Hess has always been something of a freeloader, but no one (to our knowledge) has accused him of dishonesty or criminal behavior. Which makes it sad that he's reportedly been taken advantage of.

In a mass email, Hess said a friend he hadn't seen for 15 years convinced him to drive to Colorado, totaling Hess' new motorcycle in the process and almost abandoning Hess in New Mexico. Then, over the course of several months in Colorado, the friend fixed and sold of the motorcyle; allegedly funneled Hess' "old jewelry and gold and gems" to a friend; then had the truck towed to a salvage yard, which is demanding ransom.

These guys are professional scam artists and all have big criminal background and drug histories. The salvage yard we believe are also friends of these guys and they're demanding loads of money too. All my belongings are still inside the vehicle. The salvage place wants to bargain with me if I give them the vehicle title they will let me have my stuff back.

We obviously haven't verified any of this; needless to say, if true it's rather tragic. Particularly because who on Earth would want that stanky truck or this hippie's meagre remaining possessions?? Talk about your petty theft.

Full email follows.

(Top pic via Purple53.com.)

• Huge platform. Even without financial compensation, Gunn enjoyed the benefits (and potential hazards) of what, based on early critical acclaim and audience growth rates, looked to become a hugely-watched hit. Airtime like that does not come cheap.
• Winning personality. As we've said, Gunn is an articulate and charming mensch, always ready with a crisp take on fashion. If he wasn't, then having a big platform wouldn't have done him any good — and might have actually harmed him.
• Winning platform. Crucially, Runway wasn't some cheap reality television disaster, recruiting Gunn solely for his ability to stir up unnecessary drama with which to titillate viewers. Instead, it offered him a chance to showcase his strongest area of expertise in a relatively dignified setting.
• Residual benefits. When the show started, Gunn was chair of fashion design at Parsons. He must have had an inkling that Runway, even if it never became a big hit, might open up new doors careerwise. And it did!
• Kept his day job. Gunn wasn't desperate to pay his rent.
• Not content being a poor. Tim didn't work for free long! Though his season-two take of $2,500 was something of a pittance by TV (and Runway) standards, he kept leveraging his success into more money and outside gigs. Know your worth!

Be sure to keep this list handy for the next time a cable network comes knocking on your door. It could totally happen.

[Daily News]

Bloggers have to stop thinking of themselves as white-collar creatives and more like rank-and-file workers. After all—that's how they're paid!

Some bloggers get paid per-post, like pieceworkers in a 19th-century factory. Some get paid for pageviews, which is even more idiotic from a worker's perspective. It means you're not paid for your labor (except your monthly minimum) but paid instead on a sort of gamble—how well your product will perform when it's thrown into the open marketplace.

(The pros and cons of that system have been thoroughly discussed elsewhere. There are definitely flaws, but hey, at least I'm receiving money for my blogging.)

It's easy and idealistic to say, but seriously: stop writing for free. This means you, if you're one of the many Huffington Post bloggers who don't get paid. Have something to say? Write an op-ed or a letter to the editor. There are some times in a young writer's career where you have to make the decision to write for free. I've done it; you've done it. The trick is knowing when to stop.

Just about anyone can argue with my line of reasoning—"it's more complicated than that," etc., and on some level it probably is. But on the actual working-to-live level it's not. It's not more complicated than that. If you're blogging for someone other than yourself (not as a commenter, not as a personal blogger; those are labors of love and don't count) you deserve to be paid.

If you're an employee or an independent contractor or a freelancer and some entity or website is making money off your labor, you deserve to be paid. It doesn't matter how solvent the company is—they're still selling ads and making revenue.

It's not only for your own good that you should demand to be paid, either. People working for free (or for depressed wages) drive down the pay for bloggers who do get paid for their work.

Blogging for free, no matter what the circumstances, is not being a good, loyal employee. It isn't a way to hang on to your job. It isn't some sort of heroic act.

Remember, free-bloggers: someone is making money off your work and your content. It's just isn't you.

hi, sorry about this but winter is coming and I'm really busy so unless you can pay me a little bit I think I will have to change my mind about the interview. can you swing $25?

That DWI conviction for Grappi was in Texas, way back in 1982.

If one consolidates all the reports, she is possibly named Chevyn Hurwitz Grappi McClintock Getty—although sometimes she takes a middle initial of N., and sometimes her first name is spelled as "Chevryn," and the "Getty" only arises from Page Six's claim that she married Christopher Getty.

The Daily News reports that Grappi met Burkle when she decorated his Beverly Hills residence. McClintock's website mentions the "historic Greenacres estate" among the "notable interior environments" she's been responsible for.

Grappi doesn't mention, however, that she filed for individual bankruptcy in Los Angeles in 1998 and then again in 2003 in San Antonio, TX. Grappi's website mentions her organization, "Corporate Wives," which she created "to address the very important home, lifestyle, and personal needs of affluent individuals...The objective is personal estate management to create an atmosphere impeccably designed and maintained."

Besides the fact that a more apt title would apparently be "Corporate Mistresses," Grappi wouldn't exactly be our first pick (were we affluent individuals) to manage our personal estates. In the late 90s, Grappi was taken to court over nearly $60,000 in debt owed to various creditors. Given that address records show Grappi has spent the last two years residing at various upscale hotels like The Carlton and Wall Street's The Regent, we wouldn't be surprised if cash was a little tight at the moment. Perhaps now would be a good time to take a supermarket mogul to the cleaners!

McClintock did not respond to a voicemail message and an email this morning.