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Celebs Who Have Been Blackmailed

John Travolta

Following the unexpected death of his 16-year-old son Jett, a paramedic named Tarino Lightbourn allegedly attempted to extort $25 million from Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. The supposed blackmail involved a private medical document.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)

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John Travolta Following the unexpected death of his 16-year-old son Jett, a paramedic named Tarino Lightbourn allegedly attempted to extort $25 million from Travolta and wife Kelly Preston. The supposed blackmail involved a private medical document.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Michael Buckner/Getty Images)
Oprah Winfrey The talkshow queen was the victim of a $1.5 million extortion in 2007. Keifer Bonvillain allegedly demanded that she pay him in exchange for not leaking "damaging recordings of phone conversations" with an employee.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
Tom Cruise Tom Cruise and Kaite Holmes' wedding in Italy was one of the biggest events in 2006. Two men, David Hans Schmidt and Marc Lewis Gittleman attempted to extort $1.3 million from the actor in exchange for stolen wedding photographs of him and his new bride.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Jennifer Lopez Another wedding-related extortion plot rocked the world of newlyweds Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony. In 2006, an ex-con named Tito Moses pleaded guilty to grand larceny after trying to squeeze $1 million out of the couple to not release a stolen copy of their wedding video.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Gabriela Maj/Getty Images)
Clark Gable The iconic actor was the victim of six extortion plots between 1937 and 1940. The plots were seemingly unconnected, coming from all over the country including an ex-con who threatened to kidnap Gable and his wife Carole Lombard in 1940 and hold them for $15,000 ransom.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Getty Images/Getty Images)
Rob Lowe In April 2008, the "Brothers & Sisters" star went public with the fact that he and his wife had been blackmailed for $1.5 by a former employee who claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Lowe.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Bruce Willis Bruce Willis may play the tough action hero on the big screen, but in real life the actor found himself in the middle of an extortion case involving childhood friends and former employees. An old pal Bruce DiMattia, who was in charge of Willis memorabilia, was reportedly "overcome by greed and jealousy of his former friend's success," and demanded $100,000 not to go public with personal information in 2007.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. Bruce Willis (Photo by Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images)
R. Kelly R. Kelly is no stranger to scandal. During his 2008 child pornography trial a key witness is reported to have requested a pay-off to change her evidence on the stand.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images)
Cameron Diaz The always-perky Cameron Diaz dealt with an extortion scandal in 2003 that no doubt turned her famous smile into a frown. Photographer John Rutter claimed to have "private" modeling photos of the actress before she was famous and he demanded $3.3 million to keep them out of the public eye.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images)
Elvis Presley Even the King wasn't even safe from blackmail. One of the best known plots came from Laurenz Johannes Griessel-Landau, who Elvis hired in 1959 for skin treatments, but when Elvis turned down his advances he threatened to release compromising photographs and harmful secrets about Elvis to the press.

To see more, visit The Daily Beast's gallery of blackmailed stars. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
More Tales of Sc... Click here to see more tales of Tinseltown trainwrecks.

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