That’s what Washington City Paper Angela Valdez is asking to mostly deaf ears. The National Enquirer ran with a story about CBS star Lara Logan having Baghdad romances with CNN’s Michael Ware and U.S. State Department contractor Joe Burkett, and the New York Post picked it up from there. The story even made it to Howard Kurtz’s CNN show Reliable Sources (video here), where he played Jossip’s favorite game: Cover the gossip by reporting on the coverage of the gossip, and asking whether we should be reporting on this at all. Well, perhaps somebody like Kurtz shouldn’t be wasting air time with it, but the Enquirer has a history of reporting on our news men and women; it just so happens that Logan’s story involves sex, with multiple partners, and she’s a pretty lady. So should we be upset by it? Maybe — it’s likely Logan got heavier treatment because she’s a woman, while plenty of male on-air sex trysts go unreported. But also: She’s a high-paid attractive public figure who brought together the words “sex” and “Iraq” for the first time since this war began, and shouldn’t the gossip industry be celebrated for that?
We can only imagine that Raffaello Follieri — who does not yet even have his own Wikipedia page! — has been cut off from his normal source of funds, the Follieri Group, which he’s charged with treating as his own personal bank account, despite the fact that its balance sheet belongs to investors like Ron Burkle. That’s why his $21 million bail had to be, according to a judge’s orders, secured “by $16 million in cash and property and guaranteed by five financially responsible persons.” [NYT]
But what if after all his supposed swindling, which involved previous charges by Burkle’s Yucaipa fund of $1.3 million in “misappropriated” funds, plus federal prosecutors’ charges that he’s spent his investors’ money lavishly on his own homes, vacations, and medical care, Follieri could still be funneling a bit of change into his bank account? CONTINUED »
After that power lunch at Michael’s on Monday, Raffaello Follieri was planning to jet off to Italy on Wednesday and spend some time in Capri. He’d even scheduled a birthday party for himself with friends at a restaurant in his hometown of Foggia. Then Tuesday got in the way, what with that little 12-count indictment, his handcuffing, courtroom antics, and eventual house arrest. All of which reveals one little thing: Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend had zero idea the feds were after him. If he did, at the very least he could’ve moved up his travel plans, or even better, gone somewhere else beside Italy, which has an extradition agreement with the U.S. — though after the CIA flap last year, where the U.S. refused to send accused officials overseas for trial, perhaps the Italians are less willing to cooperate with American law enforcement these days. We hear Austria is lovely, and uncooperative, these days.
Maybe Don Imus’ latest racist flap isn’t attracting the outcry last year’s “nappy-headed hos” remark did because there are fewer people to cry out to. In this type of situation, the infuriated classes have two people to sound off to: The broadcasters who carry his show (his new five-year $40 million gig is through Citadel Broadcasting and Rural Media Networks) and the advertisers who pay to reach his audience.
Except every since losing his old gig and finding new partners, his reach has slid; he no longer averages the 2.25 million listeners per week he did with CBS Radio. But more importantly, the advertisers who fund his operation – which reaped $20 million a year to CBS’ WFAN flagship, plus $20 million collectively to other affiliates – are nowhere to be found. CONTINUED »
As Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent at CBS News who just returned from Iraq, is given a home base in Washington, there’s one piece of baggage she’ll be bringing with her: a report that she’s the other woman in Texas couple Joe and Kimberly Burkett’s divorce. So the National Enquirer story goes, Logan began seeing Joe in Baghdad, where she was reporting from and where he was a contractor for the U.S. State Department. So distraught was Joe’s wife Kimberly over the affair, she supposedly overdosed on Valium, though she’s also alleged to have carried on her own extramarital dalliance.
And then there’s that other rumor, about Logan’s “romance with a star CNN correspondent.” CONTINUED »
It’s not that Anne Hathaway’s ex-boyfriend Raffaello Follieri is a con artist. It’s that he’s a bad con-artist. How to tell? He was arrested! That’s sort of the biggest criteria for finding out if a con artist is bad at his game. The second piece of criteria? Going to prison, which is where it sounds like he’s headed.
Trying to buy some sway with the pope, because you told your investors you were the Church’s financial manager, by donating $387,000 of your investors’ cash to the Vatican? And when that didn’t work, you hired a pair of monsignors to travel with you and then asked them to change into a more seniorial robe to send the impression you were down with god’s No. 2? If this sounds like a caper out of one of, uh, Hathaway’s movies, add to the film treatment many more hundreds of thousands of swindled funds that went toward funding a lavish lifestyle including a Trump Tower duplex, custom tailored clothes, and luxurious holiday travels, and you’re really on your way to the bumbling about of Get Smart. CONTINUED »
In another era, Eliot Spitzer would’ve loved for any of his big takedowns to be picked up by Law & Order producers and made into a ripped-from-the-headlines storyline. His prostitution scandal that cost him his career? Probably not so much.
Too bad!
On tomorrow’s L&O, substitute “Gov. Eliot Spitzer” for “Gov. Donald Shalvoy” and “Emperors Club” for “Excalibur.” CONTINUED »
IT TOOK FOUR JOURNALISTS TO REPORT THIS STORY Roger Clemens used to throw baseballs. Then he was accused of juicing. And now he’s added serial philander to his repertoire. Is there anything this man can’t do? [NYDN]
Rob Lowe’s former nanny, 24-year-old Jessica Gibson, gave Today exec producer Jim Bell reason to grin today: She handed the morning show a major get in agreeing to sit down with Meredith Vieira.
Gibson was, of course, joined by her attorney Gloria Allred, who leaves no opportunity to defend a woman against media scrutiny untouched.
The Brothers & Sisters actor claimed Gibson was trying to extort him to the tune of $1.5 million, or she’d go to the press with sexual harassment allegations; instead, he got a jump on the coming scandal and blogged about it on Huffington Post, and sued her for defamation.
But in Gibson’s suit, she says Lowe, among other things, exposed himself to her while she worked as his children’s caretaker.
As you’ve already seen, we have our suspicions about Lowe’s claims of extortion, but Gibson’s shaky performance this morning hasn’t lent her much credibility either.
Watch the clip below. CONTINUED »
Keep up people! Rob Lowe, dreamy star of Brothers & Sisters, is suing three former employees (two nannies and a chef), for violating non-disclosure agreements, theft, defamation, and infliction of emotional distress.
Lowe took to the Huffington Post on Monday before any of this became a headline, where he announced the nanny of kids Matthew and John Owen, Jessica Gibson, tried extorting he and wife Sheryl Berkoff for $1.5 million; if he didn’t pay up, she would allege the actor sexually harassed her. So he sued her for $1 million; ex-chef Peter Clements and ex-nanny Laura Boyce were sued separately, for violating non-disclosure agreements.
But much of this sounds quite suspicious. From the allegations on each side to the way the parties are handling the fall out. Is Lowe trying to shape himself into the victim when, theoretically, it’s quite the reverse? Quite possibly. Let’s look at where the suspicion falls.
First, Lowe is playing a game of aggressive defense. By blogging on HuffPo, he gets to frame the story as he sees fit, before the nanny or other employees can reach out to any of the tabloid press to tell their side. Commanding the direction of the story is crucial, and being first out of the gate, he gets the prize as the sympathetic party. It’s a smart PR move, whether he’s guilty or innocent.
Second, Lowe claims he’s the victim of alleged extortion, but refuses the help of law enforcement officials, who offered to open a criminal investigation. When the police get involved, Lowe could lose control of the situation’s press spin. Authorities would also have interview the ex-employees he’s accusing, which means their version of events would become public fodder. For now, Lowe gets to maintain the upper hand. But, generally speaking, victims of extortion refuse police help when they want to handle the matter privately, usually by meeting the blackmailer’s demands, so nothing reaches the press. But in this instance, Lowe volunteered to make headlines, guaranteeing the details of the scandal would become public, sooner rather than later. That he doesn’t want police help after airing the situation publicly rings sketchy. (TMZ says Lowe and his attorney didn’t want police help because it would cause the three ex-employees to go silent.)
Third, CONTINUED »
Like most members of the media, we here at Jossip firmly believe Barack Obama is going to win the Democratic primaries, and then usher in an era of change, unicorns, and free beer and candy for all Americans.
Shockingly, some people do not share this belief. One of them is Mark Crispin Miller, a professor of media studies at NYU, and author of The Bush Dyslexicon: Observations on a National Disorder, and Fooled Again to The Real Case for Electoral Reform. He is also the editor of an upcoming anthology on election fraud, Loser Take All: Election Fraud and the Subversion of Democracy 2000-2008, which comes out next week, conveniently.
Since we haven’t written books on election fraud, and he has, we dispatched intern Anastasia to get the scoop on his zany ideas. The professor also shared his thoughts on the media’s coverage of the election and why even Heidi Montag can’t get him to vote for John McCain.
Full disclosure: Miller’s also Anastasia’s professor at some flea bag school called New York University. She’d like point out that she does not necessarily agree with his assertions and doesn’t want the Republican party to kill her in her sleep.
Rob Lowe’s aggressive defense against the allegations of sexual harassment began normally enough, with a blog item on Huffington Post. Too bad his public display is being met with equally questionable follow-ups. Namely, he doesn’t want the help of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff, which heard about Lowe’s extortion ordeal and offered its services. Instead, Lowe is suing the axed nanny, Jessica Gibson, for $1 million on claims of defamation, inflicting emotional distress, and violation of a confidentiality agreement; she’s the won who allegedly wanted $1.5 million in hush money. Meanwhile, Lowe’s chef, Pete Clements, said he only found out about Lowe’s claims from a voicemail his mother left him. The actor alleges Clements had sex on his bed “with third parties,” stole meds from the medicine cabinet, overcharged the family for food, and tampered with security cameras. To hide the MSG he was sneaking into the food.
On the first season of ABC’s excellent Brothers & Sisters – which we’ve already managed to plug today – Rob Lowe’s character, presidential hopeful Sen. Robert McAllister, escapes an extortion claim when fiance Kitty Walker (Calista Flockhart) enlists the help of gay brother and attorney Kevin, who digs up dirt (illegitimate child!) on the blackmailer (who threatened to expose the senator for not being the war hero he allowed others to think he is), forcing the evil-doing hopeful to abandon his tell-all threats and retreat.
Why our drawn-out plot synopsis? Because now the bones-jump-able Lowe is facing a real life extortion claim!
He and wife Sheryl are being targeted by a former employee, who wants $1.5 million in exchange for keeping quiet about sexual harassment charges — which, naturally, are entirely false, according to the actor. CONTINUED »
Some things are just easier to understand when explained by children.
And the saga continues! For those of you not keeping up - and who can blame you? - Teddy Pedersen dropped jaws yesterday when he told the press that he used to canoodle with former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey and then-girlfriend, Dina Matos-McGreevey.
The allegations punched a big hole in Dina’s story - she had no inkling of Jim’s gay ways. Sensing her advantage slipping - and the press light turning - Dina issued a statement denying Pedersen’s carnal claims, which in turn spurred Jim to release his own confirmatory statement, which then sparked yet another assertion from Pedersen:
When news broke of Elliot Spitzer’s call girl rendezvous (let it not be lost that we’re using both a singular and plural word here), MSNBC’s guests were aghast the public was paying so much attention to a silly little sex scandal — that was about to tear Albany politics apart. Not to mention the not unsubstantial event of potentially naming New York’s first black, and blind, governor.
“You know, big deal, married man goes to prostitute!” exclaimed commentator Alan Dershowitz, who was Harvard’s youngest professor at age 28. “In Europe, this wouldn’t even make the back pages of the newspaper. It’s a uniquely American story. We’re a uniquely, you know, pandering society and hypocritical society, when it comes to sex.”
Yes, let’s follow European policy on this one: A man whose platform rests on ethics reform, and who took pride in busting a prostitution ring, sleeps with a call girl. Proceed directly to Go. CONTINUED »
Look how well American Idol producers got their contestants on message! Who’s got a copy of the talking points memo Nigel Lithgow & Co. distributed to cast members instructing them on how to respond to David Hernandez’s gay stripping days? “We live in a bubble,” they say. How quaint. And kudos to ET’s Kevin Frazier for following up with “worthwhile questions”; working for the tabloid machine must be soul crushing. [ET]
First Lou Pearlman and the Backstreet Boys, now Chris Stokes and B2K. The boy band’s former member Raz-B now claims Stokes and TUG Management co-head Marques Houston raped him and, possibly, his bandmates, forcing them into orgies with industry professionals and friends. For what it’s worth, Omarion (through PR firm 5W), is denying anything of the sort ever took place — which, whether true or not, is likely the wisest career move. To round this one out, Stokes claims Raz-B is just in it for the attention. [SH]
“The scandal-plagued politician and his stoically supportive spouse.” We’ve seen this scene a thousand times and yet, for whatever reason, it continues to transfix.
But what is it about this so-predictable-it’s-almost-cliché tableau that nonetheless has us so entranced? Is it, as some lady we’ve never heard of* postulates, that “if you see a guy standing next to his wife, it offers some explanation that he might be telling the truth?”
Or is it that we’re all, essentially, voyeurs, overgrown high school girls prone to spurts of schadenfreude and juvenile meanness, and invariably drawn to moments rife with awkwardness and public depravity?
Editorial Director
