6 Other Extorted Celebs

From Cameron Diaz all the way back to the 19th century, Letterman ain't the first
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 7, 2009 12:10 PM CDT
6 Other Extorted Celebs
Louie Anderson performs at the 'Rockin' The Corps An American Thank You Celebration Concert' at Camp Pendleton on April 1, 2005 in San Diego, California.   (Getty Images)

David Letterman isn’t the first celebrity to be brazenly blackmailed. Mental Floss lists six other notable cases:

  • Cameron Diaz: A photographer who snapped bondage-themed nude photos of the actress threatened to sell them to magazines if she wouldn’t buy them for $3.5 million—he ended up in jail for three years.
  • Bill Cosby: Autumn Jackson, 23, claimed to be his illegitimate daughter and wanted $40 million not to tell the press. Cosby admitted to an affair with Jackson’s mother, but denied fathering Autumn; she was sent to prison.

  • Louie Anderson: The comedian shelled out $100,000 to a blackmailer who said Anderson propositioned a man in Las Vegas—but when the extortionist came back for more, Anderson went to the cops and he was caught.
  • Elvis Presley: A dermatologist Presley fired threatened to release compromising photographs and tapes, but eventually left him alone after Elvis refused to pay—and it turned out he wasn’t even a doctor.
  • Dante Gabriel Rossetti: The 19th century poet and painter may have been blackmailed by his agent into digging up his wife’s coffin to retrieve a journal full of poems.
For the complete list, click the link below. (More David Letterman stories.)

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