Sexting Scandal at Hearst
/FTVLive has warned you about sexting in the past, but it looks like one Hearst Executive didn't pay attention.
Page Six dishes that top Hearst executive Scott Sassa has left the company over a sensational extortion plot involving a Los Angeles-based stripper he was sexting.
Sassa — the high-flying president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication group who manages the company’s interests in ESPN, Lifetime and others — is quitting after the stripper forwarded sexy texts between her and Sassa to Hearst Corp.’s very conservative top brass.
Sources tell us Sassa, 53, who has held top jobs at Fox, NBC, Friendster and Marvel Entertainment, met the stripper in LA in December. They engaged in several steamy, illicit exchanges while arranging to hook up, and she sent explicit photos to him.
“She was texting him sexy pictures, and he was responding using words you absolutely would not want your bosses to see,” a source said, adding, “He was also communicating with many other girls in New York, and wrote crazy things to them.”
But the LA stripper, helped by a boyfriend, then tried to blackmail Sassa — a single father of two daughters — saying she’d expose their raunchy messages if he didn’t give her money. A second source said, “She made a list of demands.”
When Sassa didn’t pay up, the boyfriend e-mailed the sex-text exchanges to horrified Hearst honchos, including CEO Frank Bennack Jr., Hearst Magazines president David Carey and Michael Clinton, president of marketing for the magazines.
On Tuesday, Sassa was pulled into a meeting with Hearst suits, at which he was asked to resign. We’re told Hearst is preparing a “large compensation package for him to go away for a long time.” He left in a civilized manner yesterday.
Sassa didn’t respond to us, but updated his Facebook page to read, “former president of Hearst Entertainment.” A rep for Hearst said, “We don’t comment on employee matters.”
One source added, “Hearst prides itself on being a very ethical, clean-cut company. William Randolph Hearst must be rolling over in his grave.”