Dennis RomeroWe've called Joe Francis of Girls Gone Wild fame “girl fighter extraordinaire” and noted his crowning a few years back as “Douche of the Decade.”
And we never heard from him.
Until now.
His problem?
Like any good citizen of Hollywood, he wants us to use a better photo of him:
Mr. Francis has a lot on his plate, from being charged last year with false imprisonment and assault after a run-in with some hot chicks in L.A., to duking it out with a female following a Beverly Hills fender bender this year, to his epic civil court battle with casino magnate Steve Wynn.
And while threatening to sue journalists for their portrayal of his chick-magnet self isn't beyond Mr. Francis (he threatened to take Gawker to court for naming him “Douche of the Decade”), his main concern, apparently, is how he looks on these here blogs.
In fact, back when he was getting legal with Gawker, the site says Francis sent an email with a shirtless photo of himself to the site's owner, Nick Denton, so Denton could “masturbate to it because you seem to be quite sexually obsessed with me.”
Credit: Gawker
Following in those footsteps, a person claiming to be a faithful Girls Gone Wild Brands fixer emailed us via a GGW Brands account recently to say that Francis personally objects to our using this photo (below) in a previous post and that we should either take the whole story offline or use a new pic of Francis' own choosing.
Credit: Gawker
It has come to my attention that you are using a picture of my employer, Joe Francis on your website. Mr. Francis has informed me that he is fine with this, but he does however want these pictures changed. The picture attached is one that he has chosen to replace the one on your site. Please let me know if this is an easy fix. If you will not change the pictures we ask that you take the page down instead.
Well then, Mr. Francis gets what Mr. Francis wants. We will never, ever, EVER use this photo again* …
Credit: Gawker
… and instead substitute this cheesy, GGW Brands-approved shot o' Joe (masturbation-free, we might add):
I'm a multi-millionaire and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.
We repeat. No more of this:*
Credit: Gawker
More of this:
I'm a multi-millionaire and all I got was this stupid t-shirt.
Brilliant P.R. work from team Joe, if you ask us. Image is everything.
*L.A. Weekly reserves the right to keep using the “douche” image.
[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]
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