Costner Computer Thief Pleads Guilty
Here comes the bride. There went the laptop.
The hairdresser hired to primp Kevin Costner's guests before the actor's 2004 nuptials pleaded guilty Monday to stealing a laptop computer from Costner's Aspen-area home. The pilfered Mac contained digital photos from Costner and Christine Baumgartner's Sept. 25, 2004, wedding.
Pascal Bensimon, 45, who once denied having anything to do with the laptop's disappearance, copped to a misdemeanor charge of theft after striking a deal with prosecutors.
The Moroccan-born stylist was ordered to pay $1,500 in restitution--the price of the swiped Apple PowerBook--and sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation and 25 hours of community service, which presumably can range from feeding the homeless to giving free highlights. Then again, $1,500 only equals a handful of haircuts at Bensimon's swanky Aspen salon, Haute Coiffure.
"I'm sorry for all of the trouble I've caused," Bensimon told Pitkin County (Colorado) District Judge James Boyd after writing out a full confession.
Bensimon's lawyer, Pamela Mackey (who defended Kobe Bryant when he ran into a little legal trouble in Colorado in 2003), told Judge Boyd that she had considered challenging the legality of the search that led to the laptop's whereabouts, according to published reports, but she and her client ultimately agreed to make a deal.
A master thief Bensimon is not. About a month after the wedding, the hairdresser's son contacted Apple for technical support, claiming to be the laptop's owner. Of course, to get service, the young'un had to read off the computer's serial number. The police were also tipped off by one of Bensimon's employees, who said she spied the laptop a week after the wedding.
Meanwhile, the Upside of Anger star hired a private security consultant to track down the AWOL laptop. During an interview with Bensimon, the investigator--posing as a journalist--asked to see pictures of the wedding. When the hot-handed hairdresser whipped out the missing Mac to share the pics, the faux reporter quickly matched the serial numbers and contacted authorities. (Costner also reported that a digital camera was missing, but that item has not been recovered.)
When confronted, Bensimon said he took the computer because he was miffed by the treatment he received from "the woman responsible for the Costner wedding," according to a police report. Well! And wedding planners are supposed to be the calm, collected ones...
The stylist, who turned himself in and was released on $5,000 bail, initially told the Aspen Daily News that he had been drugged during the ceremony (from all of the hair spray fumes, perhaps?) and not only didn't he steal a computer, he wasn't even conscious for most of the festivities.
But now that the PowerBook has been recovered, here comes the hard part for Costner and his bride: finding the time to properly organize all of those wedding pictures.
Maybe there will be some spare time after Costner finishes shooting The Guardian, in which he plays a veteran Coast Guard rescue swimmer who trains a bunch of newbies, including Ashton Kutcher. The film is set for a September release.
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