law suit Archives

The moral of this story seems to be, if you’re going to use a person as a decoy for a famous person, ask first. Don’t just pick the person out of a crowd and let her or him be surrounded by paparazzi while the celebrity gets to trot off without being noticed.

This is exactly what happened to Adessa Eskridge, a woman from Ohio who happened to look a bit like Jamie Lynn Spears, AND, as fate would have it, be on Jamie Lynn’s flight. I wrote about this and similar celebrity excitement that goes on at LAX in a post last September. Back then, I didn’t know the story behind this story.

While Eskridge was minding her own business, just being her pretty self, the LA police noticed her, and according to this article, surrounded Eskridge as she got off the airplane. The eight or nine officers directed her to keep her glasses on and led her to baggage claim where the paparazzi snapped her picture. In the meantime, Jamie Lynn was able to trot off with her new baby without anyone noticing.

According to Eskridge, the police didn’t tell her what they were up to until right before the moment the paparazzi swooped in. Even though she was beyond confused, she went along with them. After the incident, Eskridge decided she’s not too pleased to have been used in this way. It caused her mental anguish and upset. As a result, she wants the LA police department to pay her more than $100,000 for her efforts. If the police department won’t pay up, she’s suing.

While reading the details, I’m thinking that getting hired out to be a celebrity decoy could be a plausible job in these days of celebrity love. Wouldn’t it be a cool job to look like someone else so that your picture could end up on the cover of a magazine next to the check-out line at the supermarket and you’d get paid for it? Particularly if you get to travel to some exotic locations in order to throw off the scent.

In Eskridge’s case, since she didn’t sign up for the job, if the police won’t pay up, maybe Jamie Lynn could get Eskridge a nifty gift as a way to thank her for a few hassle free moments.

What strange things have been found on planes?

Ivana, Ivana, Ivana, you do not – I repeat – you do NOT call a child a barbarian. Out loud. On a flight. Oh sure, you can think it, we’re all probably thinking it, but to outright say it….I don’t think so. Not a good idea.

Now I probably would not have believed this story about a passenger who is suing Ivana Trump for calling his two adorable children names – ages 3 and 18 months – or the fact that Ivana has filed her own counter suit against the passenger who created those little barbarians. But the fact that the word barbarian was used to describe two little children, well…that is just so so wrong. Which only means it has to be true!

I mean who else but Ivana would use such a word? Brat. Fine. Terror. Okay. Monster. Sure. But barbarian? That’s a bit much, don’t you think? Which is exactly why I believe this outlandish story. And why I’ll be using the word barbarian as often as I can throughout this post. And on my flights. But only to myself. And maybe the crew. Possibly you. But that’s it.

So anyway, after the children were told to shut up – oh yeah, that’s what Ivana apparently said – the parents asked the flight attendant to get the Captain.

The Captain?

Ummm….okay.

Man oh man, I would have loved to have seen how the Captain handled that little situation. I wonder what our own pilot, Kent, would have done?

Now when I imagine a barbarian passenger, I do not think of two little kids, no matter how terrible they may have acted at 35,000 feet. Oh no. The thought that comes to my mind is a visual of the guy who was sitting in the row behind and across the aisle from me on my flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles last Wednesday. Now that, dear readers, was a barbarian.

He, the barbarian who was big and bald with one of those weird little hair patches sprouting off his chin, had the audacity to ring his call light and yell at the teeny tiny flight attendant for ten minutes about the thirty minute delay we took on the ground. This took place after he had already called the airline while we were on the ground to find out why, EXACTLY, we were still on the ground.

What I wanted to know was why, EXACTLY, he was using his cell phone when were on the tarmac and about to takeoff. And what, EXACTLY, he was trying to prove by pushing his weight, all 250 pounds of it, around.

Of course ripping the airline a new one wasn’t enough. He then went on to complain to the man wearing the dark blue designer jeans sitting beside me about the thirty minute delay. On and on the barbarian went as Mr. trendy nodded in agreement. When he finally stopped, it was only because he had another delay on another airline to complain about, and so on, and so on, until it was finally our turn to grab our things and deplane the aircraft.

“I (BLEEPING) hate this airline,” he growled, as he stepped aside to allow his nine year-old daughter into the aisle.

Barbarians, I tell you, they’re (BLEEPING) everywhere.

You think she’s bad? Get a load of what these women did!