Given Us Weekly's relationship with Jill Ishkanian, one might be surprised to find that the Wenner tabloid is still courting her business.

Jill, of course, left Us Weekly to start her own paparazzi agency, Sunset Photo and News. Then Us went and claimed Jill hacked into their computers and stole sensitive information. Information that would, say, help her know where celebrities would be in order to snag some decent shots. And then there was the whole bit where the FBI raided Jill's office and duplicated her hard drive as evidence.

Why, then, is Us reaching out to Sunset for business?

Good question.

But we hear Us' photo staff has a habit of regularly contacting Sunset, looking to access their FTP site to download images to consider for purchase. "I'm wondering how to go about getting a user name and password to your site," asked one photo editor.

Well, Us isn't just considering whether to buy: We also hear the tabloid's staffers have a tendency to check in with Sunset to see if they're the rights-holders to photos posted on celebrity gossip blogs, so they buy them. But at least they're even bothering to check; one source tells us that, at least on the inside pages, Us regularly runs unpurchased photos from agencies and figures out the whose business of payment much later.