Good News for Drunk Celebrities in California

No wonder the California State Assembly is always running late. Their wasting time drafting daft bills, like the one they recently passed (74-0) which aims to stop police from selling information about celebrities who get arrested. Mel Gibson's drunk driving and anti-Semitic obloquy last summer in Malibu prompted the legislation. Hours after his arrest, website TMZ.com posted parts of the police report, which was apparently leaked to the site.

"Mel Gibson was one of those cases where information was given out before his due process was executed," said the bill's author Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, who is a Democrat from Santa Monica (home to many Hollywood celebrities). The new measure calls for criminal charges to be brought against any officer who sells information about a case. Buyers would be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $1000. It now goes to the Senate and must be signed by Governor Schwarzenegger before becoming law.

In my opinion, this is a complete waste of time and tax-payer money. It's absolutely idiotic that California feels that it has to legislate common sense (why aren't the police departments just handling this internally?). TMZ cops a similar plea in their recent post titled "Ass-emblywoman Misses Point in Gibson Case." Here's TMZ's repsonse:

Mel Gibson had his rights violated after his DUI arrest and big, bad TMZ is responsible, according to California State Assemblywoman Julia Brownley. Brownley seems to think TMZ may have actually bribed someone to get the critical pages of the arrest report detailing Gibson's anti-Semitic tirade. Well, Brownley is an idiot. The Assemblywoman, inspired by TMZ's Gibson story, introduced a bill which was unanimously passed by the State Assembly, prohibiting the exchange of money or other compensation for information in criminal investigations. Here's the problem, Julia: TMZ didn't pay squat.

Bill targets sale of celebrities' criminal documents [Hollywood Reporter]
California to ban celebrity leaks [BBC]