Gary Coleman Death Photos Sold for $10K

Dying Pics of Gary Coleman Sold

Globe magazine's tasteless decision to buy photographs of Coleman's last moments alive for $10,000 could provide the tabloid with one of its best-selling issues ever.

"They are going to sell a crazy amount of magazines," a source that has seen the images tells me. "Yes, it's an ugly decision to run pictures of a man in his hospital bed minutes before he died, but dead celebrities sell."

A shocking photo of Elvis, lying dead in his casket at Graceland, published in the National Enquirer in 1977 was the first time a dead celebrity had ever graced the cover. That issue went on to be the biggest selling issue the National Enquirer ever produced. And when OK! magazine paid over $500,000 for a photo of dead Michael Jackson in 2009, it sold alarmingly well. However, running such an image isn't without its risks.

"Yes, you get one week of great sales, but forever on you are known as the magazine that will do anything to get people to buy it," a weekly magazine editor-in-chief tells me. "It's a desperate move that damages your brand in the long run," which is why the pictures of Gary went for only $10,000. His ex-wife, Shannon Price, will get a cut of that sum.

Shannon reportedly took and sold the photos of Coleman as he lay in a coma in the hospital. Since his death, various stories about her odd behavior during and after his hospitalization have come out. In the 911 tape from the day that Coleman fell and injured his head, Price seems reluctant to help the actor, stating she didn't "want to be traumatized right now" since she had a fever.

"He just got home, I heard this big bang, I went downstairs. Blood everywhere. I don't know if he's okay. I'm not down there right now because I have a fever, if I get stressed out I'm going to faint," she told the operator.

A magazine insider tells me that the Coleman photos "are so tasteless that none of the glossy magazines wanted to bid on them. This allowed Globe to get them so cheap."

Todd Bridges, who starred alongside Coleman in 'Diff'rent Strokes,' vented on Twitter about the photo leak, saying, "To find out pics of Gary Coleman in his last days got out I hope someone burns in hell for this one ... Only one person could be behind this and this is so dang sick to say you love someone and do this -- yeah right."

Shame on you, Shannon, for doing this, and you too, Globe magazine. Just because they were cheap and people will want to see them doesn't mean you should run them.

Popeater.com will not be showing them and certainly would never pay for any such pictures.

Cosmo Fights to Save Women

Cosmopolitan magazine, the world's largest-selling magazine for young women, and the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF), a leader in supporting cutting edge research, are teaming up to tackle the fastest-growing cancer in young women.

Kate White, Cosmo's dazzling editor-in-chief, tells me: "It's vital that women understand the very real health risks that come with a tan and that melanoma isn't a cancer that waits for people to grow old before it strikes."

Cosmopolitan has long been a powerful advocate for skin safety. In 2006, the magazine launched a Practice Safe Sun campaign. And just last year, the magazine conducted a hidden camera investigation of tanning salons with ABC News' '20/20,' which played a key role in introducing the Tanning Bed Cancer Control Act.

'Glee' star Kristin Chenoweth, who attended a luncheon yesterday to kick off the initiative, wowed the crowd with a surprise performance of 'You'll Never Know' by Michael Buble and dedicated it to her good friend. She told me: "Tanning beds were the cool thing in Detroit. I went on a first date to a tanning bed to get a 'savage' tan for the summer." Kristin now knows better.

Although my favorite quote came from New York Mets star David Wright, who told me he has sunscreen for all of his teammates in the dugout at every game. Now that's teamwork!