1999-2010

Saturday, May 09, 2009

The Danny Gans daisy chain: Steve and Chip and Alicia and Norm and Miles and--


To quote Aretha: Who's zoomin' who? With those closest to the late Las Vegas headliner Danny Gans amending their stories of what they knew about the state of his health when he died in bed on May 1st at the age of 52, and with the relationships among the major media players-- the ones who are parceling out the "official" information, reporting it, and protecting it -- coming into a more clear focus, we're not sure what to to believe.

We've been called conspiracy theorists, and much worse, as we look for answers to what killed this supposedly healthy entertainer, but now, who knows? As the Las Vegas media waits patiently for the "official" report from the Clark County Coroner, did Gans manager Chip Lightman and Gans friend Alicia Jacobs toss up the "high blood pressure" story as a way to explain away drugs they know the toxicology report will list in Gans' system? Why is Norm Clarke of the Las Vegas Review-Journal transcribing whatever they say, only to retract it days later when they tell him something else? Are they and supposed freelancer Steve Friess hiding something more sinister? Are they hiding anything? Was Danny Gans just a good guy with a bad ticker?

We're not saying. We're still trying to keep track of the players, and their connections:


Steve Friess is the Las Vegas freelance reporter and writer (for publications including The New York Times and USA) who went ballistic and began posting obscene insults about us after we asked him why local reporters weren't investigating the events leading to, and speculation regarding the possible cause of Gans' death.


Chip Lightman was Danny Gans' manager for most all of 18 years. He phoned a local TV reporter with news of Gans' death in the early morning hours of May 1st. He's been working the media, while working with hotel-casino magnate Steve Wynn to book acts into Gans' showroom, ever since.


Alicia Jacobs is the woman who got the 4 a.m. phone call from Lightman. She's a beauty queen-turned-television entertainment reporter who boasted a close, 13-year friendship with Danny Gans. She broke the Gans death story on KVBC-TV News.


Norm Clarke is the Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist who often quotes Steve Friess and has run several stories about Alicia Jacobs and Chip Lightman since Gans' death, including their claims that they had no idea what caused the former athlete and "health nut" to pass away prematurely.

On Thursday, Norm Clarke wrote that his paper had entered into a deal with Chip Lightman to publish Gans' autobiography. Today, one day after we interviewed Alicia Jacobs about Danny Gans (and the day after Steve Friess increased his attacks on this news organization), Norm Clarke went online with the exclusive story that Chip Lightman and Alicia Jacobs both knew all along that Danny Gans was a ticking time bomb, with high blood pressure and a family history of "heart problems."


Miles Smith
is the executive producer of KVBC-TV News. He is Alicia Jacobs' boss. And he brings us full circle to Steve Friess.

How?


Miles Smith, Alicia Jacobs' boss, is Steve Friess' "husband" (in quotes because Smith and Friess were wed by a rabbi at the Palms Hotel in Las Vegas-- same sex marriage is not legal in Nevada).

(UPDATE: We originally ran a great punchline photo of Steve Friess and Miles Smith in bed together. But Steve Friess has claimed ownership of many photos we've run and demanded we remove them. Mr. Friess, a journalist, has also taken action to have TabloidBaby.com shut down... )

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE PHOTO OF STEVE FRIESS LITERALLY IN BED-- UNDER THE COVERS-- WITH KVBC TV NEWS EXECUTIVE PRODUCER MILES SMITH.


Developing...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excuse me, but seriously -- who gives a shit? Have you noticed the lack of comments on these Las Vegas media conspiracy posts? Nobody cares about your flailing and spitting over this. Move on to something we give a fuck about. We grow weary of your obsession.

tabloidbaby said...

The administrators of TabloidBaby.com only remove posts of they are obscene, libelous or defamatory.

The post that was removed this morning was obscene.

Way obscene!

Sorry, girls. Keep it clean!