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TomKat, the Feds, and David Hans Schmidt

By Steve Lange

You’ve probably heard the story: “Two men threaten to extort $1 million from Tom Cruise over leaked TomKat wedding pics.” You may not have known the Rochester ties.

Back in our July 2006 issue, we profiled David Hans Schmidt—the self-proclaimed “Sultan of Sleaze.”

Schmidt—the Rochester-born Dover-Eyota grad and former RCTC student—had brokered the Colin Farrell sex tape, released (very near the anniversary of Nicole Brown Simpson’s murder) a videotape of O.J. Simpson’s alleged sexual escapades, and was auctioning off the contents to Paris Hilton’s storage locker. And that was just in the month prior to the interview.  

Which seemed like a pretty big deal at the time.

Then, at the end of July of this year, Schmidt really hit the big time on his apparent quest to dominate the celebrity gossip market. Because there he was mentioned on Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, even Larry King Live. This time, though, the accompanying photo was a mugshot.

Here’s the Associated Press story:

“Two men were charged with plotting to extort more than $1 million from Tom Cruise for the actor’s stolen wedding photographs, federal authorities announced Friday [July 27]. David Hans Schmidt, known for brokering deals involving compromising celebrity photos and videos, and Marc Lewis Gittleman were arrested this week, according to a criminal complaint.

Gittleman, of West Hollywood, obtained photos of the actor’s 2006 wedding to Katie Holmes from the event’s official photographer, the complaint said.

The photographer, identified as Joshua Bobrove, reportedly had taken a damaged hard drive containing the wedding photos to Gittleman to employ his services as a data-recovery expert.

Gittleman then made copies of photos on the drive and kept them for himself, authorities said. He contacted Schmidt after finding a Web site touting his abilities to broker celebrity photos.

In the past two months, Schmidt had repeated contact with Cruise representatives and threatened to shop the photos around if he didn’t receive $1.25 million to $1.35 million, officials said. At one point, he allegedly e-mailed the actor’s representatives about 7,600 wedding photos as proof he had them.

‘He said that the client would turn to the black market and find a buyer for the photos,’ said Peter Brust, a special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

Schmidt, 47, was arrested after an undercover FBI agent attended a meeting in West Hollywood between Schmidt and Cruise’s representatives. Federal agents were led to Gittleman, 33, by a license plate number they discovered on a slip of paper in Schmidt’s car.

Schmidt also has tried to auction off Paris Hilton’s diaries.

Over the years, Schmidt has claimed to have brokered deals to sell a sex video of Dustin Diamond, who played Screech on ‘Saved by the Bell,’ and a video of skater Tonya Harding’s wedding night, according to published reports. He also claimed to have obtained topless shots of rescued U.S. Army POW Pfc. Jessica Lynch.

Schmidt was charged with sending communications for purposes of extortion, the criminal complaint said. Gittleman was charged with conspiracy to commit extortion.”

For the archived version of our July 2006 story “The (self-proclaimed) Sultan of Sleaze,” check out http://www.rochestermagazine.com