Philadelphia Daily News Tattle Column: Tattle: ‘No Contest’ Wins ‘Wild’ Francis His Freedom
By Howard Gensler, Philadelphia Daily News
Mar. 13–”GIRLS GONE WILD” founder Joe Francis pleaded no contest yesterday to one count of felony child abuse and two counts of misdemeanor prostitution in Florida under an agreement that allowed him to walk free after nearly a year in jail.
Francis returned to Florida after posting a $1.5 million bond in Nevada, where he is accused of tax fraud. The Florida hearing resolved a 2003 case involving filming underaged girls during spring break in Panama City.
“I have never committed any crime,” Francis said after the hearing. “I pleaded guilty just to get out of jail. A few corrupt individuals were able to keep an innocent man in jail for 11 months.”
Francis makes an estimated $29 million a year on young women who bare their breasts and more. His new “Girls Gone Wild” magazine hits newsstands April 15.
Francis also pleaded no contest to two additional child-abuse counts on behalf of his company, Mantra Films.
Judge Deede Costello sentenced Francis to 339 days in prison — time he already had served. Costello also ordered him to pay more than $60,000 in fines, court costs and restitution to the county.
Francis agreed that Mantra would not do any filming between Escambia and Jackson counties in Florida for three years.
So all you Escambia girls are going to have to go wild somewhere else.
Don’t worry, Joe will find you.
One autograph over easy
Billy Crystal may be playing baseball in Florida, but it was batter up for Kid Rock in Georgia.
Waffle batter.
The stringy-haired rocker replaced his signature fedora Tuesday with a Waffle House hat.
Rock came to sling hash browns and sign autographs for hundreds of fans during a fundraiser in suburban Atlanta. And if he was like the chef at the Virginia Waffle House we last ate in, he was probably smoking behind the counter and dropping his ashes on the fryer.
The event came just a week after Kid pleaded not guilty to a charge of battery from a fight last fall at another Waffle House.
Waffle House spokeswoman Kelly Thrasher said the Atlanta-based company wanted to “take a negative situation and turn it into a positive situation.”
Proceeds from the fundraiser were to go to Nicholas House, a homeless shelter for families in Georgia’s DeKalb County.
Some fans drove hundreds of miles to see Rock, although it is possible they just like waffles.
Ashley Miles, 21, a nurse came from Morgantown, W. Va., and her mother, Terri Miles, came from Maryland. They arrived at 8:30 p.m. Monday, set up chairs and waited all night to be first in line for Rock’s arrival.
“I love him, he is gorgeous,” Ashley said.
Tattbits
–Janet Jackson backed out
with the flu, but “Saturday Night Live” can still pull in an A-list musical guest at the last minute.
Mariah Carey.
Mariah will sub for Janet on Saturday’s “SNL,” and her album “E=MC2″ doesn’t even come out until April 15.
–A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Fireman’s Fund Insurance against Robert De Niro that claimed he misrepresented his health for a role in the film “Hide and Seek,” when he wrote that he had never been diagnosed with or treated for prostate cancer.
De Niro underwent a prostate-gland biopsy on Oct. 10, 2003. He signed the insurance document on Oct. 13 but did not receive his cancer diagnosis until Oct. 15.
De Niro’s treatment delayed the movie’s production and forced Fireman’s Fund to pay out more than $1.8 million to cover the cost of the delay.
Said De Niro attorney Robyn Crowther: “We are pleased that the court has found that Fireman’s Fund can’t sue Mr. De Niro for getting cancer.”
But can moviegoers sue De Niro for making “Hide and Seek”?
–Ang Lee and frequent film-
making partner James Schamus were honored with a freedom-of-expression award Tuesday at ShoWest, an annual convention of theater owners.
This being movie-theater related, no one could hear the award being announced because everyone was talking on his cell phone.
Interestingly, Lee and Schamus weren’t honored for “Brokeback Mountain” but for last year’s sexually charged thriller “Lust, Caution.”
More interestingly, theater owners gave the honor for a film that did only $4.6 million at the box office. It did, however, go a long way toward legitimizing the NC-17 rating as something more than Hollywood-produced porn.
Only a handful of movies (hello, “Showgirls”) have gone out with the NC-17 rating, which replaced the old X rating in the early 1990s.
“While there were small pockets of resistance, in fact, it was so minor as to be almost on the level, less than the level, of what we got even with ‘Brokeback,’ ” said Schamus.
Americans understand that Chinese have explicit sex. That’s why there are a billion of them.
–The Hollywood Reporter says that
“Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!” will be attacking theaters again.
Of course, this time it will be a documentary.
Well, not yet. We still have a few genetic mutations to go before that’s the case.
In the meantime, Kent Nichols and Douglas Sarine, creators of the hit Web series “Ask a Ninja,” will be adapting the 1978 cult film. Nichols will direct.
” ‘Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!’ is the masterwork of a generation,” Nichols said, hyperbole intended. “We can only aspire to recapture that magic.”
The Hollywood Reporter said with all seriousness, “No changes to the original plot have been revealed, but it still is expected to revolve around killer tomatoes.”
And to think there could be such a better movie in “Attack of the Killer Cucumbers.”
Not to mention its sequel, “Killer Cukes: The Bad Seeds.”
Daily News wire services contributed to this report.
Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com
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