Apparently he shot himself. David Hans Schmidt, the publicist most famous for trying to blackmail Tom Cruise with stolen pictures from his wedding to Katie Holmes; just committed suicide; presumably unable to deal with the legal fallout of his failed extortion attempt. The 47-year-old was under house arrest and awaiting an October 11 court room hearing where he was to formally plead guilty.

Aside from trying to extort in-the-closet Scientologists; Schmidt had been involved in the distribution of the Dustin Diamond (yes Screech) sex tape; auctioning off the Paris Hilton diaries, trying to sell topless photos of freed POW Jessica Lynch, and representing such wholesome individuals as Tonya Harding and that black chick who gave Hugh Grant a blow job.

Anyway, as they say if you have nothing nice to say about the dead… well I guess that’s the end of the post.