Late yesterday afternoon, Hollywood Reporter senior editor Eriq Gardner posted a typically well-researched update about the lawsuit brought against John Travolta by a Royal Caribbean cruise ship male attendant. A California federal judge has rejected the actor’s attempts to send the matter to arbitration based on the ticketed-transaction nature of the trip.

This morning, a staff-bylined item on Radar Online covers the same territory, without any hat tip or credit to Gardner. More egregiously, there is at least one sentence in the Radar blurb that appears to be a verbatim-lift from the THR end. Can’t blame Gardner for being a little peeved.

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The biggest thing from a media perspective about two excerpts published in The Hollywood Reporter from Lawrence Wright‘s upcoming Scientology book is that the author was able to get a familiar behind-the-scenes source to speak on the record. From Tony Ortega‘s blog:

The shorter excerpt is about John Travolta, told through his former [Church] personal assistant, Spanky Taylor. We guess it can be told now that Spanky has helped several of us reporters over the years — our relationship with her goes back over a decade — but Wright is the first to get her to speak on the record, ever. Maybe it was his Alabama charm.

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Famous for his 2007 and 2010 BBC Panorama reports on the Church of Scientology, John Sweeney took today to the pages of UK’s The Independent to bang a loud warning gong against the (subsequent) symphony of Cruise-Holmes divorce settlement dispatches. Although Holmes may not have been followed by Church affiliated personnel in the streets of New York, he writes that he was:

They spied on me. I know that for a fact because the man who led the spying team – Mike Rinder, the head of the church’s secret police, the Office of Special Affairs – defected to us in 2010 and told me so on Panorama…

Private investigators whom I believe were working for the church chased me around the streets of LA, invaded my hotel at midnight and put me under surveillance at breakfast. Strangers spied on my wedding and knocked on the doors of my neighbors.

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When Michael Ovitz departed CAA in the mid-1990s, screenwriter-novelist Doug Richardson found himself unexpectedly caught up in a blaze of media coverage.

In a blog post titled “Spiking the Football,” he recalls that because he happened to leave the agency for William Morris right before Ovitz’s exit, he was lumped together somewhat hilariously with David E. Kelley in LA Times and New York Times coverage. Separately, when Richardson’s new agents packaged his first nove Dark Horse for mid-six figures, he did an interview with Variety’s Mike Fleming. Which got him into a lot of trouble:

“So,” said Fleming. “John Travolta as star. Brian Grazer and Ron Howard as producers. How’s that feel?”

“Great,” I answered, then added something I thought was funny. “Who knew I’d have to leave CAA to get packaged.”

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Obviously intrigued by the glut of John Travolta gay-masseuse-sex stories coming out  in the tabloids as of late, Gawker’s Maureen O’Connor decided to look into the National Enquirer‘s fact-checking processes. Though she spoke to a few staffers at the Enquirer and its sister tabloid Star who admitted many of their stories were utterly wrong, she seems to have come away impressed with the rigor involved in going after big scoops like the Travolta stories. Sources touting scandalous revelations are routinely given polygraph tests by a former FBI interrogator. No joke.

Writes O’Connor:

“The polygraph is an insurance policy that our lawyers like,” Star editor James Heidenry explained to me. Star‘s third editor-in-chief in little over a year, Heidenry was not on staff during Mr. Clean’s negotiation, but spoke broadly about the magazine’s tactics. “We like to get them too, to be confident with the story and reach a comfort level with it, and to protect ourselves against legal action.” If a story failed the polygraph test, “we would ditch it,” he concluded.

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Actor John Travolta‘s 1970 Mercedes 280SL convertible has gone to classic car heaven. The vehicle, which was stolen from a Santa Monica neighborhood back in September, was gutted by thieves for parts. The car’s remains were discovered by police in an illegal “chop shop.” Santa Monica police Sergeant Richard Lewis said today of the Mercedes:

It was not recovered in whole, it was chopped. We have numerous pieces recovered but not the entire car.

Thanks to police, the streets of Los Angeles are now a little safer for classic automobiles. Two men, believed to be running a classic car theft ring, were arrested for the theft in December. D.L. Rayford Jr., 52, was sentenced to 16 months in jail and ordered to pay Travolta $50,000. Michael Green, 58, remains in custody awaiting trial.

Car pictured is similar to the one stolen. Photo via the Santa Monica Police Department.

Fred Schruers, who joins TheWrap in mid-July as senior writer, definitely knows his way around a high-powered celebrity interview. His experience with Hollywood’s A-list started at Rolling Stone magazine, encompassing the likes of Michael Douglas, Sandra Bullock, and John Travolta, and later continued apace at Premiere magazine.

Since TheWrap rival The Hollywood Reporter has basically re-invented itself in print as a weekly version of Premiere, it will be interesting to see how Schruers is able to inject himself into the current Hollywood trades quadrangle (perhaps even helping TheWrap edge into print somehow?). As a member of Premiere‘s west coast bureau team, Schruers was a key contributor to the mag’s influential annual Power List overseen by Susan Lyne.

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According to the old adage, Hollywood’s greatest actors are ones who can triumph even if the script is a phone book. In Marlon Brando‘s case, Julien’s Auctions in Beverly Hills has the next best thing this weekend – the late actor’s actual personal phone book.

The starting bid for this item is $500, and while many of the numbers may no longer be in service, it’s still a great dinner party conversation starter:

A burgundy leather three-ring binder telephone book circa 2003 containing hundreds of Brando’s personal friends and business contacts worldwide. Some names include Michael Jackson, Johnny Depp, Alec Baldwin, Johnnie Cochran, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Jane Goodall, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, Madonna, Jack Nicholson, Robert Redford, John Travolta, Barbra Streisand as well as noted scientists in various fields of study, press contacts and the United Nations and many other noteable entries.

If that’s not good enough, you can also bid this weekend on a Golden Globe the actor refused to accept for his portrayal of Don Corleone in The Godfather.

After a three-year, $12.3 million renovation, the operators of that goofy looking LAX centerpiece are partying like it’s 1967. Which is a good thing, because the 50-year-old edifice still looks like something right out of William Shatner‘s venerable Star Trek TV series.

To go along with recent nods from Esquire.com and Food & Wine, Encounter Restaurant was recently recognized by Frommers.com as a top ten U.S. airport restaurant. Per Chris Owen at travel blog Gadling.com:

The restaurant was created and is operated by a joint-venture partnership between Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Inc. and Connie Bass, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and operator of the Ultimate Symphony Event Planners, a full-service event planning and gourmet catering service, and Cookies By Connie #1.

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We couldn’t help notice a tantalizing juxtaposition on the list of confirmed attendees for this Saturday’s G’Day USA Australia Week black-tie gala dinner. The January 22nd event at the Hollywood Palladium, a.k.a. the “Aussie Ball,” is part of a sly annual PR extravaganza staged by the Australian Consulate-General.

Among the three Australians to be inducted in the G’Day Hall of Fame is Bee Gee Barry Gibb (pictured). He will be introduced by Olivia Newton-John, while actress Abbie Cornish will get her award from Zach Snyder and tennis champ Roy Emerson will be framed by Andre Agassi.

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