Gawker
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investigations
The Only Thing Missing is a Reference to Gypsy Tears
Barack Obama held a news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today and if you caught any of it on the news, you may have noticed that Obama's translator sounded suspiciously like Borat, so we put together an audio comparison. More »
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Comment by Carol Gardens: I can't believe you posted this. I was thinking the exact same thing this morning and wishing that I was... more » | Other threads
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investigations
Let Us Speculate Recklessly About Mark Sanford's Extramarital Proclivities
Yesterday now-legendary conservative horndog Mark Sanford admitted that he'd "crossed the lines" with a "handful" of women not named Jenny Sanford during his marriage to Jenny Sanford, but claims he never "crossed the ultimate line." So what did he do? More » -
scandals
Porny Kennedy Hot For Camelot Tot
If anyone can get the scoop on a fringe Kennedy family member's creepy porny obsession with JFK Jr., and a very specific description of said guy's child porn collection, it's the New York Post. They've done it! Kennedy creepiness ahead. More »
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Comment by scroll_lock: I'm sticking with my obsession with 27 year old JFK, Jr. 5 Responses | Other threads
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heroes
Sully: Cold As Ice
Government bureaucrats are holding their fancy "hearings" in their air-conditioned offices to talk about what they can "learn" from the smooth river-ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 by hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger. Learn this, Poindexters: how a real hero talks: More »
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Comment by Occula: There's gonna be a movie, right? And Sully's gonna be played by Tom Cruise? And earlier in the film we're... 14 Responses | Other threads
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accidents
Carradine Death Looks Like Sex Gone Wrong
When Kung Fu simulator David Carradine was found hanged to death in Bangkok hotel room closet Wednesday, suicide was reasonably suspected. But now, evidence seems to be pointing to one of those grisly masturbation accidents:
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investigations
Did Erich 'Mancow' Muller Fake His Waterboarding for Publicity?
Yesterday we showed you video of Erich "Mancow" Muller, a Chicago-based right-wing shockjock, appearing as a guest on Keith Olbermann's show to discuss his being waterboarded. He claimed it led to an ideological conversion! But now a tipster has provided information that suggests the whole thing may be a hoax. More »
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Comment by czecher: One of the great things about waterboarding is there are many different variations. It's true that it's much harder to... 7 Responses | Other threads
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consequences
Fewer Newspapers= Death of Innocents
What's the worst part of the decline of newspapers? Oh maybe it's all the innocent people who will DIE. Every time you don't buy a paper you practically slip the noose around a condemned man's neck! More » -
investigations
Indian Police Drop Child-Selling Case, Rather Than Place Phone Call to England
The father of nine-year-old Slumdog Millionaire star Rubina Ali will not be charged with any crime for allegedly trying to sell her to undercover reporters for $300,000. Indian police couldn't track down the reporters. More » -
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scandal
A Generation of New York City's Corrupt Pols Laid Low
Steven Rattner, former New York Times reporter, failed media investment firm founder, friend of Bloomberg and Sulzberger, and Car Czar, is one more former political star caught up in the New York pension fund scandal. More »
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By PareeneComment by jiminy.peep: You guys are only reporting on this because it's a Democrat scandal. Your coverage is so conservatively slanted I can't... 4 Responses | Other threads
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investigations
Bill Clinton Wants His Domain Names Back
In the late '90s, private investigator Joe Culligan registered presidentbillclinton.com and other Clintonesque domain names as a joke. Now Bill Clinton's lawyer is pursuing legal action to get the website addresses. It's payback, says Culligan.
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justice
Ann Coulter Under Investigation for Vote Fraud
Everyone's favorite scary conservative harpy may have tried to subvert democracy, twice! Property records and lawsuits show that Ann Coulter voted in Connecticut while living in New York. Now officials are investigating. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by TorrentFreak: We should be investigating Acorn voter fraud, Obama's mysterious online campaign contributions, and all his shady friends (Ayers, Jeremiah Wright,... 23 Responses | Other threads
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investigations
American Apparel's Internal 'Bankrupt' Emails
Simple patriotic pornographic clothing firm American Apparel is beset by trouble! Now the SEC is investigating the company. Because of fishy leaked emails. Which we have for you, below!
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Comment by Colander: That quote, in that ad there, is annoying. Dunno why, just is. 27 Responses | Other threads
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crime
Bernie Madoff's Amazing Do-Nothing Business
Bernie Madoff's financial scam gets more impressive by the day. How long do you think he was defrauding people? Five years? Fifteen years? How about, oh, 40 years or so: More »
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Comment by ADismalScience: Yeah, now explain to me how the portfolio compliance guy was signing off on nonexistant positions. 16 Responses | Other threads
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Private Eyes
My Private Eye Saga: An Update
Several months ago I found out that someone had hired a private investigator to go blundering around my hometown, harassing old acquaintances and trying to dig up dirt on me. I wrote all about it here. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the situation. Another private eye has been asking around about me here in NYC as recently as last week. But here's the good part: I now know who hired the PIs to go after me. They were angry about things I've written. To the culprit(s)—and I know you'll read this—now is your chance to email me and explain yourself. You should do so in the near future. If you don't tell me your story, you may find that someone else has told it for you. [I also know that there are people who knew that this was going on, but who were not responsible themselves, and who believe the whole thing was sleazy. I encourage you to email me as well.]
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Comment by Botswana Meat Commission FC: It's JFP's world. We're just living in it. 3 Responses | Other threads
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Neel Kashkari
National Money Chief Exposed As Hairless Wharton Grad
Either our nation's elite reporters are all snoozing, or our nation's young new bailout chief Neel Kashkari is a pretty boring guy (likely). But the WSJ today, after an exhaustive investigation, did manage to dig up this nugget: "'Everyone at Goldman has a full head of hair and went to prep school and Dartmouth and played lacrosse. That’s not Neel,' said an investment banker who knew him." Hey, remember Kevin Pollak in The Usual Suspects? "Did you put that together yourself, Einstein? Whattaya, got a team of monkeys working around on the clock on this?" [WSJ]
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Comment by overunderover: Like Superman, donning his cape. Here he comes, to save the day!!! 7 Responses | Other threads
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Spy Guide
How To Be An Investigative Spy
Recently BoingBoing filled its readers in on how to tap a phone line. It's not too hard! All you need are a lineman's handset, some recording equipment, and a free stretch of time to spend in jail. But incarceration isn't necessary if you're a real (amateur) investigative reporter; there are plenty of legal and semi-legal ways to gather info. After the jump, a complete guide to everything you need to set yourself up as a DIY spy. Only to be used for a righteous cause: More »
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Comment by MissVolare: My ex was an electrician and had a "butt-set" that could be used to jack into the lines near the... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Banksy's Face
The image on the left is a portrait by UK artist Mister Aitch (which we brought you last week along with several awesome action photos), showing semi-anonymous street artist-to-the-stars Banksy in profile, dressed as the Queen of England. The image on the right is the actual photo of Banksy from which the portrait was drawn. A tipster sent us the full photo—which, as far as we can tell, is not currently published anywhere—which is part of a set of photos taken of Banksy at work in Jamaica in 2004. The much-hyped "only known photo" of the artist is taken from this set. But after the jump, we have two more photos from that set, including one of the mystery man's face in profile: More »
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Comment by HK_Guy: The picture on the left makes me want to lick the back of his head. But seriously, Her Majesty looks... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Rare Photos Of Banksy In Action
You thought that the search for new pictures of the mysterious world-famous street artist Banksy had come to an end? It has not! Our earlier shot at digging up photos of the maybe-identified but still unseen artist turned out to (probably) not be him. But! A tipster has sent us a lovely present: three still shots of Banksy in action, taken from a UK documentary filmed in 2000, when he was less obsessive about hiding his identity. We also have two photos of Banksy that were featured in an article in the UK's Squall magazine (now defunct) back in 2000. And for the finale: two art prints that are reportedly drawings of Banksy in profile, dressed as the Queen of England. None are full-on face shots; but this is probably the first time all these rarely-seen images have been collected in one place. Click through to explore.
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banksy
Banksy vs. Banxy
Well god damn. Banksy really is mysterious! A couple of weeks ago we showed you what was allegedly a 1999 photo of Banksy, the once-secret-but-now-maybe-not street artist. Before that, there had only been one known photo of the man in existence. But now...it looks like there's still only one known photo. Stupid Brits and their stupid names! Here's what happened: More »
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Comment by mcas: You haven't been right on ANYTHING on this story yet. Yet you haven't bothered to go back and UPDATE... more » | Other threads
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magazines
The Magazine Industry's Dirty Little Secret
The business of selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door is surprisingly shady. It consists largely of crews of young people—some under 18—recruited by (often) criminal characters who haul them around the country in vans, releasing them only to make their way through neighborhoods, using any lies necessary to tug the heartstrings of people enough to get them to buy something. Then all the kids are rounded up again, given their meager cut of the profits, and they all go do drugs. Sometimes they rape people, or drive off cliffs. The Houston Press just put out a monster investigation of the industry, and it shows a long but clear path from the offices of Conde Nast out to the wild kids hustling in the hinterlands. And there are some true horror stories: More »
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Comment by bVork: @Sasquatch: Forcing salesmen to buy the demonstration knives IS their business model; anything you manage to sell is just icing... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Another Alleged Photo Of Banksy Surfaces
For years, there has only been one known photograph of the supersecret celebrity street artist Banksy, whose identity was (probably) outed this week. That one was taken in Jamaica in 2004 by a photographer who, we hear, leaked it to the media after getting angry at the artist. That was the picture that the Daily Mail used as the key clue in its yearlong investigation of his true identity. But we've just been leaked another photo that supposedly shows Banksy in 1999. More »
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Comment by Euqorab: If this in indeed Banksy, I find his looks appealing in a Peter Sellers kind of way.. I am even... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Evidence: Banksy's Facebook Page
I got some good news on the Facebook front last night: I am now friends with one Robin Gunningham of Bristol, UK—also known as Banksy, the formerly undercover world-famous street artist who was outed as Gunningham yesterday. (Or was he? No official confirmation yet, although the case is strong). Gunningham's Facebook page sports the same schoolboy picture that appeared in the Daily Mail's investigative story. And it has further evidence that he is, in fact, Banksy—unless the whole thing is part of a clever hoax, or the product of a third party with ulterior motives. Words and photos straight from the guy who might be a legend, after the jump: More »
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Comment by mcas: @mightygriffin: ...wow. He's right. Those photos appear on that site in wrong years, listing other people... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Banksy's Incriminating Facebook Friends
As a commenter points out, Robin Gunningham, the man the Daily Mail says is in fact supersecret street artist Banksy, has a Facebook page! And among his friends: Peter Dean Rickards—the photographer who took the only known picture of Banksy, in Jamaica. Well that's not how you leave no clues about your identity, dude. [More about Rickards and the famous photo at Animal NY]
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Comment by Botswana Meat Commission FC: @gecko: I dunno. I sorta disagree regarding his anonymity. It's pretty hard to do these types of murals in public... more » | Other threads
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banksy
Banksy Revealed?! (Not By Us)
Could this be the end of the anonymous life of Banksy—British street artist -to-the-stars, darling of the underground and Angelina Jolie, and the most famous unidentified figure since Batman? We took a shot at solving the mystery ourselves a couple of months ago; but now the Daily Mail has done their own investigation, and we must say: it looks like they have him nailed. All the evidence is below—decide for yourself:
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defamer
David Caruso Apparently Just Moody Because of His Fugitive Austrian Stalker
Scratch an egomaniac and you're sure to find a sensitive soul just a sincere hug or two away from a healthy, humanitarian lifestyle. At least that's our read on ginger terror David Caruso, whose tyranny on the set of CSI: Miami can only come from a place of haunted concern for something larger than himself — say, perhaps, upholding the dramatic tradition of sunglasses-removal, or, if we are to believe the civilian investigation to which we were tipped this morning, the whereabouts of a fugitive stalking suspect he (and reportedly the FBI) might prefer to see located sooner than later. More » -
advertising
"Our descendants may look at us and say, 'God, these were the most gullible people who ever lived.'"
Celebrities: they're in ads! That's because celebrities tend to sell stuff to people, according to the New York Times, which broke this story wide open with an epic piece in yesterday's paper. There are three clear points that you, the educated consumer, must understand: Companies are run by starry-eyed celebrity hound white guys who will pay any price to hang out with a cool rapper or have their umbrella endorsed by Rihanna; many celebrities are themselves sheep, convinced that their endorsement deal is a meaningful attempt by a corporation to plumb the depths of their soul (it's really not! surprisingly); and finally, all of this is the fault of dirty gossip websites just like this one! More »
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Comment by vgerik1234: I love the fact, no matter how much people try and complain about this, at the end of the day,... more » | Other threads
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wired
Wired Ran Rehashed Article In Its Inaugural Issue
Wired magazine is celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, with much reflection and self-congratulation. But one strange thing: in its very first issue in 1993, Wired ran an article that had already run under a different byline in a different magazine. A tipster provides evidence that an article in that issue about Japanese computer hackers by Karl Taro Greenfeld ran almost verbatim a year earlier—under a different byline—in Tokyo Journal. Furthermore, Greenfeld ran another article on the same subject in the LA Times Magazine, in which he describes one computer hacker identically to how he had described a different computer hacker in the Wired piece. Something seriously weird is going on here. [UPDATE: We now have a note from Karl Taro Greenfeld, saying that he is the author of all the pieces in question, and explaining the byline discrepancy, which is posted below. An explanation of what happened here—and key portions of all the stories in question—after the jump].
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Comment by quinticire: If one copies form one source, it's plagiarism; but if they copy from multiple sources, it's research. more » | Other threads
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air conditioning
Air Conditioning As A Marketing Tool: No Longer Smart
Air conditioning is not just one of the most important summertime problems facing the media. It's a problem facing everyone, because high gas prices are turning air conditioners into machines that burn $100 bills to produce cool air. Stores in high foot traffic areas have always thrown their doors open in the summer and blasted the AC, knowing that sweaty people will come in and browse just to get out of the sun. But now that strategy is not only hugely expensive, but bad PR as well; environmentalist customers will whine and complain and call the city and organize boycotts. An intrepid NYT reporter finds that wanton AC-wasters are centered—like the media—in SoHo: More »
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Comment by rdc: I'm going to have to make a point to patronize stores that let their A/C leak all over the sidewalk... more » | Other threads
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journalismism
Anecdotes Prove Bear Stearns Savior Is A Jerk
The WSJ wraps up its three-part series on the Bear Stearns Wall Street clusterfuck today, and it is a masterpiece of financial journalism that's a lock for a Pulitzer. Uh, not that we care. In the final installment, various cutthroat maneuvers lead to JP Morgan's bitter $2-per-share salvation of the troubled Bear. And it's clear that enemies of JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon (such as: formerly wealthy people who work at Bear Stearns!) were very forthcoming sources on this story, because two of the best anecdotes in the piece do nothing but make him look like a snippy asshole: More »
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Comment by Drunken_Philosopher: My sources at Penn tell me that the elder Dimon daughter has a real penchant for nose candy and large... more » | Other threads
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crises
How Spitzer's Hooker Scandal Stymied Bear Stearns' Fightback
The Wall Street Journal is in the midst of a trillion-word ongoing series chronicling the downfall of Wall Street firm Bear Stearns earlier this year. Today's installment looks at the rapid compounding of the firm's financial problems, which builds inexorably into a crisis. That's nice and everything, but the really interesting part comes when the story reveals what threw a wrench into the multibillion-dollar firm's effort to save its public reputation: Eliot Spitzer and his stupid hooker! Not to mention their old card-playing stoner chairman of the board: More »
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Comment by IndianSlipper: @oneninesevenfour: Exactly. Like Bear Stearns it started out good, then went to "pot". more » | Other threads
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investigations
Together We Can Stop The Crotch-Cam Madman!
A crazy man may be videotaping YOUR crotch. And putting the footage on the internet for all to see! The Post, in what is (trend alert) almost surely another story developed solely by poking around on YouTube, alerts the city to a man known only as "househead7d5." He enjoys taping men's crotches—at a phone booth, on the bus, on the subway—and posting the videos online, with clever comments like, "guy on the phone showin a little......gay sweatpants bulge phonebooth NYC," or, even creepier, "I love it when they fall asleep! not the biggest basket but he was a cutie pie nonetheless!" So who is this penis-peering multimedia madman? After the jump, we will investigate! More »
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Comment by katieee: A friend of mine, using her family computer, once made the horrible discovery that her dad was a member of... more » | Other threads
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journalismism
Washington Post Reports: Powerful People Are Powerful
David Rothkopf, a highly educated scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, penned an explosive op-ed for the Washington Post that could upend the global power structure and spark revolution across the earth. Because it seems that our world—far from being one in which each of the 6 billion humans shares in an equal portion of the political, economic, and cultural power, as you had believed—is actually run by a "superclass" of people who control everything. Rothkopf reports, in direct contradiction to everything that your third grade social studies teacher promised you, that very powerful people are, in fact, very powerful. Bummer! More »
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Comment by ADismalScience: @Botswana Meat Commission FC: Whoa, what?! I'm 100% pro-immigration. I'm just saying that Americans are not Britons, just as Canadians are not... more » | Other threads
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the strand
Famous Bookstore Run By Jerk
The Strand, the humongous New York bookstore by Union Square that is like one of the biggest used book stores ever of all time, has always attracted lots of young workers who take the low pay in exchange for the cool factor of working at the place, and the chance to be around books all day. One negative: the store is run by a despised woman named Nancy Bass Wyden (trivia: she's married to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden). I've known several people who worked at The Strand, and they universally agree on her tyranny. Now, the New York Press has actually done some investigative work on the claims, and it's found evidence for allegations of racial discrimination, callous disregard for pregnant women, and—most terrifyingly—"fungus from rats." More »
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Comment by regisgoat: If I may speak up for the East Bay: I've never had any trouble with Black Oak beside feeling like I... more » | Other threads
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spin
The Pentagon Has Ronn [sic] Torossian's Support
The New York Times' big front page investigative story on Sunday about the tight connections between ex-military "analysts" on news programs and the Pentagon's PR machine was a solid re-affirmation of most people's suspicions that they, along with much of the media at large, were all play-acting in the inevitable march to war. The piece was hugely comprehensive, but it did lack the input of one man: incompetent superflack Ronn [sic] Torossian, head of the press-friendly agency 5WPR! Luckily, Ronn has chimed in with his advice to all of you who may have been upset by the story of undercover warmongering propaganda: chill. It's all just PR 101. More »
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Comment by famousauthor: @fairplay310: A liar AND a moron? That's heavy. I think at last count that the office consists of just Ronn... more » | Other threads
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socialites
Derek Blasberg, Barbara Bush, And Hockey
Page Six's item earlier this week about first daughter Barbara Bush's attendance at a New York Rangers game, and the accompanying wholly unsubstantiated speculation that maybe she's dating a Rangers player, prompted a sports blogger to engage in some journalism (take that, Washington Post!). He dug deep in the photo archives and uncovered the haunting connection between Barbara Bush and the hockey team: Style.com writer, socialite, and Fifth Column Of The Gaydom Derek Blasberg! More »
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Comment by famousauthor: Derek Blasberg is the love child of George Herbert Walker Bush, so it's just a family thing. No incest... more » | Other threads
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kevin trudeau
The Con Man That THEY Don't Want You To Know About
Kevin Trudeau is the infomercial star and dressed-up hustler who cons the gullible of America by claiming to sell things that "THEY" don't want you to know. Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Weight Loss Cure "They" Don't Want You To Know About. Debt Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About. The Federal Trade Commission (maybe the real "They?") has fined Trudeau millions over the years and tried to ban him from making misleading claims, but he just keeps it up [WBZ TV]. In the olden days, thousands of people who had wasted money on his worthless books would storm his home with pitchforks and torches, and that would be that. Today, though, it has to go through the system. After the jump, a look at Trudeau's scams. More »
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Comment by SulakshanaAristodemus: I don't have any credit card debt. I have one of the lowest incomes in the US. I'm not rich... more » | Other threads
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jimmy sabatino
LAT's Tupac Source: Serial Con Man
The Smoking Gun has a treasure trove of incriminating information on Jimmy Sabatino, the incarcerated serial con man who the site says forged documents that the LA Times relied on in its (now doubtful) scoop associating Puff Daddy with the 1994 shooting and robbery of Tupac Shakur. Sabatino's shady and unreliable nature was well known; back in 1999, the Miami New Times published a long feature story titled "Con Kid" that detailed Sabatino's history of outrageous scams that he used to hobnob with celebrities and land free stuff. TSG also says that Sabatino's father is a restaurant manager, not a mobster as the LAT reported (and we repeated). The LAT's story today on the launch of its own internal investigations notes that the paper "has not identified the source of the purported FBI reports," but that would presumably change if it turns out Sabatino was the source, and the documents were false. After the jump, a screengrab [via TSG] of Sabatino's MySpace page—the entire "About Me" section is apparently fiction: More »
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Comment by famousauthor: I don't care about the truth. I just like the scandal of it all. more » | Other threads
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investigations
Official Denials Aside, The John Hughes Q&A Challenge Rolls On
We're thrilled with the reaction so far to Defamer's John Hughes Q&A Challenge — or make that 99% thrilled, anyway, with a great outpouring of interest around the Web, some fabulous inquiries for our Reclusive Director Du Jour ("Was writing Weird Science the best two days of your life?") and, alas, a polite but firm response from his representative. More » -
investigations
Join the Quest For Answers in Defamer's John Hughes Q&A Challenge
Picking up on director John Hughes where our recent appreciations, laments and inquiries left off, Patrick Goldstein today has a more sweeping survey of the prolific filmmaker-turned-Great Lakes recluse. Of course we all know he's missed, as Goldstein's sources avowedly confirm (and despite his pseudonymous, decades-old contributions to Drillbit Taylor). But with little apparent likelihood for the director to return to work, we at Defamer are compelled to take matters into our own hands with our ambitious John Hughes Q&A Challenge. Allow us to explain after the jump. More » -
rap
Puffy Knew In Advance About 1994 Tupac Shooting, Says LAT
An exclusive story in the LA Times today says that P. Diddy, aka Puff Daddy, aka Sean "Puffy" Combs, the hip hop superstar and head of Bad Boy Records, knew in advance about a 1994 ambush in which rap icon Tupac Shakur was shot five times and robbed in a New York recording studio. According to the story, a promoter and talent manager who were friendly with Puffy set up Tupac because they were angry about his insolent posture towards NYC and its hip hop heavyweights. The key facts: More »
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Comment by Ptrcbl9: It should be known that Suge Knight was responsible for Tupac's death. Doesn't make sense that both Tupac and Suge... more » | Other threads
investigations
New York, 9:10 PM
Mon Jul 6
47 posts in the last 24 hours
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