"Sarah Phillips," ESPN, and the HCwDB Connection
Many of you may have read yesterday about the strange story of “Sarah Phillips,” a mysterious online freelance columnist for ESPN who was investigated for hiding her real identity, or something to that effect.
And here’s a followup story on the strange construction of the online persona of “Sarah Phillips” from the Bleacher Report.
Sarah Phillips was subsequently let go by ESPN after the story broke.
Turns out she has a bizarre connection to HCwDB.
You see, “Sarah” was featured in one of the more hilarious pics from 2010, “Mandarin Orange,” pictured here. Allegedly, “Sarah” is the hottie on the right.
Things were bopping along smoothly, until, in mid April of 2011, the following email came in to me from an email account named “Sylvia Sanchez:”
———-
Hello,
I was recently informed by my employer that my image appears on your website in three locations:
(–links–)
I never authorized my image to be used on your website. I understand the purpose of the website is for comedy, however, I work for a very strict company and this type of publicity has me on the verge of losing my job.
Please remove the images immediately. I appreciate it.
Thank you,
SP
——–
When I asked which person she was in the pic, to confirm it wasn’t a prank, I got the following:
——–
I am on the far right. I am the rightful owner of this image. Whoever sent you this image stole it from my old MySpace page. It was not sent by any of the 3 of us in the image—if someone claimed to be one of us, then I would like their contact information and I will follow up legally with them.
(–links–)
Please remove the images. I don’t want to make this a legal battle for no reason.
Thanks.
—————
This was followed by various hysterical legal threats and three more followups over the next two days, until I finally cropped her out of the pic. I’m only posting it again since it’s already up at DeadSpin.
Here was the initial post with the edited pic (without “SP”) now in place. Here was Mandarin Orange competing for the 2010 Douchie Award for Orangest Orange (also with the pic replaced by the edited version). And here’s another hilarious pic of Mandarin Orange for no reason other than he’s really, really orange.
Not sure what to make of any of this, but for those investigating the bizarre online journey of one “Sarah Phillips,” this should make an interesting contribution to the conspiracy theory timeline.
How does he pull all the hotties?!? Either a very large schlong or very large bank account….take your pick.
@Anon, 11:39 a.m.: Bank account and PTP hotts. That’s my wager.
Yeah, she’s online in a few places…..
.
.
.
.
.
Boss, if it becomes necessary, I’ll understand if you have to yank this post.
yeah boss, saw the story yesterday, & immediately came to the conclusion that ‘sarah phillips’ was a coniving skank with no credibility or talent aside from convincing trusting twitter sports comics of ‘lending’ material to her ‘forthcoming’ website….scammer, with good looks & some possible charm. not surprised that there is a sleazy puppet master behind this empty headed blonde.
“It ain’t easy being Orange” – Mandarin Orange the Frog
“I work for a very strict company”
.
The Mouse does not take kindly to being scammed. She’d better be watching her back else she end up a the bottom of the Epcot Future World pool.
I’m very confused.
What is this “ESPN” of which she spoke?
I think it’s cool that Deadspin mentioned HCwDB. That site kicks major ass and they get in legal trouble, too. .
.<br
Why didn't they mention that Page 2 at ESPN.com was also where Bill Simmons lived until his excellent website, grantland.com was launched? Is there tension there?
.
.
Boobs
.
(busy fwapping because of yet another Vin Douchal post…..)
I won’t pretend to have read and understood the whole saga. It may not be an apt comparison, but there doesn’t appear to be much controversy surrounding Samuel Longhorn Clemens, and not many people accusing Mark Twain of being an imposter. There is a long list of writers, actors, and other famous and semi-famous individuals working under assumed names, sometimes of a different sex, religion, birthplace, history, etc.
.
As long as the publisher, in this case ESPN, is satisfied with the writing AND is satisfied not necessarily knowing the personal details of the author, I’d say no harm no foul.
.
This wouldn’t excuse email scamming or using another person’s image without permission… if indeed those things happened.
@Vin, that gif is hypnotic. Looks like French news hottie Melissa Theuriau. Is it?
HA! The joys of karmic retribution.
Apparently this happens a lot, too. People construct entire profiles based on Google Image searches and thus conduct business, get into relationships, whathaveyou.
A lady friend of mine even found out some guy was “dating” an online profile which took one of her pictures off the internet. Good times.
dude mc c…the broad was ‘borrowing’ material from others blogs & twitter acts for supposed ‘use’ on her web page & ‘rewriting’ the material for a national sports reporting co…she even went so far as to ‘adopting’ peoples twitter acts, including tens of thousands, of followers & collected revenue attributed to hits…
hardly a just comparision to Clemens or any other bonafied author!
…jus’ sayin’
however, I would still ‘christen’ her face & chest ‘Sarah Phillips in honour of my favorite nom de plume authors!
Good God Vin! Have you gone completely boobies? Not that I have a parablum with that, or bobbies. What?
.
Bonkers
Eh, the one on the left is cuter anyway.
Largeman sighting in Vin’s vid. Wearing a white t-shirt that only a Largeman could wear. And by wear, I mean get your fat ass out of my fantasy!
This post is longer than one of my stories.
@creature, I might have missed it, but I didn’t see any allegations of plagiarism? That’s normally easy to prove, and the mystery would have lasted all of about 10 minutes.
.
I did see some allegations of soliciting money for an upcoming web site which then never materialized. If this was a scam, then you are right. But the info was thin enough where I could imagine there is another side to the story. Whether it’s true or not, I’d be willing to bet she describes it as looking for investments for a real business venture, which unfortunately never took off.
.
I don’t have a dog in this race, though. I’m just putting another possibility out there while we wait for the next orange Julius mishap.
More bouncing boobies…..so it may be NSFW, but I guess that’s obvious, huh?
Real identity of the hottie in that photo: Ivy Smith
http://deadspin.com/5907081/sources-sarah-phillips-and-nilesh-prasad-picked-games-together-scammed-people-together-got-fired-from-t+mobile-together
http://www.myspace.com/90513625
wallnuts, your stories are great! Not like, Umberto Eco great, but hey, know what I’m sayin?
.
.
That was an excellent short story @1.26 – one for the short bus.
^ Well, now I know what the “T” in “T-Mobile” stands for.
This sounds like a case for…somebody else!
.
.
.
.
.
.
Using Google is too much work for me.
I’m hypnotized by boobs.
You guys mean to tell me there is deception and fraud on the internet ? No way, can’t believe it. I’m devastated.
How can we live in a world where I very well may be a 260 pound man yet on the internet I’m The World’s Sassiest and Laziest female detective?! Who would like to hire me to do absolutely nothing for them, sight unseen?
.
.
.
I do windows but not Windows.
Nancé, you gave your gender away by not requesting the second ée.
.
That’s French, je pense!
.
.
Mademoiseille
.
smiles, and guffaws at today’s issue of HCwDuckBags
@ Vin. Please. Stop. Can’t. Take. Eyes. Off. Winnebagos…
Never mind… I came.
That post was Sofa King pointless. Nobody cares.
Mexican jumping boobs. Is she sitting on a massage bed in the middle of the beach? Sara,just don’t tell anyone your photos are on the net. Most people just Google themselves anyways.
“I understand that this is a website for comedy”
She’s being extra nice.
hey Stephanie, mind if I call you … Stephannae? 😉
Are these alpacas? http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama
I’m confused. I got the chick in the yellow bikini if that helps.
Vin and Wheezer,
Fuckin A.
Oh, and whatever Cretaure’s first posting was.
I cant really think/type straight at the moment….I used to be an Ass man,,,,but,,,I mean,,,that was such a nice cross section of Natural Breasts.
You know, this guy could very easily be that colour because he’s had a common asian reaction to alcohol – flushing red. If so, then this post has gone wrong on more levels than you might have thought.
Just saying…
More lessons in cultural sensitivity. Thanks, Dry. Now let’s get back to directing constructive criticism toward beautiful women who, as far as we know are also highly intelligent and fine people, with men engaging in understandable, if unfortunately awkward, displays of machismo (who are also as far as we know highly intelligent and fine people).
.
Shall I register the new domain name, boss??
@ The Dude: hey Stephanie, mind if I call you … Stephannae? 😉
Yes,I do mind. Thank you.