Did you see Argo? The Best Picture winner is well worth watching, although it’s clearly not historically accurate. (As is the case with several Best Picture nominees this year.) I’ve mentioned this before, but I started frantically taking notes during the movie because there were a lot of scenes that belied belief. It turns out that most of the plot points that seemed too dramatic to be true were made up and/or embellished for the movie. In actuality, the Canadian government did a ton of work behind the scenes to get the American diplomats out of Iran, it wasn’t all American heroism and a skin-of-the-teeth escape with some Canadian hospitality.

Spoilers below
The basis for the plot, an invented science fiction movie to provide cover for the Americans, was true. The most nerve-wracking moments were not. Things went much more smoothly during the escape than portrayed, with the diplomats getting on the plane with pre-booked tickets without incident. There were no hostile Iranian security guards, and there was no last-minute chase of the plane down the runway as it took off. (Slate has an excellent breakdown of the plot vs. reality if you’re interested.) The film needed some bad guys, though, and the Iranians of course fit the bill. Tehran has announced plans to sue Argo for incorrectly portraying what happened during this incident in 1980. It’s unclear if they’ll actually go through with it, or if they’re just making noise.

First, Iran said it would produce its own cinematic response to “Argo.” Now, Tehran plans to sue Hollywood filmmakers who contribute to the production of such “anti-Iran” propaganda films.

State-run Press TV reports that Iranian officials have talked to an “internationally-renowned” French lawyer about filing such a suit.

“I will defend Iran against the films like Argo, which are produced in Hollywood to distort the country’s image,” said Isabelle Coutant-Peyre.

Argo, directed by Ben Affleck, who also played the lead role, is about the rescue of U.S. diplomats during the Iran hostage crisis. The film, released in 2012, garnered Affleck a Golden Globe as director and also took the prize for best drama movie.

The film claims to be based on a true story rather than to constitute a scrupulous retelling of what took place, and its deviations from reality have been documented.

Iran plans to fund a movie titled “The General Staff,” about 20 American hostages who were handed over to the United States by Iranian revolutionaries, according to a report by Mehr News, an official Iranian agency.

Press TV has detailed its objections to “Argo.”

“The Iranophobic American movie attempts to describe Iranians as overemotional, irrational, insane, and diabolical while at the same, the CIA agents are represented as heroically patriotic,” it complained.

This is bizarre. If Iran does sue Argo, where would the court case take place? Would it be in France as they mention and how would that happen? I doubt they’re even going to go forward with this.

You can’t argue that the Iran Hostage Crisis didn’t happen. 52 American Embassy employees were held hostage for well over a year. It’s not like the Iranians weren’t culpable at all. I get that this movie wasn’t technically accurate, and it seems reasonable for some kind of counter-movie to portray the Iranians as behaving more diplomatically in some instances. Really though, if these people were captured they would have been thrown in with the rest of the hostages. They wouldn’t have been let go.

Photo credit: Warner Brothers

About 999 crack shenanigans ago, Lindsay Lohan sued the rapper Pitbull. Do you remember that? Go here for the 2011 recap. In Pitbull’s song “Give Me Everything,” he raps the line “Hustlers move aside, so I’m tiptoein’, to keep flowin’/I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.” Which I still don’t even think is bad PR or defamatory or anything. Lindsay sued Pitbull, probably thinking that Pitbull would just throw some money at her to make her go away (which is what E*Trade did when faced with a similar situation). Instead, Pitbull wouldn’t play LL’s game – he playfully invited Lindsay to his date to the VMAs, and he chose to fight her in court. Well, there’s been some movement!

Pitbull didn’t just win his legal war with Lindsay Lohan … he ANNIHILATED HER … TMZ has learned.

We broke the story … Lohan sued the rapper in 2011 for using her name in his hit song “Give Me Everything” … when he dropped the line, “I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan.”

Lohan claimed Pitbull never got permission to use her name … and therefore he had no right to profit off of it.

But today a New York federal judge sided with Pitbull … ruling that Lindsay is dead wrong on the law — because the song is a work of art protected by the 1st amendment and Lindsay’s barely even mentioned.

The judge also ruled that Lindsay’s allegations that she suffered emotional distress were also BS.

The case has been dismissed.

[From TMZ]

Hahahahahahahahahahaha.

*deep breath*

HAHAHAHAHA. OMG. I love this news. I’m not a crazy Pitbull fan or anything, but I was on his side in this and I’m glad that the legal system backed him up. I’m also assuming that Pitbull didn’t even have to pay for Lindsay’s legal fees, which means that her cracked-out attempt to sue her way into financial stability has left her even more broke than before.

Would you like another sad/funny story about poor, crackie Lindsay? According to the Enquirer, she gets all drunk and high and then she starts calling up all of her “celebrity friends,” begging them for money:

DEEPLY troubled LINDSAY LOHAN’ been drunk-dialing her exes – and just about anyone else who’ll talk to her – in a desperate search for cash and a job, say insiders.

The 26-year-old Hollywood train wreck “needs some heavy hitters to hook her up,” a close source told The ENQUIRER.

“Her legal bills alone could buy a small country, and no one is safe. Wilmer Valderrama, Samantha Ronson, Stavros Niarchos and Jared Leto have all been targeted by Lindsay. She’s also calling in favors from Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Nicole Richie and others.

“Problem is, she smells of desperation and almost everyone is running.”

Incredibly, so many former friends have blocked Lindsay’s rambling calls that she frequently has to change her cell phone number to get through. Luckily, she does have a few lifelines left, including Charlie Sheen.

As The ENQUIRER recently reported, her old pal Ashton Kutcher is also giving support. And three international “sugar daddies” are reportedly paying some of the “Mean Girls” star’s expenses.

But the booze-addled actress is still badly strapped.

“She’s not thinking straight and even reaching out to people she swore she’d never talk to again,” said the source. “She leaves long rambling messages that are rarely returned. It’s all very sad.”

[From The Enquirer]

So, Ashton is giving her some money and Charlie “Captain Save A Ho” is still on the hook, plus Domingo Zapata, Vikram Chatawal, and at least one Middle Eastern prince. And still that’s not enough. I hate to put it in these terms, but I have to ask: is Lindsay really bad at hooking? I mean, she’s got several very wealthy men “on the hook” but she still can’t get it together enough to make at least one of these guys pay off her debts and support her lifestyle? Am I thinking about it in the wrong terms? Is her priority “not being owned by any one man”? Because I think she should just go ahead and become a kept woman. It will mean less crack shenanigans.

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet and WENN.

Over the years, LeAnn has used “dental drama” as an excuse to get out of lots of things. When she was on Twitter 24 hours a day, she would often complain of toothaches and dentist appointments, and she used those excuses to get out of concerts, appearances and just for plain sympathy. I always thought she was playing up the drama because… you know, she’s a drama queen. Like, she would cancel an appearance and complain of the flu or a toothache or something and then hours later she would be tweeting photos from the beach. Well, as it turns out… she might have actually been having genuine dental drama! LeAnn just sued her dentist.

LeAnn Rimes is suing her dentist, claiming he botched up her mouth so bad … it’s messing up her career.

In the lawsuit … obtained by TMZ … Rimes claims she went to Dr. Duane C. McKay for various dental work over 3 years. Some of the work included upper front veneers and crowns that the dentist promised would address her TMJ-related pain as well as improve her appearance.

Rimes claims rather than helping, the dentist messed her mouth up bad, causing tremendous pain and bleeding. Back in October, she tweeted, “I feel like I got hit in my right side of my face with a baseball bat.”

Rimes says she’s had to undergo 9 root canals and bone grafting. She’s also had a temporary bridge and needed physical therapy as well.

Rimes says in the suit she will have a “permanent cosmetic deficiency.”

Rimes says the dental work is so bad it has been screwing with her career … impeding her ability to perform.

In her malpractice lawsuit, LeAnn is seeking unspecified damages for physical, emotional and psychiatric injuries. She also wants money for loss of past and future earnings.

[From TMZ]

I don’t really understand how front veneers could lead to 9 root canals, etc, but please don’t even describe it to me dental-know-it-alls. I have a gag reflex about certain things, and dental drama is one of them (one of my other gag reflexes: stories about childbirth). I need to get my wisdom teeth taken out but every year I put it off because the just the thought of it makes me want to vom. As for LeAnn… I actually do have sympathy for this. But you would think that after just SOME of that drama, she would have tried a different dentist, right? But she loves to sue people. I’m surprised that she didn’t serve her dentist with a cease & desist too.

Photos courtesy of WENN, LeAnn’s Twitter.

Donald Trump is an a-hole wingnut who is not afraid to let his freak flag fly. We saw him make a bunch of bizarre requests to the sitting President, who wisely ignored him, and we witnessed his hissy fit on Twitter when Obama won re-election recently. Now he’s after Bill Maher for a dumb joke Bill made about him. The thing is, The Donald isn’t just yelling at Maher and raging like he does with his other enemies (see: Rosie, et al.) he’s suing him.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show Bill Maher made a joke, directly mocking and referencing Trump’s birther crusade, that “suppose that perhaps Donald Trump had been the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan. Because unless he comes up with proof, I’m willing to offer $5 million dollars to Donald Trump… to go to the charity of his choice.” It was a goof and not serious, only Trump produced his birth certificate and is now suing Maher for $5 million. So stupid.

Donald Trump isn’t one to forget. Or one to overlook the chance for a good publicity stunt.

“Today I sue Bill Maher,” Trump told “Fox & Friends” on Monday.

At issue: Last month, Maher made an appearance on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show and quipped that Trump must be “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.” Maher was mocking Trump’s offer to give $5 million to the charity of Barack Obama’s choice if the president released his college paperwork, by saying he would do the same if Trump supplied proof that he is not descended from an ape.

Trump produced his New York birth certificate to Maher within two days of the late-night appearance, but Maher hasn’t handed over the $5 million he mentioned.

On Monday, he called in to Fox News’ Fox & Friends, announcing the lawsuit. The court documents were filed in L.A. County Superior Court, citing breach of contract.

When it was pointed out that Maher’s lawyers will likely say he was only kidding, Trump replied. “He said it with venom. I don’t think it was a joke.”

Trump said he has an obligation to the charities to try to get the money for them. “Let’s see what happens.”

As for Maher, his latest tweet seems to be his reponse to it all:

“What?? Really? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha”

[From Freep.com]

What the hell is it with Donald Trump and birth certificates? He’s got a serious issue. And he should in no way remind us of that ridiculous wager he tried to make with Obama. Instead of letting the headlines about his stupidity stay in the past, Trump is doubling down. He has no sense of humor either. This will get thrown out of court.

Here’s a link to a video editorial that shows Maher’s remarks. It was obviously not serious. Maher should have said that Trump’s dad was an Oompa Loompa though, that would have been more believable.

photo credit: WENN.com

Celebuzz has posted a copy of Lady Gaga’s tour rider, and normally her diva requirements wouldn’t rate a mention. We just heard Gaga rant and rave, on the record, against her ex assistant, a woman named Jennifer O’Neill, who is suing Gaga for unpaid overtime. In a sworn deposition, Gaga called O’Neill a “f’ing hood rat,” complained that O’Neill wanted to sleep in a bed, and called herself “the queen of the universe.” Considered in that context, Gaga’s tour rider sounds more demanding than the usual rock star requirements, but I could be wrong. Maybe most of the big superstars are like that and we just hear murmurs of it instead of confirmation direct from their mouths.

Here’s a little about Gaga’s rider, with the documents available at the source:

During her arduous two and a half-year Monster Ball Tour, the “Bad Romance” diva requested that her dressing room be decorated in a “glam rock” fashion and furnished with white leather couches, fresh roses and black satin drapes, according to the superstar’s rider obtained exclusively by Celebuzz.

The document, which was revealed in court documents during a six-hour deposition Gaga gave in a lawsuit involving her former assistant Jennifer O’Neill – which Celebuz was first to reveal in Aug. 2012, also noted that a “manquin [sic] with puffy pink public [sic] hair” be present in her backstage suite.

“[With] silver statins [sic] draped over the walls,” the document noted of her dressing room, adding that “old rock posters from her favorite artists [like] David Bowie, Queen, Elton John and Billy [sic] Holiday,” and “fan art that was kept on the road” also be hung around the room.

Other dressing room accoutrements include all the luxuries of home, plus one that has relaxing properties for the on-the-go superstar: 2 large fluffy lavendar [sic] towels; 2 lavendar [sic] hand towels; 2 lavendar [sic] wash cloths, which must be available to the pop star “at all times”; lavendar [sic] handsoap, body wash; face soap; 2 new seafoam luffas; small candle in the bathroom, fresh yellow, lavendar [sic] or white roses; and a steamer.

All of these requests are only a small fraction of Gaga’s complex — and costly — tour.

[From Celebuzz]

I want to know how people go about outfitting these tour rooms. Like how would you troubleshoot the problem of finding “pink pubic hair” for a mannequin? If you had to do it at the last minute, would you just buy a pink wig, cut a tuft out and then hot glue it to the dummy’s mons? Would Gaga throw a fit if it wasn’t sufficiently curly? In that case you might have to get a merkin and then dye it pink. I guess you could get a pink one online. I’m just saying that a significant amount of pre-planning is required to make sure Gaga’s dumb whims are satisfied. Bitch could bring her own pink merkin.

Over the weekend there was a follow-up story to the big reveal that Gaga is a nasty piece of work, basically. The woman suing Gaga, Jennifer O’Neill, revealed in court documents that Gaga forced her to sleep in the same bed. Supposedly there wasn’t any kinky business going on, but this confirms an older blind item that many people assumed was about Gaga. Now all that business about O’Neill requesting her own bed on the plane makes a lot more sense doesn’t it?

In the court documents, O’Neill stated “I felt it was required [to stay in the same room and bed as Gaga],” and added “Unlike anybody else on that tour, I did not have my own hotel room. I was not asked if I wanted my own hotel room. I had no privacy, no chance to talk to any family, no chance to talk to any friends, no chance to have sex if I wanted to have sex. There was no chance to do anything.” Unless Gaga said it was ok. I’m not saying O’Neill deserves overtime pay if it wasn’t in her contract, or even if she was technically underpaid for the type of work she did. Maybe she wanted to get all this information out to the public as well. In Gaga’s mind, O’Neill was hanging out with creeper Terry Richardson and enjoying expensive perks, so she has nothing to complain about. Gaga probably thought it was a huge privilege for O’Neill to sleep in the same bed instead of the suffocating experience it must have been.

Gaga on 1-25-13:

Most from 12-26-11. Credit: FameFlynet. One photo above credit: WENN.com

At this point, I think John Travolta’s reputation as a happily married heterosexual male, or even as someone who engages in consensual sex, is pretty much shot. Given how many times the guy has been accused of sexually harassing male masseurs, spa-goers and various male underlings, it’s hard to find someone who considers Travolta a victim of litigious individuals. There’s only so much denying and attacking his lawyer can do, basically. So that’s why I have mixed feelings about this latest ruling, because it seems like new details about Travolta’s creeping won’t damage his brand, since it’s pretty much already shot.

This case involves a cruise ship employee who accuses Travolta of requesting a massage on board in 2009, and then accosting him for sex, basically. When the man protested, Travolta offered $12,000 for his silence, which he refused. Travolta’s lawyer tried to have the case dismissed, which failed, then he tried to argue that it should go to arbitration, as per the fine print on Travolta’s cruise ticket. The arbitration request was denied by the judge, meaning the case could go to trial.

A California federal judge has dismissed a petition by the 58-year-old actor’s lawyer to have a lawsuit filed against him by a cruise ship masseur decided in arbitration, which would have kept a lid on some pretty graphic accusations.

Travolta was sued last June for assault and battery and infliction of emotional distress by Fabian Zanzi, who accused the Get Shorty star of disrobing while the latter was giving him a neck massage and then “forcefully embracing” him during a Royal Caribbean cruise in June 2009.

After claiming Travolta engaged in contact that was “nonconsensual, inappropriate, extreme and outrageous,” the suit also charged that the thesp offered to buy Zanzi’s silence for $12,000.

Travolta subsequently denied the allegations, and his pit bull attorney, Marty Singer, pointed to a clause in the fine print of his cruise ticket to argue that the legal dispute should be settled by arbitration, which would not only allow the suit to be resolved expeditiously but also in secret.

However, per The Hollywood Reporter, in a 31-page ruling on Friday U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson smacked down that argument, noting there’s no evidence that Zanzi, as a “nonsignatory,” is bound by the arbitration agreement the A-lister entered into with Royal Caribbean.

Consequently, Zanzi’s lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, now looks to be headed for trial—unless, of course, Travolta opts to settle.

Singer was unavailable for comment, but he previously told E! News in a statement that Zanzi’s allegations were “ludicrous” and “completely contradicted” by what the employee told Royal Caribbean back in 2009 when he reported to superiors that “the only physical contact he claimed occurred was allegedly touching my client’s neck.”

[From E! Online]

So Travolta’s people want us to believe he’s entirely innocent of all these consistent allegations by different people, over time, who have no connection to each other. If he settles this case he’ll keep some of the more sordid details out of the press, but that might be tantamount to admitting guilt. I think he should settle and just have his lawyer make some lame excuse about it, as they’ve been doing all along. People think he’s guilty, and it will only remind everyone about Travolta and the mountain of evidence against him if a whole new round of stories comes out with details from the trial. Plus, this Zanzi guy could easily get corroborating witnesses to testify that Travolta did the same thing to them.

But look – Kelly is standing by him! Of course she is, her brain has been washed so many times it’s mush.

These photos are from The Annual Living Legends of Aviation Awards at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on 1-18-13. Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com

The NY Post has a new cover story on Lady Gaga today, with actual unbelievable quotes from Lady Gaga, taken during a sworn deposition in a lawsuit filed against her by a former personal assistant. The assistant, Jennifer O’Neill, is suing Gaga for $393,000, plus damages, for what she claims is 7,168 hours unpaid overtime. O’Niell made a salary of $75,000 a year. This story reminds me of the recent NY Times expose on Lindsay Lohan in that it’s impossible to do it justice in some excerpts, you really have to read it in its entirety because it’s epic. The amount of self aggrandizement from Gaga is astonishing, she’s so ridiculous it sounds like a parody. This is a window onto a level of narcissism and entitlement that I wouldn’t believe was possible if it didn’t come from a reliable source. I mean you could tell me Gaga was a diva and I’d believe you, but I honestly wouldn’t imagine she was such an awful one. Here are some excerpts, and again I can’t begin to do it justice, even though a big chunk of the story is below. All of these quotes are directly from Lady Gaga, given in a sworn deposition:

She’s not the queen of the universe, I am
Lady Gaga unloaded on a former personal assistant who’s suing her for overtime pay — blasting the woman in a sworn deposition as a “f–king hood rat who is suing me for money that she didn’t earn.”

“She’s just — she thinks she’s just like the queen of the universe.”

“And, you know what, she didn’t want to be a slave to one, because in my work and what I do, I’m the queen of the universe every day..

“This whole case is bulls–t, and you know it,” she added.

But under questioning, she conceded her decision not to pay overtime wasn’t based on labor laws, but is “actually based on a bubbly, good heart.”

Why Gaga doesn’t pay overtime
“I’m quite wonderful to everybody that works for me, and I am completely aghast to what a disgusting human being that you have become to sue me like this,” she said.

“Because she slept in Egyptian cotton sheets every night, in five-star hotels, on private planes, eating caviar, partying with [photographer] Terry Richardson all night, wearing my clothes, asking YSL [Yves Saint Laurent] to send her free shoes without my permission, using my YSL discount without my permission…”

“I expect there to be a certain level of, like, you know, knowledge and academia about, like, your job,” she said.

Gaga — who now has two personal assistants — said a good assistant “is somebody that can anticipate what you need before you need it, so they buy it for you, or they — they set it up for you.”

But Gaga said O’Neill failed at even the most basic of tasks, noting that “one of the biggest problems I had with Jen is that I felt like she didn’t enough lay out all my stuff for me” while traveling, because “there is 20 bags and there is only one me, and I can’t sift through everything.

It was stressful to Gaga to have to unpack luggage
“She would only open a couple of bags, and it was very stressful for me because then again on my off days I couldn’t really have a day off because, you know, I weigh 115 pounds, and I was trying to move these huge, big luggages all by myself in the room, and I did it all the time — by the way, she was asleep until 12:00 most of the time, so I was very often waking up and moving my own luggage and doing s–t by myself, and it was — it was a problem that I had,” she said.

And while previous assistants “would like set up my room, and I would know where my clothes were, I would know where my toothbrush was, I would know where my soap and everything was,” Gaga said that when O’Neill “got lazy she didn’t always do those things for me.

“I can’t walk down the street and go buy myself toiletries, I have to call security, I’ve got to call Jen or now I got to call Wendi, I’ve got to get a whole bunch of people together to help me fix the problem, which wouldn’t happen if she was doing her job properly on regular days,” Gaga said.

Gaga also portrayed O’Neill as an ingrate who took for granted the parties, “five-star hotels” and other luxuries — including “caviar, champagne and yachts” — that she got to enjoy as part of Gaga’ s entourage.

“It is, like, such an amazing luxury that I get to travel the world and have planes, she doesn’t even see what a luxury it is, but she thinks it’s owed to her for no reason,” the singer said.

Gaga is so wonderful to her employees
At one point, Gaga bragged about how the night before, her employees enjoyed a “beautiful $3,000 meal that I paid for” at Spiaggia in Chicago, billed as the only four-star Italian eatery in the Windy City.

Gaga said she picked up the tab “just because,” noting, “They were on their day off, and they all just wanted to be with me.”

Again why she doesn’t have to pay overtime
She also insisted that all her employees work only an eight-hour day — while also noting, “This job is a 9-to-5 job that is spaced out throughout the day…”

Rather than paying off O’Neill, Gaga said, “I’m going to give all the money that she wants to my employees that work hard for me now that deserve it.

“I’m not going to give it to her so she can go to Intermix and buy herself a new tube top,” the snippy superstar groused.

While the court papers don’t detail the start of their relationship, Gaga said it ended when, during a flight to Paris, O’Neill slept in one of two beds on Gaga’s jet.

This assistant was greedy for wanting to sleep in a bed
“Most of my assistants in the past always offered it to my mother or my family,” the singer said. “Jennifer was the first person that never offered it to anybody and always took it for herself.”

Afterward, “we partied until 5 in the morning, we got s–t hammered, I was crawling on the streets in Paris, I was screaming.

“Jennifer was there. She hung out all night with me and Terry Richardson, and tons of socialites from Paris, and she had the time of her life,” Gaga said.

The next morning, Gaga said, she “barely could talk” but had to fly back to America that night — “I mean, what a rock-star moment, right?”

But on the flight back, Gaga said, O’Neill insisted on sleeping in the second bed and “completely, like, flipped out at me, beyond belief” when “I told her no.”

“This is really inappropriate in front of Terry Richardson”
“I said, ‘Jennifer, this is really inappropriate in front of Terry Richardson,’ and she was like, ‘Don’t I get some sort of seniority because I’ve been here longer and I’m your friend?’ ” Gaga said.

“And I remember those words as clear as day, because when your best friend looks you in the eye and says ‘Why can’t I have that seat on your private plane, I’m your friend,’ the first thing I thought was ‘You’re not my f–king friend.’ ”

“You are not my f–king friend.”

[From The NY Post]

“This is really inappropriate in front of Terry Richardson.” As if that guy is known for even a modicum of decorum.

The first couple of lines kind of sum the whole story up. Gaga is pissed because her assistant overstepped her bounds, because an employee thought she was Gaga’s equal and wanted to be treated the same and paid overtime. No one is Gaga’s equal, she’s “The Queen of The Universe,” which is exactly how she phrased it. Only Gaga’s fame is waning in comparison to how popular she once was. That’s got to make her even more angry, entitled and bitchy. I’m amazed. What’s that saying – you meet the same people on the way up as you do on the way down? I’m sure this isn’t the only person that Gaga has alienated. Don’t question the benevolent dictator or she’ll get very, very mad. How dare you want to sleep in a bed? Aren’t you grateful for the scraps she throws you from her banquets? This woman is from another planet entirely.

Update: A lot of you are noting that the assistant may be just as out of line for asking for overtime and expecting perks as part of her very well paid job. I don’t disagree, I just got so sidetracked by how ludicrous Gaga was.

Thanks to A for the tip!

Lady Gaga is shown out shopping on 1-21-13 (floral dress) and out in London on 10-8-12 (witchy). Credit: Fame Flynet

Have you guys seen “Storage Wars”? I saw about the first two seasons. It’s a nice show that was family-friendly enough, apart from some bleeped swearing, for my son to watch with me. It was interesting for him too – he enjoyed learning about the different objects that the bidders found, and they created a whole drama arc based around the characters. We soured on the show after a while, because it got predictable and the finds seemed too good to be true. In fact I googled “Storage Wars Faked” at least a year ago and found some YouTube videos where people pointed out that the contents of the lockers would change from scene to scene before they were supposedly touched. (Here are two examples of this.) So we gave up on Storage Wars, which I bet a lot of other people did too, although it’s still holding strong in the ratings. (The Sons of Anarchy season 5 finale did top the Storage Wars season 4 opener last week, but it was a strong second.)

So Storage Wars is a wildly popular show, there are two spin offs airing now and several more in the works, and the original is making money so they’re not going to stop churning out new episodesn. The entire lucrative franchise may be in jeopardy however, now that a new lawsuit by Dave “YUUUUP” Hester has come to light. Hester is suing A&E for unlawful termination, and alleges that he was canned after he protested that producers were pre-stocking lockers with objects for him and the other cast members to find. His lawsuit also states that there were no actual auctions taking place during filming, and that it was all staged, pretty much. Here’s more, thanks to Radar. You can see the PDF of the lawsuit on Radar, which also reveals that Dave made about $25,000 an episode. He alleges he’s owed $750,000 in earnings for episodes this season.

“Yuuupp,” Dave Hester has filed a blockbuster lawsuit against Storage Wars, RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively.

Hester, one of the show’s best-known personalities who is infamous for his brash “Yuuup” while bidding on storage lockers, charges that the A&E hit show is fake and fired him in retaliation days after he complained about it to network and production company executives.

Radar broke the story that the reality TV show picked up Hester’s contract option and then rescinded it for season four. Now, in the lawsuit filed by Los Angeles top attorney Marty Singer, the show is accused of illegal activity and an ongoing pattern of outrageous behavior in deceiving the public.

The suit contains numerous bombshell claims, including that that the network and producers regularly “salt” lockers with valuable items to add drama to the show, rig the bidding and even paid for a female cast member’s plastic surgery to add sex appeal!

In the five-count multi-million dollar lawsuit filed in California, Hester makes detailed and explosive allegations against the show, which the network has previously defended as 100% real and not staged.

He also says that cast members confronted executives at an in-person meeting this year and expressed their concern over the show being rigged.

Hester says was fired days after meeting with executives and subsequently asking to be indemnified by the show for any third party claims regarding “the authenticity of the auction process and the Series.”

In a suit that is sure to cause ripples through the show and the network, Hester charges:

Producers staged entire units and enlisted the cooperation of owners of storage facilities to do so.
The show pays for storage lockers for “weaker” cast members as part of the manipulation
The show plants items in lockers after having them appraised weeks in advance
The show obtains items to be placed in the units from a business regularly featured on air
In addition, Hester charges that interviews with cast members are scripted and scenes of biding are faked to the extent that there are no auctions taking place while cast members and members of the public are shown bidding.

But perhaps the suit’s biggest bombshell is the charge that cast members, along with Hester, met with executives this year and expressed their concerns about the show being faked.

“The truth is that Defendants regularly salt or plant the storage lockers that are the subject of the auctions portrayed on the Series with valuable or unusual items to create drama and suspense for the show,” the suit alleges.

[From Radar Online]

The female star that got plastic surgery on the show’s dime was probably Brandi Passante, who was rumored to have had a boob job, although that’s hard to verify. Apart from that, none of this will surprise people who watched the show. It was obviously staged. Also, I watched the pilot episode of Storage Wars Texas last year. That seemed even faker than this. I get why producers stock the lockers, but that ruined it for me. Did they need to be so obvious about it? This brings up wider issues about reality shows. They’re entertaining to us because they’re hyped and faked and people play it up for the cameras, but it still bothers me. Isn’t there a way to preserve “reality” and still make it entertaining?

Also, I have to throw it out there that maybe Dave wasn’t as much of an a-hole as he came across on the show. Maybe he protested too much and producers decided he was going to be the “villain” character. On the other side, it’s possible he’s just disgruntled after getting canned and filing this lawsuit as retaliation. I found this YouTube video where a guy who worked with Brandi and Jarred (the young couple on the show) claims that it’s not faked and that “Dave is just an a-hole.” Personally, I think the lockers were stocked.

Photo credit: WENN.com

I guess the days of revisiting tales of Britney’s breakdown are over, because her former self-declared “manager,” Sam Lutfi’s, case against her family for defamation has been thrown out of court. We’ve heard Lutfi’s allegations that Britney’s mom tried to get him to take the fall for her daughter’s mental health issues, that he’s owed millions in back pay from Britney, and that her dad, Jamie, once struck him. The judge found those claims hollow and decided that his case had no merit. He didn’t have a contract as Britney’s alleged manager, he couldn’t establish that he was harmed if Jamie did strike him, and his case against Lynne Spears for libel was weak. The last we heard, Britney’s ex boyfriend, paparazzo Adnan Ghalib, was testifying on Lutfi’s behalf. That must not have amounted to much, and I bet the judge was fed up with it all. Here’s more, thanks to E!

“I really thought long and hard,” said Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Suzanne Brugera in announcing her decision, “so the motions are granted…as to all the defendants and all the causes of action. That is the right thing to do, so I am going to do it.”

Jamie and Lynne filed a motion yesterday to have Lutfi’s battery and breach-of-contract claims thrown out, arguing that Britney’s self-proclaimed ex-manager never suffered any injury during a purported altercation with Jamie back in 2008, and that no legal contract was in place that had entitled Lutfi to the back salary he claimed Britney owed him.
“It was not a planned event,” attorney Michael Aiken told the judge at today’s hearing, referring to Jamie making contact with Lutfi on the morning on Jan. 29, 2008, after Britney had an emotional episode that attracted a bunch of media attention the previous night. “It was purely an incident that occurred on the spur of the moment. Whether we call it a punch or a poke, the fact of the matter is, he wasn’t hurt. There was no preplanned event.”

“Lufi said [he] was going to be fine and how can you award damages to someone who said he was fine?” argued Aiken…

Britney’s attorney, Joel Boxer, then launched into the breach-of-contract claim, saying there was no contract and, even if there had been, Britney was feeling pressured and would have been under “undue influence” from Lutfi to agree to something.

Schleimer countered, stating that Britney still had others in her life, such as business manager Howard Grossman, to advise her on financial matters, and that his client was never properly compensated for the work he did for Britney.

“Twenty-four hours a day with Britney Spears, I think, is very challenging,” Schleimer said. “Twenty-four hours a day is a tough job.”

“Clearly this was a contract by stealth if it was a contract at all,” Boxer said.

As for the libel claim over Lynne Spears’ 2008 memoir, Through the Storm, in which she accused Lutfi of manipulating her daughter in a chapter titled “The General,” Lynne’s attorney argued that there was a complete absence of malice on her part.

If Lynne believed what she had been told—that Lutfi had ground up pills to medicate Britney without her knowledge, unplugged her phone, hid her dog, etc.—then she was not guilty of having reckless disregard for the truth, argued attorney Stephen Rohde. (Lutfi denied doing these things and telling Lynne he had done them.)

Lynne “stuck to her guns” and never wavered on the witness stand, Rohde said.

“I am going to appeal,” Lutfi told reporters as he headed for the elevator outside the courtroom.

[From E! Online]

Here’s what I want to happen – I want Lutfi to be held liable for Britney’s attorneys’ fees in this case. This was a frivolous lawsuit that he was hoping to get a settlement from. He never expected this to go to court and to be called on his lies. This guy is a manipulator, and there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that he worked to insert himself into Britney’s life. The money and access dried up for him and his only recourse was to sue to try and squeeze Britney’s family for more. The fact that this case got so far just shows how he’ll stop at nothing.

Sam and Britney are shown in January, 2008. Britney is also shown in two different outfits on 10-19-12. Credit: FameFlynet

First things first: fashion! Fashion before boobs, always. These are photos of Duchess Kate and Prince William at a reception in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday. Kate is wearing a Temperley Fall 2012 dress – on the runway, this dress was black with gold lace. Kate loves lace, I think – she seems to enjoy lots and lots of lace overlays, lace sleeves, lace insets, lace, lace, lace. Most of the time, I tend to think it makes her look like a giant, walking doily… but I kind of like this dress. It’s pretty and feminine and a little bit girly, but it’s not cloyingly sweet like something Taylor Swift would wear.

Now, onto the scandal! We need a name for it… like… The Epic Boob & Crumpet Scandal of 2012. Or “Duchess Boob-gate,” which has a particularly nice ring to it. Anyway… when these photos were taken, William and Kate already knew about the boob photos in the French magazine, Closer. Prince William is said to be royally pissed (“pissed” in the American vernacular, meaning “to be very angry,” as opposed to “drunk off his ass” in British parlance) at the French mag, and Will wants to use this controversy as a way to limit the press’s access to he and Kate even further. And of course, the Right Honorable Royal Barristers have been summoned. And they wasted no time in actually suing Closer. The Palace confirmed on Friday that “legal proceedings for breach of privacy have been commenced today in France” and the lawsuit claims that the magazine breached Will and Kate’s “right to privacy” while vacationing at a private estate in France.

Meanwhile, the editor of Closer is defending her decision to publish the photos. Editor-in-chief Laurence Pieau said, “These photos are not in the least shocking. They show a young woman sunbathing topless, like the millions of women you see on beaches. It is a young couple that has just been married. They are in love. They are beautiful. She is the princess of the 21st century.” She says the outrage over the photos are “disproportionate”… which I kind of agree with her on that. But! Late Friday/early Saturday, Closer did pull the images off of their website, releasing another statement: “Following comments received after the publication of photos of Kate and William in Closer magazine France, we would like to make the following clarifications: This is the French edition of Closer and not the English edition. The photos we chose are by no means degrading. They show a young couple on vacation, beautiful, in love, living a normal life. The article reports that the couple recently vacationed in the south of France.”

Oh, and there are more photos too! Pieau teased: “I won’t hide the fact that there are more intimate pictures that exist that we haven’t published and will not publish. These are images full of joy, not degrading.” Well well well. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Now my interest is certainly piqued. If there are photos of William going to town on Kate’s duchess biscuits, I DEMAND to see the photos. I might get my wish – there are reports this morning that an Italian tabloid, Chi, has bought the photos as well, and plans to publish them. And FINALLY, people are beginning to raise questions about the security that surrounds the young royals – coming on the heels of the Prince Harry stuff, the fact that a paparazzo was even able to get this close to William and Kate speaks to (what I think is) the main issue: the royal protection officers are bad at their jobs. It’s amateur hour over there.

PS… Her hair!! It’s finally pulled back! And she even put some really pretty pearl stuff in the bun.

Photos courtesy of WENN.