Actor Sylvester Stallone reportedly paid out millions of dollars to his own sister in an alleged blackmail scam.
At the height of Stallone’s fame , his half-sibling, Toni-Ann Filiti, threatened to ruin Sly’s career, prompting him to hand her a multimillion dollar payday in the 1980s and a subsequent monthly income including a trust to cover her medical expenses (Filiti died of lung cancer last year at the age of 48).
A representative for the actor confirmed the payout and revealed that Filiti blackmailed Stallone over a series of false allegations of physical abuse, reports MSN .
A source tells The New York Post ‘s gossip column Page Six : “Unfortunately, celebrities, politicians and athletes frequently find themselves the targets of blackmail efforts by family members and associates who fabricate claims in order to extort payments from them.”
Stallone’s mother, Jackie, has also opened up about the blackmail plot, saying that Filiti was addicted to prescription drugs and that the Rocky star was only trying to help her.
“This was nothing more than a shakedown. Toni-Ann was on 65 Oxycontin pills a day, and she threatened Sylvester. A drug addict will do anything. When Sylvester became famous … He was trying to help her. He caved in … At the time [in 1987] he was very hot, and his lawyers said, ‘Give her something just to shut her up.’ ”
That’s a lot of “something” just to “shut her up.” Seems a bit fishy to me. Add to the pot Filiti’s 19-year-old son, Edd, who says: “They’ve made my mother out to be the black sheep,” saying that Filiti continued to talk about the abuse allegations by “screaming about [them] over and over” in a Florida hospital last year.
What do you think? Are you surprised that Sylvester Stallone was blackmailed by his half-sibling, Toni-Ann Filiti? Do you think there’s more to the story?