Tabloid Baby's Mitzvahpalooza photos help convict war profiteer in fraud case

Tabloid Baby has aided in the conviction of body armour mogul and Iraq war profiteer David H. Brooks on 17 counts, including insider trading and securities fraud, stemming from what prosecutors described as corporate looting and stock-trading schemes that made him more than $190 million.

The multimillionaire from Long Island was found guilty yesterday of looting his business to fuel a lavish lifestyle-- including the infamous "Mitzvahpalooza": the $10 million Rainbow Room bat mitzvah where stars inclusing 50 Cent, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Don Henley, Kenny G, Stevie Nicks, Tom Petty and Ciara serenaded his coming-of-age daughter.

The New York Daily News reports that:

"As proof, prosecutors showed the federal jury damning photos of Brooks holding court at the staggeringly opulent 2005 bat mitzvah for daughter Elizabeth."

The photos of that bat mitzvah, an embarrassment and shame to the rap and rock legends who were exposed as sellouts for making themselves available like balloon artists or party clowns, were first tracked down and published here on TabloidBaby.com- in November 2005- then republished and broadcast-- with credit-- to this news organization.

(See our original posts and exclusive photos here, here, here, here, and here.)

Brooks was indicted in 2007. Tabloid Baby was not called to testify in the case, nor were our photos ever subpoenaed.

photos © Tabloidbaby.com

Tabloid Baby exclusive on Good Morning America

ABC's Good Morning America gave Tabloid Baby a mainstream national audience this morning when it used our exclusive photos of the $10 million rock star-studded (let's see Don Henley pontificate about this one on the new Eagles tour) bat mitzvah party two years ago that led to an indictment for war profiteer David Brooks.


So what if it's the weekend show? Our colleagues in "mainstream" news may turn up their noses at the term "tabloid," but when it comes to getting a scoop or photos to illustrate a news package, you might be surprised how quickly such pretensions are dropped-- just as you'd be surprised at how many tabloid babies have grown up to be top network news producers and suits.


As for us, we just got a chuckle out of seeing the words "Tabloid Baby" in the corner of the screen throughout a network news report. We also think it's cute that a network news package about a shameful bat mitzvah was fronted by a reporter named "JuJu."

Exclusive Photos! Mitzvahpalooza!

Big news over the weekend, when "Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Don Henley to Stevie Nicks to Aerosmith..."

Brooks got better talent than the NBC Katrina relief benefit.

It’s the little secret of pop music.

Be they rockin’ rebel, gangsta rapper, tabloid witch, or hifalutin’ media-bashing prick who hasn’t been allowed near a 13-year-old girl since one turned up comatose in his hot tub, you pay them enough money and they’ll play at your little girl’s bat mitzvah.



Steven and Joe, we give you a pass because of Honkin’ on Bobo and Mark Hudson.



And because you’ve been refreshingly candid about rock ‘n’ roll whoredom.


Ciara, you’re cool because we never heard of you.


But 50 Cent? Oy! (Isn't this from that James Toback flick, "Get Rich or Die Shrayen"?)


And Don Henley? Live this one down!



Ha! Forty one years ago, this was commentary:

photos © Tabloidbaby.com

UPDATE!! Click here and scroll down for more exclusive and shocking Brooks bat mitzvah photos!

Sinking New York Times elevates stinking TMZ

Recent viewers of the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com and its whitewashed syndicated television sister know the AOL and Time Warner-backed operation for its ugly misogynistic harassment of the troubled woman who gave birth to octuplets, and know its shaved bronzed midget frontman as the giddy giggling amalgamation of Sidney Falco and Roy Cohn who's shown up joyfully on local news and morning shows to wallow in the pugwash of the latest conscienceless backdoor gangbang perpetrated by his jealous Hollywood-hating attack squad.

But to readers of The New York Times, TMZ.com is a shining light of investigative muckraking journalism, not only challenging but leading the mainstream in the coverage of "billion-dollar business scandals and the economic collapse."

In a story that's hit the Times website tonight, reporter Brian Stelter states that TMZ actually "drove mainstream coverage and Congressional outrage with a blog post late last month that exclaimed, 'Bailout Bank Blows Millions Partying in L.A.' The site reported that Northern Trust, a bank that received $1.6 billion in taxpayer money, had hosted hundreds of clients and employees at a golf tournament and a series of parties in Southern California. 'Your tax dollars, hard at work,' the site wrote.

"Northern Trust never sought the bailout funds, but agreed to take them last fall at the behest of the government. Regardless, the photos of Tiffany gift bags and the grainy video clips of Chicago and Sheryl Crow performing for the group angered readers —as well as Congressional Democrats, who demanded in a letter that Northern Trust repay what the company 'frittered away on these lavish events.' The bank said it would do so 'as quickly as prudently possible,' news that earned four exclamation points from TMZ.

"Harvey Levin, the editor of TMZ, who called the story 'the most important thing we’ve ever done,' knows his readers don’t come to the site for a dissertation on mortgage-backed securities. 'It’s hard for people to wrap their heads around $800 billion in bailout money. It’s too big a thing,' he said. 'It’s much easier to understand paying for a Sheryl Crow concert.'"

At a time when established, major newspapers are folding left and right in the face of economic woes and Internet competition, such praise and validation in the pages of the financially-troubled New York Times seem outlandish and hard to even fathom-- unless you read TabloidBaby.com and remember our criticism of the boy blogger-turned-Times reporter.

After Stelter wrote his second gushing Times story about the TMZ TV show in December 2007, we wrote that "youthful TV blogger-turned-New York Times special reporter Brian Stelter continues to drag the former 'newspaper of record' down the slippery slope of hype and spin with his breathless adulation of the syndicated television series based on the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com."

While TMZ's most notable "contribution" to the coverage of the economic crisis has been its scapegoating and mocking of the so-called "Octomom," tabloid television shows have been, as Stelter praised TMZ and other infotainment shows, "expanding their coverage" since the Eighties, when A Current Affair covered the San Francisco earthquake and fall of the Berlin Wall. The acquisition of the Northern Trust celebrity party photos was the center of TMZ's jaded and cynical spin, but it was a very brief diversion from its usual corrupt fare. Stelter's use of the Times platform to give credibility to the site only gives Levin and his patrons more authority to state with a straight face that the work they do is of value and deserving of corporate and network support in expanding.

And all this comes on an evening when TMZ's gallery of online headlines is highlighted by

Reality Doc Sued Over Alleged Botched Vagina

and

Neverland Was Filled with Sculpted Boys

(Of special to irony to those who recall Harvey Levin's initial brush with the spotlight, TabloidBaby.com "drove mainstream coverage and Congressional outrage" in 2005 with its exclusive photos of Mitzvahpalooza, the $10 million bat mitzvah tossed by a Long Island defense contractor accused of supplying faulty body armour to US soldiers in Iraq, and featuring pop and rock stars like Don Henley, Tom Petty, 50 Cent and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. Mainstream organizations from Rolling Stone to Time magazine used our photos.)

EXCLUSIVE: BROOKS TO TROOPS: "F--- YOU!"

Another exclusive lost photo from the $10 million bat mitzvah bash that war profiteer David Brooks allegedly bankrolled with embezzled funds. The man whose company allegedly manufactured defective body armour for our troops in Iraq now faces life in prison for fraud and embezzlement, but at least he'll have his memories of the night he was Mister Groyser Tzuleyger.

And later that evening, he was really in the pink:


Wonder if the pimp suit was bulletproof?

photos © Tabloidbaby.com

MITZVAHEXCLUSIVE: Heartbreaker for rock fans

The new documentary about Tom Petty is called Runnin' Down A Dream, but as these exclusive photos attest, the old school rebel rock 'n' roller can't run from the fact that he "hosted" the $10 million bat mitzvah thrown by indicted war profiteer David Brooks.

performance photos © Tabloidbaby.com

War profiteer faces prison for Mitzvahpalooza

The former CEO of the leading supplier of body armor to U.S. soldiers in Iraq has been charged with looting the company to bankroll a lavish lifestyle that included a $10 million bat mitzvah for his daughter. You remember the "mitzvahpalooza"-- that's the private party that featured performances by sellout superstars including Don Henley, Stevie Nicks, 50 Cent, Ciara, Tom Petty, Steven Tyler & Joe Perry of Aerosmith and (strolling near the buffet, searching for the brown note) Kenny G-- "private," that is, until Tabloid Baby made it public when we ran exclusive and timeless photos of the event two years ago.


Now the real-life Daddy Warbucks may pay big time for the Rainbow Room rockfest. Long Islander David Brooks faces 21 counts, including securities fraud, insider trading, tax evasion and obstruction of justice. He could go to jail for life. And these rock 'n' roll and hip hop stars must go through life knowing these pictures are in their closets.

performance photos © Tabloidbaby.com

EXCLUSIVE: Yes, Kenny G really was the strolling horn player at the $10 million mitzvahpalooza!

The kids got to see 50 Cent, but Kenny G-- he was for the aunts and uncles! The world's top-selling instrumentalist tootled at the $10 million bat mitzvah bash David Brooks threw for his little girl at the Rainbow Room two years ago.

photo © Tabloidbaby.com

Why TMZ gets so much praise for the Gibson scoop

We’re amused and a little amazed by the kudos the corporate tabloid website TMZ.com has received for breaking the Mel Gibson anti-Semitic sugar tits tirade story.

The leaking and posting of the arrest report has been hailed as an Internet journalism breakthrough. And today, there’s talk of TMZ being turned into a television show.

So it’s time to again point out that TMZ is not a renegade band of misfits beating the big boys on news stories. It's not even The Smoking Gun. It’s a corporate enterprise, an offshoot of the celebutainment show Extra; a big business division of Telepictures, owned by Time Warner and AOL. It's a case of corporate suits honing in on the action and buying up the alternative to the pap they dish out-- just as the news networks co-opted tabloid television with their Datelines and Primetime Lives and the syndicators devolved into Insiders, ETs, Access Hollywoods and Extras.

Harvey Levin, TMZ’s managing editor, is a Telepictures executive, attorney and former TV reporter who was placed reluctantly as the head of the Internet operation when his TV show Celebrity Justice was canceled and he was deemed too old for Extra’s team of pretties.

So the TMZ TV series idea isn't a surprise. That's probably been the plan from the start, as big corporations use the Internet as a cheap, grassroots testing ground. Next step in the plan would be to throw the website a big fat scoop-- and then promote the hell out of it.

For months, TMZ has been playing the standard, inconsequential Lohan-Hilton-Simpson-Brangelina tabloid game, upping the ante with some corporate-financed stalkerazzi action, sending kids with cameras to nightclubs and other celeb haunts in hopes of attracting a ruckus. They‘ve gotten a few, like when billionaire boy Brandon Davis was goaded into an ungentlemanly obscene rant about Lindsay Lohan (and nastily ran it on the site) and when Woody Harrelson fought back and busted one of their consumer cameras.

With these and other incidents, Harvey Levin and TMZ only got bad press for their greasy approach to celebrity tabloid and their ownership by a big corporation that makes money off those celebs.

Then came Mel. The landing of the Gibson story helped Time-Warner change the headline with a massive public relations campaign that got them big links on AOL’s Drudge Report and copycat stories by lazy media around the world.

So is TMZ breaking new ground? The Smoking Gun has been posting exclusive police reports and mugshots for years. Defamer has been the real source for brave, politically-incorrect Hollywood coverage. This site has kept the Patrick McDermott case alive and broke the story of the war profiteer’s multi-million dollar rock star Bat Mitzvah bash.

The details of how TMZ got the arrest report are blurry, but on the surface sounds like Tabloid 101. Back in the days of A Current Affair and Fox, when a story was too dirty to be told on television, it would be given to one of the Murdoch group's newspaper tabloids. Then the story could be told on television, safely attributed to the tabs. Often a scoop obtained by a producer or bought by the company would be given to a reporter in a need of profile boost (all these specifics can be found in Tabloid Baby).

Harvey Levin has crowed that his group is not beholden to publicists and will go where the story leads. From experience, we know that boast will hold out until Nick Lachey's publicist blacklists Extra because of the dirty work on the website. In Hollywood, Mel Gibson's an easy target. But the day Brad Pitt punches out a TMZ kid stalkerazzo, George Clooney will start organizing boycotts again.

Meanwhile, who leaked the police report? To whom in Time Warner was it leaked? And how did it wind up on TMZ.com?

A wise man once said… Follow the money…

100,000

100,000 visits! We arrived in the Tabloid Baby offices this morning to find our site has gotten more than 100,000 visits (and more than 207,000 page views) since we started keeping track at the end of January. Thanks to you (and Heather Mills, Patrick McDermott, those rock and rap stars who played the war profiteer's Bat Mitzvah party, and all the "mainstream" news outlets who've picked up our exclusive stories, whether they've given us credit or not). Spread the word!

Big Ten Inch Jesus

Someone pointed out Steven Tyler's sensitivity in selecting stagewear for his performance at the Big Ten Million Dollar Bat Mitzvah.

The Secret History of Rock 'n' Roll cont'd...

Shock and awe and disappointment and the expected knee-jerk anti-Semitism greeted our photographic confirmation of the rock 'n' roll and rap stars whoring and pimping for easy money playing a daddy warbucks' little rich girl’s bat mitzvah bash.

But as we'd explained, pop stars have been quietly pocketing big bucks for playing private parties for years.

Brett Hudson, formerly of the Hudson Brothers (along with Bill & Aerosmith collaborator/producer Mark), recalls being offered up as a “birthday present” after performing at a Sweet Sixteen party for a Mafioso’s daughter in the group’s Seventies heyday.

Of all the gigs he played, that’s one Brett remembers most fondly.

(Now Brett’s producing big movies, like the hilarious ‘Cloud 9,’ out on DVD January 3rd.)

In June, Forbes offered moguls tips on booking pop stars for parties (this could be where Brooks got the idea).

The menu included Bon Jovi ($850,000 to $1 million), the Beastie Boys ($500,000 to $600,000) and Modest Mouse ($100,000).

The Rolling Stones charged $7 million to do 40 minutes at Texas billionaire David Bonderman's 60th birthday at the Vegas Hard Rock in 2002. Robin Williams and John Mellencamp opened.

In 2003, Elton John was charging between £300,000 and £1 million to play private parties (he did about a half-dozen a year).

Sting got $500,000 to wail at a Bill Gates bash in 2004.

And Paul McCartney reportedly got $1 million to perform at a birthday party for TV executive Wendy Whitworth (a nice twist for the ones who didn’t know that was the “Beatles for Sale” album cover posted yesterday).

Forbes warns:

“Every performance contract has a production rider, which spells out the nuts and bolts required: staging, lights, sound equipment and the rest. For ‘one-off’ private gigs that are not coordinated within a tour schedule, bands typically prefer to rent sound equipment rather than transport their own… Every band needs a green room…and dressing rooms-- and chances are your master bedroom won't cut it. Then there are the catering necessities… for both band and their crew. And don't forget… parking for all the semis and catering trucks…

“Want to assure you and your friends get to hang out with the band? A ‘meet and greet’ will have to be spelled out in the contract ahead of time. Hoping for an invite to hop up on stage and join the band for a song? Better put that in the contract, too…

"Then there's insurance. John Roskopf, senior director of Tave Risk Management in Northbrook, Ill., recommends adding a $20 million personal umbrella to the typical $500,000 to $1 million homeowners' liability. 'If a child falls off the stage and hits his head, you can go through $3 million to $4 million pretty quickly.' You may want to look into a special-events policy. 'All it takes is for the lead singer to toss a Champagne bottle into the crowd to ruin everything.'"

For Beatles, Aerosmith and related stories about various media sell-outs and stars, check out Tabloid Baby.

(photos copyright tb)