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Friday, August 04, 2006

Malibu, Mel, McDermott & de Becker

There are two major celebrity scandals playing out in Malibu, and now Gavin de Becker is connected to both of them.

We’ve always liked Gavin, ever since the days almost twenty years ago when we and our mates bumped heads with him during the first tabloid television incursions into Hollywood celebrity world. We’d send producers and reporters to ring buzzers at mansion gates or walk up to patios on in the Malibu colony, an effort to treat Hollywood heavyweights like everyday folk. He was a Hollywood kid turned celebrity security consultant, and would call to warn us off.

We were learning our lessons, and Gavin was, too.

Through the years, his security business has grown in scope and importance, while he’s branched out with books like “The Gift of Fear” and become a noted expert in an era when genuine threats seem to come from any and all directions.

And Tabloid Baby friends like Neil Innes were very grateful that Gavin helped George Harrision die in peace and privacy in Coldwater Canyon, while more than a few of our colleagues were looking to find that long-lens view of his road to reincarnation.

About a year ago, de Becker was hired by Olivia Newton-John’s team when it was revealed the Malibu songbird had gone about her business for seven weeks at a time when her alleged boyfriend Patrick McDermott was missing from a fishing boat. While McDermott could have been a victim of amnesia, wandering the waterfront, Newton-John maintained a smiling public schedule without once using her celebrity to aid in the search.

Today, a letter from Gavin de Becker took up a two-page ad in the Hollywood Reporter to defend, or at least plead for a reasonable understanding of self-professed Malibu owner Mel Gibson and his anti-Semitic rant during his drunk driving arrest.

This time, he apparently got involved on his own.

Two of Malibu’s biggest scandals-- and Gavin de Becker is in the middle of both…

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

What exactly do you have against Olivia Newton-John? If you would have done a little research, you would have known that the police asked Olivia not to make a public statement at the time of Patrick's disappearance. But I guess facts don't really matter to the people at Tabloid Baby.

Anonymous said...

Why would the police ask her to not publicize his disappearance?

Anonymous said...

I don't know, I don't work for them. They must be privy to some information we know nothing about.

Anonymous said...

And that's why the people at Tabloid Baby are asking questions...

Anonymous said...

I don't mind the questions. I do mind the accusations. They have pretty much said that Olivia is a lesbian who hired Patrick as a beard. That she doesn't want Patrick found and that she is doing everything in her power to make sure he never is. They should write for Hollywood.

Anyway, this is still an open case and the police and the Coast Guard are unwilling to release any information. Tabloid Baby is just going to have to get over themselves. I mean, this isn't Watergate. And they aren't Woodward and Bernstein. This is just a man who wanted to disappear. I just feel really sorry for his loved ones who have no idea where he is.

Anonymous said...

Interesting the last poster takes the position that "his is just a man who wanted to disappear." Why would ONJ's boyfriend "just want to disappear"? TB has raised some very interesting questions. A man is missing, perhaps dead. It could be Livviegate, after all.

Anonymous said...

Do you know anything about this case? Patrick McDermott was in debt. He owed back child support and was facing jail time. It's been reported that Olivia had broken up with him only a few weeks before he disappeared. It sounds like he just wanted to start a new life elsewhere. I've heard that many people do this every year. They just don't get the publicity that this has.

Anonymous said...

Tabloid Baby, once an unheard of online blog (before the Olivia stories took place) solely exists to fuel the fire.
I wouldn't take any report as factual.

Anonymous said...

then stay off the site, Kiliki!