Some celebrities cash in with wedding or baby photos while those in need of fame try to revive or launch struggling careers with reality shows. Television legend and 70s pinup Farrah Fawcett has figured out a way to turn the most harrowing heath crisis of her life into a documentary that will earn her at least $2 million. If there’s any celebrity story or event that is worth that much money, Farrah’s battle with cancer is definitely it:

She worked a financial deal with “Entertainment Tonight” earlier this year where the show followed her around to treatments and showed Fawcett’s friends videotaping her ordeal. Now, the footage shot by Fawcett’s pals is being sold to NBC for “over $2 million,” said a source. Craig Nevius, the documentary’s producer, said, “We are negotiating with one of the big three networks, but no deal has been signed yet.” Presumably, footage would air on both “Today” and “Dateline.”

[From The NY Post via Huffington Post]

That’s wonderful for Farrah and should help her have a comfortable retirement. Farrah underwent experimental treatments for cancer, including targeted chemotherapy in Germany that is not yet available in the US.

Farrah was first diagnosed with anal cancer in October, 2006. She announced that she was cancer free in February of last year, but the cancer sadly returned and she went to Germany on the advice of her friend, the singer Cher. In February of this year Cher told Access Hollywood that Farrah had beat the cancer again and was cancer free following her treatments:

Stunning news from the legendary diva about Farrah’s condition and, in fact, it was Cher who encouraged her friend to seek treatment in Germany.

“It is a completely different kind of treatment,” Cher explained. “She had the cancer and then it went to her liver and so what they do there is, instead of giving you chemo all over, they do a thing called (chemo)embolization where they take whatever chemo that they were going to give you and they put it directly into the tumors into your liver and then when they shrink down smaller enough they do a thing called Cyberknife and they go in and they just take it out.”

[From Access Hollywood]

Now we’re about to have a glimpse of what Farrah went through to fight cancer. That footage is priceless. Good job Farrah, and congratulations on beating cancer.

Farrah Fawcett is shown at the airport on 5/29/08, thanks to Splash.

The UCLA Medical Centre has been under scrutiny because of confidential details of celebrity treatment being leaked to the media, most notably the medical details of Britney Spears’ breakdown (her psychiatric records were supposedly closed to generally employee access) and Farrah Fawcett’s cancer treatment. Now it seems that at least one employee, Lawanda Jackson, is going to face criminal charges about the incident.

The indictment refers to an unidentified national media outlet, but a source familiar with the matter confirmed that the paper was the National Enquirer.

According to the indictment, Jackson received at least $4,600 from the publication through checks made out to her husband. The agreement lasted from about 2006 until at least May 21, 2007, according to the indictment.

Jackson faces up to 10 years in prison if she is convicted of the charge. Such charges involving the disclosure of medical records are rare.

LA Times

While anyone in the public eye gives up a certain amount of their privacy, it is absolutely wrong to violate someone’s medical records, particularly for the paltry sum of $4,600.

We reported in March that 13 UCLA staff members had been fired, a further six were suspended, and another six doctors had been disciplined for looking at Britney Spears’ files. This was not the first time staff had snooped at records, they looked at Britney’s medical files (psychiatric files are closed to all other areas of the hospital) when she was hospitalized in January for a breakdown, and also when she gave birth to her first son Sean Preston in 2005.

The hospital tried to claim that it was an interest in a ‘particular person’ referring to Britney, but since then it has also been revealed that Farrah Fawcett’s files were looked at, the information sold to the National Enquirer, and this is the case in question today. Lawanda Jackson is the first employee to be charged with leaking information to the media, despite the hospital’s previous statement there was ‘no evidence to suggest that any employee leaked information or sold it’.

The hospital has a PIN number system that shows who is looking at medical records, but doesn’t have a system in place to stop people from looking at the records. While it would be great to be able to trust all of the hospital’s employees, someone like Lawanda Jackson might just sell the information if they need the money badly enough. The LA Times reports she was $37,300 in debt in 2001, when she filed for bankruptcy.

UCLA should make all medical records private, not just a celebrity patient’s information. If you were undergoing an acrimonious divorce, or were involved in a car accident, or any kind of incident that might get you attention from the media, you would not want your personal history up for sale to the highest bidder either.

Photos are of Britney’s breakdown in early January, thanks to Splash.

Earlier this month, we reported on 13 staff members at UCLA Medical Center who were fired for snooping through Britney Spears’ confidential medical records and feeding information to the tabloids. It looks as though Spears isn’t the only celeb to be ratted out at the medical center. Farrah Fawcett, who has been battling cancer, was also a target.

Months before UCLA Medical Center caught its staffers snooping in the medical records of pop star Britney Spears, ’70s TV icon Farrah Fawcett learned that a hospital employee had surreptitiously gone through records of her cancer treatments there, documents and interviews show.

Fawcett’s lawyers said they are concerned that the information was subsequently leaked or sold to tabloids, including the National Enquirer.

Shortly after UCLA doctors told Fawcett that her cancer had returned — and before she had told her son and closest friends — the Enquirer posted the news on its website. Indeed, alarming headlines regularly cropped up in the Enquirer and its sister publication, the Globe, within days of Fawcett’s treatments at the UCLA hospital.

UCLA subsequently terminated the employee who inappropriately reviewed Fawcett’s records, according to one person familiar with the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

This was the second time that information on Fawcett’s links to UCLA was inappropriately shared by someone connected with the hospital. In a 2006 letter, one of her physicians, Gary Gitnick, informed Fawcett that a former hospital contractor had listed her name on his blog, “suggesting you are a patient and/or charitable donor of mine and UCLA.”

While Fawcett, now 61, was being treated at UCLA, officials had been monitoring access to some of her records to guard against a privacy breach — and found none, said Carole A. Klove, chief compliance and privacy officer for UCLA Healthcare and Medical Sciences.

But after the Enquirer ran its exclusive story, “Farrah’s Cancer is Back!,” last May, Fawcett complained to her doctor, Eric Esrailian, and UCLA launched an investigation and looked at additional records. The hospital discovered “multiple reviews” of her records by a worker who was not involved in Fawcett’s treatment, Klove said.

[From the LA Times]

If you ask me, this incident is even more egregious than the Britney one. Farrah Fawcett was battling a terminal disease and hadn’t even had a chance to break the news to her family before these nosy staffers went running to the Enquirer and got paid for this. It’s disgusting. I’d sue their asses off if it were me. But I guess Farrah has enough to deal with right now. If this keeps going on, how are famous people supposed to keep their medical records and treatment private?

Farrah Fawcett is shown in the header image on 5/19/07, thanks to Splash News.

Farrah in May, 2007
Farrah Fawcett has enough on her plate. After learning a year ago that her cancer had returned, she traveled to Germany multiple times to try some alternative treatments for the disease. She returned to America Tuesday night, while ET and Insider are running a series on her treatment filmed by friend Alana Stewart.

However, her reason for returning might not have been the good news that she’s beaten cancer, but because her boy is in trouble.

On January 26 at around 3:20 AM, Los Angeles County Sheriffs pulled over the 23-year-old for speeding on PCH in Malibu, and arrested him for DUI, felony possession of heroin and methamphetamine. Redmond was released on $10,000 bail. No court date has been set.

In 2005, Redmond pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and methamphetamine. According to the National Enquirer, Redmond has been in rehab a dozen times.

In 2007, Ryan got into a fight with his other son, Griffin, after Griffin allegedly tied Redmond to a staircase. Griffin claimed to have found Redmond unresponsive and feared his brother had overdosed, so he chained Redmond to a banister to prevent him from leaving to get drugs.

TMZ

Redmond is the son of Farrah and Ryan O’Neal, her long term boyfriend, from 1982 until now.

Farrah was initially diagnosed with anal cancer in October 2006, and on her 60th birthday, February 2nd 2007 told the world she was cancer free, calling it an ‘extraordinarily happy day.’

Unfortunately that night the fracas with Ryan O’Neal and his sons occurred. Then just months later in May she found that the cancer had returned. This was when she decided to head to Germany for the treatment not yet available in the United States.

Now her friend Cher says that the treatment was successful.

“She’s tough. I don’t think I could’ve gone through what she did,” Cher told Billy. “She is now cancer free so this will be a real interesting thing.”

Stunning news from the legendary diva about Farrah’s condition and, in fact, it was Cher who encouraged her friend to seek treatment in Germany.

“It is a completely different kind of treatment,” Cher explained. “She had the cancer and then it went to her liver and so what they do there is, instead of giving you chemo all over, they do a thing called (chemo)embolization where they take whatever chemo that they were going to give you and they put it directly into the tumors into your liver and then when they shrink down smaller enough they do a thing called Cyberknife and they go in and they just take it out.”

Access Hollywood

I really hope she doesn’t get cancer again – I think everyone knows someone who has had cancer, and you always fear it will return. Farrah has made no comment on her current health.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Farrah Fawcett is shown in the header image on 5/19/07, thanks to Splash News.

AOL TV has released a list of the ‘50 Sexiest Women on Television, Ever’. Normally I can’t stand a list that has the title ‘ever’, because it sort of suggests that this is it for sexiness. People are going to keep on being sexy, no matter how much time passes. Or at least I hope so, because otherwise I’m going to have to enjoy sunsets at the beach in my old age, instead of sexy young lifeguards.

The top 50 features a few obvious choices from the past few generations - remember when Teri Hatcher wearing only Superman’s cape became the most searched for image on the Internet? (And when you consider what other raunchiness you can find on the Internet that is quite an accomplishment.)

There’s also Sarah Michelle Gellar, Carmen Electra, Elizabeth Montgomery, Jennifer Aniston, and any Star Trek fan’s favourite Jeri Ryan, aka Seven of Nine.

TV’s Sexiest Women - Ever

1. Pamela Anderson - Baywatch
2. Farrah Fawcett - Charlie’s Angel’s
3. Lynda Carter - Wonder Woman
4. Heather Locklear - Melrose Place, Dynasty, T. J. Hooker
5. Eva Longoria - Desperate Housewives
6. Diana Rigg - The Avengers
7. Barbara Eden - I Dream Of Jeannie
8. Katherine Heigl - Grey’s Anatomy
9. Catherine Bach - The Duke’s of Hazzard
10. Tina Louise - Gilligan’s Island

AOL

Oh, Pamela Anderson back before she became a big breasted joke, running down a beach in slow motion in that skimpy red bathing suit. She deserves the sexiest woman on television crown, she’s the reason that Baywatch is the most watched show in the world. I doubt it’s for the storylines.

Farrah Fawcett’s cancer has returned, but she’s apparently stayed in pretty good health, everything considered. The actress is currently seeking alternative treatments in Germany, and is taping everything she’s doing for a possible documentary. The producer of her reality show “Chasing Farrah,” Craig Nevius, is currently with Fawcett overseas, and talked about the actress’s plans.

“‘She was declared 100 percent cancer free and then it came back,’ he says. ‘She was discouraged by the treatments she got here. The fact that it recurred after all that she went through was heartbreaking.’ He adds: ‘She has been in Germany. That’s true. She’s getting alternative treatments not allowed in the U.S.’

“Fawcett was originally diagnosed with anal cancer in September 2006. After undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments, she was declared cancer free by her doctors on Feb. 2, her 60th birthday. However, in May, doctors discovered that the cancer had returned. A malignant polyp, smaller than a pea, was found during a routine three-month checkup.

“The German magazine Bunte first reported that the actress is undergoing chemotherapy in the University Clinic in Frankfurt, combining the treatments with alternative healing methods in Bad Wiessee, in southern Germany. Contacted by PEOPLE, Ricarda Wessinghagen, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said: ‘I can confirm that Farrah Fawcett was here and was treated here, but I have no more information.’

“Nevius declined to reveal the nature of the treatment in Germany, but did say, ‘She’s been documenting everything in a video diary’ for ‘what could be a very important documentary.’”

[From People]

I’m a big fan of alternative and complimentary medicine, though I think traditional medicine is still the best place to start. But in Fawcett’s situation, she’s already gone that route and wasn’t satisfied. I have a lot of respect for being open to other ideas and other forms of treatment. Hopefully Farrah will have kind of positive experience, even if she does eventually decide to go a more traditional route.

Picture Note by Jaybird: Farrah’s been laying kind of low lately, so there aren’t a lot of recent pictures. Here she is at the “Rodney Dangerfield Immortalized on the One-Year Anniversary of His Passing” event. Header image at Central’s Roast of William Shatner in August 2006. Images thanks to PR Photos.