By Mark Vester
Milana Dravnel, the 22-year-old stripper in the middle of the Oscar De La Hoya photos scandal, is now changing her story and apologizing to the former six-division champion.
Last week, several photos surfaced on the popular paparazzi website X17, depicting former six-time division champion Oscar De La Hoya in some unflattering positions while dressed in full drag and a wig to boot.
Within hours, the photos made their way to each and every corner of the internet. Most users immediately felt the photos were fake, likely the work of an individual with Photoshop.
De La Hoya’s lawyer Bertram Fields released a statement to the media and requested for X17 to take the photos down.
"The photographs depicting Mr. De La Hoya's image that were posted online today by an obscure paparazzi website are fake. Many of the website's viewers (as reflected in postings on the site) identified the photos as a 'really bad photoshop job.' Unfortunately, with today's technology, anyone can make any photo seem like something other than it is."
X17 refused to take them down and shot back with their own statement, still standing by their claim of authenticity.
"We got a letter for Oscar's lawyer today, and while they'd love us to take down the pix, they didn't initially dispute their authenticity!"
Soon after, TMZ picked up the story and Dravnel claimed that her photos of De La Hoya werelegit and she planed to spill the beans on something that allegedly took place in May.
“The exotic dancer who says she took the pictures insists they're real, and that they were taken at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Philadelphia in May. "Now that she's being called a liar, she's ready to sell her story," says Gotham mag columnist R. Couri Hay.”
Several days later, Dravnel has changed her tune in a recent coversation with Page Six of the New York Daily News and says;
"I cannot personally verify the authenticity of the images." (Pictures of De La Hoya) "were taken from my personal camera and were out of my control," Dravnel said "I was pressured into going public with the photos by certain individuals who had improper motives and acted solely for their own financial gain. I have not received any money from the sale or use of these photos."
Dravnel would not go as far as to say the photos were fakes, and refused to comment on the most recent photo where De La Hoya was wearing a tutu and giving her a hug.
She alluded to having a ten-month relationship with the former champ and also said that De La Hoya liked to role play, dressing up like a woman and pretending ride on the back of a motorcycle while squealing the word "faster." She even claimed to have shaved De La Hoya's legs with a group of women during a slumber party.
Dravnel is now claiming that some of those statements were false and wishes to retract them, including her initial claim of having an ongoing relationship with De La Hoya. She would not reveal what kind of relationship they had per "the advice of her lawyer."
"Mr. De La Hoya and I had a platonic relationship," she said. "We did not have intimate relations."
Dravnel recently did an interview with "Entertainment Tonight" and said the pictures had not been altered.
She now claims;
"I only agreed to do a television interview ... after I received numerous threats from people who were in control of the images. Many quotes that were attributed to me in the media are false and inaccurate, as were some statements I made on 'Entertainment Tonight.' Last week, I sent a demand to X17online.com to remove the images from their Web site.
Dravnel told Entertainment Tonight, and confirmed the same story to Page Six, that she had a disk with De La Hoya photos that went missing after she showed it to friends at a birthday party. After the photos disappeared, she told ET that "Oscar's people found out about the disk" and she received "threatening phone calls offering me cash to get the pictures back."
She denied receiving any payoff money to change her story, and also denied that De La Hoya himself had anything to do with the threatening phone calls that offered money for their return. She also would not reveal the names of the people who are in control of the De La Hoya photos, the same group that threatened her to come forward with a fabricated story.
"I apologize to Mr. De La Hoya for any embarrassment I caused him and his family."
Send News Tips and Comments To Mark Vester @ boxingscene@hotmail.com