Who will get $25,000?
This is the version of the John Mayer mugshot posted on TMZ.com.
UPDATE: John Mayer just posted this on Twitter:
per @harveylevintmz, 25k to be split between two charities: Pet Orphans (http://bit.ly/PXG02) and Ace of Hearts (http://bit.ly/zgXv0).
John Mayer himself promised a $25,000 donation to charity in the event the John Mayer mugshot was found.
We’ll get into the possible reasons that he might have for offering to pay $25,000 for airing his, sort of, “dirty laundry,” but first, let’s talk about the challenge. And the twist!
The challenge
John Mayer issued this challenge via his Twitter account, posting this late last night:
Challenge: if Harvey Levin at TMZ can produce my mugshot, I will donate 25k to the charity of his choice.
Within 14 hours Levin did indeed find the John Mayer mugshot, and it was posted on TMZ. Apparently TMZ won’t be waiting around for an installment loan. Under the headline “John Mayer’s $25,000 mugshot,” the web site wrote “Time to fork over the dough, pal.”
The twist
After the John Mayer mugshot was posted on TMZ, they posted an update:
So The Smoking Gun put the mug up around 5 minutes before us. Before we had it in our hands, we put up a post saying we found the mug and the arrest in Atlanta … which we posted before they got the mug up.
So why would another web site bother to track down the John Mayer mugshot in response to him issuing a challenge specifically to Harvey Levin? Well, let’s ask them …
As you may have read, the musician John Mayer has offered a $25,000 charitable donation for the publication of a mug shot that was taken following his arrest several years ago. While he technically made this offer, via Twitter, to the gossip site TMZ, we figured it applied to any other bounty hunters. Like The Smoking Gun, for example.
A valid argument, I suppose, but I don’t think it’ll stand up in court. But what will John Mayer do? Will he stick to the letter of his challenge or the spirit? The part of TMZ’s post that says “we put up a post saying we found the mug and the arrest in Atlanta” is relevant because the toughest part of locating a mugshot is finding which police department has it. So, it’s possible the Smoking Gun saw TMZ write “Atlanta” and found the John Mayer mugshot after that.
The story behind the John Mayer mugshot
Tuesday, the frontman for Fall Out Boy was arrested on a two-year-old warrant for driving on a suspended license, and apparently that inspired John Mayer to reveal his criminal past on Twitter. Just before John Mayer issued the mugshot challenge, he posted this:
I was arrested for the same offense as Patrick Stump. (FTA). It’s the lamest answer to the question “why you in here?”
John Mayer was arrested in Atlanta in 2001 for driving without a license.
Why the challenge?
So why would John Mayer want to pay someone $25,000 to produce his mugshot? I actually think it a smart idea for a celebrity to lead the charge for getting his arrest record out there.
If a celebrity gossip site had gotten a hold of the fact that John Mayer (or any other celebrity) was arrested, regardless of what it was for, they’d have posted it with big, bold headlines revealing what he’d done, and that would be the story. John Mayer was arrested in 2001.
You don’t think so? Come on, we’ve all seen them post way lamer stuff. Anyway, now the headline is John Mayer mugshot means $25,000 for charity. What a brilliant way for him to put a very positve spin on it. And to get some extra attention right after announcing his next record’s release date. (It’s Nov. 17.)
