1999-2010

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Danno Hanks forced Tiger Woods to quit golf


Tiger Woods could have avoided most all of this mess if he had only gotten in front of the story and changed the headline as soon as the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ started posting unfounded rumours and conjecture that odds indicated would pay off (every tabloid journo had already figured that a two a.m. front yard car wreck and a National Enquirer front page mistress story added up to a scuffle with the missus-- the only problem was confirming it, a slight nuisance that CNN's bastard cousin has a history of ignoring) and mainstream organizations began treating it conveniently as fact. Sad that a billionaire corporate sports star doesn't have the advisers or organization to handle a simple problem like that-- let alone an understanding with a former nanny wife from who he's separated for probably six months out of the year. But in the middle of it all, it's worth mentioning that it wasn't the corrupt scumbags at TMZ or any of the attention-seeking sex partners who caused Tiger Woods to walk away from his job and go into deep hiding, but a legendary tabloid television private eye.

Hollywood dick Danno Hanks drove the final nail in the Tiger Woods story when he provided the evidence that backed recent Hollywood madame Michelle Braun's claim that Tiger paid for her prostitutes. After Danno's quote hit the wires, Tiger threw in the towel. As well the superstar should have, because Danno has always known where the bodies are buried when it comes to Hollywood scandal. Along the way in his illustrious and colorful career and lives, he did the undercover work for the tabloid television giants in the glory days of A Current Affair and Hard Copy, earned himself a place in the book Tabloid Baby, including the story of how he came up with wiretapped phonecalls from then-Hollywood madame Heidi Fleiss.


And note it was ABC News that quoted Danno in the hours before Tiger quit.

As OK! magazine reports:

"That scandal grew today amid allegations from Hollywood madam Michelle Braun that she arranged meetings with Tiger and at least four prostitutes from 2006 to 2007 for a total cost of $60,000, according to the New York Post.

“'Tiger has been one of Michelle’s clients for years,' private investigator Dan Hanks, who worked for Braun, checking her clients’ backgrounds, told ABC News.com.

"Hanks, who had access to Braun’s client list and spoke with Braun earlier in the week about Tiger, said he knew of an occasion in which Tiger hired three prostitutes at one time for an evening in Las Vegas..."


UPDATE: Danno Hanks clarifies:

"I never 'worked' for Michelle Braun (AKA: Nici's Girls). What I did do is 'infiltrate' her operation, posing as a guy who could obtain background information on potential clients and girls. This was done while I was working for Fox Undercover, a Los Angeles-based news program for KTTV11.

"This allowed me to gain access to about 90% of her client and call girl list. After I left Fox news, I turned over my files to the IRS & FBI. Some of that information was eventually used to convict her in federal court.

"Amazingly, Michelle Braun did not treat me with ill will, and continued to talk with me. When she realized that her run as a madam was over, she decided to cut a deal with the feds and focus on writing a book. Last Wednesday, I met with her for a few hours at a house owned by a friend of hers in Marina Del Rey. It was during that meeting that she told me about supplying girls to Tiger Woods. Prior to that meeting, and other than her statement, I had no prior knowledge of, or any proof that Tiger was a 'client' of Nici's Girls. And the 'proof' that she offered was nothing more then two IRS1099 forms that she generated only after the Tiger Woods story broke, claiming the employment of Holly Joy Sampson and Jamie Sue Jungers by the 'Global Travel Network'."

"Both of these women admit to having had sex with Tiger. However, both of them deny ever being in the employment of Michelle Braun, or any of her companies."

Tabloid Baby Top 10 Christmas Songs: #7

#7
A Holly Jolly Christmas
Burl Ives



#8 Mele Kalikimaka Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
#9 ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus? Augie Rios
#10 Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus George Jones & Tammy Wynette

Friday, December 11, 2009

Lindsay Lohan watch: Whose sari now?


Amid the crowd you are sure to recognize bindied Lindsay Lohan, pictured today in India while lending her face to a BBC documentary on the trafficking of impoverished women and children. Could this experience, away from the bad influences of Hollywood and New York, be the first step in her stepping away from the abyss we have been urging those closest to her to rescue her from?


Here's hoping. And here is a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to her father, Michael Lohan, who had been talking of getting Lindsay to do this very work since he visited her in rehab in 2007.


Thursday, December 10, 2009

Tabloid Baby Top 10 Christmas Songs: #8

#8
Mele Kalikimaka

Bing Crosby
& The Andrews Sisters



#9 ¿Dónde Está Santa Claus? Augie Rios
#10
Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus George Jones & Tammy Wynette

Lindsay Lohan watch: Sin bath suggested


With Lindsay Lohan supposedly in India lending her authority to a BBC documentary on the trafficking of women and children, she twitters that she's saved "over forty children... within one days work," and a Hindu statesman says the talented and troubled young actress has a chance to save herself.


Rajan Zed suggests that Michael Lohan's daughter take a dip in the Ganges River so she can "rediscover herself."


He's quoted: "Lindsay Lohan should rediscover herself by taking a dip in the holy Ganges. It is believed that bathing in the sacred Ganges purifies one of all sin and its waters confer immortality."


Hurry! Ask NBC's Jeff Zucker a question!


From NBC News:

REMINDER TODAY --
NBC NEWS TOWN HALL AT 1 PM ET

Please join NBC Universal President & CEO Jeff Zucker
and
NBC News President Steve Capus
for an NBC News Town Hall
to discuss a New NBC Universal
and answer employee questions.


Thursday, December 10th at 1:00 pm, ET


If you will be at 30 Rock,
please come to Studio 6A (Dr. Oz)

(enter on 7)

~

For employees in other locations,
please participate via LIVE webcast

Click here for the webcast, and to submit questions now and during the Town Hall.

Wednesday, December 09, 2009

Heroin, sex and Springsteen tour secrets


While Bruce Springsteen received The Kennedy Center Honor from President Barack Obama this week, other news causes us to wonder what secrets lurk behind the family man, All-American rock 'n' roll hero persona he and his determined imagemakers project. The tragic death of his cousin and (ten-year) assistant tour manager while on the road with Springsteen and The E Street Band in October has now been ruled an "accident," due to "acute amphetamine and heroin intoxication." The New York Times, in reviewing E Street band saxman Clarence Clemons' new memoirs last week, noted the book contains tales of "women... and tequila and cigars and recreational drugs and limousines and private jets aplenty."


Stories about Springsteen's alleged affair with a 9/11 widow flashed briefly before being extinguished suddenly a few years ago. We might suspect that Springsteen's world is a lot more interesting and not half as wholesome as his image might convey.

Ferrara first death of Israel Baseball League


Our Man Elli in Israel has resurfaced to bring us sad news: what appears to be the first death among the veterans of the Israel Baseball League. Team manager Tony Ferrara was 84.

"Tony took over for Ken Holtzman when he was fired from Petah Tikva Pioneers," Elli recalls. "Real, real nice guy, players loved him, low-key, and a baseball man through and through.

"Tony may not have been Jewish, but he was the epitome of a mensch."

Tony Ferrara played four seasons with St. Louis Cardinals affiliates before injury ended his dream, but went on to work as a batting practice pitcher, bullpen catcher and scout for Major League teams including the New York Yankees, New York Mets, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs and Oakland A’s.

He also coached college and in the minors-- and acted in and was technical adviser on The Natural.

He was a longtime friend of Mickey Mantle and even wore Mantle's number 7 in his most recent job as bench coach for the Newark Bears.

There was an impromptu memorial service for Ferrara yesterday at the Babe Ruth bat at Yankee Stadium. One of The Mick's sons was there, along with Ron Darling, Art Shamsky, Ed Kranepool, Miracle Met and IBL manager Art Shamsky and legendary Yankee publicist and IBL official Marty Appel.

Click here to see our complete coverage of the ill-fated Israel baseball League on our Israel Baseball League archive site.

Richard Abowitz opens Gold Plated Door


Richard Abowitz is not wasting any time getting back into the game after having the distinction in recent weeks of losing both his blog on the Los Angeles Times website due to cost cuts and his print column in the Las Vegas Weekly due to the impending death of the newspaper industry.

The Dean of Las Vegas pop culture writers has started up a new site called Gold Plated Door (see Sin City) which he describes as "an honest broker reporting on all things Vegas," and which will include his unique take on Vegas news, show business, media, and hopefully, anything else he wants to write about.


The site's first "test post," which gives an idea of his style and what's ahead, focuses on Tiger Woods:

"...the most boring celebrity I ever interviewed. I should not be surprised, the connection between a VIP host and a louche celebrity, remains typically Vegas, even if for Woods, Vegas turns out to be only one geographic stop of globetrotting infidelity.

"I interviewed Woods for Tiger Jam, his annual charity concert at Mandalay Bay, a few years ago, and I was given 5 minutes with the golf legend. I have turned down a couple interview offers since. We were done at 3 minutes. He was nice and all, but the money was not worth the time. Woods is boring. When I had no golf questions he was without anything to say. He mentioned that he had little to do with the acts that were playing his concert. He could not name a single song he liked by any of the bands that were performing unless you count 'All of them' as an honest answer and not an expression of total ignorance... Woods did offer to me that his favorite song of all time was 'Eye of the Tiger' and then he explained the pun with his name in case that could be missed. The most memorable thing about the interview was that it is the single time a publicist has asked to search me before I entered an interview room. Did he think I was dangerous? No, he wanted to make sure that I had no golf memorabilia on my person for Woods to sign..."


He refused to be searched.


Abowitz is known not only as the most knowledgeable journo in town, but for his taste for classic literature, self-revelatory writing about his fascinating life and obsessions and an ability to be totally immersed in Vegas culture while remaining somehow above it. He was one of many axed from The Las Vegas Weekly, a fake alt-weekly filled with leftover and expanded articles from Las Vegas Sun columnists like Jon Katsilometes and recycled blogwork from local hacks like New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author, comp queen and concert promoter Steve Friess.

It's the LA Times cut that's the head-scratcher. The national paper with the most confusing, behind-the-times website must know that the Internet is where operations must move, and Abowitz' The Movable Buffet blog was not only one of the first LA Times blogs but among the most distinctive and informative in the entire business. Idiots.

We first corresponded with Abowitz after he commented on our initial coverage of the Danny Gans death mystery (he suggested that we were insane), and after a series of collegial and thoughtful exchanges (unlike the hysterical attacks from Friess), we count Abowitz as a Tabloid Baby pal.

Now that he's gone solo, we're glad to see the compromised Friess has a competitor in the Las Vegas blog arena-- and only urge that Abowitz get on that Danny Gans story!

Click here for Gold Plated Door.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Tabloid Baby Top 10 Christmas Songs: #9



#9

¿Dónde Está Santa Claus?

Augie Rios


#10
Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus

George Jones & Tammy Wynette

Lindsay Lohan watch: Better sari than sorry


Is Lindsay Lohan making a decision to save her own life? Page Six reports that the talented and troubled young actress-- seen above in her most recent project, a degrading semi-porn photo shoot for some hipster magazine-- is heading to India to film some sort of BBC documentary about poor children and human trafficking, leading us and others to hope she's taking a step away from the Hollywood sex and drug scene that could shake her into some beginnings of adulthood.

Oddly, her father Michael Lohan isn't mentioned in connection with the story. Over the past couple of years, he's been telling us that he was trying to get Lindsay involved in a project was very similar.

Surprise Sexcapades in Pink Slip, Part 3!


Writer, producer, director and Tabloid Baby pal Muriel Campbell has posted Part Three of her cross-dressing continuing webisode comedy series, Pink Slip. This latest installment, Christmas, could have been called The Hook-Up with its comic twists and surprising hot elevator sex and has us and a lot of others hungry for more-- and waiting for the studio exec who's smart enough to take this and turn it into the full-fledged television series or movie it deserves to be. The next episode of the very modern romance is set to drop on New Year's, and who knows where the action will take the characters next as this developing production continues to build and gain buzz.

Parts I and II below:



Monday, December 07, 2009

Alt-weekly cover of the week

MURDOCHS SPLIT??!!


Crikey reports. Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation outlets do not. Murdoch spokesmen will neither confirm nor deny. Rupert Murdoch and Wendi Deng have been married ten years (just like Tom and Nicole. Sorry, boss.).

UPDATE: We can't find the item on the Melbourne-based Crikey site, though others, including the Sydney Morning Herald, have referenced it.

Sunday, December 06, 2009

Lindsay Lohan watch: The morning after


Paparazzi were waiting and Lindsay Lohan as the talented and troubled actress left the Hollywood Hills home of Jason Segel on Saturday morning after apparently spending the night.


Insiders do not know what to make of her rendezvous with the schlubby actor, but see it as another indication of the erratic downward trajectory that few seem determined to correct.

Tabloid Baby Top 10 Christmas Songs: #10



#10

Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus

George Jones & Tammy Wynette


Saturday, December 05, 2009

Marc Christian was exposed to AIDS by Rock Hudson, but killed by Frank Sinatra


After months of rumours and unverified reports, Elaine Woo of the LA Times has confirmed the death of Marc Christian, who gained tabloid fame as the lover of Hollywood icon and AIDS victim Rock Hudson. Christian was Hudson's boytoy at the end of his closeted life, and after Hudson died of AIDS in 1985, sued Hudson's estate, claiming that the star put him at risk of contracting the disease by concealing his illness and continuing to have sex with him. He got five and a half million dollars for his trouble.

Christian later defended Hudson's irresponsible behaviour (Hudson had claimed he was losing weight through dieting, later anorexia) and eventually tested negative for AIDS.


The word now is that Christian died in June at 56, and that he was killed by Frank Sinatra:

The Times quotes his sister, Susan Dahl:

"Christian's death was the result of his heavy smoking, which began in 1998, 'the day he found out Frank Sinatra died,' Dahl said. 'He loved Frank Sinatra.'"

Friday, December 04, 2009

Memo from NBC News boss covers everything but Tom Brokaw's car crash


The workweek ended in a big way for NBC News. Tom Brokaw's involvement in a fatal three-vehicle accident in the Bronx, neatly encapsulated and his lack of culpability established in his own instant press release, came five years after Brian Williams took his seat at NBC Nightly News, a year after David Gregory took over from Brokaw's role filling on Meet The Press for the suddenly-departed Tim Russert, and days after Comcast sealed the deal to buy NBC and its news division from GE.

The Brokaw tragedy took place too late in the day to be included on NBC News President Steve Capus' peptalk memo to the troops:

December 4, 2009
A Message From Steve Capus

Lots of news to acknowledge this week.

Regarding the Comcast deal, as I have said to several of you over the past couple of days, I am so happy that its out and we can finally talk about it. I appreciate how all of you managed to keep focused over the past couple of months during the feeding frenzy of speculation over the future of NBC Universal. Thank you for that.

I feel really good about this new partnership. Comcast has tremendous respect for this news division, evident in this quote that ran yesterday in the New York Times coverage: "NBC News is a national treasure whose independence we all value and we will always respect," David L. Cohen, a Comcast executive vice president. I'm excited about the opportunities ahead and the future of this news division.

I can not emphasize enough: every aspect of this news division is of great value to NBCU and our owners. NBC News is a success story that first and foremost respects the traditions of this great news organization - understands and appreciates what our audiences have come to expect from us - and is built around talented and dedicated employees who help us to run successful business ventures, grounded in journalistic excellence. That is what makes us the premier news organization in the country and it's gratifying to be viewed these ways during such critical times.

While I have had the chance to talk with many of you, I will have the opportunity to talk with the entire news division worldwide over the next week, stay tuned for details on that. In the meantime, I encourage you to go to this website and learn more about a New NBC Universal.

I promise to keep you informed in the coming months as we go through this regulatory period -- and please, as always, send any questions to asksteve@nbcuni.com.

This week we celebrated the five-year anniversary of Brian Williams in the anchor chair at "Nightly News." While it seems like yesterday he took the reins, its still staggering to reflect on the breaking news he's covered, the countries he's traveled, and the stories he's told us over the past five years. Stability - performance - excellence... we've come to expect it on a nightly basis - and Brain and the NN team have delivered. This anniversary comes at a time when "Nightly News" continues its rating dominance and bucking the trend exhibiting year-to-year growth. I encourage all of you to read the LA Times' profile on Brian below - it captures our friend spot-on.

Next week we'll celebrate David Gregory's one-year anniversary as moderator at "Meet the Press." I'd be hard-pressed to find a transition that was more daunting than this one was, but still executed so successfully. David has steadily made MTP his show, and he has fended off the competition in an extremely competitive landscape. I am so proud of the work that David, Betsy and everyone at MTP does week in and week out.

Also of note: Season-to-date, TODAY has widened its advantages over both GMA and Early Show in homes, total viewers, rating W/A18-49, and rating W/A25-54 compared to the same period last season.... MSNBC's coverage of the President's Afghanistan decision this week was first rate. Keith Olbermann's special commentary was particularly provocative. Rightly so, it became part of the national debate on these important matters... The Grio.com launched a great series on unemployment in African-American populations... and MSNBC.com hosted a cross-media summit, in an ongoing effort with News Sales to maximize online and TV special sales projects.

We have a lot of holiday gatherings over the next couple of weeks, try to have some fun and hope to see you on the 14th.

Thanks for a great week.

Steve

Thursday, December 03, 2009

Thinning hair, yellow teeth and wonky eye: The latest from the Lindsay Lohan watch


Last night in Los Angeles.


Who will save the life of the young, talented actress Lindsay Lohan?


Note thinning hair, yellowing teeth and developing wonky left eye.


Someone emailed us The Tiger Woods Family Portrait

A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Tabloid Baby pal Chuck Tyler...

Like we said, Jesse Ventura kicks ass


Last night's premiere of Jesse Ventura's conspiracy series on truTV averaged 1.6 million viewers, which the network says was its "biggest audience ever for a new series launch."

truTV says the ratings for Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura were up 82 percent compared to the same programming last year. Among key demos, the show was up 84 percent with males 18-34, up 74 percent with males 18-49, and up 66 percent with adults 18-49.

Compared to the previous four weeks of programming in the same timeslot, truTV says Ventura's premiere episode was up 80 percent in total viewers and in the range of 50-60 percent growth among key demos.

It was nice that Jesse gave the show some good publicity by almost twisting of the head of comedian Jim Norton on some Sirius satellite radio show.

We hear Jesse was also great with Howard Stern, but unfortunately we and most of the rest of the world didn't get to listen to that one and Howard's people aren't as generous with the viral video.

Steve Friess keeps his column



A lot of the Las Vegas print journalists who shied away from covering the very important Danny Gans story have little to show for their obedience, now finding themselves suddenly out of work. Greenspun Media, which runs the Las Vegas Sun and Las Vegas Weekly, laid off many reporters, editors and columnists this week, the latest nail in the closing coffin of the print news business.

One person who's kept his job is Las Vegas blogger, New York Times stringer, Gay Vegas author and comp queen Steve Friess, who used his Las Vegas Weekly column this year to explain why the still-developing Danny Gans story (the sudden, unexplained death in his prime of the top star of the Vegas Strip) and later his blatant conflict-of-interest in producing a "birthday tribute" to Michael Jackson while covering the Vegas angle of the police death investigation for The new York Times. Friess' crush and partner in the project, a star of the Vegas production of Jersey Boys, lost his job over the spectacle. Friess did not.

Friess, as readers of this site are aware, is the Las Vegas media figure who not only attacked us in the most obscene terms, but made an active effort to have TabloidBaby.com shut down after we emailed him privately days after Gans' death to ask for his take on why the Las vegas media was not investigating the mysterious tragedy.

In the months to come, we learned more about Friess' various conflicts, including his relationship with Gans' boss Steve Wynn, that seemed to explain his extreme position.

With his many freelance gigs, including that of music reviewer (despite a hearing impairment),, and the probability that the Weekly columnist gig doesn't pay much if anything, Friess is able to pose as a tough guy on his blogsite, listing the names of the newly jobless, criticizing his bosses for the way they were let go, and bragging, "I write all this knowing full well I may offend the powers... But I have been fired before and I feel a great kinship for the folks who have lost their jobs..."

The crusading journo has not yet announced that he'll produce a benefit concert for the group. It's an idea, though

Remember Tiger Woods' nude model "wife"?


We wonder what Kim Hiott thinks about the Tiger Woods brouhaha. She's the nude model who for years has been incorrectly identified as Tiger's wife Elin.

A few years ago, we broke the story that cyberterrorists were spreading the rumour on the eve of Tiger’s 60 Minutes interview with Ed Bradley-- the one in which Tiger spoke so lovingly of his wife the former twin nanny ("I have found a life partner, a best friend. You know, Elin’s been incredible for me. She’s brought joy and balance in my life. We love doing the same things. You think I’m competitive? She’s way more than me.").

Later that year, Tiger Woods sued an Irish magazine for publishing topless photos of Hiott under the headline, "Ryder Cup filth for Ireland," and over an article claiming she was Tiger's wife.


Tabloid Baby readers had already helped identify model Kimberly Hiott by the tattoo on her lower back. Even so, the mistake haunts Tiger and Elin to this day.

Those were simpler days for Tiger Woods, when he was defending his wife, not defending himself from her.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Jesse Ventura kicks ass



Jesse Ventura kicks ass. When a writer for LA Times claims he didn't "get to the bottom of anything" in the premiere episode of his new TV series, Conspiracy Theory, he stuffed it back in the wiseguy's face:

"How can you get to the bottom, with a one-hour TV show and the limited resources I have? Hey, I'm doing a lot better than you guys are! How's that for you?"

"You don't think journalists investigate anything?"

"Not much. They investigate the death of Anna Nicole Smith, which I won't be covering."

When some Boston Herald pencilneck insinuated he was a "surf bum" for taking up the sport in Baja Mexico, he shot back:

“If one were that dedicated to religion, would they be called a religion bum? No.”


And now that George Bush is safely out of the picture and GE is selling NBC, the mainstream media is getting around to reporting what Jesse said four years ago: that MSNBC pulled the plug on his talk show and benched him for the duration of his three-year contract because he didn't support the war in Iraq. That was before they went all lefty for ratings.

Jesse Ventura is investigating conspiracies Wednesday nights at 10 and the difference is that he's sincere in his beliefs and means what he says. We happen to know that because Jesse Ventura is a Tabloid Baby pal. We'll be waiting to see what he does with John Lennon, Bob Marley, Sonny Bono and Danny Gans.