First we are not a celebrity gossip site. We don't actually care about Britney Spears. We care about the people covering Britney Spears...in theory. Anyway, we posted about the Verne Troyer sex tape because the woman in it looked slightly like Mayrav Saar - which was/is hilarious.

Then we got a letter from Troyer's lawyer saying that the image we had up was a violation of his privacy. TMZ was getting sued by Verne for releasing the tape. We talked to our lawyers and took the image down.

Then we emailed Troyer's lawyer and asked:

Do you think that someone that makes a sex tape actually has a reasonable expectation of privacy? Really? It seems to be the number one reason for not making a sex tape and especially not a copy of said tape. Don't you think?

We have yet to hear back - but if we do - we'll post it.

Anyway, today the tape and images are BACK on TMZ.com.

The dumb thing is - we don't care about Troyer or any one else's sex tape. Couldn't care less. And here we are miffed about being told to take down images when another site doesn't have to or just won't.

The moral of the story is: You know your throw away joke has horribly backfired when you are sent a temporary restraining order.

Yep, LA's infamous private dick is going to have to tap behind bars for the next 8-10.

LAT has the full story.

Everyone wants to be a celebrity assistant, but some celebs don't want to play along. Gabrielle Union's suing some Georgia-based pranksters who advertised, via Craigslist, for an worker bee to assist the actress.

Here's the sad part--no one, other than a friend, answered the ad.

Union did not have such a staff opening, does not know the defendants and never authorized them to act on her behalf, the complaint says.

But who can blame her for being touchy? She'd survived a brutal attack back when she was 19, (thanks to the lessons she learned from watching Oprah).

Allison Hope Weiner might want to do some research into the curious case of Jim Taricani, the Providence, RI investigative reporter who did 6 months for refusing to name a source.

Weiner, readers may recall, got served a temporary restraining order aimed at stopping her from posting audio tapes of Anthony Pellicano and his clients on her HuffPost blog. The NY Times made the tapes available as well (Pellicano and his indicted lawyer Terry N. Christensen), but where's their TRO? Christensen's trial will start about a month after Pellicano's ends, and his legal team says that the tapes compromise his right to a fair trial.

The NYT has lawyers just sitting around, waiting for someone to try interfere with freedom of the press, but is the Huffington Post likely to stand by their blogger? Weiner's represented by Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The hearing hasn't been scheduled yet.

While covering the Plunder Gate case of former Providence mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr, Tarcani received a surveillance tape from a source to whom he promised anonymity, and aired it, in defiance of a federal court order against the dissemination of such evidence. He was cited for contempt of court, fines ratcheted up, and he did 6 months of home confinement, with NBC underwriting his legal defense.

Robert Iafolla, writing in the LA Daily Journal, takes the "it can't happen here" tone. Weiner's CDs were subject to a protective order issued in April 2006, although she's not actually bound by that order. It's a safe bet that Pellicano didn't give them to her, and unlikely that she found them at a yard sale, so that leaves, oh, who knows? the defense team?

The whole motion is probably designed not to not put a gag order on Weiner but to get her testimony per the source of whoever actually violated the protective order. Or course, that puts the Huffington Post in an uncomfortable spot.

Earlier:
HuffPo Blogger Weiner Served --Restraining Order at Pellicano Trial

More Pellicano madness--HuffPo blogger Allison Hope Weiner has been covering the trial, and got slapped with a restraining order for posting audio tapes from the trial on the site.

She already was barred from the jail for leaning on her Calfornia State Bar membership to gain access to Pellicano, back when she worked the story for the NY Times. There, she co-wrote a story about reining in the paparazzi. Tricks of the trade.

The Huffington Post is reporting that, if called to testify, "attorney to the stars" Bert Fields will take the fifth amendment in the trial of Anthony Pellicano.

Fields has been widely reported to have hired Pellicano numerous times over the years.

We thought it was a school teacher. How many more LIES can be associated with this product?!

Ahem. Page Six reports:

WHEN screenwriter Rider McDowell (Wimbledon and Mercy Man) called Page Six seven years ago promoting Airborne, the new cold remedy he and his wife, Victoria, had invented, little did we know how big a success it would become - so big, the McDowells just agreed to pay $23.3 million in refunds to consumers who were misled by advertising claims that the herbal supplement actually prevents colds.

Okay, so it doesn't prevent colds.

The entry continues:

McDowell told us at the time he deserved some credit for the conception of Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick's just-born son, James, 5. Seems the couple had been planning a trip to Greece and Italy nine months earlier and didn't want to board a germ-packed plane without taking Airborne, which wasn't for sale at the time in New York. McDowell had a bottle of the fizzie tablets, loaded with Vitamins A and C and zinc, delivered to them, and the rest is history.

So it's also crappy birth control.

Where's the settlement for that?

Things are moving along in the Anthony Pellicano trial. FBLA has learned that the plea deals for retired police sergeant Mark Arneson and telephone company ex-employee Ray Turner (reported yesterday in Radar) have broken down. The pair were hoping to plead guilty only to charges not including RICO statutes.

Arneson was charged with supplying Pellicano with personal and private information through the illegal use of his police computers, and Turner is accused of helping set up the illegal wiretaps.

The FBI has notified witnesses (and their lawyers) to get ready.

It's a case of 'art' imitating life. Err, 'life' imitating art. Something.

In a viewing of The Signal described by MovieFone:

...the denizens of Terminus City fall prey to a mysterious transmission that pulses through all electronic devices and transforms rational, sane people into murderous, rampaging psychopaths

With the tag in the trailer stating, "They just decided to kill people..."

From LAT:

Police are searching for a man suspected of stabbing two people who were watching a bloody horror movie in a Fullerton theater Sunday night, in what authorities describe as a random attack.

The male suspect stood over a lone moviegoer in the AMC theater in the 1000 block of South Lemon Street and stabbed him at about 7:30 p.m. after "The Signal" had begun. He then walked toward the rear exit of the theater, where he stabbed the second victim, police said.

Didn't a tornado hit a drive-in during a screening of Twister?

Fox Searchlight wasted no time in defending their girl, Diablo Cody. Big Ross at CC2K, got slapped with a cease and desist for daring to read and critize Jennifer's Body.

Considering Juno's accolades, detractors abound:

Judging by the cease and desist orders sent by FOX to the websites running script reviews of her next opus Jennifer's Body this week, it's clear that the publicity machine running on overdrive behind her for the past few months is doing what they can to prevent anything or anyone from getting in the way of this processed fairytale.

Casting for the horror film is underway:

two names that are being bandied about for Nikolai; he's the leader of the Satanic emo band that starts all of the problems that turns Needy into an ass-kicking monster fighter. The production is looking at two legitimately emo dipshits--Pete Wentz of Fallout Boy and Joel Madden of Good Charlotte.

Earlier:
Jennifer's Body Script Reviewed