It was back in August of this year that we last caught up with Ms. Fleiss in this column, at which point she was living a fairly low-profile life in Pahrump with her numerous adopted birds. We think she's still running her Dirty Laundry laundromat there, although the phone number for that business is no longer in operation.
It seems, however, that the former Hollywood Madam is unable to stay out of the headlines, whatever her intentions. Back in September she called the cops one night when her birds became agitated and she noticed a man in a car outside her house and feared it was a stalker. In fact, it turned out to be Nye County District Attorney Bob Beckett, who turned out to be drunk. It was the second DUI for Bob Beckett, who was also charged with drunk driving in 2008.
All remained quiet on the Fleiss front until Thanksgiving, when a morning fire destroyed much of her home, including almost all her clothes and her Tempur-Pedic mattress, and the guest house where all her pet birds lived, free range. It apparently started in a chimney that lacked a "spark arrestor," a device that prevents sparks from escaping the fireplace.
Fortunately, both Fleiss and her 20 exotic rescue birds were all unharmed and the latest we heard is that she's now signed a deal to shoot a pilot for Animal Planet based around her feathered friends, with production due to start in January.
Photograph appears courtesy of TMZ.com
