It's fast becoming the hottest list in town—but one that celebrities definitely don't want to be on.
Following news that Britney Spears, Farrah Fawcett and Maria Shriver all had their private medical records pried on by unauthorized staffers at the UCLA Medical Center comes word that Tom Cruise, Mariah Carey, George Harrison and Mamas and the Papas mastermind John Phillips also had their files snooped.
A former employee of the facility, who was one of a group of workers fired back in 1995 for sneaking a peek at celebrity records, told the Los Angeles Times that the current wave of file breaches is hardly the security glitch the hospital is making it out to be.
"People knew that we were looking up celebrities and other patients," James Duckstad, who personally copped to having, "out of boredom," perused Cruise's and Dom DeLuise's records during his time at the hospital, told the newspaper.
"It was news throughout the whole hospital that employees were fired for screwing around in the computer. This was in 1995, and here we are 13 years later—and either they didn't follow the policy or people didn't take it that seriously."
The 1995 incident was hardly an anomaly.
According to the Times, back in 2001, Carey's records were improperly accessed by a psychiatric nurse, who not only glanced at the then-patient's file but asked the singer for her autograph and showed it to teenage patients. The nurse was subsequently fired.
The same year, employees were also caught tapping into the records of late Beatle Harrison, who was receiving chemotherapy treatment at the hospital, and the cancer-stricken Phillips, both of whom died in 2001. It's unclear if the workers were terminated or otherwise disciplined.
A hospital official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the paper that it was common knowledge, even seven years ago, that "there were people who were being paid [by tabloids] to look through records."
Earlier this month, it was revealed that some 30 famous patients at UCLA Medical Center have had their private files breached in the past year. An internal investigation at the hospital revealed that 61 other individuals—well-known and otherwise—had their records improperly accessed between 2006 and 2007.
In March, the hospital fired 13 workers and disciplined 12 others for needlessly cracking open Spears' files.
As for Fawcett, news of her cancer's return hit the National Enquirer just days after she herself learned of its resurgence and before she had the chance to inform her family and friends.
Administrative assistant Lawanda Jackson, who breached the file and resigned in July before UCLA had the chance to fire her, told the Times that personal curiosity sparked her misdeed, but she stayed mum on whether she sold details of the actress' records.
The hospital, meanwhile, said changes were already in the works.
"You have to believe me when I say we're taking this extremely seriously," UCLA Hospital System chief executive Dr. David Feinberg told the paper.
"Any breach, whether it's a movie star, a politician, a patient employee or any patient that comes to us, is extremely disturbing. We need to get down to the bottom of it."