Posts Tagged ‘News’
Rolling Stones sign long-term deal
You know how its hard to get life insurance if you’re, say, 70 years old? I guess that doesn’t apply to music.
The Rolling Stones just signed a “long-term deal” with Universal Music, dissing EMI, their current (now former) label. Read more »
Reading is fundamental 7-24-08
What I’m reading as I change my shirt three times a day:
– Gee, I guess firing Willie Randolph was a good idea. (Mets win, take over first place from Phillies – MyWay Sports)
– We all have too much crap. Forbes says you can want to have less. It helps if you can’t afford to buy anything. (How To Want Less Stuff – Forbes.com)
– It’s now illegal to sell Mature-rated video games to minors in New York State. Oh good, this is the biggest problem facing society today. (NY gov signs game bill into law – ZDNet)
Golden Girls Gone Wild
Just in case anyone needed proof that “Girls Gone Wild” guy Joe Francis was, in fact, made of greasy grimy gopher guts, here’s a story for you.
Inside Edition (no stranger to sleaze themselves) reports that numerous individuals have received DVDs from Francis’ insanely profitable series of “reality” porn. If you aren’t familiar with these “films”, they basically consist of drunken college girls taking their tops off and also engaging in more explicit sexual activity, usually while on Spring Break or at Mardi Gras or some other Bacchanalian pursuit. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course.
After Keri Moret, wife of Inside Edition correspondent Jim Moret, received some GGW vids that she hadn’t ordered, Inside Edition did a little digging and found Diane Datillo from Kentucky. Datillo, a grandmother of two, opened her mailbox one day and was surprised to see some unwanted X-rated flicks. Keri Moret says that when she called and attempted to cancel the charges to her credit card, she, “totally got the run-around,” before being able to get a refund, which was Datillo’s experience as well.
Francis, pleasant human being that he is, was asked about these incidents. “Wow…when I left for jail this is what happened while I was gone…This makes me so angry,” he said. He was in jail for something he may or may not have done in Florida; it’s not clear. He’s been sued quite a bit: insurance fraud, tax evasion and filming girls naked who were underage, among other things.
So it’s all a big misunderstanding, right? Um… not quite. Inside Edition reports on a case from 2004 where GGW paid the Federal Trade Commission millions to settle charges that they shipped DVDs to people who hadn’t ordered them, although the company did not admit any wrongdoing.
Why so worked up over this? Porn is legal, and protected by free speech, and so forth. Francis has made a fortune – millions, if not billions, of dollars – filming “real” girls getting naked and fooling around with each other while drunk. “Sleazy” is too nice a word. And if that isn’t enough, you have several cases that Francis’ organization charges people for DVDs who haven’t asked for them, signing them up for monthly subscriptions. Many of these people probably either don’t notice the charges for a while, or are too embarrassed to call and get refunds. If this story is true, they also make it incredibly difficult to cancel the orders. This isn’t Hugh Hefner, or even Larry Flynt. Larry might be a tad on the weird side, but he’s not coercing girls who are barely out of high school to perform sex acts on film – and some of these girls, according to the lawsuits, are actually underage. Francis is a dirtbag. If he’s guilty, prove it, and put him in jail.
image: mondaymorningmediaquarterback.com
Rooneys want to keep Steelers in the family
Here’s a problem we’d all like to have: the Rooney family is trying to keep The Pittsburgh Steelers a family-owned NFL franchise for as long as possible. To do that, Dan Rooney and Art Rooney II are attempting to buy out their siblings. For about $35 million each. The idea is to keep local billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller from owning the team.
Part of the issue is that the NFL, with typical hypocrisy, wants to eliminate any connections to gambling interests. The Rooneys own racetracks, which Roger Goody-Goody-Goodell has a problem with.
The daddy-part of the story (other than that I wish the Rooneys would adopt me) is this:
Their father, Art Rooney Sr., was heavily involved in gambling and, according to legend, bought the Steelers in 1933 with $2,500 in racetrack winnings. But the NFL now frowns on any ownership association with gambling.
That last sentence is pretty funny, since NFL events such as, oh, I don’t know, the Super Bowl, generate insane amounts of money via gambling. As long as the NFL isn’t directly involved, I guess it’s OK, right?
My dad left me $1,000 which I never saw because my mother needed it for something. So, you know, I can’t relate to this at all. Talk about the DNA lottery. Not bitter, good for them, but sheesh. Come to New York and buy me a drink or something.
(image: Amazon.com)
Father and son taser team get jail time
A father and son who Tasered each other with a stun gun the son swiped from a parked police car both pleaded guilty. The son got two years in prison; the dad will be sentenced in August.
I don’t want to judge, but this seems like a bad example to set. If my son ever shows up with a stun gun and says, “Hey dad! I just stole this stun gun off a cop! Want to shock each other, film it, and put the video up on YouTube?” I really don’t think my answer will be, “Would I???”
Cynthia Scurtis’ MySpace page
You know, the internets is a funny place. It’s tough to tell what’s real and what isn’t.
Case in point: the woman formerly known as C-Rod has a MySpace page.
A-Fraud (this one we assume is fake) says “Sorry Baby, I need someone more mature.”
We’ll have to check if Cynthia updates her profile. She’s going to need someplace to meet guys, right?
