14 DAY TRIAL // Only days after confirming his engagement to celebrity tattoo artist Kat Von D, Jesse James is again at the center of a picture scandal, as more older shots of him doing the Nazi salute have emerged in the press.
As you may remember, shortly after news broke that James had been unfaithful to wife Sandra Bullock with tattoo model Michelle “Bombshell” McGee last year, a photo of him doing the “Sieg Heil” salute emerged.
At the time, Jesse James said nothing of it, but his rep did urge people not to jump to any conclusions based on one single photo.
It turns out that there are plenty more pics where that one came from – and Us Weekly already has a couple of them up online.
“After Us Weekly uncovered a 2004 snapshot of Jesse James dressed in a German Nazi hat giving a ‘Heil, Hitler’ salute last spring, the motorcycle mogul, 41, denied claims of anti-Semitism,” the weekly writes in a preview to its print issue.
“But now Us has discovered new, similarly disturbing images involving James, posted on Facebook by ex-employees of his company, West Coast Choppers,” the magazine goes on to say.
“In one pic, James grins and sits in a convertible alongside a pal who gives the infamous ‘sieg heil’ salute; another image features a children’s book character, Flat Stanley, dressed as Adolf Hitler,” Us adds.
And it’s not just two pictures that have come to light recently: apparently, there are several more, and Us promises it will include them in its latest print issues, which is now available at newsstands.
One of Jesse James’ palls, though, is adamant all this is just a show meant to intimidate people, he really doesn’t mean anything by it.
“He’s into history. The swastika deal is to scare people. It’s part of biker culture,” the friend, who chooses to remain anonymous, says for Us.
Even so, the timing of the release of these photos is quite suspicious, voices in the blogosphere are saying. Some celebrity bloggers even go as far as to say that Us probably had the photos from last year – and is only putting them out there now, riding the wave of James’ engagement news.