A Journalist Discovers the World of 'Guys Gone Wacko'

Thanks to my new writer friend Joe Rhodes (an esteemed multiple message poster on this blog) for his tip about this hugely disturbing piece being published tomorrow (Sunday) in the Los Angeles Times West Magazine supplement about staff writer Claire Hoffman's wrestling match (literally) with the founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire, Joe Francis. Rhodes calls this "well written" and "incredibly brave," and I couldn't agree more. The opening finds Hoffman describing what's essentially an incident of assault (with Francis allegedly assaulting her) as well as passages in which she accuses Francis of raping several woman.

It's an unbelievably damning article that's virtually certain to stir up a legal firestorm. Hoffman goes into explicit detail about the behavior of an out-of-control megalomaniac with world-class senses of hubris, chutzpah and entitlement -- all for giving the world videos starring drunken barely-legal women stripping in public for cheap swag handouts. And no, I don't say that with envy.