Recently in Celebrities & Privacy Category

It feels like anytime you read a headline with Lindsay Lohan's name in it, you should immediately picture that gif of Michael Jackson eating popcorn. "This should be good." Well, Ms. Lohan took another hit last week when a court rejected her case against Grand Theft Auto for featuring a blonde in a bikini making a peace sign. That probably makes sense, since that description would likely make a fair number of current spring breakers shout, "OMG, it's me!"

David Copperfield, the world famous magician, illusionist, and performer, is being sued, along with the Las Vegas venue where he performed his act, after one his popular tricks didn't go exactly as planned. While the illusion was successful, one of the audience participants tripped, fell, and hit his head, while the behind the scenes "magic" was happening.

The injury causing illusion took place back in 2013, and the case was originally set for trial this past January, but it has since been pushed back to October of this year. The plaintiff's attorneys are claiming that Copperfield's secret behind his trick will be revealed during trial, though Copperfield has managed to keep it out of the public eye thus far by keeping the record sealed due to it being proprietary information.

Molly Brazy, the 18-year-old rapper from Detroit, has the police investigating her after a Facebook-live video went viral. While the video itself doesn't seem to be anything more than a short exchange between her and a toddler while playing, what they were playing with caused the viral attraction.

In the short video, the toddler is shown asking for candy, then throwing a toy gun towards Brazy. Brazy, then, clearly in a playful, joking manner, picks up the toy and points it at the child. After the internet world went abuzz with controversy over whether the toy gun was real, police got involved.

The focus of the investigation is on whether the toy gun was real or not. Brazy could be facing child endangerment charges if it is determined that the gun was real. Despite the fact that Brazy is insisting it was not, police are committing resources to have the video analyzed.

The individual that hacked into Jennifer Lawrence, Kate Upton, and other celebrity iCloud accounts was sentenced to 9 months in prison and $5,700 in restitution for his crimes. The hacker used a targeted phishing scheme that tricked the celebrities into revealing their login credentials. Once he had their credentials, he was able to login to their accounts and access the private information as well as intimate photos of Lawrence, Upton, and other celebrities.

Surprisingly, the hacker is not being charged with selling, posting, or distributing any of the information he downloaded or accessed illegally. His plea agreement was only to one count of unauthorized access of a protected computer. While the maximum sentence for that crime is 5 years, the prosecution was agreeable to the short 9 month sentence.

Most of us are checking out an actor's age on IMDb or other movie sites because we can't believe how young they look or how old they really are. But members of the Screen Actors Guild claim employers are using that information against those in the entertainment industry, and they have the law to prove it.

California Assembly Bill No. 1687, which goes into effect January 1, 2017, requires any online entertainment employment service providers to remove a subscriber's age upon request. That means an actor can ask sites like IMDb to scrub her age from publication and the site must comply within five days. So will the law shield ageing actors from age discrimination? Or chill free speech online?

Last month a Florida jury awarded former wrestler Hulk Hogan $115 million in damages in an invasion of privacy suit against Gawker Media. The case was about exposure of a sex tape and now the media is asking what this verdict means for the culture.

Is it a sign that the Internet's wild west days are over and that the standards of online journalism will be raised? Does it show that social media has taught everyone, even those of whose actions would normally go unreported, the importance of privacy? Gawker is going to appeal, so the case is not quite over. But the web is changing our expectations from reporters, celebrities, and one another, so let's look at privacy law.

Former wrestler Hulk Hogan was brought to tears by a jury verdict last week. It was a victory for him, as Hogan was the plaintiff in an invasion of privacy case against Gawker media.

The website Gawker.com published a video of Hogan sleeping with a former friend's wife and the star sued for invasion of privacy. A Florida jury agreed completely with Hogan's complaint that the sex tape was not news and awarded him $115 million. But the case isn't over, according to The New York Times, and Gawker may still face financial review for punitive damages.

Morrissey received some extra special attention from airport security when flying out of San Francisco this week. According to a post by fan site True to You, the lyrical legend claimed that an unncesseary TSA search rose to the level of sexual assault.

A spokesperson for the TSA denies that Morrissey's encounter was anything out of the ordinary.

Rihanna seems to have stalkers everywhere. Last year, a New York City Judge called Kevin McGlynn a "ticking time bomb who is wholly fixated on [Rihanna]" after he staked her New York apartment and sent threatening letters. The year before that, Jonathan Whooper was arrested after he tried to break into Rihanna's L.A. home and claimed to be her "future husband."

This year, Rihanna has yet another stalker.

Mila Kunis can now rest easy.

A few years ago, Stuart Lynn Dunn was arrested after he broke into Mila Kunis' unoccupied condominium. He was hit with a restraining order to stay away from Kunis. But, only months later, Dunn was arrested again for waiting for Kunis outside her gym for three days in violation of the restraining order.

After that incident, Dunn was charged and pleaded no contest to stalking and violating a restraining order. The stalker was sentenced to six months in a mental health facility and five years probation.

Last Saturday, Dunn escaped.