Celebrity Scandals

Carnival Corp. is offering the passengers on the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia a very special 30 percent discount to stay loyal to their brand, according to reports.

One stipulation: You must not be dead or missing to receive the deal.

“The company is not only going to refund everybody, but they will offer a 30 percent discount on future cruises if they would like to stay loyal,” a spokesman said.

We're sure people are absolutely blown away by such a deal.

Costa Concordia Passengers Escaping

The spokesman added that they've been contacting the survivors via phone after the vessel, captained horrendously by Francesco Schettino, capsized this month.

Schettino was released from jail last week and is currently under home arrest near Naples, Italy. He is being charged with manslaughter and abandoning ship.

'Of the 4,200 on board, 120 were Americans. In all, 13 people have died, and another 19,- including a retired Minnesota couple, remain missing early Monday.

O.J. Simpson is almost definitely not the father of Khloe Kardashian.

But if you listen to the quotes invented by a source The National Enquirer made up in its controversial new cover story, you may begin to have some doubts. Simply put:

"O.J. told me Khloe's his child," this anonymous insider tells the tabloid. "It was the big secret that no one in the two families would discuss. And Robert admitted he and Kris were not having sex at the time Khloe was conceived. O.J. bragged about his sex life and many female conquests, which he said included some of his best friends' wives."

It is true that Kris Jenner was friends with the accused murder, via her husband at the time, but their relationship was never the same after Nicole Brown Simpson was found dead in 1994. It's unclear why.

Adds this totally real source:

"He used to tell us way back - even before he and Nicole got divorced - that he had a love child with the wife of a wealthy family. But at the time of Khloe's birth, it would have been devastating for the news to come out that America's biggest sports hero had fathered a love child."

It's true. Thank goodness O.J. has kept his reputation intact since this time.

The Juice is currently in jail on an armed robbery conviction and is eligible for parole in 2017. We may need to wait until then for a definitive answer to the question of paternity.

Federal prosecutors have pulled the plug on Megaupload, a massive file sharing operation allegedly helmed by Alicia Keys' husband, producer Swizz Beatz.

Four executives were arrested in New Zealand and an indictment charging seven people with content piracy causing $500 million in losses was issued.

The indictment prompted hackers to seek immediate cyber revenge, with the shadowy Anonymous group claiming it crippled the Department of Justice.

The government site was inaccessible for hours Thursday.

"The Department is working to ensure the website is available while we investigate the origins of this activity, which will be treated as a malicious act until we are able to fully identify the root cause of the disruption," said spokesman Laura Sweeney.

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said it was also hacked in retaliation for Megaupload being shut down, but was back up Thursday night.

Beatz, whose real name is Kasseem Dean, was not named in the government's five-count indictment, despite being listed by Megaupload as its CEO.

The Beatz-master, who married Alicia Keys in 2010, was in recent talks to take a high-powered job at Megaupload, but a final deal was not reached.

Probably for the best in his case.

This doesn't make Kim Kardashian any less wooden or any less of a money-starved waste of large breasts. But the man running a website that encourages folks to boycott companies that employ the celebrity has been identified.

And he has a criminal record.

TMZ reports that the owner of BoycottKimKardashian dot com is named Frank Basti and he recently finished parole for a conviction of mail fraud. It stemmed from him sending false notices to car dealerships that claimed they had to cough up money to the DMV.

There's also a question over whether 650,000 people - as Basti claimed - have actually signed the petition, seeing as Compete.com (which estimates website traffic) says a total of 24,000 visitors went to the site in December. The ex-con argues that he's including past efforts, such as a Facebook campaign, with his numbers.

Still, nothing about Frank Basti changes anything about Kim Kardashian. She remains a personality-free, talent-free creation of her media savvy mother and the social network culture in which we live.

[Photo: WENN.com]

The saga of the ill-fated Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia took a bizarre new twist as its captain, Francesco Schettino, says he FELL into a lifeboat and did not abandon ship.

The captain claims he tripped on deck and tumbled overboard, only to wind up in a lifeboat during a panicky passenger escape, and did not abandon the vessel as accused.

The captain's newly disclosed account, reported by the newspaper La Repubblica, came as divers were forced to suspend rescue efforts around the half-submerged vessel.

Not helping his cause? An audio recording of officials ordering him to get back on:

Italian Cruise Ship Captain Audio Tape

The ship's instability, coupled with unideal forecasts of stormy winds off the Tuscany coast, raised fears the hull could slide into deeper water and sink for good.

Italy's environment minister, Corrado Clini, said structural damage to portions of the ship could cause "potentially dangerous consequences for the environment."

The Italian authorities revised the missing figure Wednesday to 26. The official death toll still stands at 11, and Francesco Schettino has plenty of explaining to do.

He reiterated that he did not plan to leave the ship as it tilted toward the water.

Travis Barker is doing all he can the public from seeing naked photos of himself and, for that, allow us to say the following to the veteran musician:

THANK YOU!

A handful of these images broke loose online yesterday morning, leading Barker's lawyer to fire off a cease and desist letter to any site that posted them.

Obtained by TMZ, it reads that the pics were over five years old, private and "never intended for public viewing or to be seen by anyone else." The letter also threatens anyone who posts them with a lawsuit, deeming the action "unauthorized use of private photos."

Barker's face is reportedly unseen, but the tattoos make it clear to whom the penis in question belongs. Some sites still have them live, and we'd link over to the shots... but, come on. Does anyone really want to see them?

[Photo: WENN.com]

Just 48 hours before the critical South Carolina primary, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich's ex-wife Marianne is criticizing the former House Speaker's character.

Marianne Gingrich says, in an interview airing tonight on Nightline, that Newt's professed positions on marriage and family values do not line up with his actions.

Their 18-year marriage ended in 1999, and during that span, Marianne says Newt Gingrich admitted to her about a six-year affair with a Congressional aide.

That woman is now Newt's third wife, Callista Gingrich. This is well documented, but it's a comment Newt allegedly made about it that's raising eyebrows:

He asked his wife if she would share him with Callista, according to Marianne.

"I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do.' He wanted an open marriage and I refused," Marianne Gingrich tells ABC News.

Marianne also details how Newt was conducting this affair while publicly condemning the unfaithful President Clinton for his lack of moral leadership.

“How could he ask me for a divorce on Monday and within 48 hours give a speech on family values and talk about how people treat people?” she said.

“Truthfully, my whole purpose is to get out there about who I am, so Newt couldn’t create me as an evil, awful person, which was starting to happen.”

It gets worse. Newt divorced Marianne months after she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, she says, and began dating her almost as scandalously.

What kind of a role did Jack Wagner play in Heather Locklear's recent hospitalization?

That's the question many are wondering now, considering a new report that links a violent fight between the soap opera actor and the former Melrose Place star prior to her overdose last week on a mixture of drugs and alcohol.

A source  tells Star Magazine that Wagner accompanied his on-again/off-again girlfriend to her house last week, in order to gather some belongings, when "a huge argument ensued."

"As Heather went to her car, Jack lunged at her, trying to grab or push her. Her reaction was to swing," the insider claims. "She caught Jack with a right hook across his face, knocking him to the ground."

This mole goes on to say that Wagner recovered; slammed Locklear into the car; and ran into the house. The police later arrived, but Heather said she did not want to press charges.

Kasey Kahl's arrest the other night allegedly came after he smashed a woman in the face at a nightclub. No, it was not Vienna Girardi ... but we wondered too.

The former Bachelorette and Bachelor Pad star was arrested early Sunday a.m. for drunk and disorderly conduct at Club Habano's nightclub in Fresno, Calif.

According to the police report, Kahl was accused of attacking a man named Richard Chaney outside the club ... then smashing Chaney's girlfriend in the face.

Cops say Renee Idsinga told them she and Cheney were leaving the club when a "very intoxicated" Kahl  began "talking s**t" and that she tried to break it up.

Chaney told cops Kahl had been running his mouth about having banged one of Renee's friends. No, he's not talking about Vienna Girardi there either, people.

Idsinga says her BF told Kahl to "stop being a d**k and stop talking to her" and that's when Kahl started striking Chaney several times in the face and head."

Idsinga told cops Kahl struck her in the face in the melee, causing her nose to bleed. She also admitted she scratched Kahl's neck in an effort to break it up.

Kahl admitted that he had "a lot" to drink but insisted he DID NOT instigate the fight. Instead, Kahl claimed, "It was self defense." He was arrested regardless.

The arresting officer noted, "Kahl made it a point to tell me that he was a celebrity on several shows including The Bachelor and Celebrity Couples Retreat.'"

Not true in either case, but point taken.

Andy Dick is back in the news, as is wont to happen every so often.

Predictably, the reason is not positive. The alleged comedian was accused of roughing up a tourist in Hollywood, according to law enforcement sources.

A male tourist recently filed a battery report with police, claiming a seemingly intoxicated Dick went off on him when he tried to snap the actor's photo.

After spotting the guy walking around in the famous Hollywood and Highland area, the tourist claims Andy grabbed him by his collar and tried to take his camera.

Police believe the fight was captured on tape and are interested in checking out the footage. Point is: Could be another Andy Dick mugshot coming our way.

Luckily, the tourist claims he managed to beat the Dick off, and it retreated.

So to speak.

[Photo: WENN.com]