Celebrities have a new bete noir: relatively unsophisticated cyber snoops who trawl the internet for snippets of information that allow them to crack security codes and access everything from email messages to sensitive financial data.
The arrest on Wednesday of 35-year-old Christopher Chaney -- who successfully hacked into the email accounts of Mila Kunis and Scarlett Johansson -- revealed just how vulnerable celebrities are to such an invasion of privacy.
According to FBI officials who led 'Operation Hackarazzi', Chaney used celebrity magazines, fan sites, Twitter and Facebook posts to find the information he needed (the name of a pet, a favourite movie, a nickname or birthday) to figure out celebrities' passwords and get his hands on their email systems complete with address books, photographs and financial data.
In Johansson's case, Chaney lifted a nude picture she had on her computer and posted it online. He also took a number of photos from Kunis's mobile phone -- including one of Justin Timberlake messing around with a pair of pink panties on his head. Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Hudgens, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez and Natalie Portman are also believed to be among the celebs Chaney victimised.
"It started as curiosity and it turned into just being addicted to seeing behind the scenes of what was going on with these people you see on the big screen every day," Chaney, who was released on $10,000 bail told a Florida news station after his arrest. "I was almost relieved when they (the police) came in, took my computer, and told me what was going on, that they knew because I didn't know how to stop doing it myself."
Chaney, whose internet privileges were suspended by the court, has been charged with 26 counts of identity theft and faces up to 121 years in prison if found guilty on all counts.
'Mean girls' scare off LiLo: Turns out community service isn't one of Lindsay Lohan's talents. Last week the actress who was ordered to undertake 480 hours of voluntary work as a condition of her parole was asked not to return to LA's Downtown Women's Centre where she was supposed to be pitching in during the first phase, or 360 hours, of her punishment.
According to TMZ, Lohan infuriated staff at the women's shelter after she missed nine scheduled appointments. Sources told the site that on the few occasions she did show up, LiLo only managed to stick around for about an hour and never completed her four-hour shifts. Sources close to Lohan told TMZ that she felt unfairly treated by staffers at the non-profit centre, whom she described as acting like 'Mean Girls'.
Fortunately for Lohan, the Red Cross have stepped in and offered her a place on one of their programmes. Maybe phase two of the exercise will go better. Lindsay is scheduled to serve the remaining 120 hours on janitorial duty at the LA County Morgue.
Celeb activists vexing mayor: Billionaire NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg irritated many of his celebrity citizens last week when he lashed out at the swelling Occupy Wall Street movement protesting against wealth inequity.
During a particularly heated press conference, the mayor asked why demonstrators are picking on Wall Street tycoons (many of who happen to be his friends and supporters) when there are so many "actors and athletes" pulling in big bucks without getting any flack -- a possible reference to the likes of Mark Ruffalo, Susan Sarandon, Michael Moore, Roseanne Barr and Danny Glover who have been welcomed like heroes into the crowd stationed in lower Manhattan.
Hopefully the mayor enjoyed the reaction rapper-turned-fashion designer Kanye West received when he pitched up for what turned out to be a rather brief appearance to support the cause.
"A capitalist symbol of excess and fetishism, attempting to get some attention at a popular movement," wrote one Tumblr user. "Didn't Kanye just release an album bragging about being in the [wealthy] 1 percent?" asked another. Luckily for West, the fact that he chose to wear a $355 Givenchy shirt for the occasion didn't go viral until the next day.
Bad eyebrow day for Ron: Republican Presidential hopeful Ron Paul created the wrong kind of sensation during a televised debate last Tuesday night when one of his eyebrows appeared to detach under the lights, leading The New York Times to speculate that the 76-year-old is taking political vanity to ridiculous extremes by wearing artificial brows.
"Seen on television, Mr Paul appeared to have a second, thinner brow under the one headed south, creating a delicate X over his right eye," reported the Times.
Jesse Benton, Paul's campaign spokesman, didn't help when he shot back claiming Mr Paul's drooping eyebrow was the result of an allergic reaction to a heavy pollen season. Benton then called the accusations "stupid" and "insulting" -- the same words that were used, ironically, to describe his claim.
The Times dutifully published Mr Benton's remarks but couldn't resist a dig suggesting that "eyebrow toupees" appear to be (natch) on the rise.