John Mayer Mugshot: Harvey Levin, TMZ and the Smoking Gun Rise to the Challenge

So John Mayer had a mugshot? The clean-cut guitar virtuoso had himself arrested? Who knew? Well, as it turns out, he did. And while on Twitter recently, according to Peach Buzz blog in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, John Mayer, multiple Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, and standout at the Michael Jackson memorial service, mentioned the recent driving without a license arrest of Fall Out Boy's Patrick Stump. John Mayer admitted that he too had once been arrested. And then, on Twitter and before the entire Twitterverse, he issued a challenge to TMZ to find his mugshot.

John Mayer tweeted Wednesday: "Challenge: If Harvey Levin of TMZ can produce my mugshot, I will donate $25,000 to the charity of his choice."

And it was on. TMZ went on the hunt. But doesn't John Mayer know that Harvey Levin and those guys at TMZ have information half the time before cops do? What was he thinking? So, anyway, TMZ hit the ground running...

And found nothing.

But John Mayer wasn't done. He gave Harvey Levin and his crew some leeway. A bit too much leeway as it turned out. He tweeted: "Hint: In the first half of the Naughts, in the Home of the Brave."

For those who don't know a lot about John Mayer, the singer of "Waiting For The World To Change" once lived in Atlanta while waiting for his world to change. He was arrested on May 26, 2001 for speeding and driving with a suspended license. An observant Atlanta Department of Correction's representative, Ashanti Moore, e-mailed the mugshot to TMZ and to The Smoking Gun.

So John Mayer owes Harvey Levin and TMZ a charity donation.

But The Smoking Gun wants in on the action. Andrew Goldberg, website managing editor for The Smoking Gun, reported that his website was actually the first to find and post the John Mayer mugshot photo from the Moore e-mail.

Harvey Levin admitted that The Smoking Gun actually did post the John Mayer mugshot first. But he says that does not matter. The original challenge was for TMZ to find the mugshot. "We found the mug so pay up, John," he wrote.

Now, it's all up to John Mayer. Mugshot obtained. Is the check in the mail or what?

Does the Grammy winner fork over the dough to TMZ like he said he would? Does he tell The Smoking gun that he never issued a challenge to them and, therefore, owes them or a charity of their choice no money at all (which would kind of make him look like loser, which would be a bit unfair)? Or does he show a big heart and contribute to the charities of choice for both TMZ and The Smoking Gun? Or does he resort to being shifty and totally weasel (sorry, weasels) out of the deal by telling both The Smoking Gun and TMZ that, technically, neither "found" the John Mayer mugshot. It was actually sent to them by master riddle solver, Ashanti Moore. They just opened an e-mail.

Perhaps Harvey Levin could defer to Ashanti Moore and find out what her favorite charity is and split the donation.

And somebody needs to hire Moore on as a detective.

Now, the world awaits to see John Mayer make change...

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