Rod Blagojevich is currently facing federal corruption charges for trying to sell President Barack Obama’s former U.S. Senate seat.
But that won’t stop the impeached Illinois governor’s pursuit of reality stardom.
Blago has will appear on this season of Donald Trump’s The Celebrity Apprentice and try to avoid being fired from this gig…
EXCERPT FOR MORE, CLICK HERE
Mystery Shrouds Defense of Accused Letterman Blackmailer: ‘Screenplay’ Defense?
In Celebrity Crime on October 5, 2009 at 8:22 amHow did a veteran “48 Hours” producer end up being accused of a $2 million blackmail attempt on David Letterman? 
“There is another side of this story,” Gerald Shargel, attorney for Robert J. Halderman, said. “This story is far more complicated.”
What could the plot to the other side of the story be?
Halderman has already entered a “not guilty” plea to first-degree attempted grand larceny.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau, Halderman wrote to Letterman stating that he needed to “make a large chunk of money.” Attached to his letter was a one-page screenplay treatment, which described how Letterman would have a “ruined reputation” after details of the CBS “Late Show” host’s sexual relationships with young female employees were revealed.
The 51-year-old producer used a novel method to deliver the “screenplay.” Early in the morning on Sept. 9 the letter and other materials were left in the back seat of Letterman’s car, which was parked outside his Manhattan home.
EXCERPT, FOR MORE CLICK HERE
Will Jon Gosselin land in jail?
In Celebrity Crime on October 4, 2009 at 8:53 pm
Kate Gosselin (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
A top flight Los Angeles lawyer for Kate Gosselin, Marty Singer, has written a hardball letter to Jon Gosselin’s lawyer Mark Heller alleging that Jon withdrew $200,000 from a joint bank account.
According to Singer’s letter, Jon and possibly his attorney have violated a court order.
EXCERPT, FOR MORE CLICK HERE
Fugitive director Roman Polanski finally arrested
In Celebrity Crime on September 27, 2009 at 9:04 am
Roman Polanski (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)
Director Roman Polanski fled the United States in 1978 after he had pleaded guilty to having sex with a 13-year-old girl in California.
The long time fugitive has been arrested in Switzerland.
The Zurich Film Festival, where Polanski was to receive a lifetime achievement award, released a statement which said that the Oscar-winning director was in custody after his arrival in Switzerland Saturday.
A U.S. warrant for arrest was issued when Polanski ran from the sentencing hearing. Polanski never returned to the U.S.
Extradition hearings in Switzerland are the next step in the case.
Earlier this year, a California court said that the director must return to the U.S. if Polanski wanted to seek a dismissal…Excerpt – FOR MORE CLICK HERE
Rihanna Photo Investigation Places Two Cops on Suspension
In Celebrity Crime on September 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Two LAPD officers have been placed on a forced leave due to an internal investigation into how a photograph of then beaten and battered pop singer Rihanna was leaked to the TMZ Web site.
The photos of Rihanna are from her February 8th incident with former boyfriend Chris Brown.
The two officers, nine-year veteran Rebecca Reyes and rookie Blanca Lopez, have not had any charges filed against them.
Excerpt: FOR MORE CLICK HERE
‘Vampire Diaries’ stars arrested for allegedly flashing traffic
In Celebrity Crime on September 11, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Drivers in Forsyth, Georgia were probably distracted as they drove past the intersection near the Rumble Road Bridge, as some attractive young female actresses from a hot new television show posed for pictures.
Four of the stars of the CW’s new series, “The Vampire Diaries” were arrested for purportedly flashing motorists from a bridge.
Excerpt CLICK HERE FOR MORE
Dr. Phil Weighs in on Jaycee Lee Dugard Story
In Celebrity Crime on September 10, 2009 at 3:53 pm
Critical time gap may be key to Michael Jackson homicide case
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, law on August 28, 2009 at 8:54 amA critical 81 minute gap between when police indicate that Michael Jackson’s personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, found the singer not breathing and when the doctor called 911 may be a key part of a criminal prosecution for the singer’s death. 
According to the LAPD, Murray found Jackson totally unconscious, but then called his office and remained on the phone call for a half-hour.
The timeline in a police affadavit does not bode well for the physician.
O.J. Simpson’s Courtroom Fate
In Celebrity Crime, Entertainment and Media, Hollywood, OJ, law on September 16, 2007 at 9:02 pm
A poetic turn toward justice seems to have taken place in the strange saga of O.J. Simpson.
The former athlete, actor and murder defendant was recently arrested on multiple felony counts. The charges involve serious felonies—robbery with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a firearm.
The Las Vegas police followed textbook criminal procedure, carefully arresting, charging and questioning the accomplice and obtaining two firearms and other evidence before going after O.J.
The accomplice, Walter Alexander, was arrested on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, conspiracy to commit robbery and burglary with a deadly weapon, enough charges to induce a deal with prosecutors.
Simpson seems to have a strange strain of narcissism that makes him think he is immune to the workings of the justice system. “I’m not walking around feeling sad or anything. I’ve done nothing wrong,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
Ironically, O.J.’s arrest comes as his book, “If I Did It,” a hypothetical account of his ex-wife’s murder, hits the bookstores.
In 1997 a civil jury found O.J. responsible for the deaths of wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman and ordered him to pay the families of the victims $33 million. Goldman’s sister Kim said she is not surprised by the robbery allegations because Simpson “thinks he can do no wrong.”
If the current case goes to trial, any actions taken by O.J. in avoidance of payment of the judgment would become relevant. If he had been involved in autographing memorabilia and secretly selling it to avoid paying the judgment, additional criminal charges could ensue.
David Cook, a Goldman family lawyer, said he plans to go to court to make sure the mementos were not sold but instead turned over to the family to be used to help settle the civil judgment.
Even though it is in the early stages, this O.J. trial may drastically differ from the “Trial of the Century.” O.J. will probably be unable to afford a “dream team” of lawyers, Nevada prosecutors will likely be more proficient and the judge less star struck than counterparts in the murder trial, a D.A. will be less inclined to permit a change of venue to another jurisdiction and, with any luck, cameras in the courtroom will be disallowed.
O.J. has already admitted to some of the crimes of which he is accused. He said that he entered a man’s room with a group of friends, one of whom was posing as a potential buyer, after being tipped off that some of his personal items were for sale there. He also said his friends helped him carry the items from the room, although he claims no guns were involved.
When all is said and done, Orenthal James Simpson may go to prison for a long stretch this time around, a punishment that would fit—like a glove.
Live Earth is a Con – cert
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Gore, Hollywood, Politics, global warming, live earth on July 7, 2007 at 6:39 pmWhat an event!
Led by a failed politician who doles out junk science and fails to disclose his ownership of carbon offset enterprises as he basks in the media spotlight, we are then preached to by rock stars, rap stars and actors, the repository of all wisdom.
Fergie says she’s selling her SUV and donated the proceeds “to global warming.”
Madonna performs while she invests in the biggest polluters on the planet and the whole lot of them are the most conspicuous consumers in history.
Paris Hilton and Checkbook Journalism
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Media, celebrity on June 25, 2007 at 7:59 amIt seems that the locals aren’t acting very neighborly toward Paris Hilton.
Hilton’s home happens to be in West Hollywood, just above the famed Sunset Strip. And residents who live near the troubled heiress’ digs have reportedly signed a petition requesting that she move somewhere else.
Folks didn’t seem to mind having Hilton as a neighbor when she was out drinking every night. But now reports are circulating, which claim she’s changed her life, found God and is reading the Bible.
Hey, there are some things that just can’t be tolerated in Tinseltown.
Meanwhile Larry King won the Paris post-jail interview sweepstakes by default.
NBC and ABC backed away from a Hilton interview. CBS also let it be known it wasn’t interested.
However, the reason for the sudden chill toward Hilton had less to do with the heiress and more to do with the networks’ reps.
Networks have been trying to distance themselves from numerous reports that have implied that, in an attempt to obtain an exclusive post-jail interview with Paris, checkbook journalism may have been at work.
The New York Post started the ball rolling when it reported that NBC agreed to pay up to $1 million for a “Today” show sit down. The report ignited other stories about media bidding.
ABC and NBC News were then forced to publicly insist that they do not pay for interviews and that neither had a deal with Hilton.
However, an ABC executive has said otherwise. According to the executive, the Hiltons had taken NBC up on a $1 million offer for the licensing of family photos and a video because it was more lucrative than ABC’s $100,000 bid.
For decades news organizations have frowned upon checkbook journalism primarily because the practice implicitly taints the credibility of sources. Cash payments provided in exchange for news may give a source an incentive to inflate a story. The hotter the account, the more money it is worth. In all of the jockeying, truth may be lost in the mix.
The nets have been cleverly getting around the rule by paying money for what they call “licensing” of photos, videos or made-for TV movie rights.
Some examples include the following:
-NBC scored exclusive interviews with the two UK Princes, William and Harry. Coincidently, the Peacock network paid a reported $2.5 million fee to air a concert in July that commemorates the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana’s death.
-ABC News paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Steve Irwin’s widow for footage used in a Barbara Walters primetime interview in Fall 2006.
- In 2003 CBS News offered Private Jessica Lynch, the former prisoner of war in Iraq who was rescued by U.S. forces, possible movie and book deals through its sister corporate divisions.
Prior to the 1970s, paying for stories was fairly routine. It is an acceptable practice in Europe.
Disclosure is the key. Now if we can only get the networks to quit the charade.
Did NBC Agree to Buy the Paris Hilton Interview?
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Entertainment and Media, hilton on June 22, 2007 at 6:47 amThe New York Times is reporting that ABC News said that they had lost to NBC for the first interview with Paris Hilton after her release from jail because ABC was unwilling to make a “high six-figure deal” with Ms. Hilton’s family.
NBC executives did not deny that they had had discussions about interview rights with Hilton and the spokeswoman for NBC News, Allison Gollust, insisted, “NBC News does not pay for interviews — never have, never will.”
Of course the money won’t come from the news division. The compensation normally will be paid in a separate deal, with a different part of the company, like the entertainment division.
Is TMZ in a Legal Tangle?
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Entertainment and Media, Media, OJ, entertainment, law on June 20, 2007 at 5:07 pmIf lawyers for the family of Ron Goldman and a bankruptcy trustee get their way, Internet site TMZ.com could be held in contempt for posting a manuscript of O.J. Simpson’s “If I Did It” book.
The Web site and its lawyer claim no wrongdoing.
At an emergency hearing U.S. Bankruptcy Judge A. Jay Cristol said he would schedule a hearing later on whether to hold TMZ in contempt and even discussed possible finacial liability for the joint venture between America Online Inc. and a Time Warner Co. subsidiary.
Although O.J. was acquitted of murder charges, Goldman’s family won a civil wrongful death case against Simpson now totaling more than $33 million.
As part of their efforts to collect, the Goldmans seized on securing the rights to the aborted “If I Did It” project.
The Goldman family wants to rewrite the book and put it out under the title “Confessions of a Double Murderer.” The judge had ordered all copies of the manuscript and related materials turned over to a court-appointed trustee, partly to satisfy Simpson’s debt to the Goldmans.
Goldman attorney Paul Battista said TMZ’s posting of the manuscript on Tuesday violated that order and may do irreparable harm to the family’s attempt to benefit financially from it.
“I can’t tell you how distraught the Goldmans are to hear that this hit the Internet for free,” Battista said.
Judge Throws Book at OJ
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Hollywood, Media, OJ, Social and Politics, celebrity, law on June 12, 2007 at 4:09 pm
A federal bankruptcy judge has ordered O.J. Simpson’s daughter to give a deposition by week’s end in a lawsuit about the former football star’s canceled book, “If I Did It.”
The issue involves a bankrupt company owned by Simpson’s children.
The company was previously ordered to turn over any copies of the book. You know, the where he explains how he might have committed the killings of ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.
Hopefully this judge will be able to trace the money and put it where it belongs – in the bank accounts of the victims.
Diary of a Mad Hilton?
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Culture, Entertainment and Media, Hollywood, law on June 3, 2007 at 8:08 pm
As Paris Hilton (minus her pet Chihuahuas and cell phones) readies herself to spend 23 days in the slammer at the L.A. Century Regional Detention Center, she’s also busy prepping a new book.
The former high school dropout has made a lot of money turning headlines into bottom lines. The Internet home sex video that served to inflate her fame quotient appeared just prior to the premiere of her reality TV show “The Simple Life.”
Now Paris is planning the release of a prison diary, which is apparently set for later this year, according to the New York Daily News. This means Paris’ punishment will end up stuffing even more dollars into her already heavily padded pockets.
The hotel heiress wisely stayed away from the Hollywood party scene as she came to grips with her inevitable jail time.
She did, however, manage to make a surprise appearance at the MTV Movie Awards where she let it be known that she opted for harder prison time than she had to.
“I did have a choice to go to a pay jail,” Paris indicated. “But I declined because I feel like the media portrays me in a way that I’m not and that’s why I wanted to go to county, to show that I can do it and I’m going to be treated like everyone else. I’m going to do the time. I’m going to do it the right way.”
While in prison, Paris will reportedly receive special treatment for her own protection. And she’ll also be assigned to a section of the prison facility that is separate from an area where hardened criminals are held.
She will allegedly have one handpicked cellmate who has been incarcerated for a traffic related offense.
Her grand entrance into the prison will likely resemble a red carpet affair. Every imaginable media are sure to be present, snapping pictures, streaming video and profusely punditing.
The big question is who’ll be first to get the shot of the quintessential party girl in her non-designer jumpsuit.
While Paris’ fortunes may be going up, another Hollywood star’s career may be headed south.
Charlie Sheen wants the public to know that reports about him nixing the narration of a questionable 9/11 documentary are wrong.
The “Loose Change-Final Cut” film deals with the same ideas that Rosie O’Donnell has been pushing; the theory being that some of the buildings that collapsed on Sept. 11 were not brought down by aircraft but rather were destroyed by explosives, which were planted inside the structures.
“My views and convictions regarding the events of 9/11 have not wavered. I still firmly believe the citizens of this great country, especially the family members of those tragically lost, deserve a much more accurate and thorough investigation surrounding the horrific events,” Sheen said in a press release.
“The suspicious fact that certain relevant testimonies were not included in the Keen Commission’s final report, discredits the majority of their findings,” Sheen added.
Sheen advocates a “bi-partisan, democratically selected panel” to investigate the matter, “not some tepid rehash of Bush-serving lap-dogs cherry picking evidence to support erroneous and fictional ‘Magic Bullet’ explanations.”
“I’m baffled as well by the fact Bin Laden’s crimes listed on the FBI’s most wanted list DO NOT include those of 9/11,” the actor railed.
Evidently, Sheen is undecided about whether he’ll volunteer to be the poster boy for the “Loose Change-Final Cut” flick.
“I await the newest version to be presented to me, at which point I will make my decision to participate (or not) based on the film’s content and merit,” Sheen shared.
Governator Goes After Copyright Pirates
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Culture, Hollywood, Media, News and politics, law on June 1, 2007 at 2:28 pm
After having their arms twisted by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Canadian lawmakers cried “uncle” on new laws to terminate video pirates.
According to the Canadian Press wire service Schwarzenegger has beem lobbying Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the piracy mess.
Arnold is acting as a mercenary for Hollywood to stop the loss of profits due to pirates who tape movies in theaters.
But will legislation help in the age of the Web?
Michael Moore’s PR Dream Come True
In Celebrity Crime, Culture, Entertainment Business, Movies, News and politics, Politics, celebrity on May 13, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Michael Moore is ecstatic.
Premiering May 19 at the Cannes Film Festival, Moore’s new film, “Sicko,” is set to debut in U.S. theaters in June.
As if choreographed to a tee, the Bush administration has given the factually challenged filmmaker the thing that he needs the most to generate publicity—controversy.
Predictably, after the news broke about him being under investigation for a possible violation of the U.S. embargo of Cuba, Moore immediately issued an attention getter of a response, which invoked the name that has lefty mega-cyberspace bang for the buck: George Bush.
The U.S.Treasury Department is looking into Moore’s production trip to Cuba because he allegedly failed to get permission to conduct business in the Communist country.
Evidently, Moore received a form letter from the Treasury Dept. Each year the government sends out hundreds of such letters seeking additional information when sanctions violations appear to have occurred.
In characteristic propaganda-like fashion, Moore posted on his Web site an “open letter” to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, which took a routine and foreseeable investigation and turned it into another set of Moore’s patented Bush administration conspiracies.
“First, the Bush Administration has been aware of this matter for months (since October 2006) and never took any action until less than two weeks before SiCKO is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival and a little more than a month before it is scheduled to open in the United States,” Moore wrote, transparently trying to link the release of the film to the Treasury Department’s timing.
Not content with one conspiracy, Moore added another. He implied that a corporate conspiracy exists as well.
“Second, the health care and insurance industry, which is exposed in the movie and has expressed concerns about the impact of the movie on their industries, is a major corporate underwriter of President George W. Bush and the Republican Party…” Moore explained.
“For five and a half years, the Bush administration has ignored and neglected the heroes of the 9/11 community. These heroic first responders have been left to fend for themselves, without coverage and without care. I understand why the Bush administration is coming after me — I have tried to help the very people they refuse to help…,” Moore added.
He then demanded that the Bush administration call off the investigation.
Moore’s fantasy-filled “Fahrenheit 9/11” premiered at Cannes in 2004 while he sought PR using his disagreement with the Walt Disney Company. Disney decided that the film was detrimental to its brand and refused to let subsidiary Miramax release it.
Miramax owners Harvey and Bob Weinstein ended up releasing the film on their own and later left to form the Weinstein Co., which is now the distributor of “Sicko.”
Harvey Weinstein has joined in on the publicity revelry.
“The timing is amazing. You would think that we originated this. It reads like a fiction best-seller,” Weinstein told the Associated Press. “This is ‘Fahrenheit’ all over again. ‘Let’s pressure somebody.’ Last time it was Disney, this time it’s direct,” Weinstein said.
“It’s like the Bush Administration had Mickey Mouse as part of their investigative team,” Chris Lehane, a Weinstein Company consultant told Time magazine.
The Weinsteins have put David Boies on the “Sicko” case, the lawyer who lost Bush v. Gore in 2000.
It should come as no surprise that Cuba, a communist dictatorship that jails dissidents, arrests reporters and lacks free elections, is defending Moore.
Cuba described Moore as a victim of censorship. “Any resemblance to McCarthyism is no coincidence,” the Communist Party newspaper, Granma, read.
According to the Cuban paper, in investigating Moore American officials confirmed “the imperial philosophy of censorship.”
OJ Kicked Out of Steak House
In Celebrity Crime, Culture, Hollywood, Media, OJ, celebrity, law on May 8, 2007 at 5:44 pmKeith Richards Sucks Dad Up His Nose
In Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Culture, Media, Music, Social and Politics, Star Celebrity Gossip!, celebrity, entertainment, gossip on April 3, 2007 at 6:05 pm
Rolling Stone Keith Richards may have indulged in a host of illegal substances in his life, but, hey this is not something to be bragging about.
“The strangest thing I’ve tried to snort? My father. I snorted my father,” Richards told the British music magazine NME.
“He was cremated and I couldn’t resist grinding him up with a little bit of blow. My dad wouldn’t have cared,” he said. “… It went down pretty well, and I’m still alive.”
Richards’ father, Bert, died at age 84 in 2002.
It’s bad enough to be boasting about sucking up blow, but mixing it with your departed dad’s remains is ghoulish.
Hollywood Heavyweight Phil Spector on Trial
In Celebrities, Celebrity Crime, Celebrity News, Entertainment and Media, Music on March 20, 2007 at 4:45 pmExpect the courtroom to be standing room only when the press of the world crowd in to report on the murder trial of legendary record producer Phil Spector.
Spector is accused of killing movie actress Lana Clarkson.
Jury selection begins this week for those who will decide whether on Feb. 3, 2003, the reclusive Spector murdered Clarkson after bringing her from the House of Blues to his home.
Spector gained fame in the 1960s for his “wall of sound” recordings. He has written such rock classics as “Da Doo Ron Ron,” “Be My Baby” and “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling.” He also produced the Beatles’s “Let It Be” album and George Harrison’s “Concert for Bangladesh.”
Clarkson acted in Roger Corman’s cult film “Barbarian Queen.” She was working as a hostess at the House of Blues when she was spotted by Spector.
Spector’s chauffeur, Adriano De Souza, told a grand jury that Spector had said, “ I think I killed somebody,” and that Spector had emerged from his home with blood on his hands holding a gun.
The court battle will center on the question of who pulled the trigger. The coroner’s office noted that Clarkson had gunshot residue on both of her hands and may have pulled the trigger.
A slew of forensic scholars is expected to demonstrate expertise in front of the jury.
Spector has pleaded not guilty and has remained free on $1 million bail since being arrested after the shooting. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Evidently, Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler didn’t learn much from the O.J. debacle. He has decided to let the trial be televised.
