It’s been a tough summer for celebrity stalkers. Larry Mendte, former anchor of the CBS evening news out of Philadelphia, pled guilty on Friday to illegally hacking into co-anchor and all-around hot mess Alycia Lane’s email accounts over the course of two years.
Mendte, a former host of “Access Hollywood,” anchored the evening news with Lane for four years until she was fired in December following her arrest after an alleged scuffle with the NYPD. Apparently not wanting to be outdone, Mendte got himself fired in June after FBI agents discovered that he had accessed three of Lane’s email accounts from home and work more than 500 times between January and May of this year alone—and then relayed details about Lane’s criminal case and other information to a reporter with the Philadelphia Daily News. Lane’s attorney “believes he acted out of jealousy.”
We get the jealousy thing, Larry, really, we do. Although we have to say, when it comes to your email-stalking skills, have you learned nothing from our dear friend Shaq? [CNN]
Oh, Shaq, didn’t your lawyers teach you never to put certain things in writing? Like threatening emails to the ex-girlfriend you’re stalking?
According to reports out of Atlanta, a judge has granted Alexis Miller, a 23-year-old wannabe hip-hop artist who goes by “MaryJane,” a restraining order against Shaquille O’Neal after reviewing the singer’s allegations that he stalked her, threatened her with bodily harm and harassed her with phone calls in which he “breathed heavily into the phone before hanging up.” Miller also alleges that, after she ended their brief relationship, he threatened to derail her career by offering to pay certain artists $50,000 not to perform with her.
And just to drive his point home, as Miller’s affidavit alleges, Shaq sent her an email saying, “I dnt no who the fuk u think u dealin wit u will neva be heard from one phone call is I gotta make now try me. Sho me.”
Hm. I think we actually do know who we’re dealing with, Shaq. And he may be hooked on a lot of things, but it looks like phonics sure ain’t one of them. [Deadspin and Fox Sports]
A New York criminal court has upheld a stalking charge against a man who contacted Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels on several occasions to discuss the show’s alleged use of the man’s “personal thoughts” and “sense of humor” without permission. Court documents report that the stalker, Evans Pidhajecky, “appear[ed] at the producer’s home twice in December 2007, had ‘no legitimate purpose’ and gave Michaels ‘ample reason to be in fear.’”
While sources close to the case have expressed disapproval of Pidhajecky’s actions, they have suggested to Michaels that he bring the stalker on as a consultant to the show, noting that Pidhajecky, a humorless, droning tool with the mind of a 14-year-old frat boy who hasn’t made anyone laugh since the late 1990s, should fit right in with the current team over at SNL. [NY Law Journal via Law.com]
