When staffers at UCLA's Medical Center were fired in March for snooping on Britney Spears' medical records, and then selling tidbits about the pop star, like details of her giving birth so Sean Preston in 2005, one teensy weensy other revelation floated to the surface: The practice was nothing new.

Plenty of other celebs had their privacy violated, including Maria Shriver, George Clooney, and Farah Fawcett.

Now, tapes of conversations between tabloid The Globe and a score of hospital employees, from 1992-93, show how editors there regularly paid off sources inside various hospitals' walls for dirt on Tom Cruise, Liz Taylor, Billy Crystal, Kelsey Grammer, Magic Johnson, Roseanne Barr, Al Pacino, Paula Abdul, Frank Zappa, and Vanna White. From plastic surgery procedures to eating disorder treatment, every tidbit was available for the right price.

One reporter is heard telling Mitteager that, "If Liz (Taylor) is in St. John's Hospital," his source there will know it. "She takes a special delight on getting s— on Liz," says the reporter. "She has access to the computer and talks to orderlies."

On another tape, Mitteager contends that a now-deceased TV actor "has got AIDS. The people who want to sell the story have physical proof. They want $4,000. … They want to move fast because it's Christmastime and they want to get paid."

Equally impatient is the husband of a nurse, who asks if he can get "some good-faith money" for his tip. Mitteager says he'll pay only "if we run the story."

Mitteager bequeathed the tapes to private investigator Paul Barresi, who has offered to cooperate with prosecutors and hospital officials.

"I remember the gleeful reaction from a Globe senior editor to the news that Dinah Shore had been diagnosed with cancer," Barresi tells us. "It made my skin crawl. Nothing has changed inside the tabs." [R&M]

And don't go sounding all surprised when you hear American Media, which bought The Globe in 2000, denies any claims of responsibility for those outdated wrongs.