Celebrity sex tapes: A brief history

High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens was forced to apologise recently after a snap of her naked in a hotel room made it onto the internet. As she waits to find out how the fallout from the scandal will affect her career, DS looks back at just a few of the stars who have suffered – or benefited from – having their private lives made public in the past.

A tape of Former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee getting steamy on their honeymoon leaked onto the internet in 1998. It later sold around the world, sparking a new genre of celebrity porn and showing that a sex tape no longer had to be the death knell for a star's career.

Paris Hilton's bedroom exploits became common knowledge when ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon released a video of the couple going at it in a hotel room in 2004. When he began selling the footage on DVD under the title One Night In Paris, Hilton threatened to sue, but it is rumoured she settled for a share of the £2 million profits. The film, which famously features the socialite interrupting sex to answer her mobile phone, was a huge success and sent her profile soaring.

In 2006, Dustin Diamond, who played geeky Screech in the '80s series Saved by The Bell, authorised the release of a tape showing him getting down and dirty with two women on a hen bash. Screeched or Saved by the Smell, is infamous for including a sex act involving a feces moustache, known in the business as the "Dirty Sanchez". Reports suggested Diamond leaked the tape himself after he was believed to be selling t-shirts to raise cash to stop his home being repossessed.

A video of Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst having unprotected sex with a model arrived on the internet in 2005 after being stolen from his computer. Suspicious fans again suggested Durst had released it to boost his image, but he denied the claims and filed a lawsuit worth more than £36 million against websites showing the clip.

In the same year, a furious Colin Farrell obtained a court order to block the distribution of a video of him cavorting with ex-girlfriend Nicole Narain. The actor sued the former Playboy Playmate along with a distributor and an adult entertainment producer, claiming the footage was "strictly private and confidential". He later settled with Narain but the tape had already surfaced on the internet.