'SMOKING GUN' LOADED FOR COURT TV.

Byline: - Fred Shuster

Wanna drop a dime on a celeb - and you can back it up with facts? The gumshoes at the Smoking Gun are waiting.

The popular Web site, which unearths previously undisclosed legal mishaps of celebrities, is about to break even more new ground - on Court TV. Hosted by ``Daily Show'' political correspondent Mo Rocca, the quarterly ``Smoking Gun TV,'' which premieres Aug. 20, will showcase some of the incriminating material posted on the Web site since its inception six years ago.

``We have a large number of tipsters out there and, when they want to drop a dime, it seems very natural for them to go to the computer and send us an e-mail,'' said William Bastone, one of the site's co-founders, using the old street phrase for informing on somebody by making an anonymous call from a pay phone. ``There's stuff that's public, but you have to know where to look for it and want to spend time in the sub-basement of the local courthouse - which is a treat.''

Purchased in 2000 by Court TV co-owners AOL Time Warner, the Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com) digs up all manner of dusty documents and mug shots, providing a backstage pass to the legal problems of reality TV contestants, divorce settlements of the rich and famous, and contract demands of entertainers.

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Photo:

Mo Rocca