Good old USA; if George W Bush wasn’t enough to keep us entertained with his public gaffes here’s something else. They say life imitates art (if you can call Anchorman art).

Larry Mendte a former CBS3 Philadelphia news anchor, allegedly hacked into his former co-anchor Alycia Lane’s (both pictured) personal email accounts 537 times since January 2008 and leaked the contents of some of those emails to the press. He is now being charged with one felony count of intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and is expected to plead guilty! And here’s the interesting bit…

According to Lane’s attorneys, Mendte, insanely envious of Lane’s salary of $780,000, (aparrently he earned about $100,000 less), obtained Lane’s passwords and embarked on a campaign to sabotage her career. He used to compulsively check Lane’s emails from, well everywhere – work, home, holidays and even his country club.

Adding to the farce, Alycia Lane unwittingly assisted Mendte in his plot to undermine her by sending pictures of herself in a bikini to another news anchor Rich Eisen from NFL Network, who just happens to be married. Oh yes, these were then intercepted by Eisen’s wife whose response (which ended up in the New York Post and seems fair by all accounts) was:

Boy, do you look amazing in a bikini . . . congrats! Whatever you’re doing, (Pilates? yoga?) keep doing it – it’s working for you. Anyway, sorry but those seven e-mails you sent to my husband, Rich, well, oops, they came to the e-mail address we both use from time to time, but no worries, I’ll forward the beach shots as well as the ones of you dancing with your friends on to his main address. Do you have it?

Other interesting details also arose from privileged communications between Lane and her Lawyer which Mendte is also alleged to have leaked. Lane allegedly attacked a police woman and accidentally called her a "dyke b*tch.

Ron Burgundy and friends, welcome to the real America.

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