( Mental Floss ) -- David Letterman has been in the news for helping police foil an alleged attempt to blackmail him , but the late-night star is hardly the first celebrity in this position . Celebrities ranging from Cameron Diaz to Elvis Presley have been victims in past extortion schemes . Here are a few brazen and mostly unsuccessful attempts to blackmail famous people . 1 . Bill Cosby Bill Cosby may be one of television 's most famous family men , but a 1997 extortion attempt tried to claim that his family was a bit bigger than anyone knew . That year , a 23-year-old woman named Autumn Jackson attempted to extort $ 40 million from Cosby in exchange for not telling the press she was the star 's illegitimate daughter . While Cosby admitted that he had an affair with Jackson 's mother and had given the woman and her daughter over $ 100,000 in support over the years , he flatly denied being Jackson 's father . Jackson 's timing probably did n't help , either ; Cosby received her demand the same day Cosby 's son , Ennis , was murdered . Jackson , who was convicted along with two accomplices , received a 26-month prison sentence . An appeals court briefly overturned the sentence in 1999 , but quickly reversed itself and sent her back to the clink . Mental Floss : 5 `` Cosby Show '' mysteries . 2 . Louie Anderson The hefty comic became a target for blackmail after allegedly propositioning a man in a Las Vegas casino in 1993 . At the time , Anderson was hosting `` Family Feud '' and starring in the cartoon `` Life With Louie . '' Rather than take a hit to his public image , Anderson shelled out $ 100,000 in hush money to his blackmailer , Richard John Gordon , to keep the story out of the tabloids . Gordon got greedy in 2000 , though . He came back to Anderson for another $ 250,000 , at which point the comedian went to the cops . Gordon ended up being arrested following a high-speed chase from the LAPD , and he eventually went to prison for the extortion attempt . 3 . Cameron Diaz A note to any aspiring actresses out there : if you 're planning on becoming famous , do n't pose for any nude photographs . Just ask Cameron Diaz . In 1992 , the young model let photographer John Rutter take nude and bondage-themed snaps of her in the hopes of making an entry into the artistic modeling market . Instead , Rutter sat on the photos until Diaz 's 2003 film `` Charlie 's Angels : Full Throttle '' was about to debut , at which point he made Diaz an offer : she could buy the pictures for $ 3.5 million , or he would sell them to magazines . Rutter claimed he had a signed release form from Diaz that allowed him to sell the pictures if he so chose . Rather than give in , though , Diaz alerted the authorities . It turned out that Diaz 's `` signature '' was a forgery , and Rutter was found guilty of attempted grand theft , forgery , and perjury . Although Rutter claimed that he was simply offering Diaz the right of first refusal for the salacious pics , he ended up getting a three-year jail sentence . Mental Floss : 11 pictures politicians regret . 4 . Elvis Presley J. Edgar Hoover 's FBI kept meticulous files on a lot of high-profile entertainers , including the King . When Elvis ' file found its way to the public , it revealed a number of blackmail attempts , including one particularly large case from when Elvis was serving in the Army . When Elvis was stationed in Germany in 1959 , he hired South African doctor Laurenz Johannes Griessel-Landau to carry out a series of skin treatments on his famous face and shoulders . After a month , Elvis and his entourage allegedly grew tired of Griessel-Landau constantly making passes at them , so Elvis fired the dermatologist . This angered the doctor , who then threatened to reveal compromising photographs and tapes of the rock star if Elvis did n't open his wallet , according to FBI files . Elvis held firm , though , and only gave Griessel-Landau $ 200 for the skin treatments and a $ 315 plane ticket back to London . The files also state that when Griessel-Landau came back for thousands of dollars more , Elvis refused , and the blackmailer -- who it turned out was n't actually a doctor after all -- eventually left the King alone . For more mental_floss articles , visit mentalfloss.com . Entire contents of this article copyright , Mental Floss LLC . All rights reserved .
There have been some unsuccessful attempts to blackmail celebrities . Bill Cosby was a victim in an attempted extortion plan for $ 40 million in 1997 . A photographer tried to blackmail Cameron Diaz with explicit photos of her in 2003 . Elvis Presely was reportedly a victim in blackmail in 1959 with pictures , tapes .