Tape

It was billed as a "shocking tell-all" and a "world exclusive," but the National Enquirer's March 26 cover story landed with a thud. TMZ, Page Six and other major players in celebrity gossip ignored the article in which a masseur claimed John Travolta offered money for sex. FOR THE RECORD: An earlier version of this article used the term "masseuse"; it should have said "masseur. " Five weeks after the issue left the checkout aisle, a DUI attorney from Pasadena put the anonymous masseur's tawdry tale in a lawsuit and it became an overnight pop culture sensation, topping Google News, trending on Twitter and meriting a segment on "Good Morning America.

MINNEAPOLIS — As a reward for last week's no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins, Jered Weaver took part in one of his favorite shows Tuesday night, presenting the top-10 list on CBS' "Late Show with David Letterman. " "I watch Dave before I go to bed when I'm home, so it's pretty cool to be on the show," said Weaver, who filmed the segment at Target Field on Tuesday afternoon. "As soon as you hear Dave in your earpiece, it's a little nerve-racking, but it was fun. I had a lot of time to rehearse.

Rielle Hunter, the former mistress of John Edwards, won ownership through a legal settlement Thursday of a sex tape she and Edwards filmed at the time of his 2008 campaign for president. The tape was being held in a vault at a North Carolina courthouse pending a lawsuit filed by Hunter against former Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife, according to the Associated Press. The couple, with whom Hunter lived in 2007 while she was pregnant with Edwards' baby, claimed Hunter had left the tape in a box of trash.

Angry Mel Gibson is back - and he just might be angry enough to sue “The Maccabees” screenwriter Joe Ezsterhas for releasing a recording of a rant that went down in December at the actor's Costa Rica home.   Audio and a transcript of the recording, which came out Wednesday via TheWrap, show Gibson flexing a somewhat limited vocabulary - think the F-word used as noun, verb and adjective - at top volume. (Check it out here , if you're prepared for a slew of profanity.)

Floyd Mayweather Jr. 40-0 (25 KOs) Shane Mosley, Pomona, 46-5 (39 KOs) Weight: Mayweather 146; Mosley 147 Age: Mayweather 33; Mosley 38. Height: Mayweather 5-8; Mosley 5-9 Reach: Mayweather: 72"; Mosley 74" Chest normal: Mayweather 38 ½"; Mosley 39" Chest expanded: Mayweather 39 ½"; Mosley 42" Biceps: Mayweather 12 ½"; Mosley 14" Forearm: Mayweather 11"; Mosley 11 ½" Waist: Mayweather: 31"; Mosley...

As attackers gang-raped a 15-year-old San Francisco Bay Area student, a female called police and said the victim was "naked" and "probably intoxicated" and that witnesses didn't want to alert authorities, according to a copy of the 911 tape released Thursday. "Nobody wants to call the cops. So we decided to call," said the female, who identified herself as Maggie. The victim was repeatedly raped, beaten and robbed Oct. 24 after she left a homecoming dance at Richmond High School -- a crime that sparked outrage and focused national attention on the city northeast of San Francisco.

I'm one of those notorious "home tapers" the RIAA is screaming about (Pop Eye, by Patrick Goldstein, Dec. 14). A music lover and an audiophile, I have $6,000 worth of stereo gear and $7 worth of furniture in my living room. I spend $50-$100 a week on albums and compact discs, then tape them, because on my $4,000 car system, all prerecorded cassettes sound like they were dubbed in sewer pipes. My heart goes out to the record industry over DAT (digital audio tape). These poor souls have seen their sales increase geometrically over the last few decades.

The historic courthouse in Pittsboro, N.C., where a lawsuit over a sex tape involving former U.S. Sen. John Edwards was being heard, was destroyed by fire Thursday evening. Chatham County Superior Court Judge Abraham Penn Jones, who is overseeing the case, told the Associated Press that the evidence in the case, including the tape, is in a vault away from the courthouse. "They were doing historic renovation on a landmark that is very important to this town and county," Pittsboro Mayor Randolph Voller said.

A roundup of Friday morning's arts and entertainment headlines: Ashton Kutcher is furious over his name being used to promote a sex tape he isn't even in. ( TMZ ) Terrence Malick's long-in-the-works, long-under-wraps film "Tree of Life" is starting to step out of the shadows. ( Los Angeles Times ) "The Social Network" has a leg up in the awards race with a National Board of Review win. ( Los Angeles Times ) If projections hold true, "Tangled" is looking to be a big hit for Disney.

A newly discovered tape of the Beatles laughing and chatting during an early recording session has sold for $23,446, an auction house reported Tuesday. Cameo Auctioneers said the reel-to-reel tape was recorded in 1964 and had recently been discovered by a man in northern England while he was clearing out his father's attic. The tape features John Lennon and Paul McCartney collapsing into fits of giggles as they try to finish the ballad "I'll Follow the Sun."

A grainy surveillance tape from the Orange County high school where a Marine sergeant was shot to death by a sheriff's deputy shows a white sport-utility vehicle slamming through a gate leading to the campus. A Sheriff's Department patrol car enters the San Clemente High School parking lot a short time later, and three more squad cars and an unmarked unit follow, the tape shows. The surveillance video, which was provided to The Times on Tuesday, captures what appears to be the minutes leading up to the fatal shooting of Sgt. Manuel Loggins Jr., a career Marine who died behind the wheel of his white GMC sport-utility vehicle with his young daughters in the back seat.

The exhibition game was meaningless, of course, a final practice as spring training ended and opening day beckoned. Even so, the 16,990 who saw the Angels defeat the Dodgers, 8-3, at Dodger Stadium — including Angels owner Arte Moreno — were treated to two did-you-see-that home runs courtesy of the Angels, at the expense of Dodgers starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. With the victory Wednesday afternoon, the Angels won the rubber game of the three-game Freeway Series ahead of the Dodgers' regular-season opener Thursday in San Diego against the Padres, and the Angels' opener Friday in Anaheim against the Kansas City Royals.

SEOUL — President Obama has said he plans to continue negotiations with Russia this year involving a U.S. missile defense system to protect Europe and is not trying to "hide the ball" in dealing with the matter. Obama said Tuesday that he wants to spend time this year working through technical issues with the Russians. In a private conversation made public by a live microphone, President Obama on Monday appeared to be putting off diplomatic talks with Russian leaders about the controversial missile defense system until after the November election, prompting quick attacks from the president's Republican rivals.

RALEIGH, N.C. - Rielle Hunter, former mistress of John Edwards, won ownership through a legal settlement Thursday of a tape showing her and Edwards having sex during his 2008 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Hunter had sued former Edwards aide Andrew Young and his wife in 2010 over the tape and other personal items the couple said she left in a box of trash. Hunter lived with the Youngs while she was pregnant, and Young initially said he was the father.

Parents may be applauding Tommy Jordan, the dad from North Carolina who famously shot his 15-year-old daughter's laptop with a .45 and made a YouTube video to prove it, but parenting expert Larry Winget says he should have skipped the gunfire and turned to duct tape instead. "To me it would have made more sense to take duct tape and wrap it up and show it to her," said Winget, the tough talking author of "Your Kids are Your Own Fault" and "You're Broke Because You Want to Be. " "And I would say look at what you can't have.

MLK: The Assassination Tapes infobox 2/12/12 'MLK: The Assassination Tapes' Where: The Smithsonian Channel When: 6 and 9 p.m. Rating: TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children)

Re "Callous disrespect taints a 'sacred day,' " column, Jan. 26 Thanks, Sandy Banks, for taking time to respond to Sundeep Bhatia's request to view the surveillance tapes of the ransacking of his 7-Eleven store following the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. parade, then writing about what you saw. The tape should be shown in all the surrounding schools, followed by a lecture on the values King professed and how hard Bhatia worked to improve his life...

There are only two things even remotely amiss with "MLK: The Assassination Tapes," a highly unsettling trip back in time that premieres Sunday on the Smithsonian Channel, 43 years and a day after the beginning of the sanitation workers strike that brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, Tenn., and his death. And they are small things at that. First, there is the slightly misleading title, which seems to imply a single cache of hitherto unsuspected, clandestinely recorded or revealing documents.