All posts containing the tag: "tapes"
Posted Oct 6th 2009 12:55PM by TMZ Staff
John Travolta's lawyer just dropped a huge bombshell in open court -- dude just spit out a movie quote from "A Few Good Men."
It all went down after the people accused of extorting Travolta tried to turn the tables -- claiming Travolta's lawyer was the person who actually hatched the extortion plot.
But Travolta's lawyer, Michael McDermott, was furious -- and fired back, "You can't handle the truth! You can't handle the truth!"
The lawyer for the alleged extortionists replied, "You've watched 'A Few Good Men,' huh?"
The drama continues...
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, John Travolta
Tags: extortion, jett, john travolta, JohnTravolta, pleasant bridgewater, PleasantBridgewater, tapes, tarino lightbourne, TarinoLightbourne
Posted Oct 5th 2009 3:15PM by TMZ Staff
Transcripts of taped conversations between alleged extortionist Pleasant Bridgewater and John Travolta's attorney, Michael McDermott, have just been released ... and it feels like Howie Mandell could step in at any time and say, "Deal, No Deal?"
The documents show Bridgewater -- attorney for defendant Tarino Lightbourne -- haggling with McDermott over how much the Travoltas should pay for the "Refusal of Treatment" document ... at one point, McDermott offers property instead of cash, complaining how hard it would be to raise $25 million in cash.
Bridgewater says Lightbourne believed the doc was worth hundreds of millions of dollars ... but was willing to accept $25 million. McDermott countered with an offer of only $250,000 ... saying the Travoltas could go as high as $1 million if Lightbourne would accept property.
At one point McDermott, recognizing the absurdity of the negotiations, says, "We can do a little rug merchant negotiations here." At another point he complains Tarino's demands of $25 million require Travolta to come up with "like a pickup truck full of money."
Click here to read the full transcript.
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, John Travolta
Tags: john travolta, JohnTravolta, pleasant bridgewater, PleasantBridgewater, tapes, tarino lightbourn, TarinoLightbourn, transcripts
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 6:39AM by TMZ Staff
TMZ has learned an arrest has been made in the Erin Andrews Peeping Tom case -- the one in which the ESPN reporter was secretly videotaped walking around naked in various hotel rooms ... and the suspect has been charged with the federal crime of felony stalking.
48-year-old Michael David Barrett was arrested at Chicago O'Hare International Airport on Friday.
According to the FBI, Barrett allegedly stalked Erin "with the intent to harass, to place under surveillance with intent to harass and intimidate, and to cause substantial emotional distress to a person in another state."
The videotapes surfaced in July. At least six clips showed Erin walking around two different hotel rooms in the nude, and were shot with a peephole camera. It was virtually impossible to tell when or where the videos were shot.
Andrews' lawyer, Marshall Grossman from the law firm Bingham & McCutchen, tells TMZ Barrett allegedly contacted hotels in the various venues "where Andrews was working in order to locate her and her room number -- and some of the hotels revealed that information, permitting him to target her." Grossman says Barrett would remove the peepholes from the doors -- or as the complaint states, "hacked off" -- and inserted tiny camera devices to secretly film her.
Someone tried to sell the clips to TMZ, but we refused to buy or air them because they were an obvious invasion of Erin's privacy. The federal complaint notes that the videos were offered for sale to TMZ.com through his email account.
The complaint says Andrews was so upset when the tapes began to circulate elsewhere she was "having trouble breathing and felt sick all of the time." The complaint adds, "She was concerned there might be more video and wanted to vomit just thinking about it."
UPDATE -- Barrett appeared in court today where he was ordered to be returned to California to face charges.
Filed under: Celebrity Justice, Talk Sports, Erin Andrews
Tags: arrest, camera, eapn, Erin andrews, ErinAndrews, espn, hotel, peephole, peeping tom, PeepingTom, reporter, room, secret, tapes, video
Posted Jul 24th 2009 11:00AM by TMZ Staff
They just did it -- Nike has finally decided to give back the tapes they confiscated showing LeBron James getting dunked on by a college kid.
Nike henchmen took the tapes from two accredited journalists moments after Xavier's Jordan Crawford threw it down on King James at his Nike sponsored summer skills camp earlier this month.
The decision to take the tapes ignited a huge controversy and speculation that the Swoosh didn't want LeBron, a huge Nike spokesperson, to be seen in a bad light.
Nike claims it only snatched the tapes based on a policy that no pickup games be filmed.
But now -- 2 days after TMZ released the first copy of the dunk -- Nike is finally doing the right thing. However, it's unclear when they will hand the tapes back to the journalists.
Filed under: Talk Sports
Tags: cover up, CoverUp, dunk, jordan crawford, JordanCrawford, lebron james, LebronJames, nike, slam dunk, SlamDunk, tapes
Posted Apr 26th 2006 4:26PM by TMZ Staff
The federal probe into Hollywood gumshoe Anthony Pellicano is nowhere near winding down.
A source connected to the investigation says prosecutors have listened to only 25 percent of the hundreds of hours of tapes made by Pellicano -- a fact that will send chills through a Hollywood community desperate to put the case behind it.
The source says the delay in poring through the evidence stems partly from the size of the treasure trove, and from the fact that investigators didn't immediately recognize the value of what they had.
Other people close to the case say it is because three-fourths of the tapes remain unheard that prosecutors have moved the Pellicano trial to October from April, when it was initially scheduled.
Related links
Click here... it's not over yet
Filed under: Celebrity Justice
Tags: Anthony Pellicano, AnthonyPellicano, tapes
