SOUL RECKLESS 08: Adrienne Bailon 'Cheetah Gone Wrong'

When the Disney Channel launched the Cheetah Girls project several years ago it was heralded for its diverse cast, family oriented content and ensemble cast that included Raven Symone and two former 3LW members Kiely Williams and Adrienne Bailon.

Four years later, the Disney Channel and its promotions team found themselves in an un-patchable position – “Cheetah Gone Wild”.

Alright, so that’s not the full story but in essence Adrienne Bailon of the Cheetah Girls, which by this time had been slimmed down to a trio (Raven Symone pursued other projects after the second film was released in 2006), pulled what some have called a ‘Kardashian,’ Kim Kardashian that is, by attempting to use nude images of herself for publicity.

Jonathan Jaxson, who claimed to be Bailon’s spokesman, blew the whistle just as the photos hit the internet in November stating: "The photos that have surfaced of Adrienne Bailon were stolen from her laptop over a week ago at an airport in NY and sent to several media outlets. These photos were taken in private. Adrienne will be pursuing legal action against the person or person's sending these private photos out. Adrienne is deeply sorry for any pain this may have caused to her fans."

Much to the dismay of parents, who had purchased tickets for the Cheetah Girls One World Tour, named after the third Disney Channel Movie, several photos of Bailon circled nearly every blog on the internet leaving ticket holding parents furious. Some parents reported having to explain the situation to their daughters who heard about Bailon’s photos from friends.

Not even a week later, Jaxson, who was found out to be behind Kim Kardashian’s rise to reality tv and other projects, put the Cheetah Girl on blast by owning up to the planned stunt.

“Purely attention,” Jaxon told a CBS affiliate.

“What better way to do that than to say that the nude pictures could have been stolen from her laptop?”

With the cat out the bag, Bailon was rumored within days to have received a contract from Playboy. While the singer has remained mum about the deal, sources at Page Six said Bailon was offered $100,000 for “stylish photos with full nudity in sufficient quantity and quality”.

As of December, Bailon had not been booted from ‘The Cheetah Girls’ tour, nor has a statement concerning the stunt been issued. Bailon and her Cheetah pals did however loose a performance slot at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in Chicago.

As 2008 comes to a close, we’re not sure where Bailon is headed in the New Year, one things for sure – the former 3LW star capped off the year with a bang.

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