Only days after making a plea to the American public for the sanctity of free speech and individual rights, horrible person of interest Joe Francis of the Girls Gone Wild franchise announced plans to return to the public spotlight outside a jail cell interview.
This time he'll be in front of the camera as he joins the second season of Celebrity Apprentice, along with Khloe Kardashian, Joan and Melissa Rivers, and Dennis Rodman. Yes, Celebrity Apprentice is the new Surreal Life.
So begs the question: Why reward Francis with more publicity when his entire business model consists of sexually exploiting young women? The man has already served his jail time, but is now futilely counter-suing Panama City for illegally imprisoning him. Maybe The Donald has some litigation expertise to throw his way, but here's hoping Melissa and Joan will tear him limb from limb in their search for fresh blood before Francis gets Ivanka to star in Girls Gone Wild: Trump Edition.
Hugh Hefner generously announced today that naked Miley Cyrus would be nakedly "welcomed in [his] magazine" full of naked ladies—when she's of age, of course. [Us] This isn't the first time that the doddering coot, or his kin, pulled such a stunt, knowing full well the offer would get a write up in the gossip columns, but that the starlets would never agree. Below, a look back at some of the million dollar deals, made by creepy old men, and Joe Francis, that never were. CONTINUED »
Rather than tango through the courts with Ashley Dupre, Joe Francis is hoping to "settle" her $10 million lawsuit – for allegedly tricking her into getting drunk in '03 and baring all for the cameras – for a cool $1 million. The Girls Gone Wild anti-hero is putting his million dollar fee back on the table for Eliot Spitzer's ex-call girl, after reneging on the initial offer when he realized he already had her on tape. And as Francis himself notes, "She should keep in mind it's considerably more than the governor of New York paid her, and our activities aren't illegal." Well, that might be for the courts to decide.
What to do when your prostitution income dries up and the music career you hoped for plateaus after selling MP3 downloads to a few curious listeners? Find other means of income, natch. So here's Ashley Alexander Dupre, Eliot Spitzer's former call girl, looking for her next big pay day with Joe Francis, launching a $10 million suit against the Girls Gone Wild chief for marketing his video footage of the then 17-year-old, even though, as she claims, she wasn't old enough to legally sign a contract granting him permission.
It's unlikely she'll ever see anything close to $10 million. Francis has the funds to string this lawsuit through the courts and drain whatever cash Dupre might have saved up. That, and he loves this kind of publicity, so it's in his best interest to keep this scandal going.
That said, we imagine Dupre will end up getting a few bucks, if not via settlement, then through a revenue sharing arrangement with the video Francis plans to sell. Either way, it'd still be significantly more than what she earned back in Miami Beach in '03 when she was filmed: CONTINUED »
Joe Francis was all prepared to offer Ashley Dupre $1 million to do a video and photo shoot for his Girls Gone Wild DVD series and magazine … until he realized he already had hours of footage of Eliot Spitzer's lady friend. In all, there are seven tapes of Dupre, who hooked up with the GGW film crew in Miami Beach during Spring Break '03; she had been kicked out of her hotel room after fighting with a friend, and they offered her a bus to party on. And like all good things that enter Ashley's life, this too, was short lived: They supposedly had to kick her off the bus when they discovered the then-18-year-old drinking.
How did Joe Francis score his release from jail over child abuse charges stemming from his alleged "adult" filming of two 17-year-old girls? By exposing Florida state attorney Steve Meadows showing child porn to ABC's Nightline, he claims.
Meadows, who was running as much of a media blitz as Francis and his attorney Roy Black, was all too pleased to publicize his drawn-out capture of the Girls Gone Wild chief.
Which is why, when Nightline's Martin Bashir (of Michael Jackson fame) came calling, Meadows had the tapes ready to show off. That was a mistake: If the footage of the 17-year-old girls was enough to get Francis to plead to a felony count (but not register as a sex offender) then it's enough to make exhibiting the tape for TV news types just as illegal. (So the story goes, only law enforcement authorities can view child porn, and only under the auspices of an investigation. Remember Kurt Eichenwald?)
For his part, Francis denies ever seeing the tape.
Though the obviously-bias Martin refused to testify against Meadows, invoking privilege, as to whether the attorney showed him the tape, the clip below shows the Nightline anchor has a thorough understanding of exactly what's on the tape, including the size of the girls' breasts. CONTINUED »
The friendly skies between Page Six and Girls Gone Wild sleaze Joe Francis are, like spring, here before you know it. [Radar]
Joe Francis' Girls Gone Wild magazine doesn't hit newsstands until April 15, but here's what's purported to be the first issue — all 14 pages of it. A $9.99 cover price gets you features like "The Search for the Wildest Bar" and "The Insane Life of a Girls Gone Wild Camera Man," both of which you can already find on Thrillist and, well, a Girls Gone Wild DVD. [P6]
You know that Son of Sam Law, created to keep criminals from writing books and profiting from their crimes? Joe Francis totally found a way around it! Okay, that's a bit of a stretch: The Girls Gone Wild creator is currently in lock up on tax evasion charges, not for exploiting underage girls!
But from behind bars, he's already planning the launch of Girls Gone Wild magazine, which Page Six describes as a "PG-13 print version of his raunchy video series in which drunken college girls are coaxed into stripping for the camera."
The first issue should hit newsstands April 15 and, given that P6 honcho Richard Johnson and the Fran-Man are BFFs, you can expect in-depth chronicling of its Kim Kardashian-filled pages.
• Heather Mills apparently has recordings of Paul McCartney and his daughter Stella referring to her as a "one-legged bitch." Which kind of makes sense considering (a) she's actively trying to extort McCartney out of his money, (b) only has one leg and (c) was bitchy enough to go around taping her soon-to-be-ex-husband in preparation for the upcoming divorce settlement.
• Paris Hilton has lipstick in her teeth. Yikes! Clearly, this is, like, the most embarrassing thing that's happened to her mouth since Joe Francis.
• Foxy Brown pleads "not guilty" to pulling a Naomi Campbell.
• We've finally found somebody crazier than the "I Will Blow Your For Genesis Tickets" guy.
• Urban legends are sometimes real! A 7-foot python was found in the sewer pipes of a woman's apartment.
• It's hard out there for a pimp. Especially the one named Joe Francis.
• According to Wikipedia, O.J. Simpson leads the NFL in "most murders in a single season." Sometimes, even when Wikipedia is wrong, it's also kind of right.
• Rudy Giulani's attempt to literally capitalize on 9/11 (by fundraising in increments of $9.11) fails so miserably he actually ends up barely breaking even.
Two women drop their lawsuits against Joe Francis and "Girls Gone Wild" after an incriminating videotape exposes them as being willing participants, as well as "having a nice rack."*
Following the release of video footage that irrefutably proved they had given their consent to be filmed, two women (”floozies” according to TMZ) have dropped the lawsuits they had brought against Girls Gone Wild head Joe Francis and his company. Aside from making themselves look foolish, the women’s outright lies have instilled in the pornographer an even greater hatred of females. Look out, ladies.
For his part, Francis is expected to celebrate his legal coup with a giant misogynistic sex orgy. This time, preferably, with more attractive women. [Mollygood]
*Quotation marks (and made-up remarks) added for emphasis.
Two “stars” of Girls Gone Wild are suing first amendment pioneer/pornographer Joe Francis.
(As an aside, even our cousin got a better nose job than Joe Francis.)
But Joe has proof the girls were willing to lose their diginty and any hope of running for public office for a tank top. In a video posted on Francis's Web site, the girls consent numerous times.
One girl who appears in the clip but is not suing Francis does say she doesn’t want her likeness used on MTV “because I don’t want my parents to see it.”
If her parents did catch it on MTV, and they were wondering how their little daughter grew up into a girl gone wild, they could point to the fact that they were in their forties watching MTV.
"What I am going through now is exactly what Hugh Hefner went though, and what Larry Flynt went through, and I will prevail, because I've done nothing wrong."
–Pornographer/constitutional scholar Joe Francis, invoking his right to freedom of expression and exploitation of naked teenage girls under the First Amendment.
• Random British exhibitionist Gemma Atkinson's steals Britney's coveted neckbrace look
• Before she was sentenced to 45 days in prison, Paris Hilton was appreciating life's simple pleasures. Like eating corn on the cob with a total stranger.
• Not even Jennifer Boobs Love Hewitt looks hot just moments after stepping off the plane.
• Jumpin' Joe Francis to possibly rejoin his prison boyfriend only moments after saying goodbye.
• Sting and his wife reportedly fired their personal chef…for getting knocked up. The creator of tantra would never approve!
• Hugh Grant left a British paparazzo "bruised, battered and covered in baked beans."
• Could it be? Is Britney Spears really tipping off the paparazzi before she heads out for her daily errands? But wouldn't that make her an opportunistic hussy promoting a comeback album, rather than a postpartum sufferer and devoted mother to two children we never see?
• And if rapper Eve described her leaked sex tape as "embarrassing," she must be utterly humiliated by this whole "driving drunk and crashing her gold Maserati" incident.
• Joe Francis may have racked up more time in the slammer by (allegedly!) fondling the boobies of an uninterested 18 year old girl.
CONTINUED »
• Joe Francis can't put his daemons to rest in prison without his Lunesta.
• Lindsay Lohan's publicist says "sober," but her eyes say something else.
• An O.J. Simpson battle, without O.J.: Ron and Nicole's families feud over cash.
• Having realized that his show is advertising on blogs, Jimmy Kimmel backs off bashing them.
• Jennifer Lopez quotes from the scripture.
• Sean William Scott is A-OK if you think he's a homo.
CONTINUED »
• John Travolta and his Scientologist publicist Paul Bloch insist the actor is promoting Hairspray on Good Morning America simply because they asked first. It's has nothing to do with the Today show (where he castmates are appearing) and that Tom Cruise interview. Nothing.
• J. Lo's camp denies any notion of a split with Marc Anthony.
• Willa Ford set to play the rich, big-breasted blonde who recently died.
• Joe Francis indicted on two counts of tax evasion. Apparently the $3.78 million spent on his home in Punta Mita, Mexico, was not a valid business expense.
• Pink is suffering from the Dixie Chick's effect.
CONTINUED »
• Jamie Foxx does his best Kathy Griffin impression at the Borgata, dissing everyone from Prince ("he wears 10-inch stilettos") to O.J. Simpson ("I threw a party in Miami and he showed up…He shook my hand hard as hell. He did it!")
• Penelope Cruz continues to dispel those lesbian rumors by getting hot and heavy with the uber-masculine Orlando Bloom.
• Lindsay Lohan continues to demonstrate her horrible common sense by reportedly dating seedy "Girls Gone Wild" creator Joe Francis.
• Widdicombe's daily riddle has us pondering "which aspiring starlet (more former than latter) had to be stepped over on a Chateau Marmont staircase Sunday morning because getting back to her room before having sex was too much of a chore?"
• Tara Reid has somehow recovered her pre-liposuction bod.
• Brad and Angelina light up the red carpet at the Golden Globes last night, offering "sizzling" new details about their fave breakfast cereals.
Joe Francis has little to get wild about. The Girls Gone Wild chieftan is looking at fines and community service after a judge ruled against him, finding him guilty of failing to monitor the ages of the girls it films doing body shots off each others' taints.
The company, Mantra Films Inc., also agreed to pay $1.6 million in fines for using drunken 17-year-olds in videos it filmed on Panama City Beach during spring break and failing to properly label its DVDs and videos as required by federal law.
The labels were supposed to carry the warning, "These DVDs are actually boring as hell. And when we say 'Real college girls,' we mean 'One semester of junior college.'"
Editorial Director
