The Secret World of Celebrity Blackmail

July 9, 2007 — -- She's only been wearing her Miss New Jersey tiara for about a month, but already Amy Polumbo has been initiated into the world of celebrity blackmail.

Polumbo said last week that someone has threatened to reveal some of her personal photos unless she stepped down as Miss New Jersey by Friday. Polumbo refused, and the photos have still not been made public.

Last week Polumbo, her family and officials in the Miss New Jersey Education Foundation received packages with captioned pictures of her and friends that she may have posted years ago on a social networking site, along with a demand that she resign by Friday.

At a press conference Friday, Polumbo's lawyer, Anthony Caruso, said the beauty queen was more troubled by the "disgusting" captions that he said would make one look at the pictures "in an entirely different light" than the images themselves, The Associated Press reported.

Caruso told The Associated Press that the 22-year-old pageant star received a second package Saturday, with a threatening letter and what may be new photographs of Polumbo.

Caruso did not immediately return calls from ABC News.

Celebrity publicists and damage-control experts say most people in the public eye -- from the biggest stars to the lesser known like Polumbo -- are regularly threatened and hit up for cash.

"I don't know any celebrity in America that isn't shaken down for money, blackmailed, extorted -- whether they are male, female, gay, straight, young, old," said celebrity publicist Michael Levine, who has represented stars like Barbra Streisand, Michael Jackson and Michael J. Fox.

The packages sent to Polumbo appear to fit what law enforcement veterans say is a typical pattern in blackmail cases -- a series of escalating threats.

But law enforcement, publicists, security experts and the celebrities themselves differ about the best way to deal with these potentially compromising situations. The solutions vary according to who is being threatened and who is doing the threatening.

Some legal experts say that law enforcement and private investigators should be the first contacts when taking action against blackmail, and that it's better never to give in to a blackmailer's demands.

But to many celebrity publicists, blackmail damage control means dealing with the issue without bringing in outsiders. In a profession where image is everything, the costs of preserving one's reputation often makes the payoff a no-brainer, they say. Giving in to a blackmailer's demands may be the best way to ensure privacy.

"A lot of them settle and pay off the blackmailer because it's just not worth it to fight," said Levine.

The 22-year-old Polumbo's victory in the Miss New Jersey competition last month qualified her for the next Miss America competition -- and has raised her profile as a potential target.