One of the strangest scandals in Hollywood history happened when Eddie Murphy was caught picking up a transsexual prostitute named Atisone Seiuli in West Hollywood. Murphy claimed he was being a Good Samaritan and giving Seiuli a ride but few believed that explanation.

In 2001, a Hollywood fixer named Paul Baressi talked about his involvement in the Eddie Murphy scandal and gave a behind the scenes account of how he saved Murphy during the scandal.

A year later, Seiuli, who also went by the name Shalimar Seiuli, was found dead on the pavement outside of her apartment. The official story was that she fell trying to access a window in her fifth-story apartment, but there are a number of suspicious details about her death.