Marshall. (Jim Spellman/WireImage)
Odom. (Jim Spellman/WireImage)Penny Marshall is paying the price for being such a huge Los Angeles Lakers fan. The film director and "Laverne & Shirley" actress was reportedly scammed out of $5,000 by a man claiming to be the personal assistant of Lamar Odom, a former Lakers star best known for being the husband of Khloe Kardashian. The bizarre story began last month when Marshall, 69, was approached by the mystery man at a home game and given what he told her was Odom's phone number. Over the course of the following days, the two exchanged friendly text messages before "Odom" asked her to loan his assistant the money — and she did.
Although a rep for Marshall would not comment on the scam, a source tells TMZ that after forking over the five grand, she never heard from "Odom" or the assistant again and she got suspicious. She then got the contact information for the real basketball player, who has not played for the Lakers since last year after being traded to the Dallas Mavericks, and he informed her that he does not even have an assistant. According to TMZ, Marshall has filed a police report with the LAPD and they are opening a grand theft investigation.
Marshall, who directed "Big" and "A League of Their Own" (for which she was nominated for an Academy Award), reportedly battled brain and lung cancer in 2009. Although she denied it at the time, last October she admitted to having been ill while discussing with Reuters what she planned to include in her Fall 2012 autobiography, My Mother Was Nuts. According to the report, Marshall went into remission last January after many rounds of chemotherapy and radiation.
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