Perez Hilton Lawsuit Commentary - Because you asked JeezeLouise


Copyright infringement is very tricky because the US Constitution protects both copyright and freedom of speech. Therefore, when the two collide it can be complicated.

The balance is such that the Constitution wants to protect the artist (X17) but at the same time wants to limit their copyright because the works (photos) themselves may be useful to the public.

Perez's defense will be "fair use."

Once X17 has proved they own the copyright, the burden will shift to Perez to prove fair use which involves four factors the court looks at.

1. The first factor is the purpose and character of the use. If the use is commercial in nature, then you are less likely to prevail than if it is for non-profit. If you are using the pics to try and get profit, you may be in trouble, but if profit is incidental, then you may be ok. Further, if you just use a thumbnail rather than the entire photo, you are likely to be ok. Perez will have a tough time with this factor.

2. The second factor is the nature of the work - Is the work unique or is it fact? In this case, I would argue it is more fact than artistic and so would be in Perez's favor.

3. The third factor is the portion of the copyright used. So, if for example it was a group photo and you cropped all but one, you are more likely to prevail. This factor is a tossup

4. The fourth and most important factor is how the posting affected X17. If x17 can prove they were damaged by a reduction in sales or a the number of visitors to their site, then they would prevail. The numbers need to be real and verifiable and not just guesswork.

If the facts are true as reported in the press release, and they may not be, then X17 has a strong case.

I do not usually comment directly on legal matters so the following disclaimer is needed.

DISCLAIMER - The Information is not intended to constitute, and does not constitute, legal advice. Moreover, the Information is not intended to constitute, and does not constitute, a solicitation for the formation of an attorney-client relationship; no attorney-client relationship is created through your use or viewing of the Blog. Anyone reading the Information should not act on it without first seeking legal counsel. Further, the Information is general in nature, and may not apply to particular factual or legal circumstances.

Perez Hilton lawsuit -- Thanks to JeezeLouise for being on top of this situation. Here is the link.

http://jossip.com/gossip/perez-hilton/breaking-x17-sues-perez-hilton-for-real-this-time-20061130.php

So, I met her. I finally met Ms. Lindsay Lohan if only for just an introduction. Sunset Tower Hotel. GQ Awards. I will not go into all the names she has been called and may or may not deserve. I will say this though. She came up to the people I was speaking with because one of the group was a friend of LL and so introductions were made all around. She seemed normal, and after a phone conversation I had with someone shortly before meeting LL, I would have thought otherwise. Honestly, and this kills me, she looked really good. Movie star good. I so much wanted her to look bad, but she really was dressed really well and her hair and makeup were flawless. I hate myself.

So, I was told there will be no more pantyless shots of Ms. Spears. I think you know who told me, but we should try to be vague as that is what makes it more fun. Besides, the reasons offered up for all the shots were also vague.

1. It had been a LONG time since she got to just wear a short skirt and go out and have fun, and the pap did not used to go for those shots. She has done it before with no problems.

2. It was going to be used as a joke when Britney and Paris hosted the Billboard Music Awards, which obviously is off for the moment.

3. There was a third reason, but I cannot go into that one and really, it was said as a joke. I think.

For my Australian LINK of the day I was going to talk about the Wiggles since they are Australian and because my nieces and nephews love them, but I really only found US coverage of them, and it did not seem appropriate to be a smart ass when talking about them anyway, so I let it go.

So on to the others instead. I LOVE this headline. You are going to have to click to see it. I will not give it away.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20847967-5006023,00.html

Nicole Kidman is the highest paid actress in Hollywood and it took me by surprise because I actually thought Reese made more $ last year. The two other interesting items in the article, are (1) I think an Australian newspaper could have found a better pic of Nicole, so I put one here which is much nicer, and (2) one of the 2nd place names does not belong on the list, but a mistake was made, and it remained on at press time.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20850637-2902,00.html

On most days it is tough to find a New Zealand link of the day and I end up having to mish mash something. But today, NZ really came through. It basically says Rachel Hunter got nothing in her divorce with Rod Stewart but that Rachel refused to be like Heather Mills. uh huh, right..

http://www.xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-6638657,00.html

With our newfound ban on all things ctv, it was much easier to find gossip from Canada.

I know everyone has seen the new-do that Gwen Stefani has been sporting lately, but this interview with Much Music in Toronto is actually really good. One minor note about which I am sure the writer has received about a thousand calls and e-mails is that he basically said women who are breastfeeding cannot be glamorous.

http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2006/11/30/2560812-sun.html

Now, I wanted to give equal time to Vancouver, but you have no entertainment or gossip news in your paper. How do you live?

So instead, we head back to Toronto and to Vegas and to Montreal all in one article. How is that much sucking up possible? Celine Dion of course and her horrible infection.

http://www.torontosun.com/Entertainment/Music/2006/11/30/2560814-sun.html


I will be back later with a blind item and of course tomorrow will be the Friday Four or Five where you get four or five brief blind items on Friday. Makes sense huh?

I have a really busy day, but will find the time to squeeze in a post or two. One thing I wanted to clarify about Vixen and Surfer Boy. I said as far as I know Vixen has never been married, but even I can be wrong. nuff said.

Plenty of links to Australia and Canada and maybe even New Zealand, and I promise to all my Canadian readers, no more CTV.

Also, from what I understand, there will be no more private parts photos from Ms. Britney Spears. I will explain in detail later.

DEVELOPING -- BLIND ITEM OF THE YEAR -- I keep trying to type this and I just cannot believe what the caller said. They definitely would know, but it is still unbelievable. When this female celebrity (#1) is arguing with another female celebrity or two it has always been assumed that the argument pertained to boyfriends or some trivial matter. As one of the female celebrities (#2) continues to go through personal problems, she is reaching out to friends with the story that she is involved in an on again and off again relationship with the other female celebrity (#1) and that what started out as a laugh became love for celeb #2 while celeb #1 preys on those emotions and treats #2 as a plaything when she needs someone which is causing #2 to spiral out of control. -- STAY TUNED --

Lets move onto something more calm


Australia has given the world not only Nicole Kidman and Elle McPherson and the famed group the punisherz, but also Vegemite and I am afraid Ms. Fanning does not enjoy it. She also prattles on about spiders and the movie she filmed in Australia and wanting to follow in the footsteps of Jodie Foster. So she wants to grow up and raise babies on her own and find a good woman to love, but the real controversy is her loathing of the Australian national dish/spread.

See for yourself.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20831907-5006023,00.html



It also looks like a US woman is stealing an Australian actor as Heath Ledger is getting married, or doing a very good job of faking.

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/celebrity/Heath+Ledger+to+marry-12628.html





Yesterday the Canadians tried to convince us all that Pam Anderson was more powerful than Jim Carrey and Sandra Oh (ok, so maybe Sandra Oh, but Sandra Oh is on a top rated tv show and has me for a friend, so--coin flip there hey?)

Today, the fine folks at ctv are all over the show "Degrassi," which they call an international hit drama. Maybe, but it is no "Stacked."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061127/degrassi_061127/20061127?hub=Entertainment


I have a trial today, but will try and get some more details on the top story.

This item is extremely juicy, but also very long. I was going to make it two separate small, blind items, but decided to combine them and just make one big one. Also, I think someone needs to come up with some definitions for A List - D List celebrities.

To set the stage here, this all takes place in Malibu so look up which celebs live there and that will give you a head start. We have a vixen who is mid to late 30's who might have been A list for about five minutes.Faded teen starlet who hit it big on tv, but now is strictly movies (when she can get them) who tries to stay in the mix but really lives well beyond her means, especially considering her lack of work and lack of marriages. As far as I know she has not been married.

Along comes her neighbor, a nice 16 year old boy with a typical surfer look (my client), but a dad who made it very big in the music business as a producer and has been married and lived with multiple women many of whom are very well known actresses.

16 year old boy gets arrested for possession of cocaine and dad wonders where kid got it as dad has been clean for a very long time. It turns out it was given to him by Vixen the neighbor lady who has introduced Surfer Boy to the wonders of the white powder and has also introduced him to other intimate activities. Surfer Boy thinks he is in love of course and dad is pissed to say the least. Surfer Boy starts discussing things he has seen at the house which explain how Vixen has managed such a nice place to live on a little amount of film and tv work and no live in or former husbands around. It seems that everyone in this little neighborhood knew to come to Vixen for all their pharmaceutical needs and Surfer Boy has not only seen who was coming in and out each day, but also how often and how much they were buying.

Surfer Boy originally told the police he got the coke from a friend and would not give up the name. It was not until he and dad came to my office that the whole story comes out. This is a no brainer and we call the DA and Vixen is arrested. If you look hard enough you will find the arrest in the newspaper. Surfer Boy makes a deal and is shipped off to New York to be with his mom and away from Vixen. Meanwhile Vixen is so far up the pipeline that she cuts her own deal of which I am not familiar with the details. I do know that within 48 hours of her deal the Mexican police acting with DEA officers made a sweep in the LA area and on the California/Mexico border.

The VERY interesting thing about this is that Vixen kept very good records and also paid taxes on her earnings. The records have some very interesting names and it is those names that helped her stay out of the public eye during this, EXCEPT for the actual arrest. The people Vixen was supplying were not only celebrities who often paid with funds from their employers, but also maids, drivers, bodyguards, etc. and Vixen knew who each was buying for.

Surfer Boy escaped from New York (wasn't that a movie?) and actually was found the next day at Vixen's house (next door to dad--well I never said he was smart) Vixen's corruption sexually of the boy was never made an issue, but dad made it an issue at that time so Vixen found a new toy and Surfer Boy went back to NY with a broken heart where he has subsequently (within the past couple of months) been photographed with a VERY A list female but with no idea of how it came to be. They should have read it here first.

Jessica Simpson Sex Tape Update - Last night I spoke to two people, both of whom would ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY know if such a tape existed and they both stated it does not exist. Their guess was that someone thought Britney was getting just a little too much publicity and that Miss Simpson's camp wanted her to have some as well.

HYPOTHETICAL discussion in the Simpson camp -

Publicist - "Well we could have Jessica go out and help serve the homeless for Thanksgiving or hand out early Christmas presents or do one of those Kathy Griffin type holiday/charity parties.

Joe- "Nope. What we are going to do is to have them think Jessica made a sex tape. If a sex tape is good enough for Britney, it is definitely good enough for Jess, and hell she hasn't even had any babies. And if that doesn't work we will just have her flash the world a few times. That should do it."

Australian LINK of the Day from a NZ website- I was going to show a photo of someone who got kicked off their reality show that is going on now, but since no one watches it over there, and we have no idea who the celebrity is over here, we will just go with this

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11965-6623631,00.html

and be thankful you did not have to actually witness it. So after you read about chundering, then you might want to check this out and guess whether or not the writer actually did. I love Australia, but honestly I have never heard of a person not being able to eat an entire Krispy Kreme donut.

http://www.evilpleasures.com.au/krispy-kreme-donuts/


And now for the first time we present the Canada LINK of the day. It could very well be the last unless someone can explain to me how Pam Anderson until recently was the most powerful Canadian celebrity. See here for yourself.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060815/jim_carrey_060815?s_name=&no_ads=

Expanded Blind Item - The couple who the police caught having sex in public was discovered by me, when the man came to my office and asked if he needed to register as a sex offender here in California because of this. I see that he also made another appointment for next week to see me, so I am guessing maybe his wife found out.

Be back later with a much more uplifting blind item than yesterday. Not all of the items I post are going to be happy and uplifiting. I wish they were, but I do not control the people or the situations that come into my office and my life and make possible these stories.

I am sorry this post took so long, but I needed to make sure it did not reveal too much because it is so sensitive. There are always allegations flying back and forth about what some celebrity has given to another celebrity, i.e Hepatitis (see Pam Anderson from Tommy Lee), or an STD, etc., but it something altogether different when it is HIV. When it is HIV, almost no one wants to come forward as this posting will show.

I have a client ( B list - a few television shows, never top billed and some made for tv movies where she was top billed) -- who came to me when she wanted to file for divorce. For some reason, I rarely get the husbands who come to me, just generally the wives. Anyway, she came to me and she wanted to get a divorce because her husband had been cheating on her. It was not the first time, but she was just tired of all the lies and she felt he was not honest with her about anything from the time they began dating. Of course, this self-realization about truthfulness did not hit it her until after they were married. They had a pre-nup and it was airtight and so she was only going to get what the pre-nup allowed which was not much, but I figured we might be able to argue for a little more support or an additional piece of property and he might give in, just to have us go away and to keep the legal bills to a minimum.

She ( "W") thought his cheating was confined to just a fling here and there. There is no way to describe him without some sort of revelation so lets just call him a businessman. ("B") It turns out that B enjoyed swingers clubs, and other hedonistic pursuits as much as he could and was not really selective in either his partners or their gender. As these revelations came out, W went to her doctor because she had not been feeling well and was dealing with incredible levels of stress. While there she decided to get a full bloodwork done as well to find out if she had contracted anything. Well there is a saying when you are getting bloodwork done, that no news is good news. The trouble was she got lots of news and it was not pretty. She had not only contracted HIV from the soon to be ex, but found out she was pregnant as well by the soon to be ex.

At first B denied he was either the father of the child or the person who had infected W, but soon caved. He admitted he had known he was HIV positive, but did not tell W because he did not think he would ever give it to her because they had not had sex in so long. One night, they both got drunk at a party and when they got home had sex for the first time in almost a year and it was at that time W became pregnant and HIV positive.

In order to keep all of this out of the press, not only for his sake and for W's, there was a very large settlement that at least somewhat made up for the tragedy that he caused W. W continues to work although she is probably more of a C lister now because she would rather not be in the public eye as much and she thinks that just enjoying life is probably the best thing for her.

I know you have questions about the child and if W gave birth or had an abortion, but that is just going to have to remain a mystery.

As of the time of this post, there is nothing to add on the MV situation. I will keep you updated. MV is the only person who can come forward without any repercussions. Myself, S, and Guy do not have that option available to us.

Australian LINK of the Day-Is Nicole Kidman pregnant? This article seems to indicate she is.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20832225-2902,00.html

I am hoping that the fabulous Mel will tell us all about the Kylie Minogue concert she attended the other night in lieu of attending the Australian Idol finale which she also had tickets for. Some photos would be nice too Mel otherwise I will have to post pics from her November 11 show which everyone has already seen.

A little update on the blind item from last Friday regarding the A list producer and his boy toy/slave tendencies. I represented his now ex-wife and during the divorce proceedings we discovered these weekly payments of $2000 each and every week. The producer spent over $100K in one year to be abused and treated like a slave for two hours each week. I did subsequently learn that said Dominatrix is very good at what she does and very attractive, but $100K in one year?

I will expand on the other blind items throughout the week and have four or five ready for this Friday as well.

The New Zealand link of the day is not exactly celebrity news or gossip, but is entertaining.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/061117/oddities/nzealand_crime_police

There are now a great deal of German readers of the blog and as is my custom, I will attempt to suck up, but it may be a few days before that starts.

I am working on a really long blind item right now, but I am having trouble making it totally blind so it will be a few hours before it is posted.

MV UPDATE

DEVELOPING-----

Someone who knows MV, but does not know about the S situation told me this morning that MV was contemplating an in depth interview to address some issues in her personal and professional life. Could this be one of the issues?

If there are any further updates I will address them in my 11am PST post.

A couple of people have asked about L's home and the home next door to hers and what happened, now that she has died. Prior to her death, L arranged for all of her property to be put into a trust. She named a trustee and of course she has beneficiaries as well, and at some point the two properties will come on the market. Although it cannot be enforced, L wanted each property to be sold to couples with children and the trustee is aware of her wishes.

The process of distribution will probably take most of 2007, but I will keep everyone updated. Thanks for asking.

One more thing I wanted to say.

It was about the open letter Lindsay Lohan wrote about Robert Altman. I do not know LL, and have never been closer to her than across the room. I am NOT the attorney she has been photographed with in the past as some have guessed. When I read the letter it just seemed disingenuous and was just saying it because she thought people expected her to say it. The line that got me was where she wanted people to call her if they were having a tough time coping with the death.

If it is genuine and heartfelt, then I apologize and perhaps it is a cry for help from her and she wants someone to be her father/grandfather and needs people to call her and be there for her. If this is the case, then someone needs to do something, and if it is not the case, then I stand by everything I said yesterday and what the original blogger stated as their comment.

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, if I make a mistake with spelling, or the date something is posted, please let me know (Thanks Jeeze Louise). Sometimes I rush through these things and do not always take the time to proofread as carefully as I should nor take the time to use spellcheck.

The first comment/subject I want to address is the S/MV item. The only thing I will say is I will not confirm or deny anything. I really cannot do that. However, with that being said, one thing I will say about myself is that I love my friends, and if you are my friend you know you will not get trashed here or behind your back or anywhere else. Some of you have guessed a certain person and I make very clear in another entry that she is a really good friend of mine and therefore could not be the correct guess. Also, she reads the blog, so be nice. lol

Det. Rhiannon Brock made a very good observation in a comment and I have to agree. It was in the Neil Patrick Harris entry and I stated that Ellen did not have any traditional romantic leads after Mr. Wrong, and the point in the comment was correctly made that this had more to do with Mr. Wrong being such a bad movie, rather than through any fault of Ellen. I agree. I also believe that NPH is probably the best chance for a gay actor to play a heterosexual lead because of his track record. Almost every comment on every blog about NPH stated he was so "believable" as a straight guy in Harold and Kumar, and it was such a movie stealing role that I believe studio heads would greenlight a movie with him as a heterosexual lead.

One commenter said that I am not Perez Hilton. I agree.

Several people e-mailed me and asked about the reality star and the escorting. So, I thought I would expand on it and I will do so for the others in the next week. I had a client who was arrested for drunk driving and during his recap of where he was and what he was doing prior to getting pulled over for DUI, he stated he had been driving/bodyguarding for this particular reality star as she met with two different clients and he had been doing this for her for several weeks. He was employed by the escort agency she was working for at the time.

For those of you have e-mailed me, I will do my best to e-mail you all back within the next week also, especially those who gave me some tips to confirm.

Thanks for all the great comments and e-mails about L. She was truly incredible and I do miss her grace and style and charm.

Over the past several days I have been inundated with comments and e-mails and just want you to know I read them all. I added my comments a few times in the comments section, but I do not know if everyone sees them, so I thought I would respond in the actual blog so that way everyone can read what I am thinking.

I really appreciate the e-mails and comments because I see things I need to improve and also allows me to clarify things which may be misunderstood and has also provided me some tips (VERY GOOD tips) which I will try and confirm, but alas, I am not a journalist so it will be difficult.

Australian LINK of the day (this one is for you Mel)

http://www.news.com.au/sundayheraldsun/story/0,21985,20820816-2902,00.html

Australian Idol finals which is cool, but what is really interesting about the article is how much money the producers are making from the telephone votes and also states how much the budget for the whole series was in Australia this year. The budget was $10M which I am going to assume was Australian dollars which works out to be a little less than $8M USD for the whole season. In the last year of Friends, one episode cost more than that to produce. This is why reality television is here to stay.

For those of you in Australia, New Zealand, or Canada or any other country, send me the links of any interesting entertainment stories from your country and I will be glad to post them. Speaking of Canada, I got an e-mail from http://www.ctv.ca/entertainment to do an interview for their e-talk television show because of the S blind item. If I went on there I would end up saying too much, so it is not going to happen. Their site is really cool though and they have lots of videos I would love to see, but they cannot be shown to people outside of Canada because of copyright. They will let you watch the commercials (gee, thanks) before the videos, but not the actual video itself.

OK, speaking of links which I was doing here somewhere, I have been getting people e-mailing me their websites and wanting to link and such. I have been really busy this week with Thanksgiving and having to entertain and be a chauffeur but I will look at all of them and then add them to my links section when I get the chance.

Friday morning is here, and just like I promised here are some items that will truly get your head spinning..

Someone gave me some really good advice yesterday and that was to be me and to remind me that this is my blog and so I will do what I want, including using a million periods when I feel like it.

I have two Australian links of the day and one is a few days old and I believe even Trent linked to it, but it is just so odd, that it needs to be linked everywhere. It relates to I am a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! For some reason it really never caught on here although it continues to do well in the UK and in Australia. What I want back is Celebrity Mole. It was a show I actually made time for and I think it should be like Hollywood Squares and they could have permanent cast members like Corbin Bernsen and Stephen Baldwin. No comments on my holiday reality show idea? OK, I guess I will just have to try and sell it myself.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20786276-5006022,00.html

The other link is to an Australian site, but it is a link to Lindsay Lohan's statement on the passing of Robert Altman. I, like many people in the world think he was an incredible director and brilliant in the way he used characters and think his films and his style are evident in many new films today. I am sad at his passing, and know those close to him even more so. What I find surreal about LL' s statement is that she....I have so much to say about her statement, but I really do not want to take away from what this man did in life and believe people should be mourned and respected, but, well the blogger who posted it summed it up rather nicely, although I would have added even more..You take a look and decide.

http://www.celebrity.org.au/lindsay-lohan-statement/

There is No New Zealand link of the day because I sucked up to you with a blind item.

All of these blind items I can vouch for except for the last one which another attorney shared with me that he swears he included in her pre-nup.


What female pop singer remains with her boyfriend because he gave her an STD and she is afraid to leave him and have the secret come out if she ever dates someone else?

What former cable television network reality star supplements her meager income and changing of boyfriends by working for an escort agency several times a month?

What current A list actor has numerous video cameras within his house which record houseguests, parties and intimate encounters without the knowledge of most of the participants?

What current A list producer spends one night a week as a boy toy/slave to a VERY expensive Dominatrix?

What B list actor and actress (both married, and not to each other) while filming a movie in New Zealand were discovered having sex in public by the police, not once, not twice, but three times within a 4 week period?

What former A list actress has in her prenup the amount of times she is required to have sex each week with her husband?

My first glimpse of her is someone with class. She is elderly and I will find out later is in her late 80's. I love this woman from the first time I lay my eyes on her and know she will be fun if nothing else. Her husband was a producer in the early days of Hollywood and died about fiteen years prior to her coming to see me.

She did not appear to have much money, but appearances can be deceiving. She truly seemed to be the definition of old money at least as it applies to LA. She had enough interest coming in to pay for the necessities of life and did not need to sell off anything to keep going.The reason she came to my office was because of a neighbor.

Let's call the woman L for lovely. L had been living in the same house for almost sixty years. It was built at a time where the houses and lots were still large and for the first 40 years she lived there, she had only two different families living next door. In the past twenty years, the house next door had changed hands more frequently, but still was fairly stable until J moved in which was about a year before L came to me.

J had made a bunch of money on a dot com and was trying to get in the movie business. He was flashy and obnoxious and basically just an arrogant ass. Shortly after his moving in next door, he paid L a visit and basically demanded that she sell him her house and lot because he had big plans and needed more space. He wanted to tear down her house and expand his house. He acted as if he expected her to just jump up and down and say yea!!, Mister I have been waiting for someone to come along and buy me out from my house. Instead she treated him with respect but basically told him to kiss off and that she was not selling.

Well, Mr J, did not appreciate being said no to, and decided to scare L out of her house. He first began hosting parties that lasted well into the night and made sure to be as loud as possible, as late as possible. He had his guests park on the street in front of L's home and basically tried to make her life a living hell. This behavior went on for almost six months every night. Seriously, he took off like 10 nights over the 6 month period but otherwise just kept repeating this behavior every night.Remarkably, L did not call the police to report the noise, although other more distant neighbors would from time to time call to report the noise.

J managed to find L's phone number and would call her repeatedly day and night. Now obviously much of this came from L, but she told me she answered everyone of his calls when she was home. She did not have an answering machine or voice mail, and did not even have call waiting. She did not want to inconvenience her friends by leaving the phone off the hook, or by changing her number. She had the same number forever and so no reason to change now. Could I fall more in love with this woman?

At least once a day, J would come by L's house (maybe he should have got a job) and harrangue her in person, and she remained her calm, dignified self and would always invite him into her home and even offer him coffee or a drink depending on his time of visit. L refused to drink before 5pm. When L was relating this story, I could see the twinkle in her eye as she was relating it, but she never really let me into what J's reaction was to this class and dignity everyday. I am sure there must have been days when he was in a rage and sometimes he must have just been confused.

This same pattern continued until about two weeks before she came into my office. Then one day, J went over to L's house and simply said that someone had contacted the real estate agent he had used to purchase the house and had offered a great deal of money for J's house and that he was going to accept it because according to J, he had the craziest neighbor in the entire world.

The reason L came into my office was to set up an LLC to finalize the offer she had made to J's real estate agent through a third party and never knew what hit him.The way she told the tale, is the same way I am telling you now, although when she got to the payoff line, it was the first time I saw just how beautiful a smile could be, but it would not be the last.

We watched the moving vans at J's house together from her windows and she even broke her no drinking before 5pm rule just that once.

I know that you all want gossip everyday and I will make sure to deliver, but sometimes it is nice to reflect on what Hollywood used to be and how grace and class can conquer all. I wanted something nice to say this day before Thanksgiving and also to remember my friend L who passed away earlier this fall.

I have taken the comments to heart, and will do my best to stop using more than one period. How was that? Is that better? lol.

Australian link of the day

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20803868-28957,00.html

I am linking to the top story. It appears that Dancing With the Stars - Australia version has a scandal brewing. It seems that chess whiz (yes chess whiz, not cheese whiz) Arianne Caoili may have had dance training. Well we simply cannot have that.

New Zealand link of the day

http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-6602780,00.html

U2 is in the country. I repeat U2 is in the country. They seem pretty excited about this group U2. Hmmm. Irish huh? Well I am sure they have some talent.

Now I must admit today has been kind of overwhelming. As I said in my first blog, I just was kind of using this platform to tell some of my stories. This blog went from about 100 hits a day to about 50,000 hits and so I am feeling the pressure to deliver better and better stories. I have plenty of them and some even better than yesterday, but for now I am just going to stay true to what I had been doing prior to yesterday and suck up to readers who comment and e-mail and who are all over the world.

I will continue to relate my daily adventures and everything else that interests me. I know not everyone will be happy everyday, but as I said earlier, I am just doing this as an outlet and not for any ulterior motive. I hope you enjoy.

OK..wow..so many comments yesterday and I know everyone is dying for a clue..but a couple things need to be said..This really happened just as I said it did..However, there was also a settlement agreement that was confidential which I cannot violate as well...THEREFORE, I have taken certain precautions such as using the year 2000 as a starting point..In addition, I am very vague when I use times such as several weeks or months....It would not be fair to S or the other parties involved or ethical to be any more specific in this situation..

In my other stories, there is less blindness and the persons can be guessed with some degree of accuracy..

Let me preface this post, by saying that if this story ever comes out, it would blow the music world up and shake it to its core..This would put the Milli Vanilli scandal and Ashlee Simpson SNL situation so far down the ladder it would be crazy..

Towards the end of last year I had a woman come into my office and she began to explain what she had done and had been doing for several years and it was one of the very few times that I just could not believe what I was hearing..I know the music industry inside and out, and I had never heard of something so extensive and pervasive as this..

This woman (S) came into my office because the payments she had been receiving had stopped and she wanted to either get the money that was owed to her, or expose what she had been doing to the light of day..

S is a sessions/studio/backup singer and is very good..Prior to her involvement in what I am going to describe, she made a very good living singing on commercials and being a backup singer for groups and other solo acts, etc..Like I said she is very good, but she does not really have that "look" which would make her a star, so record companies did not put her out front, but just used her talents..

In late 2000, a man came to her one day and said he needed someone to record some demos because he had written a lot of songs, but wanted a demo to shop the songs to singers and record labels..This is not unusual at all and she had done this type of work before and it paid pretty well so she agreed. What was unusual about her recording of the demos was how much work was put into the actual recordings..It was extensive..Generally there is not much time put into the recordings because you never really know if the song will even sell, and the money spent on recording could be put to better uses..These demos she was recording were actually being treated as if they were going to be released on a CD or to radio..They even did some mixing which was REALLY unusual..

After a few weeks she had recorded about over a dozen songs and she went on her way and was really oblivious to anything else pertaining to it, UNTIL several months later she was in her car and heard her voice coming from the radio, only it was another singer being given credit..(We will call this other singer MV for Milli Vanilli) She could not believe what she was hearing and did not know whether to be excited to hear herself on the radio, confused about the credit given to another singer or just pissed off for the same reasons..

What she did do, was to call the man who had originally come to her and had her record the songs..The man agreed to meet her and gave her a substantial sum of money and promised to keep giving her money every month as long as she kept her mouth shut. MV was taking off..(MV has/had several Top 40 songs and CD's. They could have gone to #1 or languished in the 30's..I really cannot go into much more detail or else it would be too easy to discover) MV was everywhere..on television, radio, awards shows, commercials..EVERYWHERE..meanwhile, S continued to get money every month and kept her little secret to herself..The guy who picked S was VERY lucky..Most singers would have caused a fuss, but S has always been in the background and was resigned to the fact she always would be, and was very happy just taking the $$, and did not want that to stop..

About 9 months go by and S is called by the guy because MV is going on tour and they want S to record some extra mixes and such for the tour..She agrees and does not really do much, but money is money..

Fast forward another year or so and S stops receiving money and after a few months of missed payments, calls the guy who explains that they need S to do another CD and then the payments can continue, but there is no more money unless she does more recordings..

S agrees and records another CD worth of songs which is released several months later and does even better than the first CD. This same process is repeated (I am not going to tell you the number of CD's because again you may be able to deduce and so I will just say the process repeated itself several times)

Well everything goes well for the most part for all these years and then no more payments, and no more calls and she cannot even locate our mystery man..S has not received a payment in six months when she came into my office and related this story..She did not even know the guy's name, but when she described him, I knew who he was and was even more floored than I had been previously..This was just something I had really not heard before..

I had heard of really altering voices in the recording studios and bringing in hired hands for one song or a large portion of a song, but never CD after CD and even doing extra work so a live performance would not sound staged..I told her I needed some time to check into her story and then we could proceed..It took two calls before I got the guy on the phone and he was pissed, scared, angry, threatening, remorseful..everything..It turns out the reason he had stopped making payments was he had been playing some shell games with the money between the record company, MV's earnings and MV's investments and just did not have any additional money..In addition, MV was not sure she wanted to continue on with what had been happening and so our mystery guy might be completely out of the picture..

I actually think the record company to this day has no idea what went on as the Guy was very good at what he does/did and knew how to make sure the record company was always happy..He stayed under budget, toured, made MV available, and made the record company money..

So a meeting was arranged in my office and S and MV finally met face to face..they had never done so, even though it was S who made MV a star..MV was rude to say the least when she saw what S looked like and it really upset me although S being her normal classy self could have cared less..

What we agreed to do that day was to provide S with one lump sum rather than a monthly income which was easier for Guy to pull off and S also agreed to never disclose her role in this drama and MV was on her own for future recordings and tours..

This involved literally millions of CD's and hundreds of concerts all over the world..The one thing I did get out of this beside my fee of course is a Gold Record autographed by S and by MV..I know it is the only one in the world..

New Zealand Link of the Day

Now, don’t worry all you NZ readers, in my never ending attempt to suck up to all my readers I still have a story later in the week just for you....It is getting tougher though because I now have a group of dedicated readers from Austria and Germany and also the UK, to go along with the other countries I mentioned earlier and so the sucking up will take awhile..

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/afpentertainmentnzealandyouthmanilowoffbeat

Sorry about the late update this morning, but it is not my fault. It is Blogger’s fault and the system has been down awhile and only now am I able to update..But never fear, there will be the usual larger post in the afternoon and it is about a HUGE scandal in the music industry that would have left everyone saying WTF?

Two Australian links of the day..The first link you may have seen either yesterday or today, but I wanted to briefly comment on it and since it is not a uniquely Australian link there needed to be a bonus..

Here is the first..
http://www.celebrity.org.au/heather-mills-interview/

Now, once you read the article, this comment will make more sense, but basically she is trying to make us think that she was so in love and so devastated by what happened that she will never wed again. That is the biggest bunch of crap in the world..There is one reason, and one reason only why she is never going to get married again and that is $$$$..If she gets married and divorced she does not want to share..

Here is a blind item I will give you the answer to..What former Academy Award nominated actress owns about 15% of The Simpsons and is worth many millions because of it?
Jennifer Tilly who was married to Sam Simon who was one of the 3 original creators of The Simpsons. Shortly after The Simpsons exploded, Sam and Jennifer divorced with Jennifer winning the marriage lottery..Now, I love Jennifer very much and she kicks my ass at the poker table all the time, and she has told me and anyone who will listen that she is NEVER getting married again because she does not want to share her money..She knows how fortunate she was and Jennifer is VERY smart..For the rest of her life checks keep coming to her from The Simpsons.. She is not going to get married and possibly give it up..



So, back to Heather Mills..Sir Paul was thinking with the wrong head and married HMM without a pre-nup and so for putting up with Sir Paul for just a few years, she is going to be one of the 10 richest people in the UK..Now why on earth would she ever get married and give that up?

I want to make it clear that Jennifer and HMM are not in the same group..Jennifer married for love and when she married Sam he really had nothing..She probably made more than him at the time although I have not asked her..

If you believe the UK newspapers, HMM was an escort and was used to faking for money..Well her hourly rate is huge in this equation..

Now, for the exclusive Australian link of the day and a much lighter link than yesterday..
http://www.mediated.com.au/mayor-hands-out-free-viagra/

I have no idea how Scarlett Johansson and Nelly Furtado get in this article, but I did not write it, just linking to it..

On a lighter note, I just want to alert my New Zealand readers that I am sucking up to you on Thursday here in the US..it will just be a tiny item because I just do not know that many good NZ stories..

Also, had a great time at the Diversity Awards last night..One of my friends was a host for the event and Bai Ling managed to keep her clothes on..lol (Bai is actually very sweet and she knows I am very proud of her for her award)



The Australian link of the day is also by far the scariest link we will ever see on this site..I really would love to know what he did to deserve this..

http://www.philosophyblog.com.au/about-skinning-your-husband-and-cooking-his-head-katherine-knight-and-john-price/

So last week I think I promised to fill you all in on a story that a pap related to me because he wanted to know if he was legally obligated to do anything about what he had witnessed and his obligations should it occur again in the future..

Most of you readers are used to seeing the photos of celebs up close and personal that are taken from just a few feet away..However, you may have also seen photos, especially on the beaches that are taken from a much greater distance, and then there was a recent case involving Jennifer Aniston where topless photos of her on her deck were taken from over a quarter mile away..

There are some pap who follow their quarry all the time, but for much of the time they just stay close to certain places they know celebs tend to hang out, or they know will be coming to at some point in the day or night. However, the big money are for pics that are harder to come by and that is where you get the guys following you everywhere ot finding a place that overlooks your house and then waiting for hours and hours and sometimes even for days depending on how valuable the pic would be if taken.

The pap who came to my office is a follower..he goes for the big bucks and does not settle for anything less..He has become very good at tracking his quarry from a distance (some would say it has something to do with the device on their fav car he put there, but I digress..lol) He also has found a place also about a quarter mile away from a particular house which provides him an excellent view of about 30% of the house including some rooms of the house, and into them as well..

He came to me because on 3 or 4 occasions (definitely 3, and unsure of the 4th) he witnessed the current A list actor beating his girlfriend and has the pics to prove it. (they are grainy, but very clear what is going on) The first time it happened he was not prepared to take pics because he knew the object of his pics was not at the house and so he managed to only get a couple of pics which are useful only if looking at the others to put the first in context. After the fight, he waited for what he was sure would be an appearance by the police, but none ever came. This same scenario played out the other times as well.

He came to me because he wondered if he was under some obligation to report the beatings to the police. He did not want to alert the police because he did not want the subject to learn about the pap watching his house and thus tip-off what the real goal with the pics is/was. Also, the fights happened over a several week period and always in the same room of the house and so he was wondering if they could have learned of his presence and were staging the fights because they always did happen in the same room..To back this theory up he stated and as I viewed the pics, admitted it is hard to see if there are any bruises or marks on the woman. Most of the blows appeared to be of the open hand variety and therefore would maybe not leave a mark and also would not leave any evidence if the pap decided to call the cops on his own and they investigated. He has thought about calling the police as soon as he sees something but doubts they would be able to respond in time..The girlfriend rarely leaves the house which makes it tough to follow her and see if there are marks or to confront her..She is not really in the public eye and so sometimes that can be problematic as well..He hired an assistant to follow the girl if she does leave, but she does not seem to leave until at least two days after a fight which would bolster the theory that she has been hit.

He wants her to leave because he knows that when she is gone, then his payoff pics will happen..I will keep you updated on this story..of course it could break out into the open at anytime as well..too many people are being brought into the loop..of course the pap could be bought off also...remind me to tell you about some big payoffs in the past to keep things quiet..

OMG, I was about to go out the door to court with "meth" but just have to tell you, that she is flying..and flying HIGH..If her fans could only see her now..I cannot believe she has not lost her teeth yet..I need to look closer..Big post later..

I also know I have dedicated readers in New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, Canada and Italy and I promise to pander to all of you in the upcoming weeks as well..

Have a great weekend

Making my Australian Readers Happy---

I really do enjoy pandering to my Aussie readers, but the problem is that although I do have a few stories that deal with Aussie actors and actresses (one REALLY good one) it is tough to make them blind enough to where one actually has to guess who the person is..The actress one is REALLY good..I am trying to figure out a way to share it without revealing too much, but she has been in several movies lately here in the US and one of the reasons she gets hired is because she enjoys the thought of having more than one "partner" at a time and is open to anything, anyone, anytime..unfortunately there was an incident not too long ago, and now she has a cast only policy, and no longer allows the crew to spend time with her..

I am sure everyone in Australia was happy Nicole and Tom split, and in honor of Tom's recent wedding here is a link to an Australian celebrity site which I think is a great site and at the risk of losing my readers also has the best conspiracy theory I have heard to date about how Suri Cruise came into being..

http://www.celebrity.org.au/tom-cruise-conspiracy/


Finally a way to make everyone happy..My favorite rehab stories mixed with Nicole and Keith pics..

First of all, I think it is great that Nicole actually went to visit Keith at the Betty Ford Center..I also think that she would kick his ass if he did not get help..The Betty Ford Center is actually a place where people go to get help for their addictions, unlike say "celebrity" rehab centers where it is more like a hotel and you are free to come and go as you please..You can always tell when a celeb is serious about kicking a habit by their choice of rehab centers..

(1) I cannot even tell you the number of times I have been told that it is easier to get drugs inside some of the "celeb rehab" places than in the outside world..

(2) I personally know 2 celebs who OD'd inside a rehab center and had to be rushed to a real hospital..

(3) At least four staffers at one high profile rehab center each made hundreds of thousand of dollars annually selling drugs to patients..None of the four knew the others were also selling drugs for about the first six months until one patient complained about the change in price each day he was paying..The only reason they were found out....See item (2) above..

(4) I really do wish Keith and Nicole the best..It would be really easy to just walk away like so many others, and so I hope it works out for the best..

P.S. To the pap who took these pics of Nicole and Keith and I understand I am not making the situation any better by reposting them, but the other people in these pics did not sign up to be in the public eye and I am sure there are some people who saw these pics and said, "I didn't know Bob or Jane was in rehab..OMG"

Of course "Bob" and "Jane" could also be asking Keith and Nicole to autograph thse pics so we will never know..

I am still working on today's entry, but wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to all the people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Greater Los Angeles..Their annual Wish Night Awards was last night, and I believe it is the 6th or 7th..This is the 3rd time I have attended and they just do great things for kids in their moment of need and it is great to see an organization totally devoted to making kids smile and be happy..(and on a selfish note, got to hang out with Mariah Carey who I have not seen in a long time, but remembered me which is always a nice feeling, and also got to hang out with Tiffani Thiessen who was one of my very first friends in LA and continues to be..I know you are reading this today, so I let you off the hook..lol..someday I am going to post that pic..)

I hope everyone likes the new format of the blog with some pics thrown in which should alleviate the non-stop words..I will try and find pics that set the mood, and not just throw in tons of pics of celebs because that is what everyone else does and I think it is kind of overdone..(not you Nat, you use different kinds of celeb pics)

So a nice juicy story for today and something I (1) witnessed in person and also (2) dealt with angry parents...

The background---Definite A lister who was on a tv show from late 80's to early 90's..now in mid to late 30's... teen hearthrob when on the show..

So this guy's favorite game was to go to Las Vegas and hang out by the pool and wait for the girls to come up and get his autograph and take pics, etc..Most stars in Vegas do not sit right out in the middle of the crowd especially when they were as popular as he was, but this was all part of his plan..When girls would want to take a pic with him, he would oblige, but what he would always do was offer to take a Polaroid of them and then autograph it for them..He also always took two pics if the girl was at all attractive and keep one for himself..He would generally do this for an hour and it was most often done in the early afternoon right after lunch..

The girls he found most attractive were usually between 14-16, with the majority of his "conquests" 15 or 16..The first time I ever noticed his interest in younger girls was by accident.. I was in Vegas with some friends and it was like 3pm or so and the casino was pretty empty and even more so in the VIP area, but there he was playing blackjack and he had two girls with him who were just sitting there, because they were to young to gamble..He had one on each side of him and I thought they must be related to him or something because they looked REALLY young..He knew one of the people I was with and introductions were made and he identified them as his friends..I mean this guy was like mid 20's at the time and these girls looked their age..

Anyway, I did not think anymore about it except for the fact I related it to a couple of people whenever his name would pop up in conversation..Two years later, another attorney referred him to me because some girl had gotten pregnant and she told the parents who she got pregnant by and the circumstances and they were at the time pissed and looking for blood and so he came to me..

So...back to the pool..After he had identified 3 or 4 potentials he would spend the next hour or so trying to chat them up and just kind of get an idea if they would be into an older guy like himself..If they sounded like they were into him, he would get more info from them and get their schedule for the next day or so...If her parents were at the pool, he preferred that and would actually chat them up and spend time with them..buying them drinks, etc..I guess he had learned prior to this that making the parents like you means the chances of you going to jail for statutory rape were much less..

The parents were often just as enthralled with this guy as their daughter..here was this A list guy spending time with them and weren't they just special?...Because they felt comfortable with him, they would let their guard down and did not think anything of him taking their daughter out to ride rollercoasters or to the mall, etc..It left them more time to be with each other and he is on tv so he could not be a bad person..Well there was rarely a rollercoaster or a mall in the girl's future, just a whole bunch of time in his suite..always with his Polaroid, often with a video camera, and sometimes with another young girl as well..

He had this game going on for a few years, and only in Vegas as far as I know..I only know what he told me and from what he shared, the parents only found out the real truth a few times and usually nothing happened because they were embarrassed and also they did not think anything could be done or just wanted to go back to Iowa or wherever they came from and forget all about it....He bought off a few parents and paid off some gambling debts for dad but basically just skated away onto the next victim..

Well the girl who got pregnant told her parents who the father was..she was 15 at the time..they were pissed and wanted to press charges..My client was lucky in that regard because the father wanted to talk to my client man to man before pressing charges and had a phone number to one of the producers of the show (I do not know how he got it or if the producer was also involved; at the time it seemed to me, the producer had maybe given the girl his card and maybe he had been part of this game, but he and my client and the girl said no; but I have always wondered where the phone number had come from)..well the producer got the call and found out the guy had not pressed charges yet and managed to sweet talk him enough to have him hold off until the actor could get contacted, and then after a few more calls I became involved..

There was just no way this could become public because this show was VERY highly rated and if there was a criminal investigation, the police would find out about the other girls and the show would collapse and people would lose their jobs, etc...

This was the kind of case where you just felt dirty every second you were involved...$$$ exchanged hands and a lot of ass kissing went on and promises were made and the parties signed an agreement with VERY strict confidentiality clauses..The girl/parents got money every year for 7 years as long as the story was kept quiet and no one admitted any wrongdoing..I believe at the time 7 years was also the statute of limitations for statutory rape in NV, but I do not know what it is now..I do not know if the girl had the baby or not..My client stayed away from Vegas and girls.....for about a year, and then I heard he started again, and then stopped because something else happened, but I did not want any part of it..as far as I know, after that last incident, he stopped doing what he had been doing...

I know everyone wants a good story after the soapbox of yesterday..so later today you will get the adventures of the mid 30's actor who loves 14-16 year old girls..I am thinking about adding photos this weekend as well..(not of the actor and the teenagers..if you want that, go to Mr. Skin)

And I have not forgot the Aussie contingent..Hopefully will have something later today for you as well..

Right now I a have a meeting with "meth" because we are headed to court next week..

So yesterday afternoon I had a client come in who is gay (B+ - B- lister) and who I helped with a domestic partnership agreement for he and his partner. When I saw the appointment on my calendar, I assumed it had something to do with the agreement but I was wrong..

It had to do with a role he is most likely going to get and what effect it will have on his life and career. I do not represent him for anything but the above mentioned agreement. He came to me for advice as an attorney and also as a friend and I was touched..Agents, managers and publicists are trained to look at the dollar signs and how can I get my client those dollar signs and we tend to put blinders on to anything else but those dollars..I have those same blinders at times although I really do try to not do otherwise, but it does slip out and I do not think anyone is completely altruistic except for those who have taken a vow to do so and not always even them..

In the last few months there have been a few celebrities outed by bloggers and I do not really understand why because in at least one of the cases everyone already knew he was gay and so the only thing it seeks to do is to harm his career..

There are many more gay actors and actresses in Hollywood than the general public probably realizes..It runs the gamut from A listers to D listers and everywhere in between..For the most part, producers and casting agents and managers and those "inside" know who is gay and who is not..This has been especially true since California passed a domestic partnership law and so more and more couples are coming to my office and other offices to take advantage of the law and make sure each party is provided for..

Most people I know, knew that Neil Patrick Harris was gay and he never tried to hide it. I do not know NPH well, but we know each other enough to say hi and have a chat if we see each other..NPH did not need to be "outed" since he was already out..He wasn't trying to be anything other than what he is..

The problem is that a particular blogger decided that everyone needed to know NPH was gay and in my opinion was very malicious in the way he went about it and was seeking out people who had slept with NPH, etc..

NPH lets face it kind of disappeared after Doogie for the most part..He was making a living doing theatre and was doing very well for himself but not like he is now..So, then he gets a chance in Harold and Kumar and everyone sees him now as this crazy heterosexual party guy everyone wants to hang out with and this translates into "How I Met Your Mother" where he is basically the same character..It is just Harold and Kumar reinforced..People in Hollywood know he is gay, but the general public does not know and they are loving NPH..

What will happen now to NPH? He is an incredible actor, but will people want to believe what they saw in Harold & Kumar? Was Ellen ever a romantic lead after "Mr. Wrong?"

When I share secrets and confidences with the readers of this blog I do so in a format which makes sure that no one gets hurt or loses a job or forces someone to do something they did not want to do just to satisfy the egomanical lusting of a blogger looking for more readers..

Now..back to my office yesterday afternoon..we are discussing in much greater detail and more people we know who may be forced into this same type of situation..My client has a chance at a role that will make him an A lister in an instant..this will mean more money, opportunity, and fulfilling his dream..At the same time he does not want anything to happen that will jeopardize his 3 year relationship with his partner and their future together..He is afraid that he will be given this opportunity, take it and do well, and then have it taken away by someone who has nothing better to do than be cruel..Or he can walk away from the role, continue his career which is nice and steady and probably will not come on the radar of anyone trying to harm and everything will be fine...This is the dilemma he finds himself in now and it sucks that it has to be a dilemma..Hollywood is fantasy and dreams and that is what the whole industry is based on from cartoons to porn...everyone is willing to play along with the fantasy and dream as long as it does not hurt the bottom line and it sucks when you are not able to make the choice of whether or not to keep the dream going..

I am 99% sure of what his decision will be and I wish I could tell you, but that might be too many clues, and I am not going to take away anyone's dream...

I will have a really long post later today about "outing" people in Hollywood and how it is ruining careers and lives and what is reality vs. perception..(and as a disclaimer, I am not gay so there may be a different point of view from someone who is..) I just need to rework it some to try and make it more blind...But a couple of notes..

**For those of you in NYC or going there sometime before Christmas I received about 5 e-mails and an equal number of calls last night about how cool the Barney's windows are in Manhattan with the Andy Warhol tribute..You definitely need to check it out..

**For those of you in Australia and I know there are a bunch, I am working on a couple of stories involving some people near and dear to your heart..

**This was the first time in a long time I was unable to attend the World Music Awards or Europe VMA's and so I am a little bummed, but just have too much going on here....Award shows outside the US are just a lot more fun to attend and everything is more relaxed and enjoyable for the artists and the fans..Shows here are so boring and so long the only award shows I consistently go to are the Grammys and the Golden Globes..Both of these shows are also long, but I love music so Grammys are a must and there are so many foreign journalists at the Golden Globes who are always happy to be there and having fun that it seems like everyone has
a great time even if it does take 5 hours..

OK, back in awhile with the longer post..

Celebrity Adoptions Gone Bad ( REALLY, REALLY BAD)

Lately it seems everyone wants to adopt a baby, buy a baby or whatever else celebs are doing to get a baby in 30 minutes or less..But if you recall this is kind of the 2nd wave of adoptions..The first happened a few years ago when Rosie and Jodie Foster and Camryn Mannheim and Calista Flockhart all adopted children or gave birth without identifying the father (Thanks anonymous). It was during that period of time that I had a celebrity couple (unmarried/ (she) actress (he) producer (both) A list to B list) come to me because they wanted some attention/help a disadvantaged child...Anyway, they actually did not want to adopt a child (18 months or so)..They had a brighter idea than that. Actress' sister was in jail at the time and would be for quite some time..Actress' sister did not know who the father was and Actress's mom was tired of taking care of the baby so our couple who we will call A&P decided they could become guardians of the child, get on the adoption bandwagon so to speak and help out mom and sister at the same time. I actually like to believe their initial intentions were good although misguided but had not realized what a child does to someone's life even if several nannies are on the payroll...

So the paperwork was filled out and they were given temporary guardianship until a court investigator could look at the living environment and home and report back to the court before a permanent guardianship could be granted..Well this is where the problems started..The investigator wanted to meet with A&P together at the house and just see how they interacted with the child but short of that would be willing to interview A&P separately if need be..The following quotes were said to me over the next few months while appointments were scheduled and canceled in vain..

"But we're celebrities, there must be an exception for us."
"We have to let him in our home?"
"Why do we have to be here?"
"Do we tip him?"
"I am having a little procedure that week so I can't."
"Fashion week comes first."
"Maybe we should just try and get her out of jail."
"Do we have to change diapers or is there going to be a test?"

Finally after 4 months of scheduling and rescheduling they connect with the investigator and actually to their credit everything goes fine and shortly thereafter they become guardians of the child..Now, there is really nothing left for them or for me to do for a year when they have an annual review to make sure everything is going well, etc..Now my name is on the court papers as the attorney of record so if something happens in regards to the matter, the court lets me know..well after about six months I get copies of all this paperwork done by 4 different families who all want to be guardians of this child..wtf? So, I call up A&P and ask what is going on..

"Well every party/opening/interview, etc..we kept telling everyone about how we now had this baby and everyone was so envious/proud/wish they had thought of it that they all wanted to try and do the same thing.."

"After a few months we stopped getting attention and the baby was causing headaches in our filming schedules/vacations/parties/yoga lessons and so when we saw someone who asked about "B" we said well actually we are thinking of sending her back to B's grandma."

Well it turns out that if the other couple showed interest, they would pawn off the child to the couple for a weekend or a week along with a complimentary nanny so they could decide if they wanted B. Well they were so successful at pawning B off on everyone and promising all these couples they could be guardians and one couple went and got an attorney and drew up papers and became the temporary guardian of B and when the other couples found out, they all went ballistic and filed all their papers through their attorneys saying they were promised B and they wanted B for themselves/and to get attention..

A&P loved the drama and since the other couples wanted A&P on their side for any testimony, they were wining and dining them/giving gifts/talking about greenlighting moives/new production deals/office space and A&P were LOVING it..this was much better than actually having to take care of B..after B's case was done they were "seriously thinking of helping another child."

Well one of the effects of all this paperwork is that B's mom got coipes of all the documents and saw what was going on and got her own attorney and talked to A's mom and once the judge in the case saw what was going on, managed to take care of it by making A's mom guardian until B's mom got out of jail which was about 9 months later...

Meanwhile, the other couples turned on A&P and although they are probably considered B listers because of their past work, their work will remain primarily in the past because these couples were not the ones you ever want to piss off..P has not done anything and A is "taking a break for the most part."

Now, if you think this one was bad I have one that is in some ways even worse, but do not know if I will share it tomorrow or wait for some other time..I like to give you loyal readers variety..

Thanks for the comments and e-mails and links and I really appreciate them all..I try to answer all the comments here on my blog and also on yours if you have one..I hope you will keep spreading the stories that make up my crazy days and crazy nights..

Lots to talk about later today but I would be remiss if I did not mention this blog and this person..

http://melsmorning.blogspot.com/

Besides being absolutely gorgeous, she has a wicked sense of humor, parties all over the globe and everyone needs to check out the punisherz..

Talk to you later when we hear about celebrity adoptions gone bad (REALLY, REALLY bad) but I am off to court right now..

A couple of things..First I promise some stories about some of my male clients..I do not want you to think they do not have issues because they do..they just happen to be different issues than I usually face with my female clients..First going to try a new feature called..

JACKASS v KINDNESS

I want to show you the extremes of celebrity behavior..I will try and stick with incidents in which I was a witness, but you never know..

JACKASS - Male rock star..I want to say 5 number ones, but Google says 6..solo act...hotel elevator after a concert..groupies (Band-Aids to my buddy Cameron and to my friend Kate who always makes me smile) pressing items to be signed into the elevator...(1) a woman in her 70's is on the elevator and a hotel guest..(2)me.... (3) singer's manager..the woman in her 70's has no idea what is going on and would rather be anyplace else..(btw I have no idea what she was doing up so late) girls are screaming and trying to claw their way to the elevator..singer grabs his crotch and says, "yeah girls want some of that don't ya?" and then turns to the woman in her 70's and says "I bet you could use some too huh?"..By this time he has accumulated a handful of Sharpies and begins to throw them out the elevator and the girls go scrambling for them, falling down as they do so..The manager hits the close button on the elevator and the singer reaches over and pushed the door open button and says.."not so fast..I love to watch them crawl..right where they belong.."then he lets the elevator door close..

KINDNESS - Female actress --- top 20 ish tv show---on her way to her FIRST late night talk show appearance---I was driving, and she was in the passenger seat--a friend of hers was in the backseat----on the side of the freeway is a woman standing behind her car which has a flat tire--the woman is holding a 6 month old in her arms---late afternoon--rush hour--it feels like a sauna outside and no one is stopping to help the woman--we are on the far side of the freeway so there are three lanes between us and the woman and we are about 100 feet back or so and traffic is stopped---actress is appalled that no one has stopped to even see if help is on the way..--we have been watching the scene for 15 minutes..like I said, we are not going moving at all..---she wants me to pull over to the shoulder which is going to take a miracle all in itself--she gets out of the car, and walks across the 3 lanes of traffic to the woman and her baby..turns out there is another 3 year old in the car we could not see from our angle or the lighting as well as a dog--the mom did not have a cell phone and was willing to change the tire on her own, but it was so hot she did not want to leave the baby in the car even with the windows rolled down and even if she did, everytime the woman stepped out of the car alone, the baby would scream which caused the dog to bark which caused the 3 year old to cry..---she was waiting for someone to stop or a policeman to come by or something and was hoping that maybe her baby would fall asleep if she held it long enough and then she could change the tire..(I am still trying to get over to the shoulder)--actress, not in the clothes she was going to wear for her tv appearance, but does have hair and makeup done for the most part, opens trunk and starts taking everything out to change the tire---now you have to realize that probably 200 people have seen this play out as actress crossed the freeway and everyone has been staring at the woman with the baby while waiting in traffic for a very long time..---all of a sudden, like a gate has opened 4 cars pull over to the shoulder to help..--unknown if they were shamed by actress walking across the highway or maybe thought she was attractive or finally realized no one was going to help--but you have never seen people move so fast--and within 15 minutes at the most, the tire had been changed and everyone was back on the road---I had manged to pull over, but during this 15 minutes of changing the tire, traffic moved maybe equal to where the woman's car had been originally...---actress although not actually having to change the tire looks a mess and she is sweating, and just does not look like she is going on tv later....when she gets in the car, her friend says well at least you will have a great story to tell tonight---actress says, no because no one would believe her and would think she did it to have a story to tell..(that is how hollywood works)---so everyone kept it quiet until now...

OK..Lots to talk about today and of course have some stories for you as well which I think you will enjoy in my new feature JACKASS v KINDNESS and you should look for that later today, BUT I wanted to comment a bit on the K-Fed Britney sex tape stunt, etc..

I need to start off by saying that I think Britney is a great person and one of the funniest people I have ever met. The other thing is that she is very intelligent..love makes people blind and she got suckered by K-Fed plain and simple..but as a businesswoman she knows what she is doing and when I have dealt with her, she has been incredible. I have not spoken to her since she got married because she kind of withdrew from the business part of her life..Right after she got married I had some talks with one of her "people" about a new product but nothing ever came of it and I honestly think she just was not that interested in anything but marriage...I hope now that she is back doing her own thing that I will have the chance to sit down with her again and get to know all the inside info..we shall see..

Anyway, the way I started in the entertainment part of the business was actually even before law school..I put myself through college and law school working in the music industry and it is where I made my mark at the beginning and allowed me to branch out to other areas now...So I want you to take everything in the News of the World Story with a grain of salt..Do I believe there may be a sex tape? Yes, because of Chaotic and because it was allegedly taken at the time of the honeymoon....Is it worth $50 million? NO..and no one will pay that..The math does not work and it would never recoup that much....As soon as one person buys it, the tape will be all over the internet..Yes, people will still go out and buy it and everyone will see it, but it will NEVER be like the Pam and Tommy Lee tape which was available even on spank-o-vision in hotels..If this was the pre-internet, then yes it would command a high dollar amount, but more like the $10-15M range..

The other thing about the article which makes me question the whole thing is the estimated net worth of Britney..They say she is worth 65 million pounds which is almost $130M dollars and that is just way to high..

To make money in the music business you need to (a) write your own songs and (b) tour frequently..Now, because Britney is so high profile she has opportunities other singers do not have such as endorsements and products like her perfume, etc..That being said, for the most part she does not write her own songs and she has not been on tour since she got married..

See what happens when a singer writes their own songs and when they do not..

Lets look at a Kelly Clarkson song "A Moment Like This" which was her very first single and is now used for Sandals resorts..Kelly did not write this song..It was written by a man named John Reid I believe and therefore no matter who sings this song in the future, John Reid gets paid and Kelly Clarkson does not..When Sandals wanted to use the song, John Reid got money and Kelly clarkson did not except for any added benefit that people may have gone out an bough her CD after hearing the song again..(on the commercial it is not sung by her)

Lets look at another Kelly Clarkson song from that same first album which was also very popular.."Miss Independent"..Kelly actually had a 33% share in this songwriting credit and so from now on, 40 years from now if someone sings this song, she will get a little money as well as a VERY smart business woman named Christina Aguilera...yep..

According to court documents, Britney's income the year prior to marriage was about $20M which was also her highest grossing year ever..That is probably about right..But it is also before taxes and payments to people like me and her management team and publicists, etc..She got paid so much that year because of endorsements and album sales and touring..Lets look at how much money a nobody artist can make touring..

Rick Springfield---3 or 4 hits almost 30 years ago now makes anywhere between $5,000-$10,000 a night in concert and with all the Indian Casinos and other 80's nights, etc, I am sure he could play 100 nights a year easily, if not more..This is someone who WAS really good and really popular but in the very early 1980's and can easily make almost $1M a year..Britney makes about 50 times that amount each night she performs but she has NOT performed for the last two years..

There is just no way that Britney could have multiplied her net worth by 400% over the last two years without any of these major income sources and with her still spending money at presumably the same rate she was prior to the marriage, if not waay more considering the two kids, extra staff, and K-Fed's excessive spending..

All of these tactics being played out are just a way for K-Fed to get more money out of Britney than he is entitled to by the pre-nup..Ms. Wasser who is Britney's attorney and who is a hottie as I have said before is VERY, VERY good at what she does, but I would imagine this is going to settle before very long..

OK, I just had to say all that and most of you may not care, but I promise you nasty celebrity stories later today so you can have your fix..

I really like this journal and should be checked out on a daily basis..

http://indie-lauper.livejournal.com/

That Vegas trip really did me in for the weekend..It is tough to do something like that and then try and do work which has any chance of making sense later..All I wanted to do for the rest of the weekend was to just lay around and do nothing..One of the cool things about living in downtown LA as opposed to other parts is that it is really kind of quiet here on the weekends and many of the people living here know each other or are at least used to seeing each other..It is more like the small neighborhood kind of feel you get on the East Coast and I just really like it when I take the time to appreciate it like this weekend..

The only "celebrity" thing of note that happened since I last wrote was attending the Deck The Halls premiere which was cool because many of my friends, clients, and business partners were there and it was very low key which is what I needed..

So, this next story is not going to be very specific but I think you will definitely get the idea..Another middle of the night call..this one was like at 2am ish...Former A lister from late 80's early 90's who was all over tv and movies..Since I have known her she has been using crack intermittently....got a call from her that morning because she had my # memorized..she would have called her publicist but could not remember his number..(thank goodness for small favors) It seems she had been with a "friend" she met at a bar and did not know his name or other details except he called himself "Andy" and they went to go score some crack because they both wanted to party and he was paying so she was all for that..So they end up in a neighborhood where (a) this car is out of place and the (b) people do not belong and therefore, after they have made their purchase the cops pull them over about 15 seconds later....now a little back story may be in order here..Our 80's A lister is on probation for possession and other various infractions stemming from her prolific drug abuse over the past 5-10 years and so she is looking at jail that night and quite likely for an additional three to six months or so as well for violating probation..Cops pull over the couple and "Andy" has the crack on him and it is his car..My client has nothing on her and for some reason which is unclear, neither cop asks her for identification or her name..I am guessing that each thought the other had because "Andy" was causing a bit of a disturbance and therefore she was not really on their mind..I can maybe see that happening...MAYBE..but then she stated that they looked through her purse to see if she was carrying and she was not (according to her)..This is where her story gets fishy cuz a cop is going to ask for i.d or see it in your purse while checking for drugs and so I am guessing she did a "favor" for one of the cops who either (a) recognized her or (b) just thought she was hot in that crack whore kind of way..you might say I have no reason to think she would offer a "favor" to the cops except she has not always paid her bills on time and more than once has offered me a "favor" to offset or pay her bill..I declined..but know she is not above that..

So.."Andy's" car is towed, "Andy" is off to jail, and my client is on the side of the street where she has no reason to be and so what does she think to do first? call a friend? no...call a taxi? no..she decides she should call her publicist, but cannot find his number so calls me instead so I can give her the #..I ask her why she needs it at 2am ish and she explains..

This situation just shows how messed up this town is and how desperate people are for publicity and to get their name back where it was and to be an A lister again..She is thinking to herself that she will get her name in the news and no doubt it would be and maybe her publicist can get her a nice little story in People about her trying to get her life straight after a stint in rehab..That is all possible..BUT in REALITY, what would have happened is there would have been a police investigation why she was let off and not arrested for violating probation..and the cops would have been in trouble and pissed..she would have ended up in jail for the violation of probation and everyone would know she uses crack and is not the innocent angel she once portrayed..the I am going to rehab for prescription drugs routine would not have worked..

Also..if she had got hold of the Killer P(ublicist) her defense would have been a lot harder for me because god only knows what he would say to make her sound pathetic, inspirational, or whatever his mood came up with at the time..Now some of you may be saying to yourself..hey, but wouldn't a publicist (a) keep her out of the news in this situation (b) want to keep the client out of jail?....a good publicist would do that..99% of them however would do whatever it took to get pub for their client and for themselves....the pub is saying to themselves, I want to land another A lister for myself, and how will they know about me if I hush this one up..I cannot go tell everyone I hushed it up..so therefore I need to come up with a story that gets me and my client in the news..Everyone needs to know my name also...just one vicious circle baby..

Oh..I got out of bed...went and picked her up..dropped her off at her place..declined the offer of a "favor" and told her she needed to go to rehab again without tipping off the press..as of Thursday she was still thinking of a way to work rehab to her advantage before going.....