Extra! Local reporter beat bigs in McDermott search

"Well, let me tell you - after the fiasco with Nick Papps with the Australian News Agency (who I contacted first about the hat and he reported it and failed to mention that I, as a journalist was the one to find it) and then with Extra TV-- who I called second and they sent John Nazarian down after the fact and then made it look like he found it because of his famous abilities-- I am a little more than gunshy about working with anyone else. Our primary and only reason for contacting anyone was to get the hat up to the US for DNA testing...

"We are almost 100% sure that the hat belongs to Patrick. At this point I am directly in contact with the Coast Guard chief investigator on this case…"

That email, which hit our office this morning, indicates that a small-town reporter, not big-city journos and sleuths, is the one who picked up the Tabloid Baby torch and shed new light on the Patrick McDermott case!

Kathy Aviles runs El Mirador, the local news magazine of Todos Santos, Baja Mexico, the place where, Tabloid Baby reported back in March that Olivia Newton-John’s presumed-dead boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, had been seen alive. Like many an intrepid small-town reporter who goes a step beyond her jaded high-paid rivals, she brought the story to a new level-- and is seeing the scoop of a lifetime snatched from her hands!

The McDermott case leapt back into the headlines this month when Aussie journo Nick Papps followed our lead and splashed the news that Patrick McDermott had been sighted in and around the remote Baja town of Todos Santos. Others jumped on the bandwagon, most notably the American celebutainment TV show Extra, which claimed to have sent a big time Hollywood P.I. who sniffed out even more “exclusive” evidence.

Turns out, that evidence was handed to Extra’s shamus (see the photo above) by a small-town, big-talent reporter.

The story-behind-the-story is fascinating— made for the movies— and it took place in the same town where Tabloid Baby’s own barefoot beachcombing operatives were tracking down their own McDermott clues.

Kathy details her sleuthing on her webpage, and shows how her work was scooped by the biggies:

June 8, 2006 3:15 pm : After spending about a month of investigating the disappearance of Patrick McDermott, I just returned from the small village of Pescadero where I spoke with Marina Mejia Carranza of Marinas Café... I showed her and her son, Eduardo photos of Patrick McDermott and Marina said she was 80% sure it was him, whereas her son said he was 100% sure that he ate at their establishment sometime during the first week of May. Marina says she remembers him because he really loved her fish tacos and also that he forgot his hat. She then walked over and picked up the hat from the corner of a cabinet where she had put it. I don't think anyone has thought to check with her because she does not speak English, but luckily I do speak Spanish.

Patrick was with a woman who she estimated to be around 35 and his hair was pulled back into a ponytail. She said the woman had blonde hair which goes along with the other reported sightings…

June 8th, 2006 5:00 pm: I returned to the Cafe and took pictures of Marina at the request of Nick Papps with the Australian News Agency (I had contacted him first because he was the only person from the US that I had direct contact with through a cell phone).

June 9th, 2006 7:50 am: I returned to the cafe this morning... 4 people have recognized him and positively identified him. I made a call to Extra TV to let them know that I had the hat and to see if they could help in getting it up to the US for DNA testing. They told me that they would be sending a Private Investigator...

Saturday June 10th: I met with the famous private investigator, John Nazarian and his son, Mike today. I am really glad that Extra sent him down here last night…

Saturday June 17th: This is an open letter to John Nazarian: Dear John (wow, my first ever "dear John" letter)... I want to thank you for making sure the suspected hat of Patrick McDermott's got up to the US and I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking all the credit for finding the hat. I am sure it was due to your instinct that I may not be able to handle the pressure of having the whole world know that it was due to me and my investigative work that the hat was ever found…

There’s plenty more at the El Mirador website.

Tabloid Baby will keep in contact with Kathy Aviles and her network of Baja eyes. We'll keep you updated-- and give credit where credit is due!

Our team got its start in small town papers. We've broken some major stories of our own-- and seen more than a few competitors take credit. And readers of Tabloid Baby know that telling the true story of how a case like this was broken-- the story of a small town reporter with bigtime instincts-- is an even greater story than grandtstanding in the Geraldo tradition. A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Kathy Aviles.

(Tabloid Baby has been on the road the past week and we're back with some major stories. Stay tuned...)

Vegas writer Steve Friess pays tribute to Tabloid Baby while disclosing his connection to Danny Gans coverup TV gal

Our dedicated coverage of the overdose death of Danny Gans and the Las Vegas news media's failure to investigate it like a truly responsible, curious, resourceful and independent entity has begun to pay off.

The writer who attacked us publicly for investigating the mysterious passing of the musical impressionist, is not only disclosing his connections to the heart of the Danny Gans death coverup-- he's paying-- perhaps unconsciously-- tribute to Tabloid Baby, by copying our style!

Steve Friess, a local stringer for The New York Times and other national publications, best known as author of the Gay Vegas tourist guide, went on the attack against Tabloid Baby the week after Gans' untimely death, calling us "beneath contempt, vermin and a Perez Hilton wannabe"-- all for trying to get a few answers about why a clean-living, athletic, Christian family man who billed himself as the antithesis of Vegas sin would die in his sleep at 52!


And that was only the start of our troubles with Steve Friess continued. After we ran his photo, he contacted our web host in an attempt to have our site shut down and harassed us to the point that we were forced to use fascimiles!

It didn't take long for tipsters to clue us in as to why he was on the Gans coverup campaign: Steve Friess is in an unofficial marriage with Miles Smith, executive producer of KVBC News, where Danny Gans close friend Alicia Jacobs is employed as an entertainment reporter. While the local media waited for an official toxicology report to confirm hat they knew about Danny Gans' drug use, the former beauty queen was working tirelessly with Gans' manager to cloud the truth, claiming they knew Gans was clean as a whistle.


Steve Friess later wrote a mind-boggling defense of the local news media's failures in the Gans case, yet apparently, or his freelance editors, have decided full disclosure would be most healthy for his future. In one of his latest postings on his Vegas-promoting blogsite, Friess fesses up to his Alicia Jacobs bond:

"Finally, it must be said that my pal (and Miles' KVBC colleague) Alicia Jacobs provided some really cool coverage via Twitter. Say what you want about her as a journalist-- it seems to me she occupies a unique netherland between being a reporter and being a celebrity who uses her connections to take the public into worlds we don't usually get to go..."

Anyone notice the wording of Friess' condemnation of his pal's journalistic credibility?

Here's another clue:

"Another tip of the hat is due to the Review-Journal's Jason Bracelin and Mike Blasky..."

Our readers know that the word "pal"-- as in "Tabloid Baby pal"-- has been part of the Tabloid Baby lexicon for years.

And the phrase "A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat" has become world-renown (click here for the proof!)

Steve Friess might shout that our coverage has had no influence in Las Vegas, but it's evident we've had a major influence on him! And for that, we offer our troubled pal a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat!

Exclusive! New indications that McDermott lives!

E! True Hollywood Story tackles the Olivia Newton-John saga this weekend, and their reportage confirms what Tabloid Baby has been reporting for months now: Newton-John’s alleged boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, missing from a fishing trip since last July—
is alive!

This information is supported by interviews with the U.S. Coast Guard, the crew of the fishing boat Freedom, on which McDermott was last seen—and by Tabloid Baby’s source in the area where McDermott was allegedly sighted.

We broke the news in March that representatives of the Freedom told our correspondent that the U.S. Coast Guard and members of the sportfishing community believe that McDermott staged his death because of mounting debts and obligations to his former wife.

They told us that McDermott has been seen, alive, in the town of Todos Santos, on the west coast of the lower Baja peninsula, about one hour north of Cabo San Lucas.

Lt. Tony Migliorini, the public information officer at the US Coast Guard station in Long Beach, confirmed to Tabloid Baby this afternoon that the disappearance of Patrick McDermott in July 2005 “is still an open case.

“We have no updates to report,” he said. “But we have an investigator assigned to the case. He has reports of sightings and he has followed them. We’ve received reports from people who say they’ve spotted him. Everywhere from Africa to Beverly Hills. But there are other leads that our investigator is following. And he probably has information that I don’t have."

The lieutenant emphasized: “We consider this case to be ‘open.’”

The journalists who produce E! True Hollywood Story confirm this in the Newton-John special, which debuts Sunday night.

E! Entertainment’s publicity people refused to allow Tabloid Baby to speak with True Hollywood Story’s producer Michael Lynn or any members of the production team, but they did send us the press release.

According to the publicity sheet, the episode does not include a fresh interview with Newton-John, but does contain exclusive interviews with her daughter, Chloe (“She's gone through something this year that is unthinkable”), ex-husband Matt Latanzi (“We're talking about a woman who's been through a lot”), her sister Rona, and other colleagues.

But the interview that stands out is one with Frank Liversedge, manager of the 22nd Street Landing in San Pedro, where the Freedom is docked:

"The period of time where Patrick supposedly disappeared on the boat, all the people were facing the stern part of the boat, the crew was back here in the back working. And you can see this standing right here-- there's no way anyone could go over the side or into the water without someone seeing them."

The E! True Hollywood Newton-John episode features footage from onboard the Freedom, and promises to bring new insight into the relationship between the superstar and McDermott, and, by the looks of the press release, leans toward the theory that Patrick McDermott is indeed alive.

So why does no major news organization, from Los Angeles to Sydney, have a reporter or producer assigned to this story, chasing down the leads, and bringing McDermott back alive—before the bounty hunters or government officials do it?

Tabloid Baby has learned that the E! team had spoken with Coast Guard investigators and had hoped to get advance notice in case McDermott is tracked down before the show goes to air.

But the E! publicity people won’t let us get confirmation from the source.

Our man in Todos Santos

Whether he stepped off the Freedom and into a waiting car for a drive to Tijuana, or, as we have been told, slipped onto another fishing boat for the cruise to Todos Santos, there is evidence that McDermott is alive.

Tabloid Baby has been in contact with one of the few full time journalists in Todos Santos, and in a fashion that should make Michael Connelly and Elmore Leonard proud, has provided him with picture of McDermott that he's been showing around town.

“One person finds the face somewhat familiar,” reports our source in Todos Santos. “Let me just say, forget the Police. This is a basically a rural farming community. The infrastructure barely supports the police having a telephone line and fuel for their vehicles, far less any sophisticated search facilities.

“One person finds the face somewhat familiar.”

There are many unanswered questions in this story, from Newton-John’s public silence during the first seven weeks of McDermott’s disappearance, to the spin control performed by her team in the months since, and the continued silence of McDermott’s ex-wife, with whom he was locked in child support and custody battles.

This story is very much alive.

(And a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Michael Lynn, one of the foremost nonfiction producers and writers in television, for helping move the story and investigation forward.)

Bizarro! Israel Baseball League's Southern cousins!

You don't have to be Jewish to screw up the first season of your six-team professional baseball league. In fact, you might be a Redneck!

The story of Larry Baras and the foible-ridden Israel Baseball League just might not be so special after all. The Aiken, South Carolina Daily Standard reports this week on the plans for a 2008 season of the South Coast professional baseball league-- after a disastrous first season-- and its wildly similar to the parallel story of the IBL.

Now of course, the dreams of an entire race, the history of a nation, and the future of Israel-- not to mention the lives of a few players and a federal fraud lawsuit-- aren't at stake here-- but Larry Baras, Martin Berger, Eric Holtz can all take comfort in knowing that they are no less inept than a bunch of Southern crackers. Heck, the South Coast pros even have their own Ken Holtzman.

In the article South Coast League preparing for 2008, Sports editor Cam Huffman reports:

"It is no big secret that the South Coast League of professional baseball, the newest independent baseball league that played it first season this past summer and included the Aiken Foxhounds, got off to a tough start. From a nationally-publicized on-again, off-again relationship with former New York Met Wally Backman to the cancellation of the inaugural All-Star game and culminating with financial losses that would make the Tampa Bay Devil Rays look like the New York Yankees, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Toole had a year he would like to forget. Still, reflecting on the season that was as he prepares for year No. 2, Toole is keeping a positive attitude about the future of the SCL...

"'We really did not have a good year financially. We knew going into this thing that you could not start six new baseball teams and make a profit. We certainly weren't believing that we would come into this thing with cash falling all over the place. But sometimes it is not what you make but what you spend. From our financial stability, I feel good with where we are, but we are... looking to bring on investors to help us grow.'

"Newly hired coaches and managers almost always point to year No. 2 as the season that will either make or break their new clubs, and Toole believes a similar approach should be taken when evaluating the SCL.

"I think this is the most important year coming up,' he explained. 'In 2007, there was a lot of excitement about just playing the season and getting the league started. In 2008 we have some history, we have a better understanding of some of the challenges we face, and the performance in 2008 it a better barometer of how each market will perform.'

"Accomplishing the league's mission in year No. 2 will be up to a number of personalities that were not even around to go through the struggles of the SCL's first year... With new faces behind the scenes, many of the organizations may take on entirely different personalities in 2008, but Toole explained that was not totally unexpected.

"'It is probably a little more than normal, but typically our industry has a lot of turnover anyway,' said Toole. This year with a start-up league there were a lot of trials and tribulations, a lot of extra hours and a lot of things we all had to learn. Some folks can handle that better than others.'"

Read the entire article here. Meanwhile, a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to the anonymous commenter who gave us the story link and said, "Remove SCL and insert IBL and the stories are almost exactly the same!"

And to the baseball fans who got all huffy about our Eric Holtz story: We don't have a stake in the IBL. We just follow a good story. So you can say whatever you want in our forum. but when you take a cheap shot at Our Man Elli, prepare for us to defend him.

(FUN FACT: In DC Comics' Bizarro world of the cube-shaped "Htrae" ("Earth" spelled backwards), society is ruled by the Bizarro Code which states "Us do opposite of all Earthly things! Us hate beauty! Us love ugliness! Is big crime to make anything perfect on Bizarro World!")

The Hudson Brothers revival gains momentum: Their TV series Bonkers! is #1 on DVD wish list

The Hudson Brothers revival take another unlikely step forward today as the international tastemaking website PopMatters calls to bring back their great lost sketch comedy series, Bonkers!

The Hudson Brothers were pop stars of the Seventies-- up there with David Cassidy, the Brady Bunch, Sonny & Cher and The Bay City Rollers, but lost to time as the three brothers, Mark, Bill & Brett, refused to cash in on 25 years of nostalgia action as they moved forward with new lives, projects and innovations-- Mark as producer and writer for the likes of Aerosmith, Ozzie Osbourne and Ringo Starr, Bill with movies like Father of The Bride and children like Kate Hudson, Brett as writer and producer of TV and films like The Seventh Python and the hilarious influential sports comedy (and Bollywood hit) Cloud 9.

Brett wasn't yet a teen when the trio of Beatles- and Marx Brothers-obsessed rock 'n' rollers came out of Portland, Oregon in the midsixties and played alongside the likes of The Who, Traffic and Herman's Hermits. They were show business veterans by the time they landed in Los Angeles and winding up with the own network TV variety series. And though they were part of the crowd that included John Lennon, Harry Nilsson and various Beach Boys (they wrote their hit Rendezvous with Bruce Johnston at Chez Jay's in Santa Monica), their mainstream TV fame that began with their summer replacement for Sonny & Cher killed their rock 'n' roll credibility, and they rolled into the Eighties on state fairs, Las Vegas and The Love Boat.

And in 1979 they went to England and starred in a series for ITV called Bonkers! Along with Brit comic Bob Monkhouse, the show featured sketches, guest stars and musical numbers, but appeared to be snakebit, for after the airing of four episodes, the rest of the 13-week run was scrapped by a long ITV strike.

But they carried on in international syndication with 24 episodes, were compared to Saturday Night Live and became a cult hit.

And today the website PopMatters ("an international magazine of cultural criticism") ranks Bonkers! as the #1 show on its list of TV that should be on DVD:

"The Hudson Brothers remains the most intangible of ‘70s entertainment entities. Obviously styled after the burgeoning media managed acts that began with The Monkees and ended with The Partridges, the trio of genial musical siblings was pushed into the variety format initially. Yet neither the primetime or Saturday morning kid vid version of their AOR appeal worked. It wasn’t until they traveled to the UK and hooked up with beloved British comedian Bob Monkhouse that they found some smattering of artistic merit. Combining sketches, blackouts, and the mandatory song and dance, this fast paced ITV farce— styled after The Muppet Show— had a short life in US syndication. It deserves a revisit. "

The Hudsons' show ranks above The Equalizer, Designing Women, A Cook's Tour, LA Law, and The Prisoner: Cell Block H. Not bad. The Hudson Brother Comedy Hour is already set to be released o DVD. And the surprise new Hudson Brothers MySpace page is running strong.

The next step is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Jann Wenner's fiefdom is under severe criticism for its bizarre choices and rejections. (Madonna may be a lot of things, but she ain't rock 'n' roll. Uh, Lou Reed is. And so are The Monkees.) The campaign to vote The Hudson Brothers into the Hall begins here.


Show your support by cutting out this Chuckie Margolis badge and wearing it proudly!

...and a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Luis for the tip...

That's not Curious George! Part 2

We were the first to shout about it: That's not Curious George in the big bright new cartoon movie that opens today, and nobody who's even remotely familiar with the books or stories will try and convince us that it’s Curious George up there on the screen, when Mom and Dad and kids and anyone for that matter who’s experienced the wonder of the books in the past sixty five years but has sat in movie theatres through The Grinch and Cat in The Hat and Chicken Little and Cheaper By The Dozen and Walk The Line and Charlie and The Chocolate Factory and Good Night (COMMA) and Good Luck and any other number of Hollywood bastardizations knows the original timeless classic has been altered for no good reason, and that the new little cartoon monkey is Curious George as much as the kid in Home Alone 3 and 4 is Macauley Culkin.

Anyway, the reviews are out, and a tip of the hat to the L.A. Times’ Carina Cochano, for taking the monkey by the ears:

The big difference between this monkey and H.A. and Margret Rey's? He's now conspicuously eyeballed. Millions of dollars later, George's coal-lump peepers are now black and white, thanks very much, because studio executives believe eyeballs make him more "accessible" to children. Everybody's opinion is special.

With his new eyeballs, and his abiding love for Ted, George is considerably more anthropomorphized than before. And with his cuddly new name, the "Man" is likewise less creepily anonymous. Overall, the film version feels warmer than the books, stressing the monkey's amour fou for Ted, that yellow-headed heartbreaker. What it lacks somewhat is that brainy celebration of la différence (between man and monkey, of course) that gave the books a wilder edge, a feeling that despite their affection for one another, George and the Man were essentially strangers. Eyeball-less, and ignorant of his friend's name, George was a primal force that the Man in the Yellow Hat could never quite control. No wonder the new line of products to be sold at Kmart and Target will be modeled on the new-look George, while higher-end stores will stick with the old, literary monkey.

The old George was an irrepressible id, a reminder of the fragile equilibrium (not to mention polite distance) between nature and civilization. The new one is a future plush toy.

The New York Times, meanwhile, blows off the movie in four paragraphs, with third-stringer Dana Stevens ignoring the discrepancies, being more concerned with expressing Upper East Side private school relief that the monkey is not voiced by Snoop Doggy Dogg:

In a refreshing departure from the animal heroes of most recent children's movies, Curious George — or "the monkey," as he's called for the first two-thirds of this new animated film — doesn't rap, punch out bad guys or emit rapid-fire commentary on pop culture.... With top-drawer voice talent including Joan Plowright and Dick Van Dyke, original songs by Jack Johnson, and old-fashioned two-dimensional animation that echoes the simple colors and shapes of the books, "Curious George" is an unexpected delight...

While we’re at it, that’s not Inspector Clouseau in-- aw, fageddaboutit...


And because he lied about Iraq and the "Liberty Tower" and N'Awlins:

Morris doco reopens a 20-year-old can of worms

It’s amusing that the hand-wringing continues twenty years later over the use of reenactments and payments to interview subjects in documentaries, and funnier still that the latest uproar is centered on Errol Morris, because the quirky documentarian's breakthrough doco, The Thin Blue Line, was released in 1988 and was closely tied to the tabloid television show, A Current Affair.

The New York Times works up a scandal today over Morris’ payment of interview subjects and his reenactment techniques in his $5 million film-- mainly because the practice is rubbing off on the print industry (the movie’s being adapted as a book that was excerpted in The New Yorker). But its concerns over film and television practices are old news, even though the producers using them are still concerned that the public might find out what’s in the sausages they produce.

A Current Affair was pioneering the use of reenactments in television journalism, candid about paying for story exclusivity and taking a lot of heat for it when Morris came out with his artsy film about a man who was apparently railroaded in the murder of a Texas cop. The television show’s championing of the film, and its constant coverage of the case helped Morris’ campaign to have Randall Dale Adams’ conviction overturned. And in fact, after Adams was set free, he entered into a romantic relationship with the (female) A Current Affair editor who’d worked on the segments (help us out: Did they get married?).

Twenty years passed. The reenactments and story-telling techniques used by Morris and developed by tabloid television innovators were coopted by network news organizations in their prime time magazine shows.

And as the stories of ordinary people caught in extraordinary situations were exploited for television ratings, dramatic effect or, in the case of filmmakers like Morris or Michael Moore, millions of dollars in profits and residuals, those ordinary people holding the stories realized that their lives and experiences were commodities they deserved to be paid for. And while there’s been no evidence that paying story subjects has led them to embellish or overly dramatize their stories, you’ve got to admit it’s only fair that people who are being exploited-- and literally put to work-- should be paid for their time, which often includes taking time off from work, travel to a shooting location, and the ordeal of sitting under hot lights for hours at a time while being grilled on matters often not pleasant to relive but which become fodder for books, films and TV shows.

The Times is correct in saying there are “conflicting reactions among those in the world of film documentaries,” but it’s dead wrong in writing that “American newspapers, magazines and television news divisions do not generally pay subjects for their interviews; their caution is rooted in a belief that the credibility of interviewees diminishes when money changes hands and that these people will provide the answers they think are desired rather than the truth.”

Newspaper reporters with their notebooks (or in the case of Robery Downey Jr., a Dictaphone) may not pay for their doorstep interviews. Magazines, in other hand do pay. And so do television news divisions.

Television news divisions pay for interviews.

The payments are often disguised as travel expenses, payment for “materials” like photos or videos, “consultancies,” or (as the Times pointed out in the case of HBO and Rory Kennedy) “honorariums,” but in the highly competitive business of exclusives and “gets,” the interview subjects’ choices are rarely determined by whether they have the hots for Barbara Walters or Katie Couric.

They pay. A Current Affair took the hit for admitting it. Twenty years ago. And twenty years later, Errol Morris deserves a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat for his candor.

Excerpts from the Times article (and be sure to catch the line about brave Michael Moore):

“I paid the ‘bad apples’ because they asked to be paid, and they would not have been interviewed otherwise,” (Morris) said in a statement…

Some, though, said that documentary subjects have routinely been paid for many years — and that failure on the part of filmmakers to share the wealth might actually constitute abuse of people whose troubles will become the stuff of a profit-making enterprise.

“It’s not all that uncommon, it’s just something most people don’t talk about,” said Diane Weyermann, executive vice president of Participant Productions, which helped finance “Standard Operating Procedure,” and was a producer of “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Jimmy Carter Man From Plains.”

“Sometimes, you’re paying subjects who have nothing,” Ms. Weyermann said. “You’re making a film about them, and you don’t want to exploit them.”

But in the case of “Standard Operating Procedure,” the payments have reverberations in the realm of print, where cash compensation for an interview violates a deep taboo. A book linked to the film, by Mr. Morris and Philip Gourevitch, is scheduled for publication on May 15… Mr. Gourevitch said the payments did not trouble him… He said he had based his own work largely on interviews Mr. Morris compiled for the movie and was aware that some interviewees had consulting agreements with Mr. Morris, in keeping with common film industry practice, but he did not know which.

(The New Yorker editor) David Remnick… added that Norman Mailer’s book “The Executioner’s Song” involved payments to sources, and that he would have excerpted it, if given the chance. “The book is a masterpiece,” he said.

In the interview on Thursday night Mr. Morris expressed some ambivalence about whether these payments should have been disclosed in the film… “I perhaps should have. I didn’t feel the necessity of doing it. I didn’t disclose at the end of ‘A Brief History of Time’ that Stephen Hawking was paid a considerable amount of money to appear in that film, and for the rights to his book.

“...Without these extensive interviews, no one would ever know their stories.”

“I can’t say this is any type of scandal or anything abnormal,” Tom Bernard (of Sony Classics, the film’s distributor) said on Thursday. He noted that documentary makers faced an ever more difficult fight for access to prime subjects, as the number of filmmakers expanded, and interviewees became more aware of the profit potential in nonfiction films.

Indeed, a documentary as hallowed as “Grey Gardens”... involved payments.

A spokesman for Michael Moore, known for highly polemical documentaries like “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Sicko,” said he did not know Mr. Moore’s policy regarding payment to subjects and was unable to reach him.

We talk to Our Man Elli about the woeful news that there won't be pro baseball in Israel this summer

Our Man Elli in Israel kept in touch from the road during his recent lecture tour (and ballpark tour) of America and broke a few stories along the way, but he waited til he was back home in Jerusalem to drop the bombshell— his exclusive report yesterday that the Israel Baseball League nor the upstart Israel Professional Baseball League will be rolling out a season in 2008. Time for a talk.

Tabloid Baby: So, that’s it, huh?

Our Man Elli: That’s it. No baseball this year. And I gotta hand it to you. You called it back in January.

A regular Carnac. But we thought the IPBL had the pedal to the metal.

Too little, too late, too bad. Even before their tryouts, they knew. And then they had the tryouts. The quantity of the players was promising. The quality? Not so. The last I’d heard, the IPBL was talking about setting up exhibition games in Israel among teams comprised of players born in different countries like the US, Canada, the Dominican Republic, and possibly, Europe.

And then Larry Baras surfaces, talking bout the joy of kosher hot dogs. What’s up with the “Lah-di-dah” attitude?

The questions for Larry Baras remain the same as they’ve been since last summer: How much money was raised for the IBL? And how much money was spent. That's it. His problems with his bagel company, and whether bagel money was used to help the IBL, will be determined in that lawsuit brought against him by Natalie Blacher. Whether he used IBL money to help his bagel business is another matter.

More than a year ago, Baras told me that he was budgeting $3 million for the inaugural season, and he said he'd be able to raise it "very easily." “Very easily.” Those were his words. We do know that the American Jewish community went hog wild, you should pardon the expression, over the idea of baseball in Israel, and people everywhere were eager to help in any way they could. And they did. How many investors were there? And how much money was raised? If $3 million could be had "very easily," how about $4 million?

We have no idea, because until today there’s been no accounting of any of it.

Hmmm… You’d think maybe Baras might be hiding something.

(LOOKING FOR A LINK? CLICK HERE TO GET TO OUR BASEBALL IN ISRAEL ARCHIVE SITE: THE ENTIRE STORY AND EVERY POST ON BASEBALL IN ISRAEL.)

You know, we have some interesting anonymous commenters on this site. There’s Scooper 0007 from Haifa—

Yes, a tip of the hat to him. He’s obviously close to an insider, because he does deliver good bits and pieces—

There’s Pooper Scooper—

I thought that was the same guy--

Nope.

A fine cub reporter—

And then there are people like this guy “Allen” who posted this morning, accusing you of being angry about the idea of baseball in Israel. What’s up with that?

I love and respect your readers. But that kind of talk is beyond stupid. It’s like the schmucks who deliberately spell my name wrong. If I were a million dollar investor, they’d spell it right. But this? I don’t have to prove my bona fides to anyone. What reason would I have for not wanting baseball in Israel? Shooting the messenger is an old tactic. Accusing me of wanting a job is getting old, too.

Hey, you turned down the commissioner job.

Yeah, right.

Hey, we had the campaign going, but you said you wouldn’t accept it.

Like I need those kind of distractions.

We had the hats—

Anyway, again I have to repeat myself: So far, no one has been able to prove or even claim that anything I ever wrote about the league wasn't true. All they can do is spin why it happened. But the facts are still the facts.

And the facts are?

The facts are that the 2007 season was a poorly run effort led by an organizer who lied to everyone with whom he made a deal. And the fact is that 2008 was a non-starter from the beginning, because of poor planning and organization, and an attempt by one rich man to bully his way into creating a new league. The facts? No more baseball because of poor planning, organization and, sorry, greed.

So what point are they missing?

This story has divided everyone into two camps since the season ended. One side swallowed the Kool-Aid, and they still believe that Larry Baras is an honest businessman who may have been in over his head, but was only trying to do the best he could and wasn’t prepared for all the things that came up. Ask them how much money was raised and where the money went, and they change the subject.

And a lot of the people in that camp were some of the marginal players who were just happy to be playing professional ball. They didn’t even care that he even owed them money.

Baras's charm and awe-shucks persona was able to convince that half of his sincerity— and convince them that I was to blame for all his troubles-- that if only I hadn't written those nasty little stories about what happened in the summer of 2007, he would have been able to raise the money from more investors and paid off the 2007 debt and start up the 2008 season.

Me. I'm to blame.

Of course, that doesn't explain why the commissioner and nine others from the advisory board of the IBL quit.

Touche.

The second camp was more forthright and critical. They didn't shy away from asking the basic questions, including how much money was raised and where it went. And it was that exact question that moved the commissioner and the advisory board members to quit.

If I may borrow a political analogy, it's like the liberals in Israel. No matter how many times you showed them the actions of Arafat, they still believed he had good intentions in him.

Whoa. Mr. International Affairs in La-la Land.

I had another political analogy. With Barack Obama and accusing the working class of being bitter. Are you bitter?

What? Me worry? No way. We’re talking baseball. Not Gaza. This entire experience is the definition of “pastime.” I only wish I had a season to follow this summer.

We posted a story about the South Coast League in the States that went belly up the same way as the IBL. What was the difference?

I’d say honesty. They seemed to be very upfront about their problems and missteps, so when they announced they’d suspended the 2008 season, there was real disappointment—but not anger.

Look, starting up a league is difficult. But nothing can fly without transparency. And there hasn't been any transparency with the IBL.

Now what about the IPBL? These guys are really tight-lipped as well. Why the secrecy? And why do they keep their webpage on some finance company’s website?

It's on the business site of the IPBL’s organizer, Jeff Rosen, and he didn't bother to create a separate Web site for the league. Greed is not part of this equation, because everyone knows it will take years to turn a profit. Arrogance? Maybe arrogance, from someone so rich he thought he could just dial up a new league, someone trying to show up Baras on how it can be done—and somebody who can’t—or won't-- get somebody’s name right. He’s learned that money can buy a lot of things, but not necessarily a baseball league in Israel. He has a lot to learn if he wants to attempt it again next summer.

I know he doesn’t like to answer questions. But it sounds like he got your goat.

It's my name. It's all I've got. Elli. Wohlgelernter. And when I have to correct someone three times, I don’t care who he is, he can go take a flying—

We get it.

Hey, I expect to be respected on that issue. Like I said, If I was a million dollar investor in the IPBL, I guaran-eefin-tee he’d know how my name is spelled.

And how was your trip to the States?

Wonderful. And successful. It was great to drive around America, listening to Sirius radio—

We won’t pay for radio.

I know, but it came with the rental car. It’s great. And I got to explain Israel to the American Jewish community, especially the kids on campus who are woefully ignorant of the situation here. And I got to go to see a lot of baseball games.

So is this story over?

Baseball in Israel? It’s only beginning.

I told you it was a book.

Now I'm starting to believe you. Talk to you later.

--click--

Exclusive Interview! Our Man Elli may sue over Chicago Tribune plagiarism of his baseball story

"I am pursuing all legal means at my disposal."

That's the lead in the latest explosive controversy to erupt in wake of the Israel Baseball League exposé penned by Our Man Elli in Israel and first published here.

In the days after we reported that a respected correspondent for a powerful daily newspaper plagiarized the sidebar to the story, we wait to see what the mainstream news establishment does about it-- and we offer this exclusive interview with Elli Wohlgelernter, author of the original story about IBL team manager Ken Holtzman that was appropriated, lifted and plagiarized by Joel Greenberg of The Chicago Tribune.

See the evidence here.

And read on for the story behind the story, in this morning's exclusive interview with Our Man Elli in Israel:

Elli, how did you come to write this story?

As everyone who knows me knows, I love baseball. I live and breathe it every day. The thought of having professional baseball in Israel was exhilarating, both in the pre-season buildup and once it started. I went to as many games as I could, and got to know people in and around the league. But what I started to see was a sub-text with the players. They were experiencing a totally different reality from the fans! I thought it would make a good story, and started to keep notes on everything. There were many story lines going on, but what I kept seeing was a supposedly professional league that was being run very in a very unprofessional manner. And the players were suffering. Sure, a lot of them wouldn’t be professionals otherwise and were happy just to be playing professional baseball, but the real players-- the kids who wanted to make a career out of baseball-- they were being held back by the unprofessionalism of it all. I thought it would make a good story.

What motivated you?

I’ve been a professional journalist for more than 30 years. What motivated me is what always motivates me: I wanted to write an interesting, fair, factual story. And that's what I believe I did. Believe me, I only scratched the surface with what was I put out for publication-- the story that appeared on Tabloid Baby. What appeared in the Jewish weeklies was a cut-down version that left out a lot of the details in the original. But even that only told part of the story. The story of all 120 players, how they came to play in this start-up league-- that’s a movie unto itself. They’re just a terrific, terrific bunch of guys. Back in the summer of 1983, I covered the Utica (NY) Blue Sox, a Single-A team, and I thought I’d never have that kind of experience again. This wasn't quite the same-- back then, I lived with the team, rode the bus with them-- but it was pretty close.

What was the feedback from that article?

From professionals in the business, it was very positive, recognition that it was a good story, well-told—a story that revealed what happens when a dream comes up against reality. The heart of the article was how the league, first and foremost, ignored the players—in fact hurt the players--certainly the ones who were trying to forge a future career out of the league-- ignored the native Israelis, and made stupid and sloppy decisions over and over again.

The fallout?

Well. (sighs) I knew there would be some backlash, but I never expected to see what transpired. Many people were really agitated over this story. They saw it in all kinds of ways that cut into a deep emotional hold that this whole idea of baseball in Israel had on people. Many Jews accused me of being a traitor to all things Israeli and Jewish, that I was no different than the many writers among the media who propagate virulent anti-Israeli propaganda that masquerades as journalism. It was taken personally and emotionally, and continued to reverberate day after day, in comments made on many, many web sites and in letters to editors.

(NOTE: Here’s an example: "…You can find the crap in every event. This is such a positive one. Why would you look to find the negative and seek fame leeching on this? How can you call yourself a journalist? You are a dirt digger, crap scraper. That ought to be your business card: Dirt Digger, Crap Scraper, Leech.")

It really stunned me.

For weeks, you stood alone and took the heat.

I’ve been called names before, but this was a unique. I mean, I though that line about the business card was pretty funny, but the whole idea is absurd! Is there any indication that after 30 years in the business I'm a journalist who would write an article to bash Israel? I understand that these are fans talking, and the fans-- the American-Israelis who attended-- had a great time. But the players experienced a different reality. And one of them was almost killed because of the lack of professionalism among the league organizers. I understand that for the fans, it was an escape from the harsh reality of our lives here in Israel, and anything negative about that fantasy world was more than they wanted to hear-- even if every word of what I wrote was true. And no one has disputed a single fact of my story.

As he walked away,
he said, "It was a good story."
I said, "I know."

Did you consider this to be YOUR story?

No one else researched and wrote it. That makes it my story. Most everyone else sugar-coated the experience. I told what the players went through. I worked hard, cultivated sources, obtained internal email memos, hung out at the ballparks, visited the dorms, interviewed dozens of players, managers, coaches, league officials, vendors, reporters. In short, I busted my ass to get a fair, accurate, and honest story of what happened. I wrote 4,500 words on this, and could have written more. No one else did. In the business, it’s what we call an “exclusive.”

You wrote a sidebar story. What was special about it?

The sidebar focused on Kenny Holtzman, the manager of the Petah Tikva Pioneers. He’s an ex-major leaguer who was brought in to help sell the league. His words to David Rosenthal, a reporter for Walla, were explosive, a damning critique against the league. They were big enough that I pulled them out of the main story and highlighted them separately. Kenny said what was on the minds of many of the players. Coming from him, it made sense journalistically to separate it into a sidebar.

It wasn’t your interview. How could you claim it to be yours?

I never said the interview was mine. I mentioned Rosenthal a few times in the story and always gave him credit. He, in fact, was the only reporter who did any kind of serious coverage of the league at all, from before the season even began. And I wrote that in my story. What was mine was the translation of what he wrote. Holtzman spoke in English. I asked Rosenthal for the tapes, but he never recorded it. He only took notes. The article was published in Hebrew. So I translated back into English what had originally been spoken in English. I sent it to Rosenthal for verification, and he said it was accurate. Joel Greenberg lifted that translation, word-for-word.

Who is Joel Greenberg? (left)

He’s a reporter for the Chicago Tribune, formerly of the New York Times. His claim to fame is that he went to jail in 1983 as a conscientious objector, for refusing to carry out reserve duty during the first Lebanon war.

Do you know him personally?

I've played softball with him, and we're in the same business, but I can't say we’re friends.

How did you feel when you read his article on the Chicago Tribune website?

I felt that he had ripped me off. That he’d obviously had read my story in Haaretz here in Israel and only then decided to do a story because he's a reporter for a newspaper in Chicago, the city where Ken Holtzman first rose to fame as a rookie with the Chicago Cubs. It's obvious that's where it came from. Why else would he wait six full weeks to write about Holtzman leaving the Israel Baseball League?

Have you spoken with Greenberg since?

I ran into him in the street on Yom Kippur night, and he started to say something about wanting to call me about my story. I asked why was there no shout out, no hat tip, no credit of any kind for his ripping off my story. He said it wasn't the time to discuss it--which was true enough. Yom Kippur is hardly the day for expressing animosity.

Did he say anything else?

As he walked away, he said, "It was a good story." I said, "I know."

Joel Greenberg is a big shot, a well-respected mainstream journalist. Why would he stoop so low as to steal a story?

You'd have to ask him.

Do you plan to take any action?

I am pursuing all legal means at my disposal.

What do you have to say to Joel Greenberg?

“Be honest. You're a journalist."

What do you have to say to the world?

Keep reading Tabloid Baby for more updates!

One more question. How’s the book proposal coming?

I'm pursuing negotiations with publishers to tell the whole story. There’s so much that was left out due to space limitations.

'Informational vermin' lead to LA Times closure

A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to the informational vermin!

The LA Times is backtracking on the Villaraigosalinasgate scandal, with an astounding column yesterday by media columnist Tim Rutten that attacked the "informational vermin" who whip the LA Times' lazy ass on hot city stories, and yearned wistfully for the good old days when the LA Times had a vice grip on local media coverage and could cover up mayoral scandals, even when they imapcted city business, as when the wife of Villaraigosa predecessor James Hahn split on the family, leaving him to leave work early every day to care for his kids in San Pedro:

When it comes to reporting on politics and elected officials, distinguishing between what is properly private and what is necessarily public becomes more difficult all the time.

It's easy to blame the news media for this — for all the obvious reasons. They include an increasing number of editors willing to take their cue from journalism's lowest common denominator, the gossip sheets, whether online or on slick paper, that continue to proliferate like informational vermin. By its very nature, gossip does not respect the distinction between public and private because it doesn't acknowledge the existence of such a dichotomy...

Clearly, the mayor would not be in the fix he's in— and it's quite a fix— without the emergence of a vigorous online media that is reshaping the city's political landscape. Los Angeles mayors Sam Yorty and Tom Bradley were married men who had affairs, which never got into the papers because, even if City Hall reporters had been inclined to pursue the story, it would have been virtually impossible to make it conform to the standards their editors enforced. When James K. Hahn's marriage broke up in the middle of his term, there hardly was a ripple in the local press.

No more.

Depending on how you look at things, we're witnessing the digital execution of either decency and discretion or of a culture of excessive deference to power. Take your pick, though the truth probably resides, as it so often does, somewhere in between...

Rutten's pomposity is either the laugh of the newsroom or the chilling harbinger of the new edict. And the temperature drops a few more digits with our pal Steve Lopez, the prize catch journo at the Times who's able to look at the company town ith an outsider's eye and allowed to riff away from the pack, returning to the irrelevency beat today with a column on "An ER doc with surf in his blood."

Sure, the piece is probably an evergreen saved for a Sunday, but he should have insisted they shelved it with an update-- because the Villaraigosa story is developing by the hour. The lack of intensity and focus is similar to his gradual easing off of Cardinal Mahony during the molestation coverup scandal. Had he continued to snarl and tear and rip at the trouser leg, the corrupt politician may have been dethroned-- and Lopez would probaby have gotten the Pulitzer.

It's clear the Times has an agenda here, and doesn't want the facts to lead to Villaraigosa's downfall or have an effect Hillary Clinton's chances for the White House.

Meanwhile, for full, exciting coverage of the City Hall scandal, the Pulitzer-deserving journalist is Luke Ford, a journo whose focus borders on the autistic and whose website is the new "paper of record" for the most portentous story in Los Angeles and possibly American politics.

A statue for Greg from the newsstand?

“I don't say he's a great man. Willie Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being... So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall in his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.” -- Death of A Salesman

"When I take the dirt nap, they'll put a statue like that for me at the newsstand." -- Greg Burgess

Jon Crowley over at Hollywood Thoughts, known for his definitive essays on Disneyana and Hollywood history, has literally made the world pay attention to the death… and life… of Greg Burgess.

Greg was the ZZ Top-looking guy who worked at the Sherman Oaks Newsstand at the corner of Van Nuys and Ventura. His passing Monday at the age of 59 might have gone unnoticed, if not for Dodger Jon and his touching, Pulitzer-worthy essay on the death of a newsman.

A tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to L.A. Observed for linking to Hollywood Thoughts. The story sped through Cyberspace. Other bloggers posted memories, and the L.A. Daily News today runs a feature-length obit on a guy who probably never thought twice about how important he was to the lives of other people:

"He brought smiles to the faces of passing motorists. Heard the cares of customers. Handed out toys to children. And for decades was a fixture at the landmark Sherman Oaks Newsstand.

Gregory Mark Burgess, the artist clerk whose smile had cheered passers-by at Van Nuys and Ventura boulevards since the early 1980s… News of his death raced this week across the blogosphere. Drew calls of condolences from Jay Leno's office. And shocked a Sherman Oaks community longing for the ZZ Top-like hot-rodder perched each evening with a copy of your favorite news mag or paper.

“He was the jewel of the neighborhood,” said Jon Crowley… “He knew everybody. He cared for everybody. He belonged to everybody. He was the outdoor bartender... but instead of pouring a drink, he'd pour out words of wisdom.”

Burgess, a native of Columbus, Ohio, was raised in Covina and the inland town of Perris, where he developed a life-long love of hot rods, Harleys and high-heeled curves. A hell-raiser, he raced drag bikes, wrenched on top-fuel dragsters-- and spent at least one night in jail for joy-riding the fire chief's car…

Sunday through Thursday, rain or shine - Burgess always had a joke. A smile. Some advice. Or a copy of your favorite "Forbes" or "Easy Rider" tucked beneath the register. Leno of "Tonight Show" and Max Baer of "The Beverly Hillbillies" were regulars….

When he wasn't peddling news, the man whose favorite artists are Jackson Pollack and Von Dutch loved to tour art galleries, cars shows or create "rockabilly" art with homemade frames. His company, Scavenger Enterprises, fashioned model cars.

…Once, when eyeballing art in Orange County... Burgess noticed a statue of the famous Laguna Beach greeter. "He said, 'When I take the dirt nap, they'll put a statue like that for me at the newsstand."'

A statue for newsguy Greg?

Wouldn’t that be something. A statue for all the newsmen, artists, writers and folks who mean so much but never get the credit or more than a passing nod.

Get moving, Hollywood Thoughts.

We’ll make the first donation. Let’s get Leno… and Max Baer... and ZZ Top...to follow.

Prediction: No pro baseball for Israel in 2008

2008 has dawned with a big question mark and Joe Btfsplk cloud over the future of baseball in Israel. And if we may go all Carnac on your asses, we will take a leap of cynicism and predict there will be no professional baseball in Israel this year, thanks to the mess left behind by the Israel Baseball League in the summer of ’07.

And don’t blame Our Man Elli.

He merely reported (and a monumental report it was) the facts of a debacle of a season that somehow everyone took seriously only after New York Times columnist Murray Chass took all of Elli’s droppings and stepped in last week to report that the IBL owes a lot more than a few bounced paychecks and ice cube bills— a debt that reaches, and by our sources’ accounts, surpasses, one million US dollars (more on that to come)-- and badwill that guarantees that embattled IBL founder Larry Baras will not be involved in an IBL sophomore season whenever and if ever that may take place, or for that matter, set foot in Israel, where the ankle above that foot would probably be clamped with a shackle as soon as he steps out of the jetway.

Yet, the charade continues, with an announcement of a 2008 IBL schedule, followed by bobbled IBL tryouts in Miami a couple of weeks back, under the watchful eye of league president and local attorney Martin Berger and his operations director Dan Duquette. About thirty hopefuls showed up. Our scouts tell us about two players displayed an inkling of talent, yet none is destined to get an El Al coach ticket to a summer of fun.

And, yes, Larry Baras was nowhere to be seen.

The coalition of the wishing described by Chass last week (“mediators” led by former IBL commissioner Dan Kurtzer and former advisers Marvin Goldklang (a minor league team owner and limited partner in the Yankees) and (Smith College economics prof) Andrew Zimbalist hope to pull together all the potential movers— and derail the rival Israel Professional Baseball League rebels in the process—in a meeting later this month.

They also want Baras out. Sources tell Tabloid Baby that the Boston businessman who’s been hit by a federal securities fraud lawsuit connected to his IBL startup and who bounced paychecks to players and left vendors hanging, is claiming he’s been out of pocket to the tune of 90,000 US dollars.

The ones trying to restart the league may pay him off and send him back to his bagel-stuffing business. But sources say Baras may hold out for more. Don’t fall for his woe-is-me act, they tell us. Baras will look to leave with his pockets stuffed with cash the same way his UnHoley Bagels are filled with cream cheese.

But in the wake of the IBL’s first season, the biggest problem will be getting anyone in Israel to cooperate with mercenary carpetbaggers looking to skim more shekels from Holy Land (baseball) diamonds. Right now, it’s safe to say that just about no one in Israel trusts the IBL, nor will they do business with it-- not Gezer, not Baptist Village, not vendors, not landscapers, not television channels-- not anyone, even in the unlikely scenario that Baras raises the money to get out of debt and start fresh. In fact, most every Israeli will likely be gun-shy about working with anyone who utters the word beysbol (baseball).

Meanwhile, another question many have been asking is why Berger and Duquette are still tied in with Baras. We know Duquette lost out on the Pittsburgh Pirates GM gig, which would have sent him packing from the IBL faster than spoiled baba ghanoush through a digestive system. But he can't now. Duquette owns about a quarter of the league, and is owed a lot of money, and so is Berger. Lots.

So for now, think Bagelstock and Bloom. And Bloom. That’s where we're all standing, and where the future of baseball in Israel is not.


Stay tuned here, and thanks for all the tips and a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to you all.

Why are The Hudson Brothers hot again?

Our pop culture watchers have noticed a strange phenomenon taking place in the nostalgia market. Suddenly, more than 30 years after their heyday and 25 years after their break-up as a performing act, The Hudson Brothers are hot again.

Hours after our exclusive post of the first group photo of the legendary brothers in 20 years (the first since Bill, Mark and Brett appeared together on Mark & Brett's Offshore Comedy television comedy show), a Hudson Brothers page has suddenly popped up on MySpace, and is already filling up with "friends."

Members of the Hudson Brothers fan and friends community are surprised by the unannounced arrival, though it does comes in advance of the DVD release of the fondly-remembered yet rarely-seen seasons of The Hudson Brothers Comedy Hour and The Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show from the Seventies-- and amid talk that the siblings may be joining up for an ultimate TV reality series.

The Hudson Brothers were a rare act that won praise as legitimate rock musicians, comedy entertainers and teen idols. They're also among the few with a Top 10 legacy to refuse to cash in on the nostalgia market. While every Seventies star, from Barry Williams to the Bay City Rollers, has made more than one money-grubbing comeback attempt in the past thirty years, each Hudson has carried on with successful second acts-- Mark as a top music producer and writer, Bill as a film and music producer, Brett as a television and film writer and producer.

Bottom line: You haven't seen them on the VH1 nostalgia shows.

The Hudsons' hard-won status as a legit rock band was sabotaged by their success as comedy and teen stars on network television, but through the Seventies, they earned the respect of their fellow artists, and in fact were part of the gang of LA rabblerousers that included Harry Nilsson and John Lennon. The Hudsons are now working together on the soundtrack of Frozen Pictures' Neil Innes film, The Seventh Python.

The renewed publicity for the Hudson Brothers may even opay off for these guys, a different group of "Hudson Brothers" who showed up on YouTube earlier this month:

...and a tip of the Tabloid Baby hat to Stephieann for the story tip!