10 Celebrities Who Were Blackmailed | TheThings - TheThings

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When you’re rich and famous and have tons of money to throw around, there are some not so nice people in this world who will use that knowledge to take advantage of them. Although it may seem like a scene straight out of the movies, blackmailing and extortion is actually a pretty common thing amongst celebrities, and they just need to learn how to fight back.

Although people do try to make some fast cash by attempting to blackmail a celebrity, none of them usually get that far to say that they’ve succeeded. From big names like Oprah and Bruce Willis, none of these celebs are exempt from situations like this. Instead of having to pay up, they usually get lawyers involved and these blackmailers will have to pay the price for their actions.

10 Bruce Willis

Bruce Willis was blackmailed by someone he truly thought he could trust — his childhood best friend. Bruce DiMattia was hired to be Bruce Willis' assistant of some sort, and mainly maintained Bruce Willis' personal items and memorabilia. Bruce DiMattia threatened to share some of Bruce Willis' personal information unless he bought Bruce DiMatta a car and gave him $100,000. Of course, Bruce Willis filed a lawsuit against his former friend as he claimed he tried to extort him. With the help of lawyers, the two were able to reach an amicable settlement.

9 Katie Holmes & Tom Cruise

Back when Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise were still together and married, they were the victims of extortion. When Katie and Tom got married in 2006, David Hans Schmidt tried to see the private photos from the couple's wedding.

In order to not post the pictures, he demanded that Tom and Katie pay him more than $1 million. Tom and Katie took legal action, as Schmidt has a history of selling celebrity sex tapes and other personal information. It was unclear how he obtained the photos, however, the FBI arrested him for his extortion plot.

8 Adrienne Bailon

Adrienne Bailon was the victim of a blackmailing scheme when someone managed to steal her laptop and tried to leak her personal information and files, including some nude photos. The laptop was first stolen at JFK airport, and her record label then received an anonymous message from a man saying that he would return the laptop if they paid him $1,000. Of course, they paid the man what he wanted and she was able to get the laptop back, however, he stole the photographs and attempted to extort her.

7 John Travolta

John Travolta is another celebrity who was the victim of an extortion plot. A paramedic threatened to release a medical document that John signed to not have his son Jett transported when he needed medical attention before he tragically died.

The man tried to extort John in order to not release the medical documents, he wanted John to pay him over $25 million. Little did he know, the document was pretty much irrelevant when it came to the death of his son, and it would do no damage. He was arrested and charged with two counts of extortion for his actions.

6 Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono has lived through plenty of scandals over the years, one of them being an extortion plot. Her driver, Koral Karsan attempted to extort $2 million from her. He claimed that he had private photographs of her and claimed to have secretly taken photos of her and made recordings of her conversations. He threatened to leak everything to the public if she didn't pay him the money. He also allegedly talked about killing Yoko and her son. Upon learning this, he was taken into custody immediately.

5 Oprah

Oprah may be a very powerful woman, but that didn't stop her from becoming a victim of extortion. A man attempted to extort $1.5 million from Oprah as he threatened to leak phone calls between him and an employee of Oprah's in which the employee said awful and embarrassing things about her, hoping to ruin her reputation. Although it was never disclosed what was on the tapes, he threatened to leak them to tabloids and to the public in an effort to embarrass Oprah. However, he was forced to hand over the tapes to federal prosecutors as they were recorded illegally. He was also arrested for attempted extortion.

4 Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez was also a victim of blackmail. This time, the person trying to extort him is actually an ex-girlfriend. The ex had asked that Alex pay her over $600,000 or she would leak all the private and intimate messages that he had sent her when they were together as a couple. In fact, the threatened to take all the private details of their time together if he didn’t pay up now. She definitely took her role as the crazy ex-girlfriend very seriously, as Alex took things to the authorities, and her plan was quickly foiled.

3 Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz also had someone try to blackmail her when they threatened to leak some very personal photos. Photographer John Rutter tried to sell topless photos of Cameron that were taken back in 1992. He was charged with attempted grand theft. Cameron claimed that she never signed a model release to have to photos be used professionally or sold to someone. As a result, he tried to sell the photos for $5 million, and potentially embarrass Cameron if she didn’t pay up and make a move to save herself.

2 David Letterman

David Letterman was also a part of an extortion case. Robert “Joe” Halderman was a CBS News producer when he attempted to blackmail David Letterman. He tried to extort $2 million from David in order for him to keep quiet about David’s extra marital affairs. In order to keep him quiet, David paid him the money he wanted. David was also forced to announce the extortion plot on air on his show where he told viewers what was going on, and he admitted to having affairs with female staff members. Of course, Halderman was caught and was forced to do some time in jail.

1 John Stamos

John Stamos is yet another celebrity who was a victim of blackmail. A man and woman attempted to extort $680,000 from John Stamos when they threatened to sell private photos of him allegedly using drugs. Apparently, the photos in question never even existed, and they just tried to use them to extort John. The two were taken into custody for the extortion plot and they were faced with convictions of conspiracy and interstate communications to extort money, and were sentenced to four years in prison.

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About The Author

Danielle Gittleman (258 Articles Published)

Danielle Gittleman is a writer and editor from Freehold, New Jersey. Passionate about music, entertainment, and writing, Danielle has put her love for them together, and specializes in music and entertainment journalism. Danielle is a freelance writer, where she has written for websites such as TheTravel, contributing travel and vacation articles, as well as TheRichest, where she wrote celebrity and entertainment content until it stopped publishing in the Fall of 2018. Danielle currently writes pop culture stories for TheThings, where she contributes several articles a week to the website. Additionally, Danielle was also a co-founder of her own online music magazine, White Noise Zine, where she conducted interviews with musicians, wrote music news and features, and helped produce bi-monthly online issues of the magazine. Danielle also did press for the Vans Warped tour for three years in a row, and worked with ReverbNation on campaigns to find artists to feature in White Noise Zine. Danielle is a dedicated person and puts her heart and soul into everything she does. She is a hard worker, and is extremely passionate about her writing, and couldn't dream of doing anything else.