it or email us at once, or you're scared. Playground rules. [Previously]

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<![CDATA[Bill Clinton Doesn't Want Ron Burkle's Dirty (Nonexistent?) $20 Million]]> Famous American Bill Clinton has apparently decided to just walk away from up to $20 million he was owed by his old friend, creepy old billionaire modelizer Ron Burkle. Now why would he do that?

To recap: Bill was working as a vaguely defined "adviser" for some investment funds owned by Yucaipa, Burkle's company. Then his wife goes and runs for president so Bill publicly "severed business ties" with Burkle, presumably to avoid being photographed with more attractive young women on Burkle's plane.

But! Bill's consolation prize was that Yucaipa would pay him $20 million when he left. For what? Nobody's really sure! But there were lots of things that could blow up in Bill's (and by extension, Hillary's) face, politically:

Mr. Clinton was one of the three owners of the foreign fund's general partner, along with Mr. Burkle and Dubai Investment Group (YGP) Ltd., an entity that was part of the business empire of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai.

The Yucaipa connection presented other potential difficulties for Mrs. Clinton, people familiar with the matter said. In late 2007, the foreign fund invested in a Chinese media company, Xinhua Finance Media Ltd., whose parent company had past ties to the Beijing government.

Oh you know who else was connected to Clinton via Burkle? Convicted scam artist Raffaello Follieri! So, my working theory here is that taking the money would have caused too much of a headache for Hillary in the press, and also, since Bill's payout was theoretically tied to how much he earned, maybe there wasn't all that much money there to be had anyhow. But if you know better, feel free to share. [WSJ]

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<![CDATA[Should 'Paul Blart' Be Arrested For Stealing?]]> Sony may have a big hit (and new, Bob Dole-approved franchise) on its hands with Paul Blart: Mall Cop, but did the studio pay hush money to take out a potential Cop killer?

That's the allegation of one set spy, who sent Indiewire this account of some secret, backdoor Blart action:

During production at the Burlington Mall in MA, the film’s title was mysteriously changed to “Untitled Kevin James Project” before being changed back to “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” a couple of weeks later. The story going around the set at the time was that a writer from New Hampshire was claiming that Kevin James stole his script which he apparently previously submitted to Happy Madison and that he also registered the title with the Motion Picture Association preventing Columbia-Sony from using it. One guy there who was definitely in a position to know said the studio was so shocked when they read the scripts side-by-side that that they immediately sent a Sony bigwig to NH with an apology and a check to “work it out” in typical Hollywood fashion. I also remember hearing that the writer was a lawyer and was really giving the producers a hard time. Kevin James looked pretty sheepish for a few days too.

When “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” was released last week, it reminded me of the stolen script story so I poked around online to see if I could find anything. Sure enough there’s a script online called “Mall Cop” by Alfred Thomas Catalfo. I just read it and it’s the same script and the same story! Kevin James just changed Catalfo’s mall cop character “Art” to “Blart” and changed a jewelry store to a bank. It’s still about a mall robbery with hostages being rescued by a mall cop who can’t get into the police academy and lives at home with his mother. Both scripts even have robots and scenes set in the Rainforest Cafe! The site says the writer is a lawyer with a mailing address in NH. I found the script online at http://www.scriptghost.com/samplescript

I don’t have an ax to grind with Kevin James or Happy Madison especially since it was good money and a pretty easy shoot but sometimes this Hollywood b.s. goes too far. I hope the writer made a deal and stuck it to them. Call me jaded.

We took a brief skim through Catalfo's script and though there do seem to be some similarities, we spotted no emasculating Segway, Blart's now-iconic transportation mode of choice. Still, we'd recommend that mall internal affairs get on this case pronto—after all, Seth Rogen's got his own take on the profession coming out soon in what is suddenly a hot genre. Call us when we get a mall cop who, having switched places with his son's body, must evade a comet and an erupting volcano (in the mall's arcade, natch).

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<![CDATA[Outraged Australians Will Sic Dingoes On Nicole Kidman's Future Babies]]> Damn, Australians are not playing around! Shortly after Nicole Kidman desecrated human life, everywhere, by being forced to barely blow into a didgeridoo on German television, her home country has leveled insane threats against her:

"People are going to see Nicole playing it and think it's all right," award-winning actor, screenwriter and Aboriginal language teacher Richard Green told Tuesday's Sydney Morning Herald.

"It bastardises our culture. I will guarantee she has no more children. It is not meant to be played by women as it will make them barren."

Kidman, who suffered an ectopic pregnancy and a miscarriage during her former marriage to fellow actor Tom Cruise, gave birth to daughter Sunday Rose after marrying country crooner Keith Urban in 2006.

Way to hit her where it hurts, kind Oceania. Fortunately, what Green doesn't know is that Kidman is still planning to birth a child, Athena-like, from her smooth, shiny forehead. Yes, those were not Botox shots but fertility treatments, and once little Tuesday Cauliflower emerges her first act will be to suck on a didgeridoo too, just to be spiteful.

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<![CDATA[The Only Madoff Victims You'll Recognize (or Care About) So Far]]> The $50 billion Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme claimed lots of big-name victims. Now, a few days into the investigation, the Hollywood connections are coming out. Fun!

Look who else has been added to the victim list today:

Arpad Busson, the billionaire fiancee of Uma Thurman! Busson runs a hedge fund called EIM, which has more than $150 million in exposure in Madoff's funds. You can do better, Uma.


Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, the CEO of Dreamworks! He lost millions. It's the Hollywood thing to do—so did Katzenberg's pal...


Steven Spielberg! His charity got swindled out of an unknown amount. Sad. But not as sad as...


Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and humanitarian! His charitable foundation may have been almost wiped out. That's despicable. Then there's...


Mort "Mort" Zuckerman, real estate mogul and Daily News owner! More than 10% of his charitable trust was invested with Madoff. And finally...


Frank Lautenberg, ancient New Jersey senator! His charity also took a hit.


Of course there's also a laundry list of banks and rich individuals and whatnot, which can be seen in its fullest version here. God bless whatever unlucky WSJ drones were forced to assemble it.

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<![CDATA[Australia Up in Arms Over Nicole Kidman Blowing]]> Australia is SO MAD at Nicole Kidman right now. And it isn't because she honored her home continent with an eponymous bomb, or even because of her proximity to Fergie's labia.

No, Australians are up in arms because Kidman played the didgeridoo on some wacky German talk show, which women are forbidden to do in many parts of the country (apparently, souvenir shops have special exemptions). Truly, though, this clip of Kidman and Hugh Jackman on Wetten, dass..? is both an amazing extension of Kidman's Awkwardness '08 talk show tour and a surreal masterpiece that can rival the stateside display of our nation's vice president-elect stoning and drowning TV's Elaine Benes under the stewardship of a famous lesbian. Watch as Kidman sits there, having no idea what the hell anyone is saying, eventually realizing that they want her to humiliate herself on-screen. What follows, we imagine, is something akin to how David Lynch might interpret the wedding night between Kidman and Tom Cruise: lots of giggling, tentative blowing, and an uncomfortable man in a three-piece suit dancing on one foot. [The Age]

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<![CDATA[Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens in 'Sex Shop Musical']]> As teen stars go, High School Musical couple Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens are certainly more risque than most. Still, all the shower scenes and cell phone pics were mere prelude to this.

The site OceanUP has published pictures of both stars accommodating a fan in what appears to be a very unlikely location: a sex shop. Never did we think that leaked Zac Efron dildo pictures would emerge in quite this way! Here at Defamer's West Coast branch, we've put our innocent minds on the line to ID all the sex paraphernalia the Disney stars have been photographed with (trust us, the downright filthy NYC office would have had everything diagnosed and purchased online within five minutes). Won't you help us out?

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<![CDATA[Tribune Owes LA Times' 'Cereal Killer' $11 Million]]> The employees of Tribune Co. have plenty of reasons to be infuriated today—they're the ones who own the company through their Employee Stock Ownership Plan, not Sam Zell, who put just $315 million of his own money into last year's $8 billion deal that gave him control of the company. But the bankruptcy filing contains one detail that stands out as the unkindest cut of all: Tribune still owes $11.2 million to the former CEO of Times-Mirror (which Tribune bought in 2000) Mark Willes—a man most famous for massive layoffs and an ethical scandal of historic proportions:




Mark Willes got the nickname "Cereal Killer" because of his penchant for ordering huge job cuts, and because of his background as a General Mills executive in charge of the Cheerios division. He took over at Times-Mirror in 1995, and set about cutting costs. He laid off 900 total employees at the LAT and the Baltimore Sun. And he bragged that he wanted to take "a bazooka" and blast away the wall between the news and business departments.

That predisposition ultimately led to a huge scandal at the LAT in 1999, when it was revealed that the paper had made a deal to sponsor the new Staples Center arena in Los Angeles, and agreed to split advertising revenues from a special Sunday Magazine supplement about the Center with the center. In essence, the subject of the stories in that section was being paid from it. It was a big deal at the time, and it was part of Willes' legacy.

And now Tribune still owes him Retirement and Deferred compensation of more than $11 million. Chew on that, newsroom. [Although LAO points out the upside: all deferred compensation to former employees has been discontinued, so Willes will have to line up along with the rest of the creditors to plead for his money. Jon Fine lists more former execs in the same situation.]

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<![CDATA[Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's Lying Flack]]> So Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie are finally getting divorced. It's a very shocking thing, since earlier this summer, when reports of a pending divorce surfaced, Madonna's flack assured the world that the couple had "no divorce plans." Could it be that the flack, Liz Rosenberg—a charter member of our list of lying flacks—told something less than the full truth? After the jump, Liz's side of the story, and then the other, more accurate side:

We asked Liz Rosenberg about this discrepancy between what she said earlier, and what's happening now. Her answer: "there was no pending divorce earlier this year."

So, we asked, does that mean that, for example, the Sun's report that Madonna "initially planned to move back to the US with their three children in July" is false? "yes," Rosenberg replied.

Well, how credible is Liz Rosenberg? She told the world in 2006 that Madonna was not adopting a baby in Malawi. Although, of course, Madonna did adopt a baby in Malawi.

What else do we know about Rosenberg?

  • According to CityFile, she's "best known for having served as Madonna's flack for more than 20 years. Other clients have included the Pretenders, Cher, Josh Groban, Stevie Nicks, Seal, k.d. Lang, and Liza Minnelli."
  • She does a good job of staying friendly with celebrity magazine editors, naturally—she's allegedly been showering the editor of People with free Madonna tickets for a decade or more.
  • She knows how to play hardball—she reportedly managed to silence a good deal of potential press coverage of Madonna's brother Christopher Ciccone's book last summer, which portrayed the singer negatively.

So Rosenberg does her job. Regardless, no matter how much wheedling, pleading, bargaining, threats, or doubletalk a flack uses, they're not supposed to flat-out lie. But Rosenberg has quite a reputation for lying. Look! Some of the most vehement "Rosenberg is a liar" voices are the most fervent Madonna fans, like commenters on AbsoluteMadonna.com. It might be advantageous to court them, from a PR point of view!

Celebrity flacks are probably the only remaining category of PR people who can get away with bald-faced lies, and continue to be effective in their jobs. Corporate flacks run the risk of pissing off business reporters (or even the SEC), which would make them liabilities. Media flacks? Lord, they have to be friends with reporters. To lie is to die. Despite the vague public perception that all flacks are liars, they really can't be if they want to have a long-term career.

Unless they have a client like Madonna! Because the celebrity media will want to cover Madonna for the rest of her natural life no matter what she or her flack does. So Liz Rosenberg, yes, probably finds it expedient to just lie and now and then, without any real consequences.

But that also means you shouldn't necessarily believe anything she says.

[pic via Celebrity Wonder]

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<![CDATA[Rob Lowe, David Crosby and Man's Genitalia Converge in Worst Gossip Ever]]> Pop-culture physicists have spent the last several years chasing the elusive TMZ Principle, which dictates that scraping through the bottom of the gossip barrel will in fact bring you right back to its newsy surface. While a recent dispatch about Emeril Lagasse's 'shroom-possessing brother-in-law was an admirable if failed attempt to prove the theory, Harvey Levin's tireless moles may have found the D-list breakthough we were waiting for:

David Crosby claims the only thing bigger than Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young was the genitalia Rob Lowe's nanny coveted.

Eureka! Polish up this year's Nobel — the revelations continue after the jump!

In a declaration filed in the case of Laura Boyce — the former Lowe nanny who claims she was sexually harassed — Crosby claims he went to Hawaii last year and spent some time with the Lowes and Boyce. He claims during the trip, Boyce "stated on several occasions that she only dates 'black guys' because of their 'c**ks.'"

In another declaration, Heather Melchiori, another friend of the Lowes, says last year, while having lunch with Sheryl Lowe, "Laura began bragging about the size of her boyfriend's penis. Laura said that her boyfriend was an African American athlete." She add that Laura bragged that "her boyfriend's penis was 'the second largest black c**k in the NBA.'" And for good measure, Melchiori adds it was so big, Laura "had to wear a 'life saver' so that his penis didn't 'rip her p***y apart."

"Rip her party apart?" That doesn't even make sense! So case closed and theory proven — thanks, David!

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<![CDATA[Did Pineapple Express Steal This T-Shirt?]]> Sartorial scandal alert: Is the upcoming Seth Rogen film Pineapple Express guilty of wanton t-shirt design theft? A small Brooklyn t-shirt maker called WOWCH says that co-star James Franco's character appears in the movie wearing shark-and-kitten shirt that is really just a slightly altered version of a WOWCH design that was sold at Urban Outfitters in 2005. But the big stars don't give the little guys credit at all! The photographic evidence for this potential merchandising mockery—and the demands for redress—after the jump.

The original WOWCH shirt:

The Pineapple Express poster:

A closer look at Franco's shirt-wearing:

On WOWCH's blog, the company points out an interview in which Franco credited the shirt's design to director David Gordon Green. Yea right! WOWCH is demanding free tickets and popcorn to a showing of Pineapple Express to make up for what is, in all likelihood, the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of licensing fees (we just made that figure up). Justice!

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<![CDATA[Furious Art Dealer Meets Movie's 'Sex With Mother and Son' Claim Halfway]]> We're on the record as having thoroughly enjoyed the pulpy, incest-tinged, true-crime biopic Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore as Bakelite plastics matriarch and certified son-fucker Barbara Baekeland. Alas, one of Baekeland's lovers depicted in the film wants to make it clear that he didn't fuck anyone's son — especially Baekeland's — but that the whole "homosexual romp" thing? Yeah, that might be worth a lawsuit:

[Art dealer Sam] Green told us he has no problem being depicted as one of the many characters who hung around the Baekelands. But a scene in which he and Tony have sex simply never happened, he insists.
He's consulted a lawyer about filing a defamation suit. "The lawyer said this is a winner," Green said. "How do they think they can get away with it?"

Rainbow Media, parent company of IFC Films, told us: "The film was based on a book about Barbara Baekeland and carries a disclaimer that explains that characters may be composites or entirely fictitious."

Look, Sam, it's like this: When you play in the World Series of Fucked-Up, you're gonna get hit by a wild pitch every now and then. And anyway, your depiction in Savage Grace seemed pretty flattering to us, with your bronzed lothario's effortless seduction of Barbara Baekeland rivaled only by your cool in the sack with both mother and son — at the same time. You're a stud! Just take the feather, put it in your cap and enjoy your bit part in the myth. You may as well — you just publicized the hell out of it.

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<![CDATA[The Creepy Brit Who's Destroying The Honorable Craft Of Celebrity Journalism]]> OK! is the celebrity magazine that is the most willingly manipulated by celebrity flacks, which is really saying something. So it's perfectly appropriate that the magazine just promoted sleazy former celebrity uberflack Rob Shuter to its executive editor position. That's because Shuter is skilled at doing the two things that OK! is most famous for: lying on behalf of celebrities, and losing other people's money. Even he, the great fabulist, couldn't write a more sickening script than this.

Who is Rob Shuter? Once upon a time, he was one of the most powerful celebrity flacks in America, repping clients like Paris Hilton and Jessica Simpson. Eventually he got fired from his agency, Dan Klores Communications, lost his big clients, and ended up at OK!, which is really where he belongs. What went wrong?

  • Shuter planted a fabricated item in Page Six about his client Paris Hilton being attacked at a club by a supposedly "jealous" Zeta Graff. Graff subsequently sued for $10 million, which compelled Shuter to give legal depositions demonstrating his sleazy method of doing business (plant fake shit on Page Six, specifically). It was all very entertaining. Paris Hilton ended up paying $2 million for this transgression.
  • He treated his work on behalf of vapid singer Jessica Simpson like he was a Cold War CIA operative behind enemy lines. He planted nasty items about Simpson ex Nick Lachey. Then he decided to help Simpson get some press by fabricating a big romance between her and singer John Mayer. He convinced People and Us Weekly to put the story on their covers, and then made them all look like fools when the celebs themselves admitted there was no big romance at all. In one masterstroke, Shuter had shattered his own credibility (ha), made his own client look like a desperate liar, pissed off fellow celebrity flacks, and, perhaps worst of all, made enemies of some powerful celebrity magazines. He was then fired by Joe Simpson, for all of the above reasons.
  • Having established himself as an untouchable dirtbag that no legitimate PR agency would hire and no smart news outlet would trust, Shuter was scooped up by OK!, first in a consulting role and then as entertainment editor. And now as the top guy. Just perfect.

In unrelated rumormongering, there was gossip earlier this year that Shuter may have been somehow involved in a purported FBI investigation of In Touch magazine for "payments to at least one editor in exchange for prominent placement of certain B-list celebrities." Supposedly some shady British cabal of celebrity flacks and gossip reporters was under scrutiny. We hoped Shuter was wrapped up in it! Alas, no evidence ever confirmed the rumors. And to be fair, he even has some admirers among the gossip press, who say he's friendly and witty.

So what will Shuter be doing for OK!? A good guess: helping them continue to spend big with no apparent monetary return. We hear that OK! is the leading bidder in the war for Angelina Jolie's upcoming baby pictures, with a sum rumored to be around $15 million for worldwide rights. That's in line with the magazine's history of profligacy; we also hear that they've yet to turn a profit, despite an investment in the nine-figure range.

And Shuter, the fabricating flack, will fit right in. One of the best quotes I ever heard while working at PRWeek was from an editor at OK! who gushed on and on about how nice the mag was to its friends in PR, summing it all up by explaining, "We work directly with publicists and celebrities themselves to get the real story." Sure. All together now in the race to the bottom.

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<![CDATA[Gina Gershon Begs to Differ About That Whole Sex-With Bill-Clinton Thing]]> One day and about 1 million interpretations after Vanity Fair dared to suggest Bill Clinton sometimes thinks with his dick, Gina Gershon has launched a crusade to scrub her name off the list of the ex-president's rumored paramours. Or, more specifically, Gershon's pit-bull counsel at Hollywood firm Lavely & Singer has launched a crusade on her behalf, and they all seem a bit peeved:

Through the innuendo-laden assertion that Ms. Gershon has been "visiting" with President Clinton in California, the Article outrageously insinuates that Ms. Gershon has had an inappropriate sexual relationship with President Clinton. This is absolutely false, My client has the utmost admiration and respect for both President and Senator Clinton, and she is extremely offended by the false and defamatory inference that she engaged in an adulterous relationship with the President. ... We demand publication of a retraction and correction.

After the jump, learn the three times Gershon did hang out with Bill Clinton — not surprisingly, none of them include private jets dubbed "Air Fuck One."

But that infamous plane's owner, Ron Burkle, does make a cameo, as do the Shrivers and even Bono! Who even knew Gershon was this famous?

Ms. Gershon has only been in the same room as President Clinton on three occasions, during which she was always in the presence of anywhere from approximately a dozen people to several hundred or more. Specifically, Ms. Gershon was once one of several hundred or perhaps a thousand guests at a charity event at the White House while President Clinton was in office, which she attended as a guest of the Shrivers. On another occasion, Ms. Gershon attended a dinner in New York honoring Bono, where President Clinton was among the several hundred or more in attendance. On a third occasion, Ms. Gershon was a last-minute addition by one of the other guests who attended a dinner at the California home of Ron Burkle, with 10-15 people in attendance, including President Clinton.

Well, then — that settles it! Their demand for a retraction includes striking the offending passage from Vanity Fair's Web site, to which Gershon's lawyers conveniently link in their correspondence. Read up while you still can!

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<![CDATA[Exclusive: Debunking The Marilyn Monroe 'Sex Tape' Hoax]]> Yesterday, news broke that an ancient sex tape allegedly showing Marilyn Monroe giving a blowjoy to an unidentified male had not only surfaced, but had also been sold to an anonymous New York collector for $1.5 million. The NY Post's Hasani Gittens broke the story after interviewing Keya Morgan, a memorabilia collector who claims to have brokered the sale of the 15 minute reel. However, what the Post failed to mention in their story is that Morgan is well-known within the tight-knit circle of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia collectors for being a sycophantic, press hungry namedropper (check out his likely self-penned IMDB bio) whose main objective is to promote himself and the Monroe documentary that he is working on. Not only has he been known to casually claim that he has dated both Mariah Carey and Renee Zellweger, he has thus far refused to disclose either the names of either the seller or buyer of the tape; additionally, he has not been able to provide evidence that this alleged sale even occurred.

To that end, Defamer worked with a trio of Marilyn Monroe experts in an effort to get to the bottom of Keya Morgan's outrageous claims. The team of Mark Bellinghaus (one of the foremost Marilyn Monroe experts/collectors in the world), Ernest W. Cunningham (author of The Ultimate Marilyn) and freelance journalist Jennifer J. Dickinson to put together the following piece. It's one of the longer pieces that we have ever published at Defamer, but we think that it's well worth your time. And with that, please enjoy. — MDG

Marilyn%20Monroe_June_26_1952_sm.jpgDEBUNKING THE MARILYN MONROE "SEX TAPE" HOAX
By Mark Bellinghaus, Ernest W. Cunningham and Jennifer J. Dickinson

On June 26, 1952, Marilyn Monroe testified in court (as pictured) to protect her own reputation from accusations that a mail order pornography ring was selling pictures of her and that she was a participant in this process through solicitation of sales by letter writing. Along with her attorney, she debunked these claims and the pictures themselves, and the two men who created this scam were found guilty of misdemeanor charges, and Marilyn Monroe's name and reputation were cleared.

Nearly 56 years following her own victorious court appearance, Monroe's name is once again being affiliated with a fabricated pornographic claim. Now it is time to have the name Marilyn Monroe cleared once again of false allegations.

Keya Morgan, 38, New York City based memorabilia collector, has spawned a rumor of 16 mm film footage said to be Marilyn Monroe engaging in oral sex with an unknown male participant in the early 1950's when she was just a starlet. Morgan claims that this is an illicit copy of an FBI classified film of which a copy was made before the original was confiscated by the Feds. According to Mr. Morgan, he brokered the sale of this claimed 15 minute lasting reel to a wealthy New York Businessman for $1.5 million.

"You can see instantly that it's Marilyn Monroe," said Morgan—"she has the famous mole. She's smiling, she's very charming, she's very radiant, but she's known for being radiant."

The happy buyer of this supposed film chooses to remain anonymous but says he has no plans to market the tape. Morgan states: "He's just going to lock it up."

This tale of the sex tape follows on the heels of last month's Marilyn scandal, in which a fellow in Las Vegas called a news conference to display an unknown photo of nude Marilyn, but it turned out to be just nude Madonna. Please click here and here to read our reports on this story.

The real "Marilyn Monroe Nude" pictures are well-documented. She posed nude on red velvet for photographer Tom Kelley on May 27, 1949—photos that showed up for years on calendars and in lawsuits. Lawsuits for obscenity usually turned out to be the Kelley nudes, and were dismissed.

About this same time a short nudie film called The Apple, Knockers, and the Coke Bottle, began making the rounds. It's composed of grainy footage of a bare-chested young woman amusing herself -she's Arline Hunter, a Marilyn lookalike but clearly not Marilyn.

When a journalist or a tabloid show stumbles over a nude photo or nude film footage, the immediate response is usually Marilyn! Or Unseen Marilyn! Or Nude Marilyn!

But if it's not a Tom Kelley red velvet photo or Marilyn in the "Something's Got to Give" nude swim, then it's Arline Hunter and her apple.

If it's none of those, then it's pornography, and it's not Marilyn. She didn't go there.

There are too many holes in the Keya Morgan story. Having talked with Mr. Morgan in our own interview over the phone in the summer of 2007, he spoke quickly and non-stop of his planned television documentary, of conspiracy theories into Monroe's death, and about his alleged friendships with all three Monroe husbands. He claims he was one of the last people to speak to James Dougherty and gave the similar scenario about Dougherty's final words as has been rumored about Joe DiMaggio - that both former spouses on their deathbed spoke about seeing Marilyn on the other side.

In general Mr. Morgan was a name dropper, especially when it came to those notorious for supporting the conspiracy theories involved with the story of Marilyn Monroe. However, he wove into our conversation his claim that he dated Mariah Carey and Renée Zellweger.

The most recent sensationalism of this supposedly existing film footage generated by Mr. Morgan, ties in with the usual opportunistic conspiracy theories that are out there. What Keya Morgan is promoting equates to questionable stories generated simply to sell another book or push another cheesy documentary. Just looking at Mr. Morgan's cast list is enough to know that this is more of the same conspiracy rehash. There's John Miner, Jack Clemmons and Thomas Noguchi, who have changed their stories over the years and cashed in on the various Marilyn Monroe murder theories by being featured in books, articles and television specials.

Keya Morgan went on and on when we were on the phone, speaking of this usual cast of characters. At the time of our conversation with him, we immediately discerned that he was one of them only out to exploit Marilyn Monroe and to come up with something new to fuel the rumor mill of her life.

Yet Keya Morgan claims he would not have gotten his name involved in this latest story, if there was harm to Marilyn Monroe. But he is already too late - Keya Morgan himself is causing harm to the legacy of Marilyn Monroe by creating this outrageous and absurd fantasy (he did not participate in it—he created it!).

There are a few questions that one must immediately ask, the litmus test that proves Mr. Morgan's story about the supposed sex tape to be as bogus as the one caused by the perpetrators against Marilyn Monroe in 1952.

· The film was supposedly made of Marilyn Monroe as a starlet. If filmed in this time period of Monroe's life, why would the feds have cared about the activities of a young starlet, considering that Marilyn Monroe had not reached the heights of fame at the time this footage was claimed to have been filmed?

· "You see instantly that it's Marilyn Monroe - she has the famous mole." This is a quote by Keya Morgan, which is one of the flimsiest pieces of evidence ever presented. Just because this alleged film has a person with a mole, it's instantly Marilyn Monroe?

· Essentially Morgan is claiming that this is a bootleg copy of a classified FBI film. So if an original is classified, why would the FBI allow this public brouhaha in the press and not stop this sale from taking place? Why would this film copy not be destroyed?

Keya Morgan claims to respect Joe DiMaggio (it is alleged that DiMaggio tried to pay the informant $25,000 for the film and the offer was refused), and Marilyn Monroe even greater. Then why would Mr. Morgan allow this sale considering his "respect" of DiMaggio and Monroe? If he was such a collector looking to protect Marilyn Monroe especially, why would he not keep this supposed film safely in his own collection?

Stay tuned, but you're sure to learn nothing new from the Keya Morgan upcoming documentary, except the usual repetitive death theories (namely, that she was murdered). And Keya Morgan's time in the spotlight for this recent spin is nothing more than an opportunity for him to do just that - soak up some extra time in the limelight with his invented story about a fake flick, at the expense of the legacy of Marilyn Monroe.

Mark Bellinghaus is the leading Marilyn Monroe expert and official expert witness in the Queen Mary/Marilyn Monroe fraud Class Action Lawsuit; Ernest W. Cunningham is the author of 'The Ultimate Marilyn' and plaintiff in the Queen Mary/Marilyn Monroe Fraud Class Action Lawsuit; Jennifer J. Dickinson is a journalist based in New Jersey and a mother of two.

[Photo: Marilyn Monroe, pictured with her attorney on June 26, 1952 testifying in her own defense in Los Angeles Court, when there were accusations that pictures of her were being sold in a pornography ring. It turned out that the accusations were bogus, as were the pictures, and two men who created this scandal were found guilty.

Credit: The Mark Bellinghaus Marilyn Monroe Collection]

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<![CDATA[Ashley Alexandra Dupre And Scott Storch: Separated At Birth?]]> twins.jpegUpon close examination of the latest evidence, Eliot Spitzer's overpriced call girl Ashley Alexandra Dupre appears to in fact be twins with—or possibly the same person as—overpriced hip hop producer Scott Storch. Have you ever seen them in the same place together at the same time? We haven't. Just think about it. The visuals really make the case; after the jump, a photographic lineup that says more than words ever could.

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WHICH IS WHICH?


[Ashley Dupre pics via Us]

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<![CDATA[Actor Takes A Break Over Hong Kong Sex Scandal Photos (Like These)]]> edisonchen2.jpegEdison Chen, the famous actor and singer in Hong Kong who got embroiled in that big old sex scandal recently says he has decided to take some time off to do charity work and "heal myself." That being the standard crisis PR advice. Somebody stole hundreds and hundreds of sex pictures featuring Chen and assorted Hong Kong starlets, and it has been the splash of the century over there for the past few weeks. It doesn't help that the entire set of hundreds of photos has fallen into the hands of all types of media outlets. Like us! After the jump, four more (R-rated only) pictures, to keep you up to date. Any suggestions for what we should do with the rest of these things?

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