Hilary Swank is still floundering in the midst of the international scandal that resulted when, back in October, she received $1.5 million to attend the birthday party of Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadryov, which included her warm wishes towards “Mr. President” and for which she later expressed deep regrets. In the aftermath, Swank allegedly reacted by firing her manager and many of her agents, and then she was summarily dropped by her PR firm. Yes, Swank has expressed her regrets, but after such an incredible mess, sometimes the best thing for one to do is just drop the matter and hope that people eventually forget that it ever happened.

Part of me wonders why Swank just won’t stop discussing this scandal, but she’s now promoting New Year’s Eve, which arrives in theaters on December 9 and I guess is as good a reason as any for her to continue discussing the faux pas heard around the world. I’ve come to this grand conclusion merely because Hilary apparently doesn’t have much else to discuss during her late-night talk show interview with Jay Leno, as evidenced her great enthusiasm upon discussing her parrot and the eggs that she ordered through the mail. You see, one of these eggs hatched into a chick, which turned into a rooster. Such riveting material, right? After she discusses the Chechen debacle at length, Swank actually imitates the rooster learning to crow, but here’s what she said about the relevant topic:

“I was invited by a Turkish real estate company to go and be a proponent of peace; help celebrate the rebuilding of a war-torn city. It was Grozny city, which is in Chechnya . . . I get offered appearances all the time . . . These people were trying to rebuild their lives too. Just seven years ago it was very war-torn and very dangerous. And I thought, ‘Absolutely, yes. That’s an incredible thing; I love to travel, I love to meet people. This is an exciting opportunity.’

“And then, once there, on the side of the stage, someone said, ‘It’s the president’s birthday; can you wish him a happy birthday?’ . . . I had never heard of him before. In fact, when they said his name, I couldn’t even say it. So I said, ‘I’ll just say Mr. President,’ is what I’m thinking in my head. So, I went out and said, ‘Happy birthday, Mr. President,’ after I said my whole speech about it’s great to be a proponent of peace and you guys are doing incredible things rebuilding this city. And then when I got back, only then was I made aware of who he was . . . Kadryov. Now I can say his name because of I’ve done my research. He’s a bad, bad guy . . . Human rights organizations had reached out to warn me before I went but I did not get those warnings, they weren’t shared with me, and so that went out into the press too, and I had never known, and I thank the Human rights organizations for trying to reach out, and for reaching out, even though I didn’t get it. And the silver lining is that I’m actually working with the Human Rights Watch now.

“[On a question about the backlash] It was all over the world, and shame on me. The bottom line is that I should know where I’m going and I should do better research, and I can definitely guarantee that I won’t go anywhere ever again without doing full research. I donated all the money, and like I said, there’s always a silver lining to things. I’ve learned a lot about the incredible things people are now doing . . . Again, I should know where I’m going . . . I actually didn’t know Chechnya was separate from Russia. Now I know all of that, but I had no idea.”

Oddly enough, Swank still appears to be slightly cloudy on the details, for Chechnya is its own republic even though it technically remains part of the Russian Federation. In addition, it’s interesting that Swank frames her rationale for attending on loving to travel and meet people for a good cause instead of the cool $1.5 million, but at least Swank has now articulated that she’s donated the money to a mysterious cause. Ideally, that cause would be the Human Rights Watch, but she probably would’ve mentioned it if that was the case. Swank still obviously places some blame upon her former manager, but she’s also grovelled quite well by accepting that she should’ve done her research. Mostly, it sounds like she learned her lesson here, and hopefully, that’ll be the end of the discussion. That is, until she decides to imitate a rooster again.

Photos courtesy of Fame and WENN

It was starting to look like Justin Bieber’s baby momma accuser, Mariah Yeater, had a legitimate and possibly believable story about getting pregnant during a 30 second quickie with Bieber in a backstage bathroom after one of his concerts. Yeater filed a paternity suit against Bieber and in great detail described their alleged tryst. Her baby’s age matched up with the conception date when Bieber was playing in L.A., and Bieber’s denial seemed vague and unconvincing to some. Also, Yeater’s lawyers did an interview on HLN where they insisted that they believed their client and that they had additional evidence that had not yet been released by the press. Now Bieber’s people are firing back hard. They say that he’s willing to take a DNA test, that he’ll do it sooner rather than later, and that if Bieber is found not to be the father they’ll sue Yeater. Plus, it’s come out that Yeater accused another man, an ex boyfriend, of fathering the baby at first. The ex denied that it was his baby and said it wasn’t possible due to timing. When Yeater confronted her ex about her then-pregnancy in December 2010, their argument got heated, she allegedly slapped him, and the cops were called and she was arrested. She may not be a credible source, if this report is to be believed.

The woman who claims Justin Bieber fathered her child — originally accused her ex-boyfriend of being the daddy to the very same baby last year … this according to her ex-BF’s grandmother.

TMZ spoke with Frances Lippe … who tells us Mariah Yeater had been dating her grandson John Terranova in Las Vegas toward the end of high school.

Lippe says Yeater came to their home in December 2010 and told Terranova she was pregnant with his child. He insisted he did not get her pregnant.

The two got into an argument and police were called … because Yeater allegedly broke a car window out of rage.

Later that day, according to the police report, Yeater returned to the home to work out a payment plan for the window … and got into another altercation with Terranova … and allegedly slapped John 3 separate times in the face with her open right hand.

Yeater was arrested and charged for battery. A court date has been set in Vegas.

Lippe tells us they never heard from Yeater again after the December altercation. 10 months later, Mariah surfaced … now claiming Bieber is the father. JB says it just ain’t true.

Mariah gave birth to a baby boy in San Diego on July 6 — she did not list a father on the birth certificate.

We’ve made multiple calls to Yeater’s attorneys — so far, no response.

[From TMZ]

Radar reported that Justin’s girlfriend, Selena Gomez, dumped him due to this paternity scandal. Their people denied that report and the two were later papped holding hands in an obviously staged photo op.

Many of you pointed out this blind item that sounds just like Bieber. It’s all about how the paternity of the baby is up to question, but how this story will blow the lid off how a teen pop star regularly has sex with groupies. It’s a blind item, and they’re not worth putting much stock in. Still, this blind item came out before we heard that Yeater first accused her ex boyfriend of being the father.

After I wrote all that and was sort-of ready to publish (I’m having severe Internet problems today. I have Comcast, BTW) an interview segment with Yeager came out! So far we’ve only seen her goofy MySpace photos and her mug shot. In an interview with The Insider to air tonight (which you can watch part of on Radar) she appears polished, has removed her facial piercings and is well spoken. She seems very believable to me as she makes her case, and says that she has provided evidence to her attorneys to prove her claims. She wouldn’t specify exactly what evidence she has, but said that “I will prove in court that my allegations are true.” Whether that baby is Bieber’s or not, I found her story credible.

This photo of Bieber grabbing himself was the first one that came up during a search on one of our agencies. I didn’t go looking for it! Header is Yeater’s mugshot. Credit: Pacific Coast News

The Superficial has the MySpace photos of the woman who claims to have a three month-old baby fathered by Justin Bieber, 20 year-old Mariah Yeater. Yeater has since made her MySpace profile private. The photos are goofy and suggest to some that she could be out for fame with these accusations. So many teens have stupid photos online like Yeater’s, particularly on MySpace, where they’re likely to have been posted several years ago and forgotten. Remember the bikini modeling photos from the mother of Jude Law’s illegitimate child? Just because someone wants to be famous doesn’t mean they’re not telling the truth about having a baby by a celebrity. Yeater has tattoos and piercings in the pictures, but it’s possible she got them at 16 with a parent’s permission and that these photos are old. No one really uses MySpace anymore. In terms of the way she looks, it bothers me that people are saying that she must be lying because she’s not particularly cute or thin. That’s ridiculous.

There’s news that Yeater is on Twitter, where she’s supposedly written things like “thanks for making me famous.” There are so many Mariah Yeaters on Twitter, none of them are verified, and the one with the most followers is just the most obnoxious. I doubt it’s her.

I finally had the chance to read the full Star story on Yeater’s paternity lawsuit against Bieber. We’ve already heard most of the sordid details: Yeater claims she was picked out of the crowd near the front of a concert by Bieber’s people, that she went backstage to meet him, and that they had sex in a bathroom during which Bieber lasted half a minute and didn’t use a condom. There’s more in the Star story, including the sad detail that Bieber didn’t give Yeater his phone number afterwards and didn’t even bother to write down her’s. (We’ve already heard the other details in this story, but it’s worthwhile to see them in context.)

“I was… near the front of the concert. Immediately following the concert, I was approached by a security guard who asked if I wanted to meet Justin Bieber backstage,” Mariah wrote in a hand-signed affidavit on Oct. 30, sworn under the penalty of perjury. “I accepted the invitation and followed him backstage.

“After waiting for a short period of time with several other young women, Justin Bieber appeared and engaged me in conversation. Immediately it was obvious that we were mutually attracted to one another, and we began to kiss. Shortly thereafter, Justin Bieber suggested that I go with him to a private place where we could be alone.

“I agreed to go with him and on the walk to a private area in the Staples Center he told me he wanted to make love to me and this was going to be his first time. He also said he would give me his phone number after we had sex and told me he wanted me to be at his future concerts too and he would give me backstage passes.”

“After walking away from the other people backstage, Justin found a place where we could be alone – a bathroom. We went inside and immediately his personality changed drastically. He began touching me and repeatedly said he wanted to f#@$ the sh*t out of me. At that time I asked him to put on a condom for protection, but he insisted that he did not want to. In his own words, he said that because it was his first time he wanted to feel everything.”

Justin then “quickly took off my clothes,” she said – and the pair had sex. “He was on top of me with my legs around him,” Mariah wrote in the court declaration. “At the time I was on top of some type of shelf. The sexual intercourse itself was brief, lasting only approximately 30 seconds…

“He was clearly embarrassed about how the sex did not last very long. He immediately put on his clothes and blew me off when I asked about seeing him again. I asked him for his private phone number, but he insisted on taking my phone number. We had no paper or anything to write it down on, and Justin Bieber was clearly not interested in getting his cell phone or any paper. He said he would just remember the number, which I told him.”

“When I later realized I was pregnant with Justin Bieber’s baby, I tried to contact him through his representatives but no one ever called me back. On July 6, 2011, I gave birth to a baby boy. That was exactly 36 weeks and two days after the sexual encounter with Justin Bieber. Based on the timing as well as the fact there were no other possible men that I had sex with that could be the father of this baby, I believe that Justin Bieber is in fact the father of my baby.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, November 14, 2011]

If that’s true it’s so cold. The least he could have done would be to take down her phone number!

Yeater’s lawyers are calling for a paternity test, and they’re also calling out Bieber for not personally denying this very high profile story:

“She is not seeking exorbitant compensation,” Rogers and Pare told Star exclusively. “She merely requests that Justin Bieber provide a DNA sample to verify that he is the father of Mariah Yeater’s baby, and if so, to help provide child support as required by California law.”

In the wake of Star’s exclusive report detailing the paternity suit, Bieber’s camp told ABC News, “It’s sad that someone would fabricate, malicious, defamatory and demonstrably false claims” and that they would “vigorously pursue all available legal remedies to defend and protect Justin against these allegations.”

While the Baby singer himself been out plenty since Star broke the exclusive news — appearing on Dancing with the Stars, On Air with Ryan Seacrest and tweeting he was going to “ignore the rumors” — he has not yet publicly delved into the details of the allegations, something Yeater’s attorneys addressed in their exclusive statement to Star.

“It is noteworthy that Justin Bieber himself has not denied the fundamental fact that he had unprotected sex with Mariah Yeater following a concert in Los Angeles.

“If Justin Bieber is willing to voluntarily undergo a paternity test Ms. Yeater welcomes such cooperation and will be happy to resolve this issue in a less public manner. We call upon Justin Bieber and his attorneys to reach out to resolve this issue in a reasonable manner.”

[From Radar Online]

Go ahead and yell at me and tell me he’s just a kid. He is, and he’s also a superstar and a multi-millionaire. This might all be fabricated by a woman out for publicity, but if so she’s going to great lengths to make her case and it sounds like a solid one to me. Whether or not she’s making this up, that could really be her being obnoxious on Twitter. I think we should reserve judgment until the paternity tests come out, whether after the December 15th hearing or sooner. This is really ringing true to me, and I wonder if Bieber’s lawyers are going to try and block that DNA test.

Kaiser just told me that Bieber is going on the Today Show today to address this story. We’ll cover that as soon as the video is out.

Update: Bieber was just on The Today Show, where he was interviewed outside by Ann, Al and Matt. He was outside with a bunch of screaming fans around a pen, basically. He said “I’d just like to say that none of those allegations are true. I know that I’m going to be a target, but I’m never going to be a victim. It’s crazy, because every night after the show I’m gone right from the stage right to my car. It’s crazy that people want to make up such false allegations, but to set the record straight none of it is true.”

Matt then asked Justin if he knew the woman and he said “Never met the woman.” He was pretty well spoken about it and he looked amused while he said it.

Other than that, they just talked about his Christmas album and the fact that he’s donating the proceeds to charity.

Update 2: Yeater’s lawyers did an interview on HLN’s Dr. Drew show, thankfully not with Dr. Drew. They looked very young but made their point in a well spoken and convincing way. They said “we have every reason to believe in this story. We filed it in good faith, we stand by her.” They also claimed to have additional “credible evidence” that has not been released by the media that “Justin Bieber is the father of this baby.” I kind of hope she pulled a Monica and didn’t do her laundry, you know?

Here’s a photo of baby Justin Bieber vs. baby Trystan Yeater.

These photos are from Mariah Yeater’s MySpace via The Superficial. Thanks to Stacie for the Star scan.

I know we’ve covered the Beyonce Baby Bump Conspiracy story quite a bit, but I thought Wendy Williams’ take on it was funny and I wanted to mention it. Yesterday Kaiser laid out her theories as to what was going on with Beyonce’s collapsible bump. She basically thinks Beyonce is actually pregnant, but that she’s padding her stomach for attention. I’m not sure whether Beyonce is pregnant or not, even taking into account the bikini photos. I’ve never seen a pregnant woman’s stomach fold over like that, and it didn’t look like fabric bunching to me, it looked like a pillow folding. Wendy Williams agreed, and on her show she had two pregnant staffers, one that was due in February like Beyonce, sit down to show that what happened to Beyonce’s stomach was not natural at all. She claimed on one hand that Beyonce was probably actually pregnant, but then seemed to suggest that she was faking it.

Wendy: When she sat down the baby bump squashed, crumpled and folded… she’s either giving birth to a frisbee or Stewie from Family Guy… What is that? Is that a baby bump? [When I was pregnant] I wouldn’t be able to sit like that.

[Shows Beyonce's bikini photo] Then I’m pregnant too… Girls come on, we all get this. I’m not saying that she’s not pregnant there… that proves absolutely nothing to me.

I would like to believe that Beyonce is really pregnant. I don’t like to believe that people play around with pregnancy. I’ve had so many miscarriages…

Here are some alleged conspiracy theories:
- The baby is helping Beyonce’s sagging recording career.
- Beyonce’s pregnancy is a way of keeping Jay-Z’s alleged mistress away
- The alleged woman over in Trinidad with [Jay's] alleged 10 year-old son, Beyonce is trying to keep up with her.
- How about this? This is the most disgusting one. Beyonce is going to use a surrogate so she can maintain her body.
- Here’s that is even more disgusting. They’re adopting, but they’re going to play it off like they gave birth.

Watch, it’s going to be an at home water birth there’s going to be three people there. Beyonce, Jay-Z and her mother…

Beyonce come on you’re not like that are you? You know how some of these celebrities can be though. Anything for attention.

I love how Wendy called those theories “disgusting” but then kind of cosigned them toward the end.

The Daily Beast has an article written by three female doctors who declare that by viewing the video in question, in their opinion as doctors not treating Beyonce, she “looks appropriately pregnant at this point.” They float the theory that a lot of you have mentioned that “Perhaps when she bent over, her dress simply became looser, giving the appearance that her belly was shifting.” That was a lot of loose fabric that didn’t seem to be in the dress when she was walking.

Beyonce on 9/22. (Credit: WENN.com)

Story via ONTD

Scarlett Johansson gave an interview to CNN, her first since her semi-nude self portraits leaked almost two weeks ago. Unlike previously leaked nude photos from celebrities seeking publicity, Scarlett’s seemed to be genuinely hacked and released without her permission. She got the FBI involved early on.

In her brief statement to CNN, (video above) Scarlett was very pragmatic and well spoken. She seemed kind of badass about it actually, in that she just discussed the issue of her privacy in general and didn’t get into the specifics of her photos getting out. She discussed how it affected her and was firm about it, but she didn’t seem outraged or anything. It was impressive because she never made a reference to the pictures or the scandal, and didn’t remind us that she was stupid enough to take those photos of herself in the first place.

Why is it important to protect your privacy particularly when it comes to illegal acts to try and breach it?
I think the question is sort of redundant. Who doesn’t want to protect their own privacy?

Just because you’re in the spotlight or just because you’re an actor or make films doesn’t mean that you’re not entitled to your own personal privacy.

No matter what the context, when that is sieged in some way it feels unjust, it feels wrong. I’ve gotten that response from many people that I’ve met now. They say ‘how do you deal with the invasion of privacy?’

I don’t know. To me it’s an adjustment. There are certainly instances I think where you give a lot of yourself, finally you just kind of put your foot down and say ‘wait, I’m taking it back.’

[From CNN, video above]

Scarlett was in Nairobi, Kenya presumably talking about the extreme humanitarian crisis in the region. (Although I can’t find another video from the interview other than this one.) She is an Oxfam ambassador and just visited a refugee camp in Africa. She issued a moving statement about her visit and the need for International aid, saying in part that “Over half the Somalis that have died are children; an entire generation lost. This is no longer an issue that can only garner some attention, some of the time. Extreme action must be taken by the global community now.” (You can donate to Oxfam here.)

Scarlett also hit Milan fashion week for the Dolce & Gabbana show, wearing this peach dress with lace overlay paired with gold Dorothy sequin heels. (Scarlett represents D&G) I don’t like this dress, especially those ugly shoes, but at least she’s not wearing this to a major awards show like the weird purple and red lace D&G number she wore to the Oscars. I love her hair here though. The lipstick is a little too garish and I’m not a fan of the white eyeshadow, but her hair is so beautiful that it’s easy to overlook. They were going for old Hollywood with her styling and didn’t quite get it right.

Getting back to Scarlett’s nude photo mini-scandal, have you seen this website ScarlettJohanssoning.com where people mimic her pose holding up a towel while taking a photo of their bare asses in the mirror? It’s NSFW obviously, and it’s fascinating. Some of the photos are kind of gross though.

Former News of the World head Rebekah Brooks was arrested by police on Sunday ahead of a scheduled meeting to answer questions about her role in the massive phone hacking scandal. The arrest was unexpected, and Brooks was released on bail about 12 hours later. Apparently it’s rare for someone to get arrested by appointment on a weekend, and Brooks’ spokesperson claims it was a surprise. Some members of Parliament are questioning whether the arrest will conveniently keep Brooks from having to testify during a scheduled meeting with of The House of Commons on Tuesday.

The head MP, or chief of the British police, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned amid revelations that he hired the former deputy editor of the News of the World, Neil Wallis, as a secret media advisor. Further damning to Stephenson was his acceptance of five weeks’ free stay at a high end health resort that Wallis worked for. In his resignation statement, Stephenson denied any wrongdoing and emphasized that Wallace has not been connected with the wiretapping scandal in any way.

Stephenson also suggested that Prime Minister David Cameron has some explaining to do given allegations that his former communications director, Andy Coulson, paid tens of thousands of pounds in kickbacks to British police from 2003-2007 when he was editor of News of The World. Cameron also reportedly had a close relationship with editor Rebekah Brooks and regularly met with her during social functions. It looks like this scandal goes straight to the top in England and that even the Prime Minister is closely connected to it.

Jude Law is suing News of the World and sister publication The Sun for allegedly tapping his phone in 2005 and 2006. He claims they gained illegal access to his phone when he was in the United States, which would make it a crime under federal wiretap law. Stories published in the two papers at the time contained very specific information of Law’s whereabouts down to details about the room service he ordered and how much spent on hotel accommodations. This is not the only allegation of hacking in the US by the company. The FBI is currently investigating whether phones from 9/11 victims were compromised by News Corp, News of the World’s parent company.

David Beckham may also sue and is currently having his lawyers look into police evidence to see if he was one of the hacking victims. You know that he’s going to try and be incredibly discreet about it because they probably have details of his various affairs.

News Corp has been arrogant and reckless to say the least. It’s not surprising that it took so long for the extent of their wrongdoing to come to light or that they went so far with it. Their current editor was hanging out with the Prime Minister and one former editor was employed by him while another worked for the chief of police.

Jude Law is shown out with his buddies outside the Groucho Club in London on 7/15/11. Credit: WENN.com

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Hugh Grant and his grumpy hotness were on the Today Show yesterday to discuss the massive News Corp phone tapping scandal that rocked England and led to the voluntary shutdown of tabloid News of The World. Hugh was one of the first celebrities to draw attention to the issue when he caught a paparazzo on tape bragging about how NOTW had regularly hacked into famous people’s phones to gain leads for stories. Minor details of the scandal were known for some time, and there wasn’t much public outcry about it as people don’t tend to have a lot of sympathy for politicians or the rich and famous. Then the news came out that the scandal went much deeper, and that journalists and private investigators hired by the paper had violated the phones of crime victims, including a missing 13 year-old teenager, families of fallen soldiers and terrorist bombing victims. It was despicable, and the eventual result was a government inquiry and now the arrest of several key executives at News of the World.

In his interview with The Today Show, Matt Lauer asked Hugh why Americans should be concerned about this scandal. He reminded him that News Corp head Rupert Murdoch owns Fox News, 20th Century Fox movie studio and newspapers like the NY Post and The Wall St. Journal. What’s more is that there’s suspicion that victims of the 9/11 tragedy had their phones tapped too.

Wednesday morning on TODAY, Grant spoke with Matt Lauer about the culture of the tabloid press in the U.K., telling Lauer that until the peak of the scandal, when it was revealed the phone of a 13-year-old murder victim was hacked, people believed the paper’s methods were business as usual, and perhaps a justifiable means to an end, so long as the story sold.

“Yeah, that was the culture and still is to a certain extent within the tabloid press in this country. It’s terrifying and if you want to question why didn’t we do anything about it before, the answers are now emerging,” Grant said.

“The police unfortunately deliberately dragged their feet … and the government were equally terrified of him (Murdoch),” Grant said. “He had the power through his papers to get them elected, and his paper knew dirty details about individual MPs (Members of Parliament) and so they were unwilling ever to take him on. Only three weeks ago, all our major politicians were sucking up to Rupert Murdoch and drinking champagne on his lawn at his summer party. It’s almost comic that today they’re almost competing to say terrible words about him.”

Grant did tread more lightly when Lauer asked how concerned those of us in the United States should be about the scandal. However, the actor did say that there’s good reason to question Murdoch here as well.

“I don’t know the answer to that,” he told Lauer. However, “Rupert Murdoch does own an enormous amount of your media, with Fox news and stations, and 20th Century Fox, and some of your newspapers. I think people need to ask themselves, ‘Who is this man who owns such a large part of our media?’”

Ultimately, this story will come down to the issue of blame. In addition to those directly involved at News of the World, should we, the consumers of the news gathered by whatever means possible, shoulder the blame as well? Grant thinks so.
“I think we have to, yeah. It’s a strange business, isn’t it? The speciality of tabloids like that is to find the most common denominator and work out sort of, our worst instincts, and purvey for them and unfortunately they do it extremely well and we are all guilty of falling for that.”

[From The Today Show]

Maybe I’m alone, but Grant still does it for me. He’s older sure but he’s owning it and isn’t getting all jacked to hell like his ex’s latest boytoy. You could tell that Grant got a kick out of recounting how the MPs were partying and drinking with Murdoch up until the latest news broke about how NOTW tapped victims’ phones. He’s had plenty of issues with paparazzi and the tabloid press and he’s having his day now.

As for how this affects the US, Senators are calling for an investigation as to whether 9/11 victims had their phone tapped too. Families of victims are outraged and upset over this potential breach, which brings up so many bad memories for them.

Also, bribes given by News Corp employees to British law enforcement sources may violate US laws prohibiting US employees from paying bribes abroad. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NY) asked the Securities and Exchange commission and Department of Justice to launch an investigation as to whether this was the case. The parent organization of NOTW, News Corp, is a US company.

Maybe this will put a big dent into Murdoch’s media empire. One can only hope.

Update: Thanks to Gloaming for this video of Hugh Grant on BBC News along with the journalist from NOTW he exposed a few months ago. Hugh is awesome.

Hugh Grant is shown on 7/4/11. The dude looks a lot happier lately. Credit: WENN.com

I haven’t been following the News of the World wiretapping scandal very closely, but what I have heard has boiled my blood. Private investigators hired by journalists working at the paper were hacking into the phones of countless people, including celebrities, politicians, murder victims, fallen British soldiers and their families, and missing persons, just to get their messages and record conversations for story leads. In at least one case they deleted voicemail messages to make room for more, giving the family of a missing 13 year-old girl false hope that she was alive and retreiving her messages. Two journalists went to jail when the news came out in 2006, but it was apparently much more widespread than it was first thought. It was despicable, and many people were outraged that Rupert Murdoch, the head of parent organization News International, wasn’t firing the editor of NOTW right away. (Reports have her trying to resign twice and getting turned down.) It looks like Murdoch had other plans though as it was just announced that Sunday’s edition of the paper will be its last.

Reporting from London— In a stunning move, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire announced Thursday it was shutting down the News of the World tabloid, Britain’s bestselling Sunday newspaper, because of an alleged phone hacking scandal that has triggered a major public backlash here.

James Murdoch, a senior executive at his father’s News Corp., said Sunday’s edition of the News of the World would be its last. In a statement, he said the company accepted responsibility for the distress inflicted by the phone hacking allegations and the paper’s breach of journalistic ethics.

“The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account,” the statement said, “but it failed when it came to itself.”

The statement acknowledged the gravity of allegations that the paper hacked into the cellphones of celebrities, politicians and even crime and military combat victims in its pursuit of scoops. Earlier this week, Britain was rocked by reports that a private investigator hired by the tabloid had illegally accessed – and deleted – voicemail messages on the phone of a 13-year-old girl who was kidnapped and later found murdered.

Such a practice, if it occurred, “was inhuman and has no place in our company,” the statement said — in effect concurring with an outpouring of public outrage over the reports that has swept the nation.

The closure will mean the death of a weekly newspaper that has been a part of the British media landscape for more than a century. The News of the World enjoys a circulation of more than 2.5 million, far beyond its closest rival.

But the elder Murdoch and News Corp. evidently felt that the hacking scandal had created too toxic of an environment for the company and that the News of the World had to be sacrificed.

News Corp.’s British subsidiary, News International, also owns other iconic publications, such as the Times of London and the Sun tabloid, which have been caught up in a boycott campaign by Facebook and Twitter users angered by the allegations surrounding the News of the World.

[From LA Times]

US Weekly reports that NOTW was the “largest-selling English language newspaper in the world.” This was the right thing to do. Can you imagine if you lost a loved one and there were people snooping in on your phone conversations and reporting details in the press? There were families of terrorist bombing victims and soldiers killed in duty whose phones were being tapped. How could any person with an ounce of compassion ever justify that?

Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi Deng are shown at Cannes in May and also in April. She’s 42, he’s 80. Credit: WENN.com

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US Congressman Anthony Weiner resigned from Congress yesterday after holding on for over two weeks after he accidentally tweeted a photo of his crotch and tried to blame it on a “hacker.” During his resignation speech, he apologized to his constituents and to his wife, Huma, an aide to Hillary Clinton who just returned to the country after an overseas trip. (Huma is confirmed to be pregnant, although you can’t really tell from recent photos of her.) Unlike Governor Spitzer’s resignation in 2008 following the hooker scandal, Huma did not stand next to her husband when he announced his resignation. She was photographed out with his yesterday outside their home, though, and the two of them were spotted at a local supermarket last night.

When Weiner announced his resignation at a senior citizen center in Brooklyn attended by press, a guy stood up in the crowd and shouted “Bye bye, pervert!” (That’s around 1:28 in the video above and 1:57 in the video on Gawker). DListed identifies him as Benjy from the Howard Stern show. The heckler said stuff like “The people demand to know, were you fully erect?,” and “are you more than seven inches?” to which the press corps countered “shut up” and “he’s not with us.” He basically heckled the whole second half of the speech, and according to the NY Times he was going on for over fifteen minutes. It’s Weiner’s own fault since no one checked press credentials at the door.

Since that one dude was shouting, Weiner didn’t take any questions afterwards and just rushed out. (He wasn’t scheduled to take questions, but attendees insisted that he might have if everything went well.) It seemed a fitting end to a dumb scandal in which the guy didn’t even get laid as far as we know. We’ll probably see him again on cable television in a few weeks. He’ll also probably launch some kind of speaking and consulting career, and ten to one he’ll make way more money than he did as a Congressman.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures

Another sex scandal, another porn star/stripper cashing in by association and holding press conferences with Gloria Allred following failed extortion attempts. Only this stripper didn’t even sleep with the guy in question and only has some messages in which the Congressman refers to his “package” in the third person. She supposedly never even reciprocated. It’s not news, but this poor stripper claims it’s all been a “nightmare” to tell her story to TMZ about how Weiner coached her to lie and to attach Weinergate labels to her future stripping gigs.

Ginger Lee, an ex-porn star and Anthony Weiner‘s sext messaging friend, held a press conference today, with help from her lawyer Gloria Allred, to share her side of the story — and some of the sext messages she received.

Gloria said her client received more than 100 messages from Anthony, E! News reports.

Examples of messages include: “Alright, my package and I are not going to beg. We both see the hazard of going down the path of comparative sexiness” and “You aren’t giving my package due credit.”

And Ginger says she never responded to his emails.

“Once the electronic communications began, we did communicate on a fairly regular basis. However, I did not sext Anthony Weiner. I did not send photos to him or receive any from him,” she claimed. “Any time that he’d take our communications in a sexual direction, I did not reciprocate. When the Tweet regarding his crotch went out, I’d already been told by him about a Twitter sex scandal on the horizon.”

Ginger also said Anthony “asked me to lie about our communication.” So she went into hiding.

She called the scandal a “nightmare,” and Gloria mentioned that she “lost income” from her dancing career while she was hiding from the situation.

Anthony is reportedly seeking treatment now and Ginger thinks the congressman should quit.

“I think that Anthony Weiner should resign because he lied to the public and the press for more than a week,” she said. “It might never have turned into this if he told the truth, but he kept lying.”

[From OK Magazine]

Does Gloria Allred have any sense of shame? She’s probably ashamed she didn’t land anyone connected to Charlie Sheen, despite how much she bitched and moaned about him. This was an attempt to get cash from Weiner in exchange for keeping quiet. When he refused to pony up, the stripper went to the press and then launched a strip tour as a “scandal” girl, just like the Tiger Woods, David Boreanaz and Jesse James stripper/porn star mistresses who were also repped by Allred. She must be giving these porn stars career advice post scandal. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that she’s coaching new girls to set up honeypots for famous men.

Update: The NY Times reports [via Gawker] that Weiner is going to announce his resignation during a press conference this afternoon. I hope Allred doesn’t think she deserves any credit for this one.

Photo credit: Fame Pictures. Last photo above credit: PRPhotos.