Leann Rimes Sex Tape

Who? Country singer.

Real? No.

In early June 2011, Star magazine reported that Leann Rimes was attempting to block release of a “provocative seminude video of Leanna with ex-husband Dean Sheremet”. The footage had supposedly been found in a moving truck by some third party. The Star story got repeated, and embellished into a full-blown “sex tape”, all over the gossipsphere.

Leann Rimes denied the rumor on Twitter:

I hear there are rumors of a “sex tape” I have never filmed myself having sex on tape, period. Haven’t joined that club LOL!

On June 14, Gawker semi-debunked the Leann Rimes sex tape story. There really was a video of Rimes, which a third party really claimed to have found in a moving truck. However, the video did not include any sex or even nudity, just Rimes changing clothes while Sheremet filmed her.

The story apparently originated on a college sports message board, where user OneMoreVol posted in a thread about Rimes:

Sometime around 2008 I found the memory stick to a digital camera. Took it home and watched it and it had about ten, 15-20 sec videos of her shot by her then husband. She’s in her bedroom changing clothes trying to find an outfit for some court case. She definitely wasn’t as skinny as the pics in this thread and had a lot of cellulite. There was a mirror behind her so you can see her husband holding the camera and he is talking like a baby to her. Kinda a creepy. I kept the memory stick in case I could ever sell it but haven’t tried.

OneMoreVol posted three video captures from his found video. The Star‘s description of “provocative seminude video” was sensationalistic but not wholly inaccurate. Gawker tracked down the three video captures, which clearly don’t show any actual sex.

Kudos to Gawker for solid investigative journalism on an admittedly frivolous topic.

Leann Rimes dissed the sex tape hype and its gossip media purveyors:

Since when is changing in front of a mirror in a thong a “sex tape?” The fact that someone has STOLEN a tape of private moments of when I was 18 and is trying to profit off of it is sick and the fact that the media is trying to make more of it than it is, a few private moments of me changing and joking around is misleading and wrong. Once again, I have never filmed myself having sex period. All I know is you see more of me on a beach in a bikini. Moving on, so should everyone else!

OK, we’re moving on.