L.A. madam's 'trick book' is unsealed
Jody 'Babydol' Gibson's list of alleged clients includes Tom Lasorda and Bruce Willis. They both deny using her services.
By Chuck Philips, Times Staff Writer
February 27, 2007
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When Hollywood madam Jody "Babydol" Gibson was busted eight years ago, word that police had seized her list of celebrity clients stirred intense curiosity in Hollywood — and not a little worry.
The much-anticipated disclosure of famous names never occurred, however. The evidence presented to the jury that convicted Gibson in 2000 of operating an international prostitution ring included phone books and other records in which, prosecutors said, she listed her customers. But authorities blacked out the names in publicly available court records.
Now, their identities are entering the public domain.
In "Secrets of a Hollywood SuperMadam," an autobiography due in bookstores Thursday, Gibson names two dozen celebrities she says patronized her call-girl service.
Many of the names also appear in her phone books, a payment log and other records from the case that have been unsealed by Los Angeles Superior Court and can now be viewed in unredacted form.
A review of the court file shows that Gibson listed actor Bruce Willis; former Dodgers Manager Tom Lasorda; Steve Jones, the Sex Pistols guitarist and KDLE-FM (103.1) radio jock; and the late film producer Don Simpson, among others.
Willis and Lasorda said through their lawyers that they never used Gibson's service and had no idea why their names appeared in her records. They accused Gibson of exploiting their fame to boost her book sales.
"I have never heard of this woman and don't know why she would accuse me of something like this," Lasorda said in a statement issued by his attorney, Tony Capozzola. "But if she prints these lies, I intend to sue."
Willis' attorney, Marty Singer, said: "The story is a complete fabrication. [Willis] doesn't know this woman. He's never even spoken to her."
A former lawyer for Simpson said the producer, who died in 1996, never patronized Gibson's business.
Jones said he might have used Gibson's escort service. "It's possible," he said. "I crossed paths with her back then. She was a madam, but if I remember right, she wanted to be a singer in a band."
Authorities never prosecuted any of Gibson's clients, and there is no independent evidence that the men she listed actually patronized her service.
A political figure whose name appears is Ben Barnes, a former lieutenant governor of Texas, who drew attention during the 2004 presidential campaign by saying that he helped a young George W. Bush enter the Air National Guard to avoid the Vietnam-era draft.
The Times reached Barnes by calling a cellphone number listed beside his name in Gibson's records.
"I have never met or talked to this broad in my entire life," Barnes said. He said he could not explain why his cellphone number was in her files.
Gibson's "California Dreamin' " prostitution ring operated in 16 states and in Europe, employed porn stars and Playboy models, and charged customers as much as $3,000, according to trial testimony.
During her trial, prosecutors introduced her phone books and other records as evidence and called a vice officer to testify about their importance to the case. Police referred to the materials as Gibson's "trick book."
At the time, the district attorney's office successfully fought efforts by The Times and other news organizations to obtain an unredacted version.
Checking court files last week, a reporter found that court officials had unsealed the records once Gibson's legal appeals were exhausted.
The secrecy that surrounded the "trick book" during the trial prompted accusations that then-Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti was shielding influential Angelenos from embarrassment.
Gibson's files include two men who were major contributors to Garcetti's 2000 reelection effort: Maurice Marciano, founder of Guess Inc.; and Steven Roth, producer of "Last Action Hero."
"This is beyond belief," Marciano said when asked for comment. "I can't imagine how my name got mixed up in this. Who is she? That's a very gutsy lie for someone to tell, don't you think?"
A reporter reached Roth by calling a cellphone number in the trick book. Told that Gibson had listed him among her clients, Roth said, "Is that right?" and hung up.
Garcetti, now president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission, said he had "absolutely zero recall of this case."
Gibson, an aspiring singer who used the nicknames Babydol and Sasha, was convicted of three felony counts of pimping and sentenced to three years in prison. She served 22 months in the Central California Women's Facility at Chowchilla, a maximum-security prison where she was battered by another inmate. She was released in 2002.
Her autobiography, published by Corona Books, will be available Thursday for downloading, chapter by chapter, at
Super Madam Secrets .
chuck.philips@latimes.com
L.A. madam's 'trick book' is unsealed - Los Angeles Times
With 31 chapters available at $2.99 that's not much book for over $92!!! I guess we'll get the rest of the dirt over the coming weeks......
Former madam's little black book spills Hollywood's golden secrets
By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
Published: 28 February 2007
Heidi Fleiss always kept the names of her celebrity clients a secret. But Jody Gibson, the Hollywood madam who picked up much of Fleiss's business after she was jailed, is about to tell all - naming two dozen figures from the worlds of entertainment, politics, business and sport she claims were clients of the worldwide prostitution service she called California Dreamin'.
Gibson, known as Babydol or Sasha, is about to publish an autobiography entitled Secrets of a Hollywood SuperMadam in which she opens her "trick book" wide open. The same information has emerged through recently unsealed files from her 2000 trial, in which she was convicted of running a prostitution racket. She served 22 months of a three-year sentence.
Already, the denials and threats of libel suits have started flying. "The story is a complete fabrication," said Marty Singer, one of Hollywood's toughest legal sharks speaking on behalf of his client Bruce Willis.
"I have never heard of this woman and don't know why she would accuse me something like this," said a lawyer for Tommy Lasorda, a legendary, teddy-bear like figure in baseball and the former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Chuck Philips, a veteran Los Angeles Times reporter who discovered the unsealed file in the records of the Los Angeles Superior Court, talked to several of the high-profile names and heard a variety of denials, expressions of bafflement and at least one teasingly vague semi-admission.
"It's possible," Steve Jones, the Sex Pistol turned DJ, told him. "I crossed paths with her back then. She was a madam, but if I remember right she wanted to be a singer in a band."
Ben Barnes, a former lieutenant governor of Texas, said he had no idea how his mobile phone number, which still works, ended up in Gibson's files, and claimed he had never met her. Steve Roth, a producer responsible for the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero, also had his mobile phone number in the trick book. Told by Mr Philips that he was listed as a client of Gibson, he responded, "Is that right?", and hung up.
Roth is one of two men named in the file who contributed to the Los Angeles district attorney's re-election fund in 2000, a fact that Gibson's lawyers tried to use at trial as a way to dismiss the entire thing. The judge, however, kept proceedings on a very tight lead. He withheld the "trick book" evidence from public view and refused to allow Gibson to tell the court that she had had an affair with a Beverly Hills policeman who, according to her, had shielded her from prosecution for years. And the judge also disallowed evidence from the undercover policeman who caught her in a sting operation and had perhaps just a little too much fun doing it.
As laid out in the court papers at the time, the undercover officer hired two of Gibson's girls on taxpayers' money, stripped naked on both occasions and accepted back rubs and other physical favours before making his arrests.
Gibson ran California Dreamin' from a hotel in the San Fernando Valley, the suburban sprawl north of the Hollywood Hills which is also home to America's biggest porn film industry. She charged clients as much as $1,000 a night, keeping 40 per cent of the proceeds for herself, according to the court testimony.
Gibson had ambitions to be a singer, as Jones correctly recalled, releasing a single entitled "Good Girls Go To Heaven, Bad Girls Go Anywhere". It was not a success, despite heavy promotion on Los Angeles advertising boards. The trial judge, listening to her story of trying to break into the music business, called her "tragic and pathetic". She also tried to set up a deal with a music producer called Joseph Isgro, who subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of extortion in a music business kick-back scandal involving the Gambino mafia family.
Former madam's little black book spills Hollywood's golden secrets - Independent Online Edition > Americas
Is Jody Gibson the new Heidi Fleiss? Trick book records unsealed by court
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