Las Vegas writer Steve Friess comes clean, tries to explain his involvement in sick spreading of "false rumors" about the death of Danny Gans

"The Wayne Newton thing came from an email I wrote
to her last weekend when I wrote,
'Look, next he'll say Wayne Newton's involved!'
She fed that to you and you bought it!"
--Steve Friess

We will hand it to most of the journalists who ply their trade in Las Vegas, Nevada. They may not agree with us at TabloidBaby.com about the aggressive coverage that has been lacking in the case of the mysterious death of Strip headliner and legend Danny Gans-- they may even think we're over-the-top-- but they know we are doing our jobs and have not insulted, threatened or harassed us.

And why would they, when a journalist as well-respected and accomplished as Ray Richmond has saluted our coverage?

Would that we could say the same for freelance writer and Gay Vegas author Steve Friess (above), who as a Las Vegas stringer for national and international publications and media outlets has exercised some control over what image gets out-- and what image stays in--the town. He attacked us. He tried to shut us down. He called us all sorts of names in trying to stop the story.


As it would turn out, Steve Friess had good reason to want to cover up the truths and muddy the trail in the story-- from his reliance on "comps" to the man with whom he shares a bed (above).

And then, suddenly, today, he wrote the story on his blogsite. Steve Friess admitted that he knew all along about whispers that Danny Gans was a steroid juicer. And while trying in vain to convince his readers that the Danny Gans story is not a story ("...not... Anna Nicole Smith or Elvis Presley or Heath Ledger... Danny Gans did not self-destruct in public and use that self-destruction as a form of self-promotion..."), Steve Friess published every rumor about Danny Gans' death-- including at least one that he himself had made up.

We caught him on it. In a day of backtracking and tapdancing, Steve Friess sent us an email this afternoon, trying to explain himself once again:

"From: Stevefriess@aol.com
To: Tabloid Baby
Date: Fri, 15 May 2009 20:29:10

I received a forward from one of my more zealous fans, whom I ordered earlier this week to stop toying with you. She explained that she had been feeding you false rumors, first baiting you by revealing my relationship with Miles to gain your trust. She says she figured you knew because I never have hidden the information and your lack of awareness only served to prove just how far outside the loop in Vegas you actually are.

Anyhow, she then proceeded to pass along a series of ridiculous ideas only to watch you swallow each one whole. She figured you'd figured out by now that you were being scammed -- I pretty much told you so myself upon learning of it the other day -- but emails exchanged today seem to indicate you're not that bright.

She wants me to blog about this, about how you bought every one of her bizarre ideas no matter how silly and now have a whole new universe of conspiracies. In fact, the Wayne Newton thing came from an email I wrote to her last weekend when I wrote, "Look, next he'll say Wayne Newton's involved!" She fed that to you and you bought it!

I will not blog about this. For one thing, I'm beginning to pity your mental instability. It's cruel to mock it.

More importantly, though, I won't ever mention your name or your blog again, let alone read it. Had I exhibited that restraint in the first place, nobody would ever know who you are. I can't undo that, but I can avoid making my mistake any worse.

Good luck to you. I do expect you to get meaner and meaner the more I ignore you. Knock yourself out.

I sincerely hope you get some help.

-Steve Friess"


A few final notes: We're "mean"? Hell-lo! We did not "swallow" any of Steve Friess' (above) false leads. We were well known long before he flew into our radar. And far from ignoring us, Steve Friess has baited us. In his post today, he referred to us as "gay-obsessed lunatics," "Internet nutjobs" and "crazies," among others.

We hold no animus toward Steve Friess. This charade is not distracting us from our investigation or our work (we have operatives on the ground and on the phones) and we consider this sidebar to be a very colorful and important part of the overall story.

We do believe he owes TabloidBaby.com and our readers an apology.


(Steve Friess threatened us every time we posted his picture, so we've been forced to used fascimiles. Help us get it right by sending us a nice photo of Steve Friess today!)