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, ccalling 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 the 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!

Las Vegas: 2009 or 1971?

What ever happened to Danny Gans?

Ten weeks ago, Danny Gans was the biggest name in las Vegas. The musical impressionist's image towered over the Las Vegas Strip on electronic billboards. Hs name seemed to be on every taxicab in town. The man who did imitations of George Burns and Kermit The Frog was synonymous with the city and its future.

Today, it's as if Danny Gans never existed. A visit to the city finds videos of musical impressionist Wayne Brady and Gordie Brown (doing an Elvis impression as corny as anything Gans would serve up) playing at the arrivals section of McCarran Airport and Beyonce on the billboards of The Wynn Encore Hotel & Casino where Gans had only recently begun a long residency when he was found dead of a Dilaudid overdose on May 1st.

Jacko memorial postscript: Who the hell was this guy?

At first glance, the young man who walked onstage at the Staples Center to lead off the singing of We Are The World appeared to be the extraterrestrial alien visitor Michael Jackson attempted to turn himself into. With his doe eyes, deer-in-the-headlights expression and reptile skin jacket, he could have come from the Black Lagoon.

Was he one of Jacko's backing singers? This brother from another planet certainly made an impression.

Upstaging all the rest

"I just want to say... ever since I was born....
daddy has been the best father you can ever imagine.
And I just want to say I love him so much."

--Michael Jackson's tearful 11-year-old daughter, Paris.

Jacko in the box?

Los Angeles freeways came to a halt as Michael Jackson's casket was transported across town to the Staples Center this morning. But is Jacko's body inside that box? We know his brain is not inside the body but are Jacko's remains actually undergoing plastination preservation for a future exhibition. The corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com is insisting its "sources" say they know "100%" for sure that Jacko is inside the golden casket. But who believes them?

Exclusive! Michael Jackson's brain!

In the eleven days since Michael Jackson's death, the fallen idol's brain has gotten more attention than his dancing feet or spotted genitalia. Great speculation and concern has been expressed about the organ being removed from the inside of his head, as if the process was unusual in the case of an unexplained drug overdose and not common to every autopsy. In Jacko's case, the brain will not be returned to its home behind Jacko's scarred face in time for his memorial and possible burial, as it will be needed for a couple more weeks as tests continue to find exactly what deadly cocktail of pharmaecuticals killed him.


In a bizarre twist, Jacko's only major movie role was in The Wiz. He played The Scarecrow, who did not have a brain.

Corporate interest trumped public interest in media coverup of Danny Gans overdose death

Michael Jackson's memorial at the Staples Center tomorrow offers another lesson to the Las Vegas media after its shameful lack of coverage or investigation of the drug overdose death of local superstar Danny Gans. With thousands of free tickets being distributed to Jacko fans, notice that none among of the world's journalists covering the event has expressed amazement that the public has been invited to the service, as some Las Vegas columnists did (dismissing them as "seat fillers") when local fans were invited to Gans' memorial at the Encore Theatre.

The overwhelming expression of admiration and sympathy for Jacko-- and the ability of the public to compartmentalize or dismiss the overwhelming possibility that he was a paedophile who destroyed the life of more than one young boy-- shows that the reporting of his drug habits and faults did not diminish, but in fact, burnished his legend.


The legend of Danny Gans, however, has been permanently dimmed by the actions of the Fourth Estate of Las Vegas-- small timers in a city with a larger cultural shadow than they could possibly understand, trembling in the shadows of the casino magnates and corporate high rollers-- who kept a very suspicious lid on the circumstances of his death, and what is now generally agreed to be, secret life.

One reason appears to be corporate pressure to maintain Gans' previously untarnished image, as evidenced by an article in the Las Vegas Sun this weekend. "New isn't all bad for Las Vegas companies" noted as the leading "positive" example among "layoffs, corporate bankruptcies, lawsuits and commercial loan defaults":

"Cox Communications stepped up and committed to a five-year sponsorship of the 'Danny Gans' Partee Fore Kids!'

"The First Tee of Southern Nevada announced that the 15th Annual Danny Gans’ Partee Fore Kids! will continue in honor of the late entertainer and will be held on Monday, Nov. 2. Cox is sponsoring the tournament to ensure the event will continue in Gans’ name and continue to raise funds to support children in Southern Nevada.

"The tournament draws entertainers and athletes to raise money for The First Tee of Southern Nevada and its Danny Gans Junior Golf Academy. The 2009 Celebrity Pro-Am Memorial Event will honor Gans and will be hosted by Strip headliner Rita Rudner. It will be held at DragonRidge Country Club in Henderson.

"Several years ago, Gans joined The First Tee of Southern Nevada to create the Danny Gans Junior Golf Academy (DGJGA) where all kids are given the opportunity to affordably learn the game of golf and the positive core values that it instills. The DGJGA is operated by The First Tee of Southern Nevada, an organization that positively impacts, through the game of golf, the lives of thousands of youth in Southern Nevada.


"'Our family looks forward to the ongoing outpouring of support for this wonderful community program, which enables young people a chance to learn the great game of golf, which Danny loved so much,' said Gans' widow, Julie. 'It is a sport that helps develop sportsmanship, character and discipline while building potential, encouraging confidence and individuality. We, as did Danny, value the opportunities this program offers the children of the community, their families and what it will mean to their future, whatever path they take.'

"'Danny was an incredible entertainer who was also very dedicated to helping our community, especially children,' said Steve Schorr, vice president of public and government affairs for Cox Las Vegas. 'We wanted to make sure his legacy continued and that children would be able to benefit from the shining example Danny set for years to come.'"


The First Tee is not a religious organization, but relies on corporate partnership and sponsorship, just as the corporations rely on The First Tee to provide them with goodwill publicity.

More valuable dead than alive? Danny Gans is turning out to be like Michael Jackson in more ways than one.

The First Tee's corporate friends (click image to enlarge)

Danny Gans' manager spreads Jacksons rumour with help of New York Times stringer and death coverup blogger

Another connection between overdose victims Michael Jackson and Danny Gans is being floated this evening in the form of unsubstantiated gossip from Gans' former manager Chip Lightman on the Las Vegas blog of New York Times freelancer and comp queen Steve Friess:

"Chip Lightman, the late Danny Gans' manager, informed me today that he's been contacted by an envoy for Michael Jackson's surviving brothers about the prospect of a permanent Jackson Brothers show in the vacant Encore showroom at Wynn Las Vegas."

Is Chip Lightman to believed?

In the days following Gans' untimely death on May 1st, Lightman and Gans' close personal friend, beauty queen turned TV entertainment reporter Alicia Jacobs clouded the truth about Gans' drug use and worked overtime to mythologize him as a heroic, religious figure with stories that were either shrugged off as exaggeration or retracted. Meanwhile, Friess began a smear and harassment campaign aimed at stopping TabloidBaby.com from investigating or reporting on the mysterious circumstances of Gans death.

It was later revealed that Jacobs works for Friess' unofficial same-sex marriage partner at the local NBC affiliate and was the "celebrity guest" at their nonbinding gay wedding at the Palms. (The group's curiously close and ethically questionable relationship was explored here in a post subtitled The Danny Gans daisy chain.)

Oddly, while floating Lightman's latest Barnumesque blather without any confirmation, Friess (above left) dismisses it in the same posting:

"Lightman noted that the call was extremely preliminary and that it's unclear exactly what the Jacksons have in mind... Lightman also noted that there's no telling how Wynn management might react, but I suspect the answer would be a 'HELL NO.'"

While it's understandable that Lightman would be looking to be involved with the act that ultimately takes over Gans' spot at the Encore Theatre, and should be given a pass for trying to float an idea in front of his boss, Steve Wynn, Friess' role in spreading the rumour brings to mind his involvement in spreading false rumours about Gans' death in order throw journalistic investigators off the scent of painkillers and steroids.

Let's see how long it takes this one to make The New York Times.

Farrah's grave

Farrah Fawcett was laid to rest at Westwood Memorial Park, the small but celebrity-packed graveyard, hidden away behind a movie theatre and office buildings off Wilshire Blvd., not far from the condo where she spent her final months.


According to the Adventures in Grave Hunting blog, Farrah's grave "is located in a prominent garden plot on the south side of the cemetery, across the lawn from another famous blonde... Marilyn Monroe"-- and next to Merv Griffin.


The cemetery is the final resting place for other tragic beauties including Natalie Wood. Minnie Ripperton, Heather O'Rourke and Dominique Dunne.

Cemetery photos: Adventures in Grave Hunting

Alana Stewart rushes to cash in with book about her friend Farrah Fawcett

Who will be the first to cash in on the death of Farrah Fawcett? Less than a week after the brave icon's funeral, her close friend Alana Stewart is first out of the gate and well ahead of the pack with a book based on the Farrah's cancer journey journal that was supposed to be the basis for her cancer documentary.

"My Journey with Farrah: What I've Learned about Life, Love, and Friendship" has shown up on Amazon.com with a healthy discount off its hardcover list price of $23.99.



As Tabloid Baby reported exclusively on June 24th, the celebrity ex-wife's book is being rush-released to take advantage of the worldwide outpouring of love and publicity for Farrah.

The title is set to be pblished on August 25th, the two-month anniversary of Farrah's death.


Alana Stewart accompanied Farrah through much of her cancer battle, traveling with her to German cancer clinics and running the video camera as Farrah documented the cutting edge treatments that gave her hope and extended her life by years after doctors in the States told her there was nothing more they could do. Working with her longtime confidante and producer Craig Nevius, Farrah shaped the footage into a "cancer journal" that explored the question of why lifesaving treataments are not available in America and beyond the reach of most all but the very rich.


Farrah sold the project to NBC. When her condition took a turn for the worse and she began to fade from consciousness, her longtime on-and-off lover Ryan O'Neal took control of her affairs, forced Nevius off the project and, with the help of producers from NBC Dateline commandeered the recutting of the documentary into a maudlin, morbid entertainment called "Farrah's Story" (a reference to his 1970 film, Love Story).

Alana Stewart reportedly held up the project, demanding a producer's credit and a fat payoff, before the special aired.

We reported on June 24th, the day before Farrah's death that Alana was turning Farrah's journals into a book of her own:

"Farrah's journals, we're told, are being turned into a book by Alana Stewart... The book, we're told, will be announced after Farrah's passing, 'for maximum effect.'"

At the reception following Farrah's funeral on Tuesday, Ryan O'Neal confirmed that a sequel to the high-rating Farrah's Story is in the works. Cameras filmed the funeral. It's still not known whether, as feared, O'Neal also filmed Farrah's passing.

Ron Decline

Sarah Palin sex tape?

There's much speculation tonight as to why Sarah Palin chose the start of a holiday weekend (when traditionally fewer people are paying attention) to announce in a hasty, ill-prepared, rambling and mysteriously-worded news conference that she's quitting her job as governor of Alaska at the end of the month. Some say she'll begin rebuilding her image and powerbase so she can run for President. We like the theory that she's vamoosing as quickly as possible in advance of a bombshell scandal. Preferably a sex scandal. Proof of that affair. Or a sex tape.

Her presser was stranger and more evasive than Governor Mark Sanford's. Let's wait and see.

Today is Ritchie Valens Day in L.A.

The press conference for the Michael Jackson memorial next door at the Staples Center delayed the ceremony at The Grammy Museum proclaiming today as Ritchie Valens Day in Los Angeles, fifty years after the great Latino rocker from Pacoima was killed in a plane crash with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper.

Chris Montez (center), subject of the upcoming nonfiction film by our pals at Frozen Pictures, talks with legendary guitarist Tommy Allsup of Buddy Holly & The Crickets (who flipped a coin with Ricthie Valens for the last seat on that plane), and Stan Ross, legendary engineer from the legendary Gold Star recording studios, where Chris recorded his hit Let's Dance.

Michael Jackson at The Grammy Museum

While plans were announced for Michael Jackson's memorial service at the Staples Center, a few doors down at the Grammy Museum, a Jacko exhibit that had recently closed is back and amazing fans when they hear each jacket weighed fifteen pounds.


Outside the Staples Center:


And the corner of his family's street in Encino:

Steve Brennan

Too much death. Too much celebrity death. Too many people we know. Now we find today that death has taken one of Tabloid Baby's most longstanding and talented pals.

Steve Brennan is dead of cancer at 57.

Cancer.

Enough already.

Steve's been a reporter and editor at The Hollywood Reporter for more than twenty years. He's not only been one of the best, most hardworking and accurate entertainment writers around, he's one of the most colorful characters of the Tabloid Baby generation. He wrote about us. Put our names in headlines. He could write a story. he could drink with the best of them (and we were). He could spin a yarn. And he could sing a song. Steve was from Dublin. He got his start as a beat reporter in Ireland, covering the troubles in the North. Two years ago, Steve and his wife Bernadette O'Neill published "Emeralds in Tinseltown: The Irish in Hollywood," a book about Irish screen legends. Steve was a legend. Steve was a gem.

Damn, we'll have to be raising another toast.

Will the DEA enter the Danny Gans case?

Is the Drug Enforcement Administration entering the investigation into the drug overdose of Las Vegas superstar entertainer Danny Gans?

After all, the musical impressionist died at 53 after ingesting a powerful opiate he did not have a prescription for— "drug store heroin” that was given to him by an associate or pusher, or acquired by a doctor under an assumed name. Such illegal activities are currently being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department in the apparent drug overdose death of superstar entertainer Michael Jackson. The LAPD has reportedly asked federal drug agents to help them find out who was feeding painkillers to 50-year-old Jacko.

But will the enablers, pushers and Dr. Feelgoods who helped grease Danny Gans’ skids to oblivion at 53 be brought to justice?

Not very damn likely.

CASE CLOSED

Police in Henderson, Nevada closed the case on the same day Jacko died, despite glaring clues and questions raised by their incident report, and after eight weeks in which the lead detective apparently did the same thing the corrupted Las Vegas news media did: sat back and waited for a politician to give him the news.

We decided to give the Las Vegas news media a week to let the police report sink in, and react in some investigative way to the fact that police closed the case with minimal investigation. With the events unfolding in the Michael Jackson in such stark contrast to the secrecy and palm-greasing so evident in the Gans aftermath—and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, which still has not reported what its journalists know about Danny Gans’ habits and lifestyle, been reprinting Associated Press reports that detail allegations and findings about Jackson’s drug abuse (even though the toxicology report is still pending), they’d be bound to come up with something.

They didn’t.

Danny Gans is past history in Las Vegas now, swept under the sand like those bodies in the desert. The Vegas journalism ambassador and symbol of all that’s wrong in “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” local media scene, national freelancer, comp queen and Gay Vegas author Steve Friess (above right) celebrates Jacko’s death in today's Las Vegas Weekly, stating that “Michael Jackson’s untimely death was the best thing that could ever have happened to Michael Jackson’s music” because “a dead Michael Jackson provides show producers in Vegas… no more surprises.“

Enough (for now) with these bozos with buffet coupons.

NEVER MIND THE 911 CALL

Ponder this line from the skimpy police report typed up by Detective Chad Mitchell, of the Henderson Police Department, the lead investigator in the Danny Gans death case:

“Julia told me at the direction of the Henderson Police she had gathered and placed all of her husband’s medications on a table located directly outside of the master bedroom doorway so that they could be examined.

"Henderson Crime Scene Analyst Jennie Ayers then responded to the scene to complete the procesing and collection of evidence...”

"Julia" is better known as Danny Gans' wife Julie, and with all due respect to her, in the case of a premature death in the initial hours of investigation, especially one as high-profile as that of Danny Gans, the wife is often regarded as “the first suspect.”

Yet in this case, she was allowed to go alone into what we’d assume would be the bathroom, and come out on her own with a selection of medications to be examined.

What, if anything, did Julie Gans choose to not show the police officers?


Detective Chad Mitchell also indicates he did nio further investigation while awaiting the autopsy:

"ENTERED DATE 5/5/2009

“Upon conducting the autopsy, (pathologist) Dr. (Gary) Telgenhoff was unable to determine the cause of death and told me that he would need to wait for the toxicology results to rule the cause and manner of Daniel’s death. Dr. Telgenhoff did not feel that foul play was involved in the death. This case will remain open until the results of the autopsy are available.”

By all indications, Detective Chad Mitchell did what the Las Vegas news media did in the six weeks between Danny Gans’ mysterious, untimely death and the Mike Murphy’s press conference: He waited.

When Tabloid Baby’s man in Las Vegas tried to obtain a copy of the police report on June 22nd, he was told, and we broke the news, that the case was still open. As it turned out, Detective Chad Mitchell was not out doing shoe leather research all that time-- he was on vacation. At our prodding, he typed out the final entries in the report and Henderson police released the report and the long-withheld 911 tape on Thursday, June 25th, only to be overshadowed by the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson the same day.

"ENTERED DATE 6/25.2009

“The Clark County Coroner has ruled the death iof Daniel Gans an accident. The case will be closed non-criminal.”


The autopsy on Michael Jackson was inconclusive, as well, but in the week since his body was found unresponsive in his bedroom, journalists and police alike have worked to uncover leads in the case without waiting for a toxicology report from the coroner. Friends and associates have been interviewed, property has been searched, and most important, the hunt is on for the person or persons who supplied Michael Jackson with the drugs that killed him.

One of Danny Gans’s doctors stepped forward shakily after the coroner’s findings to insist he wasn’t currently prescribing Danny Gans any hydromorphone and that his own search of computer records showed no doctor in Nevada or California was either.

Despite the doctor’s cockamamie single-bullet theory that Gans was done in by an accidental dose from a five-year-old prescription, the revelation should have been enough for Detective Chad Mitchell to strap on his shoulder holster and do some investigating.

Detective Chad Mitchell’s not talking. Neither is the crime scene analyst. But it has been stated that Julie Gans and her family do not want to know more, and do not want the public to know more, than the scant details released by the coroner.

JUSTICE

From the start, we've been talking about "justice" for Danny Gans. It doesn't matter that he didn't practice the clean life he preached. He was an entertainment giant who employed many people, added a new facet to the Las Vegas scene and chose cannily to market himself to two of the biggest niche audiences in the Western world: tourists and evangelical Christians.


It's the police's job to find out who gave him the oxymorphone that killd him-- as well as all the other drugs in his body that the politician coroner wouldn't reveal. It's the job of the news media to be the watchdogs and sniff out evidence on their own.

For now, there is no justice for Danny Gans. His killers remain at large.

We'll leave it to the mayor of Las Vegas, and his words on the day Danny Gans died-- and the comments from our readers on the day the Dany Gans case was closed:

"He lived the life he preached.
It was always a clean show,
it was always a wholesome show.
That's the way he really lived.
That's unusual in and of itself.
Most people are a little bit phony about that,
but Danny Gans was not a phony,"

--Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman

Anonymous said...
I find it odd in the 911 call that the wife is clearly talking directly into the phone (not on speaker)-- how was she able to do that while using both hands to do chest compression? Couldn't hear any of the children's voices or the son's when they were moving him from the bed to the floor but you can hear her direct in the phone when she is compressing with both hands - huh?? No background voices, no emotion, very odd.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 5:02:00 PM PDT

Anonymous said...
I know people respond differently to a crisis, but honestly, could she sound any more bored or like this was routine?

Thursday, June 25, 2009 7:52:00 PM PDT

Anonymous said...
You mean that the Gans death gets a pass on drug enablers, unlike Michael Jackson ? Wow, the Vegas Press and Police really CAN be bought off by casino owners ! In the wake of the Michael Jackson death, they are going after the drug "enablers" or "drug peddler" that surrounded Michael and caused his death. This is a manslaughter charge in any state...except, apparently, in Nevada. ...It is a disgrace that this case is not being investigated.

Wednesday, July 1, 2009 1:36:00 PM PDT

Video: Michael Jackson's last rehearsal



Concert promoter AEG says this video shows Michael Jackson shortly before his death, slow-moving and lip-synching, in one of his last rehearsals at the Staples Center for his doomed London concerts.

Python in Perth, Bruce: Australian film festival launches tonight; tickets selling fast for two screenings of The Seventh Python

The Revelation Perth International Film Festival launches today in Perth, Australia, along with great excitement for the two prime-spot screenings of The Seventh Python.

The Saturday, July 4th presentation of the acclaimed, award-winning documentary about legendary pop satirist, wit and Monty Python cohort Neil Innes will be the Australian premiere of the film from our pals at Frozen Pictures that's received accolades and standing ovations as its made its way across America through film festivals, special event screenings and Beatles fan conventions since its premiere at the American Cinematheque's Mods & Rockers Film Festival last summer.

The 12th annual Revelation Perth Fest is perhaps the most respected film festival in all of Australia. One film reviewer writes: "Under the curatorial leadership of author Jack Sargeant for the second year running, Revelation aims to bring new, weird, interesting and unusual features and documentaries that wouldn't otherwise get screened in cinemas to Perth audiences."

There's particular excitement about The Seventh Python-- enough that the musical comedy doco is getting two screenings at prime times. Along with the Saturday, July 4th showing at 7:15 pm, The Seventh Python will also be screened on Friday, July 10th at 7:15 pm.

click photo to enlarge

One reason for the buzz Down Under can be found on the Festival website: "Alongside many interviews The Seventh Python features numerous versions of Innes’ songs including the Australian version of The Philosopher’s Song."

Australian readers, click here to get your tickets.

Farrah's "cancer buddy" writes about funeral

Brett Hudson, who was treated with Farrah Fawcett at German cancer clinics and whose documentary film project about alternative treatments has been dedicated to her memory, shares his thoughts about Farrah and her funeral yesterday at his popular blog page on The Klinik movie website.


Hudson writes:

"I went to say goodbye to my friend Farrah yesterday. Her funeral service was beautiful... It was strange for me in a way. Farrah and I were both fighting for our lives at the same time and she's not here anymore. When we were in Germany at The Klinik, I was only three months in to my disease-- a rookie, so to speak. Farrah had been battling her cancer for over a year. In our six-hour drive to Frankfurt, her strength, determination and fearlessness were an inspiration to me in fighting this hideous disease.

"Farrah said to me, 'Never, ever give up. Keep fighting'..."

Read his complete Farrah post here.

Hudson, one of Tabloid Baby's pals from Frozen Pictures, was most embarrassingly misidentified in a Tabloid Baby post yesterday with a picture of actor Ernie Hudson, who was also at the services.

Farrah: The complete funeral program

front

inside

back

Tabloid Baby was first to post the cover of Farrah Fawcett's funeral program yesterday. Click on the photos above to enlarge the complete program.

Farrah's funeral filmed for sequel

Camera crews filmed Farrah Fawcett's funeral in downtown Los Angeles this afternoon, apparently for the sequel to Ryan O'Neal's "Farrah's Story" television special that sadly had the same Hollywood ending as his "Love Story" movie forty years ago.

Tabloid Baby pal Brett Hudson (above, entering the cathedral), Farrah's "cancer buddy" when they both were treated at cancer clinics in Germany, met O'Neal at the reception following the services. O'Neal was overheard telling Hudson that he telling Hudson that he is "in the sequel" to Farrah's Story, and he recognized him from Farrah's original documentary journal that O'Neal took over and recut with NBC News after her health failed. Hudson was left on the cutting room floor.

O'Neal was heard telling Hudson that he is "in the sequel."

Hudson, of Frozen Pictures, is in production on a nonfiction film and documentary project about cancer, alternative treatments and the American medical system, called The Klinik. He announced last week that the project will be dedicated to Farrah and address the issues she wanted to hit in her own project.

** UPDATE: We've just realized that a staffer in the Tabloid Baby photo department erroneously substituted a photo of actor Ernie Hudson for Brett Hudson. Brett did attend Farrah's funeral. Read his thoughts on his blog at The Klinik website.

Exclusive: The program for Farrah's funeral

Farrah's funeral

Outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels in downtown Los Angeles this afternoon. Ryan O'Neal can be recognized among the pallbearers at the private service for Farrah Fawcett.

Photo: Kirk D. McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Mainstream media begins to realize TMZ's Jacko death scoop was not what it seemed

It's taken them a few days to catch up, but the established mainstream media is beginning to clear the stardust out of their eyes andrealize there was something fishy about corporate, porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com scooping the world on the death of Michael Jackson.


We laid out the evidence on Friday that under the leadership of shaved bronzed midget frontman Harvey Levin, TMZ took the same information that everyone else had and gambled that it spelled out that Jacko was dead-- thatthey ran the "Michael Jackson is dead" story before getting official confirmation, before knowing for sure. The upside? Well, look at how the mainstream media, from Brian Stelter in the New York Times to beaten beat writers in the Los Angeles Times, have responded with awestruck wonder at the supposed technological and journalistic brilliance of the jealous, corrupt mutts at TMZ for going with the story a good forty minutes before anyone else (see Dan Rather at Parkland Hospital). The downside? There's not much of a downside. There was enough confusion in which smarmy sleazy Harvey could have slimed his way out of it, and gotten the attention just the same (see The Hitler Diaries).


This afternoon, the Los Angeles Times website runs -- and Drudge headlines as a "whine"-- a "comment" piece entitled, "How would we have reacted if TMZ had been wrong about Michael Jackson's death?"

Alexandra Le Tellier writes:

"TMZ would become the first outlet to announce the singer’s death. What came next was a surprise. Before the RIPs and the 'he touched us all' jokes, many users began posting jabs aimed at CNN -- more specifically, its irrelevance as a news source...

"Has technology’s ability to deliver information at such a rapid pace corrupted us? ...Have our standards for accountability dissolved?

"...And who was TMZ’s source anyway? The site’s managing editor, Harvey Levin, said he and his staff made hundreds of calls, but he didn't divulge whom they spoke to, which begs the question of whether they confirmed the news with a reliable, accountable source -- as is required by the Los Angeles Times -- or if they spoke to someone who was violating patient confidentiality.

"When 19 employees at this same hospital, UCLA Medical Center, were busted in 2008 for snooping through Britney Spears’ confidential medical records, it was hard not to wonder why they’d have risked their jobs. Were they looking for a story to sell just as their colleague, Lawanda Jackson, had done? She was indicted in 2008 for selling information about Farrah Fawcett and accessing hundreds of other files. If that’s the case here, are we seriously going to trust people who’re willing to break the law for some fast cash?

“'A curious thing is at play here,' (NY Times syndicate ethics columnist Jeffrey) Seglin continues. 'Few people expect TMZ or Drudge or the National Enquirer to get things right or to report on issues of substance. When they do, at least so far, it’s a bit of an anomaly. So the consequences for getting it wrong among such sites do not seem terribly high. If CNN, Fox … got such things wrong, the consequences would likely be higher...'

"Would TMZ take the same approach to a political figure, which in turn could pose a threat to national security? Let’s hope we never find out."

Though the article is deep in the Times' little-read Blog section and its writer is under the impression that TMZ got a legitimate scoop through illegal, paid sources, it's significant for a few reasons. The writer quotes an ethicist from the national competitor in New York, whose kid TV writer led the TMZ cheerleading over the weekend-- a sign that after their initial starry-eyed reaction to being beaten on the story, the old world news media is gathering the forces to get back at the sleazy TV lawyer who broke the rules. Drudge may call it a "whine", but obviously unhappy being lumped in with TMZ, he posted the link on his influential page, which means talk radio producers and other news organizations too lazy to come up with their own ideas will pick up the TMZ story.


And even though the TMZ gamble paid off in the end, the Jackson death stunt does not bode well for TMZ's plans to encroach further into Washington, D.C. politics and matters of national importance. Its corporate overlords Time Warner and AOL may have found it cute when Harvey and his boys began comparing the pectoral muscles of congressmen or playing their curbside ambush games in Georgetown, but they wouldn't be happy at all if their bastard child jumped the gun on an assassination and caused panic and riots in the streets.

Developing...

Jacko and Farrah forever

Michael Jackson and Bubbles, 1988
Jeff Koons (American. b. 1955)



from Keith Edmier and Farrah Fawcett, 2000
Keith Edmier (American, b. 1967)

Private funeral for Farrah tomorrow

Yeah, the maesltrom around the death of Michael Jackson has overshadowed what was, at least until about 2 pm that day, the biggest and saddest story to come out of Hollywood on Thursday, June 25th. Farrah Fawcett's passing after a valiant battle against cancer put aside for the moment the unsavoury activities of her longtime beau Ryan O'Neal, includng his intentions to marry her and seal her estate on her deathbed. ABC News and NBC News, taken by surprise by Jacko's drop, went ahead with their planned dueling Farrah soap operas, and in the end ABC's Barbara Walters' "get" of Ryan O'Neal and his compatriot Alana Stewart guaranteed that the show would stick to the official party line and play the Ryan-Farrah "Love Story" script to the fullest. No need for reality to seep into a network mewsmagazine piece. We didn't see Meredith Vieira's revenge hour, slapped up against Walters by NBC in a rage that ABC was stealing the thurnder they'd paid more than a million dolalrs for when they bought (and had their way with) Farrah's documentary.

The only other real outrage in the story comes from the stately New York Times and their addled television writer Alessandra Stanley. An idiot with a reputation for getting details wrong, Stanley, in a backhanded "appreciation" of Farrah's lifework, blew off Farrah's talent as an actress and stuck in a nasty barb while mistakenly (details!) blaming her for the hatchet job NBC did on the documentary that was originally a journal about her treatment in Germany, not a sequel to O'Neal's weepy flick:

"NBC, never shy about exploiting a celebrity tragedy, overproduced and overpromoted her film in 'Farrah’s Story,' but never made the public service point that, besides abstinence, the HPV vaccine is the most promising form of prevention against this type of cancer, which in most cases is sexually acquired."

Sexually Acquired?

For the record, Tabloid Baby can report exclusively that Farrah made it clear to several Tabloid Baby sources that there was no chance she could have contracted her cancer through anal sex.

Tabloid Baby pal Ray Richmond, recently freed from the shackles of The Hollywood Reporter, writes on his indispensable, informative and entertaining website, Man Bites Tinseltown (bookmark it!), that Farrah's funeral will take place tomorrow, Tuesday at 4 pm at the Cathedral of Our Lady of The Angels in downtown Los Angeles.

It's private, invitation only.

TMZ & Jacko: Who you gonna believe? The New York Times or Hollywood's Rumor Rat? Think twice before you answer.

In the world of journalism, reporters and columnists look to the rung above them-- or even beneath them-- for what's already been published or posted, and accept the word as fact. So it goes with the spreading story that the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com scooped the world on the death of Michael Jackson because of its superior sources and technology. Though we proved on Friday that TMZ's early word of Jackson's untimely yet not entirely unsurprising bucket kick was based on a gamble-- shaved bronzed midget frontman Harvey Levin and his boy squad took the information everyone else had and ran with it before it was confirmed (an old, dangerous tabloid trick-- see the Bible, Tabloid Baby), the awestruck praise of the despised Hollywood sewer site is comin from "the top"-- in the form of a New York Times article that's been copied and commented upon by print columnists around the nation and world.


We should mention that the Times story is written by Brian Stelter, a boy blogger turned news man who, coming from the Internet and helping his musty print bosses understand its importance, has made a cottage industry of elevating TMZ.com in the eyes of the mainstream media.

Back in March, Stelter pushed the story that during the brouhaha over givernment bailouts, TMZ "drove mainstream coverage and Congressional outrage."

Our own criticism of Stelter's fawning TMZ coverage under the authority of the New York Times goes back to 2007, when he wrote more than one fawning article about the successful debut of TMZ's whitewashed syndicated television sister, which had actually opened to middling ratings, especially in comparison to entrenched infotainment shows.

It's an interesting situation we have here: The established, "mainstream" media doesn't trust Harvey Levin and TMZ enough to use it as a source on a major story like the death of Michael Jackson, yet it sources TMZ on other gossip items on a daily basis, praising the gutter operation and laying out the foundation for using it as a valid source in the future. Of course, the fact that TMZ is a division of Time Warner has little to do with that.


Meanwhile, we find that the unfiltered truth is coming from the independent sites run by real journalists, not TV lawywers like Levin. For example, Rumor Rat, the mysterious celebrity news site whose Big Cheese is obviously a veteran with perscpective and experience and whose team has swarmed across Hollywood and nibbled away at TMZ and Perez Hilton, recognizes who the real rats are.

Media's coverage of Michael Jackson's death exposes the failures and corruption of the Las Vegas news media in covering the death of Danny Gans

“In New York and Los Angeles, when a major star
drops dead of unknown causes, there is a repulsive
ritual that takes place. A certain breed of journalist
will begin a vigil outside the deceased’s residence,
will rifle through their trash, will bribe all sorts of people
for all sorts of reasons and will call up anyone and
everyone even questionably related to the person for
even the most unlikely comment.

“In Las Vegas, when left to our own devices,
we do things a little differently.”

--Steve Friess, Las Vegas Weekly

Someone asked us about the parallels between the deaths of Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley. We're more interested in the parallels between the news media's respeonse to the deaths of Jacko and Danny Gans (who imitated Jacko in his show): the biggest star in the world (consummate showman and Christian), and the biggest star in Las Vegas (consummate showman and Christian).

The actions of public officials and the Fourth Estate in each case reveal a stark contrast in transparency and fulfillment of responsibility:

Michael Jackson, genius performer, dead at 50.
Danny Gans, genius performer, dead at 52.

Michael Jackson, found not breathing at home in his bed
Danny Gans, found not breathing at home in his bed.

Michael Jackson, pulled to the floor for CPR as a 911 dispatcher gives instructions.
Danny Gans, pulled to the floor for CPR as a 911 dispatcher gives instructions.

Prescription drugs are immediately suspected as the cause of Michel Jackson's death.
Prescription drugs are immediately suspected as the cause of Danny Gans's death.

Police say they want to speak to Michael Jackson’s many doctors immediately.
Police do not seek out Danny Gans’ many doctors.

Police impound the car of one of Michael Jackson’s doctor in search of drug evidence.
Police allow Danny Gans’ wife to gather “all of her husband’s medications” for then to examine.

The world media swarms onto the Michael Jackson story.
The Las Vegas media tiptoes around the Danny Gans story.

Michael Jackson’s “secret” dependence on prescription drugs is immediately laid bare by journalists and their editors, who can finally publish what they’ve known for years.
Danny Gans’ “secret” dependence on prescription drugs is immediately covered up by journalists and their editors, who decline to publish what they’ve known for years or to investigate further.

Michael Jackson’s family members, friends, doctors and colleagues say they knew about his drug problems, but were helpless to save him.
Danny Gans’ friends and colleagues lie about him and claim ignorance, and the gullible and cynical local media print and broadcast what they know is not true.

Respected publications like The New York Times and Los Angeles Times go with major front-page splashes on Michael Jackson’s death, with details about his final hours and many sidebars about his secret life and speculation about what killed him.
Publications like the Las Vegas Review-Journal publish major front-page splashes on Danny Gans’ death, but report only the information that was handed to them.

The Michael Jackson 911 tape is released immediately and analyzed by police, journalists and the public.
The Danny Gans 911 tape is kept under wraps.

Journalists investigate the actions of the paramedics who treated Michael Jackson and get immediate answers, erasing any mystery.
Las Vegas journalists go with the official statements, with one (who is a stringer for The New York Times) stating that it is improper to “harass” the paramedics who attended to Danny Gans, adding to more mystery.

Police and the coroner hold a press conference in which journalists ask many obvious questions about Michael Jackson’s habits and cause of death.
Police, the coroner and Danny Gans’ boss Steve Wynn issue terse statements regarding Danny Gans’ death.

Police and the coroner answer all of the questions they can in the case of Michael Jackson.
Local journalists ask no questions at all in the case of Danny Gans.

Newspapers and media cover every aspect of Michael Jackson’s life, art, influence and legacy, filling column inches for days with fascinating detail about the troubled superstar.
Local newspapers and media get reactions from people like Carrot Top and run out of Danny Gans coverage in a day and a half.

Newspapers and media offer forums for fans to vent their grief and confusion over Michael Jackson.
Las Vegas media outlets censor any correspondence criticizing their performance, publishing only letters that demand the Danny Gans details be kept private.

The coroner says it will take four to six weeks for the toxicological report to reveal exactly what killed Michael Jackson, but with all bases covered and all secrets laid out, there will be no shock or mystery when the details come out.
The coroner says it will take as long as six weeks for the toxicological report to reveal exactly what killed Danny Gans, and the local media close their notebooks and walk away, claiming they are helpless to report or publish any of the easily-verifiable information about the superstar until the government official hands them his statement. When the coroner’s report turns out to be a politically-parsed, incomplete, confusing explanation that only deepens the mystery, the local media whine for a day and then drop the story.

In the Michael Jackson case, members of the news media show what they do best, clearing away mystery, cutting through the spin and laying out the unpleasant truth.
In the Danny Gans case, members of the local news media reveal their corruption, adding to the mystery, clouding the truth and holding back what they know to be true.

Fans understand that the great Michael Jackson was only human and love him only more.
Fans wonder if the great Danny Gans they loved was actually a fraud, and their perception of him darkens amid the coverup.

Revealed as myth and man—thanks to the news media-- Michael Jackson’s legacy is burnished.
Transformed from man to mystery—thanks to the local news media-- Danny Gans’ legacy is tarnished.

Yes, in Las Vegas, when left to their own devices, they do things a little differently. But is the public or the subject well-served by their fear to offend? It seems that tthe responsible and aggressive coverage of the newspack in the Michael Jackson case puts the lie to Steve Friess' excuses and proves there's a big difference between Reporting 101 and bribery. What do you think? And can you think of other contrasts in the case? Add your own!

COMING SOON: Analysis of the Danny Gans 911 tape and investigator’s report... They closed the case after this??

TMZ's Jacko death "scoop" was an educated guess and heartless gamble that paid off

The corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com has gotten credit by its mainstream colleagues-- the ones who often use the sewer site as a legitimate news source-- for breaking the news that Michael Jackson was dead. However, TabloidBaby.com's investigation and common sense analysis of the situation makes it very clear that TMZ was ahead of the curve because they took the same reports everyone else had and extrapolated from them that Jackson had died.

In other words, TMZ's shaved bronzed midget frontman Harvey Levin and his ill-wishing celebrity taunt team closed their eyes, put all their money on the number 86 and held on tight until they found out they were correct.

In other words, they guessed.

Sound like a conspiracy theory? Speaking of conspiracy theories, there's precedent in network news and one of the greatest conspiracy theories of our time.

Let's go back to yesterday afternoon...

Word that Michael Jackson had been rushed to a hospital in full cardiac arrest was a shocker when it was text-messaged to us yesterday afternoon shortly after 2 pm. More shocking was the headline that appeared on the Drudge Report, stamped at 1:43 p.m. Pacific Standard Time:

2009/06/25 Thu 16:43:04 EST ^ (21:43:04 GMT)

REPORT: Michael Jackson Dies


The Drudge headline linked to TMZ.com, which at 1:30 PM PST had run the post:

Michael Jackson -- Cardiac Arrest



Two minutes later, Drudge switched to Code Red and all caps in a red headline accompanied by his flashing police light:

2009/06/25 Thu 16:45:05 EST ^ (21:45:05 GMT)

REPORT: MICHAEL JACKSON DIES.


Again, a link to TMZ.

Meanwhile, other news organizations were reporting that Jackson had been taken to UCLA Medical Center in full cardiac arrest-- but no one would say he was dead. There were reports he was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home, and other reports that the paramedics were performing CPR in the ambulance. All signs pointing to a dead celebrity-- but no confirmation.

By 2:20 PST, TMZ was reporting:

Michael Jackson Dies


That, although Jackson was not officially pronounced dead until 2:26 p.m.

Even after 2:30 pm, The Los Angeles Times website and CNN were reporting that Jackson was hospitalized in a "deep coma."

Soon, the death was confirmed.

Despite the time stamp and the Drudge links, the Los Angeles Times reports today that TMZ beat the lamestream news media by only a few minutes:

"At 2:44 p.m., it beat rivals by informing the world of his death, which occurred at 2:26 p.m. ...Yet the tabloid sensibilities of the site, which is owned and operated by divisions of Time Warner, and its accompanying syndicated TV show apparently made rivals queasy. Many outlets around the world instead credited the news to the Los Angeles Times, which bannered Jackson's death on its website at 2:51 p.m."

The news hit Drudge after 3 p.m.

2009/06/25 Thu 17:07:16 EST ^ (22:07:16 GMT)

THE KING IS DEAD


While all this was gong on, as the confusion reigned for more tan thirty minutes, the tabloid veterans monitoring the coverage on the Internet and television simultaneously came to the same conclusion: TMZ.com did not get the scoop because its band of boys has better sources, paid sources or inside information at the notoriously-leaky hospital than their competitors.

TMZ had the same information everyone else had.

TMZ went with the death report on a hunch, figuring the odds were in their favor.

Remember, they had this information to go on:

Jacko had been hospitalized with cardiac arrest;

Jacko was not breathing when paramedics arrived at his home;

Paramedics were performing CPR on the way to the hospital.

Based on those reports, the tabloid television veterans monitoring the situation also assumed Jackson was dead. TMZ, however, went with the news.

Harvey Levin will claim it was great reporting and inside sources that gave TMZ the edge, but take our word for it: TMZ.com had the same sources as everyone else. And no one else acceptd TMZ as a source and went with the story because they knew the game. Even TMZ's sister network CNN didn't take their word for it because they know the imitation tabloid television game Harvey was playing.

Harvey, who has a history of imitating other people's tabloid strategies, often to disatrous results (see the OJ Simpson trial), was playing Dan Rather.


On November 22, 1963, CBS News reporter Dan Rather was the first to report the death of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy after he was shot in Dallas, after hearing an unconfirmed report from a priest. The news went out, and Rather, knowing he could be wrong, prayed that he was right and that JFK was dead, so he wouldn't be fired (he writes about it in his book).

Harvey Levin lucked out.

Jacko

It’s got to be thirty years, since the death of John Lennon, that we’ve gotten into the car and turned on the radio to hear the music of a single artist on every station. In the past 24 hours, the selection of Michael Jackson songs across the dial has been awe-inspiring and emotional.

We grew up with Michael Jackson’s music, can remember the first time we heard I Want You Back bursting out of the car radio speakers, saw The Jackson 5 on the Ed Sullivan Show. and his world-stopping performance at the Motown 25th Anniversary special on CBS. But that was long ago, and by the time the tabloid television industry was launched and moving into its heyday in the late 1980s, Michael Jackson’s glory days were behind him and he was descending into a kind of public madness that was not only tolerated but in many ways encouraged until August 7, 1993, the day he stepped onto a jetliner to embark on a concert tour in another part of the planet the very day that police in Los Angeles began investigating a thirteen-year-old-boy’s allegations that the self-proclaimed king of pop had molested him during a four-month romance. That was the day all the Home Alone with McCauley Culkin comedy segments, Elephant Man parodies and plastic surgery jokes stopped being funny and the Michael Jackson story became a crime story.


Now he was Jacko, and for the next ten years, as he paid off a pack of pubescent circle jerk buddies and sank deeper into a drug-addled seclusion that was as obvious and unspoken as the paedophilia traits of the past decade, Michael Jackson wasn’t funny any more.

We heard all the stories. We had all the information that we couldn’t air. And when a vengeful prosecutor who couldn’t get the god the first time managed to arrest and try Jacko for child abuse in 2003, everything was fair game.

But it wasn’t. The Jacko molestation case ended our editor’s sideline as a cable news television “talking head.”

“I was sitting in some satellite studio with an IFB in my ear and a monitor in the corner, arguing with some woman in New York over what Michael Jackson had been doing behind closed doors at Neverland," he recalled today. "During the commercial break I realized I didn’t know what the f*** I was talking about. I didn’t know what went on behind those closed doors. Neither did the woman I was arguing with. We were filling time.”

One tabloid television veteran made Jacko’s prosecution her industry, and while serving as a supposedly unbiased television reporter, twisted every line and repeated every rumour fed from the DA in a determined drive to put Jacko behind bars.

When the prosecutor couldn’t get a conviction, her career, for all intents and purposes, ended.

Jacko’s story is dark and because of his bizarre life, overdose death and molestation accusations, the celebrations and vigils that have carried on into a second day seem slightly twisted. Unless you concentrate on the music-- or discard the factoids that have become facts over the years, and reason that, in the words of a tabloid television godfather, Jacko is “the most maligned, persecuted and slandered person in our time.”

The world circus that's only just getting underway is the perfect tribute and one Jacko would appreciate. It's bound to exceed that of John Paul II. This is bigger than Elvis, who was considered a has been when he keeled over and didn’t even make the lead of CBS News. Already the conspiracy rumours are out there—that it’s an impersonator who died on Carolwood Drive, and that the real Jacko hightailed it to Bahrain to get out of those fifty concerts at the O2 Arena.

For the boys...

Who will get the first interview with Jordy Chandler?

Michael Jackson died without his nose

Entertainment Tonight is running and distributing what's billed as Michael Jackson's final photo, which is slightly misleading as it depicts Jacko's lifeless corpse being wheeled into UCLA Medical Center. A study of the photo reveals one detail that's yet to be commented on: Michael Jackson is missing the tip of his nose.

With his many plastic surgeries, Jacko did much damage to the cartilege in his nose and was rumoured to use putty or a prosthetic to replace the destroyed end of his schnozz (in fact, during a dance move in a 2001 concert in Madison Square Garden, Jacko supposedly flicked the nose tip into the second row).

It appears that the tip was lost as paramedics worked valiantly to get his heart started, perhaps in a kiss of life.

ABC & NBC move Farrah cash-ins to tonight

We reported exclusively yesterday on the hypocritical tabloid war between ABC News and NBC News over the right to suck as many ratings points as possible out of Farrah Fawcett. With Farrah's sad death, they moved their plans forward:

NEW YORK (AP) — ABC and NBC are airing special tributes to Farrah Fawcett.

ABC's "20/20" will air a Barbara Walters Special, "Farrah's Love," Thursday at 10 p.m. Eastern. At the same hour, "Dateline NBC" will air "Farrah Fawcett: The Life and Death of an Angel." Friday at 9 p.m.,

NBC will rebroadcast "Farrah's Story," a two-hour documentary about Fawcett's battle with cancer that originally aired last month.

Of course, with the death of Michael Jackson trumping all, the network plans may change again.

Sad day

Michael Jackson

Oh, what a bad day this has turned out to be, and in the TabloidBaby world, the bad news comes in threes with genuine sadness over the death this morning of Farrah Fawcett, the release, due to our diligence, of the 911 tape of Danny Gans' wife calling in to report her husband wasn't breathing, and this afternoon, the bizarre news that Michael Jackson had dropped dead.

Danny Gans

In vast contrast to Gans' overdose death, the circumstances of Jacko untimely, if not entirely surprising, passing is already being combed for every detail, with reports of the paramedics' attempts to revive him and a family spokesman already shouting loud and clear that like Elvis before him, Jacko was abusing prescription drugs and being supplied with the killing medication by "everyone around him." Gans, who was as big a star as any in Las Vegas, should have gotten the same respect and treatment from his local media.

As for Jacko, whatever circus surrounds his death and funeral, he surely deserves and will appreciate it.

Cops release Danny Gans report & 911 tape

Thanks to the persistence of TabloidBaby.com correspondent on the scene, police in Henderson, Nevads have released the incident report and 911 tape from the morning of May 1st, when paramedics were called to his home to find Las Vegas superstar Danny Gans dead of what would be revealed as an overdose of the powerful opiate Dilaudid.

According to the five page report written by Detective Chad Mitchell, Gans' wife Julia said her husband had been asleep since the afternoon of May 31st.

At about 6 pm, she asked her son to awaken Gans, but that he decided not to wake him up because he was snoring.

Four hours later she went to the master bedroom and found Gans asleep in bed-- lying on his back with his feet slightly elevated. Gans was still snoring. Julia Gans said she thought nothing of it because he often snored when he slept.

She said she awoke at 3:40 am and realized he wasn't snoring.

The report says Julia Gans couldn't tell if he was breathing or if he had a pulse. She called 911 and was given instructions on how to administer CPR. She pulled Gans off the bed, put him on the floor and performed CPR until Henderson police arrived.

Danny Gans was dead.

Julia Gans told Henderson Police investigators that at the direction of the police she had gathered and placed all of her husband's medications so they could be examined.

Henderson Police collected the evidence she gave them, and according to the report, noted "nothing remarkable" about the number of pills that were found and counted.

Coroner's investigators examined Gans' body and noticed that his faced was swollen and red. They found nothing during the examination that suggested foul play.

Police also released the 911 tape in which Julia Gans calls the dispatcher and says she can't tell if her husband is breathing.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE 911 TAPE

While the local Las Vegas news media has willfully ignored, underplayed and failed to pursue leads int he story, we revealed on Monday that the Henderson Police had not closed the books on the Gans case, despite the controversial and incomplete conclusion (accidental "toxic reaction") from the Clark County Coroner on June 9th.

Today, Henderson Police say the Danny Gans case is closed.

Developing...

READ THE POLICE INCIDENT REPORT
(CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE):

Farrah and that red swimsuit

Farrah Fawcett's star rose to the stratosphere after she posed in 1976 for a poster wearing a one-piece swimsuit. It's gone down in pop culture history as the famous "red swimsit poster."

Only it wasn't red.


As you can see in these photos, The swimsuit was actually burnt orange. Burnt orange and white are the school colors of The University of Texas at Austin, where Farrah was the most beautiful girl in the Delta Delta Delta sorority when she was discovered by Hollywood.

Color bleeds in various printings of the poster evened it out to "red."

Farrah is with the angels now

Farrah Fawcett was another Hollywood blonde icon whose beauty and talent didn't bring her the happiness her public would assume. She withstood punches from gossips and big strong men in her life alike and in the end put up the good fight against cancer. Thanks to experimental and alternative treatments she could only find and receive outside the United States, she lived far longer than expected, and put those years and that fight to great use to help others and lead others to find the same help.


She had a tremendous fighting spirit and she inspired millions of people. She used her suffering to help others.

Rest in peace, Farrah.

She's gone

9 28 am at St John's Hospital in Santa Monica.

Ryan O'Neal shuts down Farrah's website

Farrah Fawcett's official website, FarrahFawcett.us, a focal point for criticism of her legal guardian Ryan O'Neal, has been shut down, allegedly on O'Neal's orders.

The publicist for Greg Lott, Farrah's partner in the site and O'Neal's antagonist in her final days, writes: "Attorney's acting on orders of Ryan O'Neal and the 'power of attorney' have served a lawsuit on the web server ordering an injunction to the website."

The site was started by Farrah and her college sweetheart Lott, as a fansite and forum for Farrah to bypass the tabloids in getting her message to the public. Lott told Tabloid Baby the site went online the same day Farrah got her cancer diagnosis, and it soon became virtual headquarters in her battle against the disease.

The site has recently become a forum for Lott, who claims Ryan O'Neal has underhandedly seized control of Farrah's estate and has blocked him and and other longtime friends of loved ones from seeing her. Lott, who's from Texas, has been in Los Angeles holding vigil for his gal, and has protested loudly that he his once open-access to Farrah was stopped after O'Neal took legal control of her affairs.

In recent weeks, Lott teamed up with a publicist named Alan Miller from a compnay called Hitman PR. Hitman's PR Blog blil itself as "THE OFFICIAL BLOG FOR FARRAH FAWCETT.US AND GREG LOTT, FARRAH'S BUSINESS PARTNER AND FRIEND WRITTEN BY ALLEN S. MILLER, PUBLICIST, HITMAN PUBLIC RELATIONS WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/DRASMILLER."

On Tuesday, Miller published "An Open Letter to Ryan O'Neal's marriage proposal," in which he made a number of lurid accusations against O'Neal and Farrah's friend Alana Stewart.

"Yesterday, attorney's acting on orders of Ryan O'Neal and the 'power of attorney' have served a lawsuit on the web server ordering an injunction to the website. After I published the "Open Letter to Ryan O'Neal, we started hearing from his attorney's. It is obvious; Mr. O'Neal does not want the truth of his activities known to the world."

The Farrah Fawcett website was a focal point for fans from around the world, and more recently as a shrine. Last motnh, Lott posted Farrah's address and urged fans to send cards, letters and packages to her home, where O'Neal, was staying, so the stacks would reach "all the way up to his neck."

Earlier this month, the Hitman site said the correspondence should be sent to O'Neal's gym.

O'Neal has reportedly continued filming a follow-up to the Farrah's Story documentary he had hijacked from its original producer, Craig Nevius. There is a report this morning that he at her bedside, repeatedly breaking down in sobs. It is not knwn whether the scene is being filmed.

Friends brawl, networks in deathmatch as Farrah slips away...

Friends of Farrah Fawcett tell us her passing is near. Her doctors confirm the sad inevitability. And as the brave, beautiful blonde takes her final breaths, the battles surrounding her are amped up amid the emotion and panic among her loved ones and those who want something from her alike. The friends and colleagues who've been kept away from Farrah since her longtime/sometimes lover Ryan O'Neal moved in and took over her affairs have taken to various websites and press releases with accusations that we can't repeat unless or until we or someone who's paid to do the work can prove them.

The most unseemly deathmatch is between the true Farrahcites, the network news buzzards who preach high standards yet grovel in the dirt as they ape the tabloid form in search of the next bug "get." Word tonight is that the good folks at NBC and NBC News are in an uproar that old Barbara Walters and her crew at ABC's 20/20 hijacked the sequel to their high-rating tabloid special "Farrah's Story" for ABC's own "Love Story," set to air Friday night and getting a lot of play for Ryan O'Neal's jocular announcement that he plans to marry Farrah on her deathbed if "maybe we can just nod her head."

Tonight we hear that NBC's biggest fear is that Farrah will pass away in the next 48 hours, leading to giant ratings for ABC. So NBC plans to counter-program with three primetime hours of Farrah Fawcett on Friday night, rerunning "Farrah's Story," the maudlin, morbid tale helmed by and starring Ryan O'Neal, followed by a "special" one-hour retrospective on Farrah's life hosted by Meredith Vieira.

This is not tribute. This is not homage to a princess. One insider tells TabloidBaby what it is: "NBC is looking to crush ABC."

"Farrah's Story," you'll remember, was a two-hour recut of the cancer journal documentary Farrah had produced with producer Craig Nevius. But as her condition worsened, O'Neal took over not only her affairs but the doco, pushing Nevius aside (Nevius sued), and with the help of the heavy hands at NBC Dateline, turning Farrah's story into Ryan's real-life Love Story.

Farrah's journals, we're told, are being turned into a book by Alana Stewart, her friend who helped film much of Farrah's treatment at cancer clinics in Germany, and who later sided with O'Neal in the doco heist after demanding a fat payoff for her work. The book, we're told will be announced after Farrah's passing, "for maximum effect."

April 2nd, 2009:

Angel Farrah

Dr. Ruehl remembers Ed McMahon

Our fondest personal memory of the great Ed McMahon is, of course, from the Jerry Labor Day Telethons. Ed was always there for Jerry, filling in on the hours when Jerry wasn't well, leading into those toteboard tallies with all the enthusiasm they deserved.

Backstage, the big Marine kept to himself, tucked away in his dressing room to emerge for his parts. We remember the afternoon the biggest, most fully-stocked rolling service carts of booze was rolled to his room, enough juice to keep the big man oiled for the entire weekend binge.

Tabloid Baby pal, contributor, columnist and TV, movie and music video star Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D., who now does his columns for his own website, Mysteries from Beyond The Other Dominion, does us one better. he as a costar in Ed Mcmahon's final work, a couple of comedy rap videos for a credit report company.

Dr. Ruehl filled us in on his experiences. Now, in this exclusive piece, he offers this memory of his pal, Ed McMahon:

My Fond Memory
of Working with Ed McMahon
on His Last Project

I am saddened by the dire news of Ed McMahon's death. I worked with Ed on his 'Gangsta Rap' video a few months ago (September 13,2008) and he appeared to be in excellent health! He was energetic and cordial, shaking hands with everyone on the set, and doing retakes like a pro!

He only asked, when we were dancing in a motel room, that we try to avoid bumping into him as he did not want another fall, having recovered from a previous accident.

I consider it a high honor that I was able to work with him on his last project.

In the "Gangsta Rap" video, I am seen with my repent sign and raccoon hat 38-42 secs into it, and at the very end 55-56 sec in a pirate hat dancing with others in Ed's motel room:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE VIDEO

May the Power of the Cosmos be with You, Ed, wherever you may now be!

Dr. Franklin Ruehl, Ph.D.

The winner in the Perez Hilton-will.i.am feud is... Rumor Rat

We have no problem with Perez Hilton. We like the kid. When he's linked to our posts once or twice, it's given us a boost in traffic. And we don't think anybody should respond to the written words of any blogger, Internet writer or critic or journo with violence, as apparently happened (with a little help from Perez' bitchy mouth) in the case and of him and that supposedly cultured and political Obama guy from the Black Eyed Peas.

But the incident in Toronto that threw a spanner into young Mario's plans to become a kinder, gentler and more mainstream media personality has also marked a changing of the guard in Internet entertainment journalism.

When word got out that Perez got poked, Harvey Levin, the shaved bronzed midget frontman of the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com, ran himself silly trying to kiss every ass cheek thrust in his direction-- first siding with will.i.am after he sent a denial video to the sewer site, then jumping back under Perez's sheets when the blogging queen released an epic 11+ minute soliloquy-- only to hop back into the anti-Perez line after GLAAD tried to wash Perez's mouth with soap, then-- well, basically revealing TMZ as the amoral waterboy for whoever wants to splash it in watersports.

And as these instant dinosaurs stumble-- one literally punch drunk, the other high on hate-- comes the latest shift in Hollywood entertainment reporting as the Hollywood gossip site that's done the best play-by-play and kept up with every twist in the tiff is that upstart gossip site, Rumor Rat. The mysterious site that's broken onto the scene in recent weeks is just smart and clever and nasty enough to never fall into the jealous, antagonistic smut that circles the TMZ bowl.

While we at TabloidBaby.com are getting international attention and record traffic with our breaking coverage of the Danny Gans and Farrah Fawcett stories, upstart Rumor Rat, which first nibbled into the general awareness by skittering around Perez and leaving its droppings across the TMZ bow, is taking over the Hollywood rumor and celebrity news mantle.

We know Harvey storms around his office asking who this giant mouse and Big Cheese may be. We've gotten accusatory phone calls from his sister operations. We've also learned exclusively that Rumor Rat's experienced an 800% boost in "unique visitor" traffic over last week, and is growing by the day, in part thanks to its coverage of its rivals.

Just as TMZ's shameful launch capsized the bounding Defamer and sent its correspondents to the couch in their bunny slippers to transcribe episode of Oprah and The View, so is RumorRat.com turning into the Ratatouille chef of the stew of Hollywood gossip sites.

BTW, if you haven't noticed how our criticism of TMZ has led to its neutering, check out their announcement of the death of Ed McMahon. While in the past, Harvey and his boys would ridicule the passing of elderly celebs with tasteless puns, they now bow to the powers behind the ones they taunt:

Ryan O'Neal tells Barbara Walters he'll marry Farrah before she dies

Wonder if hard-hitting news veteran Barbara Walters will get to the bottom of the controversy over Ryan O'Neal's control over cancer-stricken Farrah Fawcett in her final days? Wonder no more. The promotion department at ABC is working overtime to hype the 20/20 segment that airs Friday night, and the big "get" is O'Neal's insistence that the iconic actress has agreed to marry him on her deathbed.

Says O'Neal: "We will (marry), as soon as she can say 'yes.'"

"As soon as she can say 'yes.'"

O'Neal, who has been accused by some of Farrah's friends of engineering an "estate takeover," laughed when he added: "Maybe we can just nod her head."

"Maybe we can just nod her head."

He was still having fun when he spoke about how he'd dress for the wedding: "Like a gigolo. A little thin moustache and slicked-back hair. I don't know."

"Like a gigolo."

There has been no comment from Farrah. The 62-year-old star is said to be heavily sedated, and at last word, has been re-admitted to the hospital.

This has led to questions about the veracity of O'Neal's statements and the intentions behind the wedding. But not, apparently, from Barbara Walters.

O'Neal and Farrah were tempestuous, (on-and-off) lovers for years (they have a son, Redmond, who's jailed on drug charges), but broke up officially a dozen years ago. He came back into her life during her cancer battle and recently made headlines when he seized control of the cancer documentary she had been producing and with the help of NBC News, turned it into a maudlin, morbid elder version of "Love Story" with O'Neal reprising his role.

Said one friend: "Ryan thinks the documentary will do to his career what 'Pulp Fiction did to Travolta's."

Walters, with the 20/20 investigative unit and powerful ABC News organization at her disposal, might still surprise us and delve into the charges, mystery and uproar around O'Neal's control over Farrah in her dying days. It will be interesting to see if the tabloid babies who create her segnments dig away to find the truth, or, in more standard network procedure, make deals with public relations firms, promising to stay away from certain hot topics in exchange for "exclusives' like wedding announcements.

As for the deathbed wedding, O'Neal tells Walters: "I promise you, we will. Absolutely."

EXCLUSIVE: POLICE SAY DANNY GANS DEATH CASE IS "STILL OPEN"

"The Danny Gans case is still an open investigation."

A spokesman for the Henderson, Nevada Police Department told a TabloidBaby.com producer this afternoon that the investigation into the Dilaudid overdose death of the Las Vegas strip superstar has not yet been closed, despite the "acidental" tag plaxced on Gans' May 1st demise by the Clark County Coroner.

Our man on the ground in Clark County visited the police headquarters on Water Street in hopes of getting hold of the police incident report that's been held from public view since Gans' untimely death at his home on Ricota Court in the Roma Hills estates. It was then that he was told the case is "still an open investigation."

The police report was again withheld.

The lead detective, the police spokesman said, is "on vacation." Whether he's been away the thirteen days since the Coroner and Las Vegas news media closed their books on the case, or is investigating other leads into how the supposedly clean-living, athletic Born Again Christian showman wound up dying from too much "drug store heroin" remains to be seen.

The bigger question is why no one in the Las Vegas news media has gone after the police and paramedic incident reports or questioned why the death is still open thirteen days after it was supposedly officially deemed "accidental."

Danny Gans photo: Leila Navidi/Las Vegas Sun

American Dunkleman makes The Globe!

The Globe, the edgy supermarket tabloid that's scarfed up by millions of Americans each week, is highlighting American Dunkleman!

You remember American Dunkleman. It's the proposed television comedy series starring former American Idol host Brian Dunkleman, was hailed as "hilarious" earlier this year when a trailer for the based-on-real-life laughfest hit the Internet. The series from our pals at Frozen Pictures got great attention from the likes of the Los Angeles Times and The National Enquirer, which had fun with the producers' tongue-in-cheek Facebook campaign.


Now the current issue of The Globe tabloid features American Dunkleman. The fact that the weekly tabloid with a finger on the pulse of Middle America chose to seek out and publish a story on the show is yet another indicator of American Dunkleman's mainstream appeal.

The story is another juicy tease with an A+ tabloid headline:

'IDOL' IDIOT PLOTS SITCOM SALVATION

FORMER American Idol host Brian Dunkleman is attempting a TV comeback by shopping around a sitcom about his life.

Called American Dunkleman, the series plays on Brian's real-life reputation of having made "the biggest mistake in the history of show business" when he walked away from his role as "Idol" co-host after the show's first season.

Since leaving FOX's talent fest, his career has nose-dived, while his co-host Ryan Seacrest went on to make a fortune as a radio DJ and TV producer.

The comedy series follows the fictional Dunkleman as he attempts to get back into the television business.

A source says: "His character embarrasses himself and disappoints his friends while constantly being reminded that he could have been a millionaire if he'd stuck with the show."

So what about the show?

"We're negotiating, we're pitching and we've got one especially hot prospect we hope will become a reality soon, says Frozen's Brett Hudson. "This series will introduce America to a Brian Dunkleman who was never revealed on reality television. He's a true comedy idol!"

Chicago Tribune features "multitalented, ever-clever, never going to be halftime at the Super Bowl" Neil Innes and The Seventh Python

A week ago, we featured pictures from a Chicago Tribune photo shoot featuring music and comedy legend Neil Innes, star of The Seventh Python, the nonfiction musical feature film from our pals at Frozen Pictures. The session was part of a media blitz surrounding the historic Innes concert and film screening at the Wilmette Theatre on June 9th, and accompanied an interview with Innes by Tribune writer Marc Caro.

The feature runs in today's issue of the Trib (which has already called the film "magical, mysterious, whimsical, hysterical!"), a little late for the Wilmette show but just in time for The Seventh Python's pair of showings at the Relevation Perth International Film Festival July 4th and 10th:

Chicago Tribune
'Seventh Python' has been
making his mark
for more than four decades
But Neil Innes is far from a household name
By Mark Caro, Tribune reporter
June 21, 2009

Neil Innes was browsing the stacks at Vintage Vinyl in Evanston when the clerk brought over copies of several albums by Innes' anarchic '60s jazz/rock/comedy collective, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band.

The records were priced at $50 apiece, prompting the 64-year-old British singer/songwriter/pianist/guitarist to marvel, "Is that what they are? Hmm. Well, good luck."

He thought about autographing them, then reconsidered: "It would probably devalue it if I signed."

He inspected the back cover of "Gorilla," the Bonzos' 1967 debut album, on which was listed a song called "Death Cab for Cutie." "That came from an American crime magazine which I found in Deptford Street Market [in London]," Innes recalled. "It was this lurid cover; it said, 'Death Cab for Cutie.' "

Paul McCartney liked the song so much that he tapped the Bonzos to perform it in the Beatles' rambling TV movie "Magical Mystery Tour." A Seattle-area rock band subsequently took the song title as its own name and became so popular that the phrase's origins have become all but forgotten.

So it goes for the multitalented, ever-clever Innes, who has been making his mark for more than four decades without ever becoming a household name.

"I'm never going to be halftime at the Super Bowl," he dryly acknowledged.

The Bonzos had one British hit, Innes' jokey-folky "I'm the Urban Spaceman" (produced by McCartney under the name Apollo C. Vermouth), and appeared regularly on the madcap British TV series "Do Not Adjust Your Set," which featured future Monty Pythonites Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. But the band never exceeded cult status, particularly in the U.S.

Innes wound up providing musical contributions to "Monty Python's Flying Circus" and the movie "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (1975). He's the minstrel singing about Brave Sir Robin, and he's also a peasant who gets crushed by a gigantic wooden rabbit. His impact on the troupe was such that Terry Gilliam dubbed him "The Seventh Python," also the name of Burt Kearns' documentary that brought Innes to town earlier this month for a screening and performance at the Wilmette Theatre.


Post-Python, Innes and Idle created the Rutles, a Beatles parody group that debuted on the duo's British TV series "Rutland Weekend Television" before starring in their own 1978 NBC television special "All You Need Is Cash." It was the week's lowest-rated show among the major networks yet provided the "mockumentary" template for "This Is Spinal Tap" (1984) while sustaining a steady level of belovedness among Beatles and Python fans.

Innes eventually spun off a second Rutles album without Idle in 1996 ("Archaeology"), and a solo Idle cobbled together a rather lame Rutles follow-up film in 2005 (the straight-to-DVD "Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch"). When Innes performed a solo show in Los Angeles in 2003, "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening was among those who showed up to pay their respects, and Kearns started work on "The Seventh Python."

Innes now has more paunch and less hair than when he played the John Lennon doppelganger Ron Nasty, but he's in anything but a retiring mood. His one-man show, which he performed at the Abbey Pub and again in part at the Wilmette, is called "A People's Guide to World Domination," a decades-spanning collection of his songs around which he wraps his theme "that the individual is being wiped out by the mass media." In typically cheeky fashion, the show climaxes with Innes leading a mock march in which he swears in the audience as "Ego Warriors," whose salute is the familiar thumb-to-the-nose gesture.

Innes is eager for 2010 to arrive because that's when his current publishing deal expires, and he's so miffed at its terms that he's waiting till then to release any new music.

"When we did the second Rutles album, I was naive enough to think if I paid a lawyer, that that lawyer would represent my best interests," he said, bursting into laughter. "No! How stupid could you get?

"I am off the hook on Jan. 1 of next year, so I will be actually doing more, being a bit more prolific. I'm just so fed up with being burgled. At the age of 65, I shall be free, so I should become a complete fame slut now."

By this point Innes was sitting outside with former Hudson Brother (and "Seventh Python" co-producer and co-writer) Brett Hudson at Argo Tea down the street from Vintage Vinyl. Neither of these two veterans was pining for the good ol' days or lamenting the demise of a record industry devoted to producing physical products.


"Quite frankly, I'm glad that part is gone," Innes said. "In many ways, what's the difference for people like me and Brett? They took all the money then."

The two of them laughed.

"I'm glad that the record business has changed and isn't what it was," Hudson said. "Because now we have a chance to make some money."

"It's gone full circle back to Woody Guthrie," Innes said.

"You're absolutely right," Hudson said.

"And, hello, we can get on street corners and say what's what," Innes said.

"You're right," Hudson said. "Woody Guthrie. We can come back. It's true."

Innes laughed. "This era is our era."

mcaro@tribune.com

Copyright © 2009, Chicago Tribune

Breakdown Pt II: Vegas writer who attacked us for questioning Review-Journal’s Gans reporting lapse hits paper for same failure in Senator sex story!

We don’t mean to harp on compromised Las Vegas writer, comp queen and New York Times freelancer Steve Friess (we wouldn't harp on him at all if he hadn't attacked us first and then kept it up), but the signs of the name-caller's public breakdown are getting more obvious and deserve attention.

Now the man who accused us of being tabloid “vermin” and "a**holes" for asking why the Las Vegas Review-Journal was not providing any new reportage two days after the tragic, unexplained death of Danny Gans, is criticizing the Review-Journal for the very same failure in the seamy tabloid story of Senator John Ensign’s adulterous affair!

The same criticism? It's bizarre. It's troubling.

On May 3rd, we wrote:

“…The Las Vegas newspapers and national gossip and magazine media continue to troll for star tributes to the Vegas-only star, while none has yet published a follow-up on the breaking news story…his morning, there's a news vacuum regarding the death of Danny Gans-- which is odd, considering the talk around town.

“If we were running Las Vegas newspapers we'd be running fresh stories on Day Three."

Today, Friess writes on his Vegas-boosting blog:

“I did have to make a quick note that the Review-Journal, on only the third day of the John Ensign sex scandal, used the Associated Press' report on its front page and had no staff-generated material on the drama other than a 360-word commentary by columnist John L. Smith.

“That is really strange… the R-J had nothing at all to report today?”

It's all too easy to call Friess a blatant hypocrite. We fear it's something much worse. Like Susan Boyle, he appears to be crumbling under the pressure of public scrutiny.

This morning, we pointed out that Friess had dedicated his shameful and outlandish defense of the local media’s coverup of Strip superstar Danny Gans' drug overdose death to us.

We should note that the lead to Freiss’ Ensign story is again directed toward TabloidBaby.com:

“I've laid off on the local media criticism in this space for a while in part because I've learned what it's like to have some half-cocked nutjob misread and distort every little thing that happens and/or that you do.”

Again with the name-calling.


We also note that although Steve Friess and his cohorts have insisted that our coverage of the Gans overdose and criticism of the local media have been “discredited” and have gone unnoticed in Las Vegas, he has been referring to our site constantly and, sources say, is very worried about the consequences of his involvement in the media coverup.

We find it all very worrisome. The entire TabloidBaby.com staff wish Steve Friess the best, and hopes that his second unofficial husband, KVBC News executive producer Miles Smith, gets him the help he so obviously needs.