Bill O'Reilly surprisingly had no spin or an epic meltdown when asked about those who hacked into his personal website.
Interestingly enough, the outspoken conservative acts a lot different when he's not the one asking questions.
Filed under: Wacky & Weird, Z-Spin
When blabbermouth billionaire Donald Trump finds out his mogul-ette daughter Ivanka Trump is riding something other than a Learjet, his cotton candy comb-over is going to do back flips.
When was manual labor in the Trump's repertoire?
Filed under: Z-Spin, The Rich Life
Reports are circulating that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has paid a visit to Britney Spears because of her recent hard partying. I'm told that is simply not the case.
Reliable sources in the world of Britney tell me DCFS never questioned the panty-challenged singer about her late-night clubbing. I'm getting a sense that the agency may have questioned Spears in the recent past as a follow-up to the seat belt incident earlier this year. Of course, Brit aficionados remember that DCFS went to her Malibu home after learning that Sean Preston was a passenger in the car she was driving and he was not strapped in. No action was taken in that case.
When I was a reporter at the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, I did a year's worth of stories about DCFS and how foster children were dying because of abuse that was never detected by the agency. DCFS is an understaffed county department that can't investigate all the truly serious allegations of child abuse. Even though Britney may be trading lullabies for Hyde, it's a safe bet she's got help at home. If DCFS investigated Britney's partying and at-risk kids were ignored, department officials would be skewered. Period.
Filed under: Britney Spears, Z-Spin
This class action lawsuit against O Magazine is a cheap attempt to use Oprah to grab some publicity.
True enough, TMZ broke the story that a disgruntled subscriber has sued the mag and Hearst Publications, claiming she was double billed for her magazines and threatened to pay up -- or else her credit rating would go in the toilet. Maybe she was double billed. It happens. But frankly, it happens with lots of magazines, so why did the lawyers in this case zero in on O? Then answer lies in the O, and the P R A and H.
These lawyers got one pissed-off woman to launch a class action lawsuit. So how are they going to get other plaintiffs? Well, first you need the media to put the word out so other subscribers will follow suit. After all, the more plaintiffs, the more money the lawyers make. The media isn't going to do a story on Popular Mechanics over-billing its customers. Oprah, on the other hand, is a sure bet.
Click here... it's not over yet
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Oprah, Z-Spin
The Pam Anderson/Kid Rock split is not about kids. It's not about money. It's not about houses. It's about image.
I'm told Kid's process server was on the courthouse steps before the doors opened yesterday. His divorce documents were stamped at 8:35 AM, five minutes after the clerk's office opened for business. Pam's process server followed 53 minutes later.
What each tried to do was tell the public that one left the other first. Image-conscious stars care a lot about looking desirable. Hey, who doesn't? Looking like you were dumped isn't sexytime.
There is plenty of anger in this split, but it's not going to be a war. The divorce itself will be handled with dispatch. The only real disagreement is over when they officially separated. Pam says they parted company on November 21. Kid says it was November 26. In an ordinary divorce, the date of separation often becomes an issue because it affects who gets what; in this case, there's no prenup and no real dispute over splitting coin, so the date is irrelevant. Again, it's all about image.
This has been a tough holiday season for celebs. Divorce seems to be in the bottled water. But in the case of Pam and Kid, it seems they won't have trouble getting past the loss. They each seemed way more focused on looking like they were on top.
Filed under: Break-Ups, Pamela Anderson, Z-Spin
The movie "Bobby" has deep personal meaning for me. I was at the Ambassador Hotel the night Robert Kennedy was assassinated.
Rewind to March 16, 1968. I was a senior at Cleveland High School in Los Angeles. Senator Robert Kennedy announced he would run for President. I loved politics back then and had never been more excited. I immediately found out which muckamucks were running the campaign in Southern California. I contacted them and made a convincing case that they should create a organization called High School Students for Kennedy and that I was the guy to run it. They agreed and installed a phone in my bedroom -- it was the bomb. I organized car washes, airplane washes, fake primaries at high schools which all the local media covered. But more than anything, I really believed passionately in Robert Kennedy, because he had electricity. No one could stir people's emotions like him.
On June 4th, I went to the Ambassador for the victory party. It wasn't certain that he'd win but it sure seemed like he would. It was an amazing night filled with hope. People felt like the country, which lost its way in Vietnam, could come back in a big way.
About an hour before Kennedy took the stage, I somehow went up a security elevator -- I don't remember if I was invited or not, but I ended up on the floor where Kennedy and company were watching results. I didn't see Kennedy, but I remember leaving and Ethel bumped into me as we both entered the elevator. She kissed two of her kids goodnight and then Rosie Grier appeared. Grier is the former football star/Kennedy stalwart who one hour later would subdue Kennedy's assassin.
Click here... it's not over yet
Filed under: Z-Spin
OJ Simpson will appear on a FOX special, hypothetically describing how he could have murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman. First of all, strike the word hypothetically -- he's a killer. Second, I have a theory on how he killed them, and that theory led to a bizarre chase that was anything but low speed.
Rewind to 1994. I was the investigative/legal reporter for KCBS, the CBS affiliate in Los Angeles. The case consumed my life for nearly two years. Between wall-to-wall live coverage, live shots for other affiliates and everyone in my life wanting the latest dish, I was a one-note guy -- with a theory.
I think what happened on June 12, 1994 is that Simpson was in a rage after Nicole rebuffed and embarrassed him at a restaurant earlier in the evening. I believe Simpson sought revenge with a knife, a cap and gloves, but he didn't intend to slaughter anyone when he left his Rockingham residence sometime around 9:30 that night. I think Simpson planned to slash the tires of Nicole's Ferrari. Nicole would drive around town in her sports car looking hot and it drove Simpson crazy. The tires had been slashed a few weeks before the murder, and Simpson all but admitted to Nicole that he did it.
Simpson was insanely jealous of Nicole, and slashing her tires would temporarily clip her night wings. I think Simpson went to the condo, saw the lights on inside and started peering through the windows. When he realized Nicole was taking a bath and saw candlelight, that's all she wrote. Either he rang the bell or she heard something and confronted him at the front door, and then he nearly cut her head off.
That was my theory. So one Saturday night after dinner, maybe two months after the acquittal, I drove a friend who wanted to see the murder scene. I drove to the alley behind the condo, where the garage was, to explain my theory. As I rolled up, an older black limo was stopped in the alley. I wouldn't have thought much of it -- lots of curious people were always there -- but I noticed the limo driver make eye contact with me through his sideview mirror and then gun the engine.
Click here... it's not over yet
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Z-Spin
Harvey Levin's Z Spin
There's a debate raging in Hollywood over the making of the "Borat" movie and whether producers deceived the people who appeared in the film. Well, if there was deceit, it could cost FOX plenty, but it's peanuts compared to the money the studio is raking in.
Two frat boys who appeared onscreen in a drunken, racial rant are now suing producers, claiming they were told the movie was a TV documentary authorized by the government of Kazakhstan and that it would never be shown in the U.S. A driving school owner also featured in the film told TMZ exactly the same story.
Here's the deal. If someone lies to you to get you to sign a legal document -- in this case, a release allowing producers to include you in a film -- whatever you subsequently sign may not be legally binding. It's called fraud in the inducement, meaning someone induces you to sign an otherwise binding contract under false pretenses.
TMZ has done some digging, and everyone we've spoken with, who was featured in the film, told us the same tale of woe -- that they were all led to believe their fellow "US and A" citizens would never know what they did on camera.
This could be a fascinating case if it makes it to court. On the one hand, you have producers who could look like greedy, double-dealing schmucks trying to bamboozle ordinary folk. On the other hand, how's a jury gonna feel about two racist frat boys who expected that their prejudices would be a secret protected by the Atlantic Ocean?
FOX has simply said the lawsuit is without merit. Here's the reality: The studio may end up paying off some of the featured "performers." Maybe they'll each get 25 grand. Compare that to a movie that could rake in hundreds of millions of dollars. If that's the cost of doing business, then sign everyone up.
If FOX did the dirty deed, at the end of the day, the message to other studios is clear: Do whatever it takes to make a hit movie, because you'll score big-time in the end.
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Movies, Z-Spin
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