Friday, January 8, 2010

Tila Tequila accused of cashing in on lover's death

The friends of late socialite heiress Casey Johnson have turned on her lesbian lover Tila Tequila, accusing the reality TV star of cashing in on her girlfriend's death.

As Ms Tequila seemed to enjoy the attention of photographers outside her home a little too much yesterday, Ms Johnson's long-time friend Courtenay Semel lashed out.

'The thing I find the most sickening is that the media is giving [her] the one thing she craves: attention. Tila, you knew her for a week,' she told People magazine.


Getting over it: Tila Tequila seemed cheerful posing for photographers outside of her home yesterday despite the recent death of her fiancée Casey Johnson


Peculiar pose: Ms Tequila climbed a tree and wore a broad smile yesterday

And Jasmine Lennard, the British model who had Ms Johnson arrested for grand theft, was even more outraged in her attack on Ms Tequila.

'You NEVER even knew her,' she wrote to Ms Tequila in a post on her own Twitter page.

'You have known her for a total of one month you took advantage of someone in her weakest moment.

'You enabled her death and prevented her getting the help she SO DESPERATELY needed for YOUR OWN selfish purposes.

'She was a classy woman who would NEVER have had ANYTHING to do with you had she been in her right mind. You took advantage of a sick girl... Shut your mouth back the f*** off and have some respect. Let her pass with dignity now not attached to ur smutty name... Disgusting little girl.'


Distraught: Ms Tequila looked upset on Wednesday as she arrived Ms Johnson's house to clear out the heiress's belongings

The New York-based blog Gawker also slammed Ms Tequila's 'obvious attempts to capitalize on the publicity surrounding the death of a person she has known only since early December,' adding: 'Tila is either extraordinarily unwell herself or the most desperate attention-starved slug that the Celebrity Industrial Complex has ever spewed forth from its cogs.'

Ms Johnson, 30, an heiress to the £110bn Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical empire, was found dead in her West Hollywood home by a housekeeper on Monday.

Sources say the 30-year-old socialite's life had been spiralling out of control amid a series of drunken binges and erratic behaviour.

She had reportedly refused many offers to go into rehab for drug abuse leading her billionaire father, Robert, to cut her out of a trust fund.

Last month, her mother, Sale, took custody of a three-year-old girl that Miss Johnson had adopted from Kazakhstan in 2007.

She and Ms Tequila, the star of an MTV reality show called A Shot At Love With Tila Tequila, had announced they were engaged several weeks ago.

The pair had just met in early December, according to media reports.

It was Ms Tequila, 28, who announced the death of her fiancée to the world on her Twitter page.

Since then she has accused Ms Johnson's family of wanting to put the heiress's pet dogs down 'to bury them with Casey', a claim the family has flatly denied.


Farewell: Casey Johnson's girlfriend Tila Tequila's Twitter tribute

She has also claimed to be meeting with the family - which they have also flatly denied.

They are likely to be even less impressed by these pictures of Ms Tequila, who doesn't seem to be overburdened with grief as she posed in skimpy top with her bra and cleavage clearly on display.

And she has been in a stand-off with many of Ms Johnson's friends, posting bizarre messages on Twitter about her relationship with the socialite.

The couple are believed to have rowed in the days just before Ms Johnson's death.

Yesterday Ms Tequila released an exclusive video with showbusiness website Radaronline in which she declared her love once again for Ms Johnson.

'There's so much chaos going on right now without you here and I just wish you were here,' she says to Ms Johnson in the video.

'All I know is that your love is right here with me, always, and I know that you know that I love you. And I know that you love me.

'I miss you and you'll always be in my heart and I will always love you.'


Row: Casey Johnson, 30, left, who was engaged to reality TV star Tila Tequila, is said to have had a fight with her fiancee days before she died

Ms Semel is not the only person to have attacked Ms Tequila. Billy Bush, host of Access Hollywood, has tweeted: 'Gross... claims 2 b mourning fiancée but seems 2 b pumping her new gossip blog'.

Ms Tequila is defending herself against claims that she ignored warning signs in the days leading up to Ms Johnson's death from a suspected drugs overdose.

'I was the ONLY one who was constantly checking on my Wifey cuz I knew something was wrong," she wrote on Twitter yesterday. 'I was out of town 2 meet my Brother. I have all the text messages to prove it!'

And in November she was arrested for allegedly stealing designer clothes from the home of Jasmine Lennard, a British model.

An autopsy held on Tuesday was inconclusive. The coroner has deferred declaring a cause of death until toxicology results are completed, which could take up to a month.