After getting into an argument with a female airport employee and balking at going through the security line, Sean Penn was taken aside at TSA officials today before jetting out of LAX. While being patted down, the Oscar-winning actor was on his best behavior, and after he made his way through the line just like everyone else, we're hoping he continued to mind his manners. We wouldn't want any Josh Duhamel-style drama on the flight! Though that would be quite entertaining...
After being romantically linked to Scarlett Johansson this week, the latest hookup rumor is that Sean and longtime pal Charlize Theron are an item. Though sources told the National Enquirer that the two were spotted in the Chateau Marmont garden "totally drunk and on each other," insiders close to both actors laughed the claims off.
Last fall, as he had done hundreds of times, Iranian-American businessman Farid Seif passed through security at a Houston airport and boarded an international flight.
He didn't realize he had forgotten to remove the loaded snub nose "baby" Glock pistol from his computer bag. But TSA officers never noticed as his bag glided along the belt and was x-rayed. When he got to his hotel after the three-hour flight, he was shocked to discover the gun traveled unnoticed from Houston.
"It's just impossible to miss it, you know. I mean, this is not a small gun," Seif told ABC News. "How can you miss it? You cannot miss it."
But the TSA did miss it, and despite what most people believe about the painstaking effort to screen airline passengers and their luggage before they enter the terminal, it was not that unusual.
Experts tell ABC News that every year since the September 11 terror attacks, federal agencies have conducted random, covert "red team tests," where undercover agents try to see just how much they can get past security checks at major U.S. airports. And while the Department of Homeland Security closely guards the results as classified, those that have leaked in media reports have been shocking...
The LAX TSA Choir, a group of 17 singers and musicians, all of them employees of the TSA, have been surprising passengers with performances of holiday music and other tunes in the midst of one of the nation's busiest airports, reports USA Today .
The choir, according to USA Today, worked through an hour-long set list that included such holiday biggies, and I kid you not, as: America the Beautiful,God Bless the U.S.A. and Battle Hymn of the Republic...
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Officials at airports braced for security delays because some passengers said they would protest against full-body scans as part of National Opt-Out Day. But as of Wednesday afternoon, airports around the country did not report many delays and officials said waits at security were averaging only five minutes.
The protesters at the Los Angeles International Airport attracted a lot of attention, though. One passenger, Corinne Theile, had an unconventional way of opting out.
"When you come to the airport, they ask you to take off so much at the security screening, I ask myself, why do I even come to the airport dressed?"
Theile is worried about radiation from the new full-body scans, so she wore a bikini for her possible pat-down.
"If they want to see what's hidden under my bikini, they are welcome to," said Theile.
But they opted out. After she took off her coat, Theile only had to go through the metal detector-- no full-body scan, no pat-down...
Have Bikini, Will Travel "I'm hoping by wearing a bikini they will see everything they need to see and we can avoid a pat-down"
Thousands of passengers were expected Wednesday at LAX, but only one left little to the imagination.
"I'm wearing my bikini," Corinne Theile said as she unbuttoned her overcoat outside the terminal to reveal a black two-piece. "It's not that I'm concerned, it's that I feel like the TSA is making travelers feel uncomfortable, and I feel like we can have security measures that don't make people feel uncomfortable.
"Every time I go through security I always say, 'I don't even know why I got dressed this morning.' I end up taking off belts, jewelry and everything else off anyway," Theile said.
"I don't want to do a body scan, and I'm hoping by wearing a bikini they will see everything they need to see and we can avoid a pat-down, as well," she said.
After arriving at her destination, Theile told NBCLA over the phone that the TSA agents got a laugh out of her outfit.
"The woman looked at me and said, 'Girl, you wearing a bikini. Come right through.' She had a big smile on her face," Theile said. "I think this might be the way I travel from here on out. So, we'll see."...
"I'm wearing my bikini," Corinne Theile said as she unbuttoned her overcoat outside the LAX terminal to reveal a black two-piece. "It's not that I'm concerned, it's that I feel like the TSA is making travelers feel uncomfortable, and I feel like we can have security measures that don't make people feel uncomfortable."
