John Travolta is on his way to the Bahamas to testify in the extortion trial of paramedic Tarino Lightbourne and his lawyer, Pleasant Bridgewater, who is a former Bahamian senator. The two are accused of trying to blackmail Travolta out of 25 million dollars after his son Jett’s death.
Tarino administered emergency aid to Jett when an ambulance was called to the Travolta family’s Bahamian retreat on January 2nd after Jett reportedly had a seizure then fell and hit his head in the bathtub. Allegedly, Tarino and Bridgewater later threatened to release information about Jett’s death to the press unless Travolta payed up.
I’m not at all sympathetic with someone who would attempt to blackmail a grieving father right after his son’s death, but it does make me wonder about the circumstances surrounding Jett’s death if some lowlife thought it would be worth $25 million to Travolta to keep the details a secret. If you remember, the Travoltas had always maintained that Jett had an illness known as Kawasaki Syndrome that they claimed caused Jett’s seizures. Many in the press claimed the illness was actually autism– a disease that Scientology does not acknowledge and for which Jett would not have received the treatment he needed.
The trial is slated to begin on Monday. It’ll be interesting to see what comes out of it.
In other Scientology news, Will-I-am-not-a-scientologist-Smith had some interesting deductions show up on his 2008 tax return. He donated over $100,000 to Scientology groups last year. That’s a lot of scratch for someone who’s not a level 3 grand inquisitor of the luminous realm (or whatever the hell their crazy titles are). 411mania also offers up this little nugget:
Smith also recently replaced the headmaster of his Southern California private school, The New Village Leadership Academy, with a new headmaster who has completed Scientology courses in the past.
Wait. Will Smith owns a private school??? How did I miss that one?
Why do all of your stories seem to be recycled from stories I’ve seen on other blogs three or four days ago? It would be great to see some new material.
stick to reading the other sites then. i read here cuz kelly and wendie crack me upppp!! way funnier than any other gossip site.
Well, you didn’t read that phrase anywhere three days ago. Scathing wit compensates for iffy news every time. High fives in Kelly’s direction.
The scary part is that I thought there for a second that “a level 3 grand inquisitor of the luminous realm” was a possibly real title…
payed? for god’s sake
you also missed that they did, in fact, say later that their son was autistic.
This seems like an incredibly dis-tasetful way to present a story about a father who has to relive the tragic death of his son.
I think the Travolta’s were incredible distasteful in denying their son was Autistic & not getting him the treatment he needed.
I think you are cold hearted.
distasteful*
I don’t know the details of this story, so I’m not gonna jump to conclusions, but IF (and I say IF) they withheld medication from their son because of their “religious” beliefs then they’re stupid as fuck and should be put in jail! Remember, I said IF they did.