![]() ![]() One interviewee, a minor at the time, says she was coerced into making what she describes as a “child pornography film.” Several women told Blackford Newman that they were filmed without their knowledge or consent. Katinka Blackford Newman is the director of Rich and Shameless: Girls Gone Wild Exposed, a documentary that similarly explored Francis’s empire, and which came out in the US earlier this year. Nobody in that moment was thinking about that.” “Were the women over 18 who agreed to appear on camera aware of the consequences in the moment? That seems unlikely. In the case of the girls who were underage at the time, they couldn’t consent as minors,” she says. “Some women flashed willingly,” Grigoriadis says. Throughout all of his exploits, there was always a question of consent. He has likened his two stints in jail – the second was for tax evasion and fraud – to Nelson Mandela’s incarceration. Even after being charged with those crimes, Francis was on a radio show making jokes about his ventures. ![]() Many of these girls that I interviewed were virgins.” Some of those girls were under age which led to Francis pleading no contest to charges of child abuse and prostitution in 2008. She says of the coercion, “What was really upsetting watching the videos was they actually reminded me of child sexual abuse videos because they didn’t know what to do. Dr Gail Dines, a leading anti-porn scholar – and founder of Culture Reframed, a non-profit that focuses on the hypersexualized landscape children are now exposed to – was an expert witness for two civil cases against Francis. Many of the women who flashed for GGW reported being pressured women to perform sex acts on camera. (Campside Media and Sony Music Entertainment)įrom asking women to flash their breasts at parties, Francis progressed to taking girls to the back room of a large tour bus that he used to travel the country. Francis owned the seedy side of Hollywood celebrity, but he was embraced by its more mainstream members too. Brad Pitt and Justin Timberlake, fans of the enterprise, were photographed wearing GGW trucker hats. In 2012 Francis threatened to sue Madonna over her single “Girl Gone Wild” for breach of copyright. It was referenced all over popular media. How willingly GGW was accepted into popular culture is equally baffling, continues Grigoriadis: The brand was featured in rap songs and on mainstream television. For me this story has always been memorable, disturbing, confusing,” she said. “There’s a lot of people, including me, who would like to see some closure to the Joe Francis story. Grigoriadis tells The Independent that Francis has “never really answered for the horrible legacy he left behind.” He’s proud to say that and proud to be friends with most of his ex girlfriends to this very day.” Francis is also happy that the #metoo movement got rid of all the discussing creepers. She traveled with Francis and the GGW team in 2002 and describes the scene at a Spring Break party with the film crew as like being on “an acid trip.” On the #MeToo movement, a spokesperson for Francis told The Independent: “Mr. Grigoriadis talks about feeling that way herself as a young reporter covering GGW at the peak of its influence. It’s objectively disturbing to watch archive footage now in a post #MeToo era and see older male videographers alongside Francis, egging on young women – some of them minors. His business was based on misogyny and exploitation and it allowed him to abuse dozens of women. At the heart of GGW, the podcast shows, Francis was not a naughty boy with a childlike fetish for breasts, but a predator and masterful manipulator. “Infamous: Inside America’s Biggest Scandals”, is a six-part investigation by journalist and author, Vanessa Grigoriadis. Francis’ attorneys wanted to be clear that all of his legal issues in the United States are long gone, and he’s free to travel to the United States whenever he desires.”Ī podcast detailing the rise and fall of the GGW empire, and examining the laundry list of criminal and civil charges against Francis airs in full this week. Through a spokesperson The Independent was told: “Mr. Francis is today a fugitive living in Mexico, with two arrest warrants open in the US. At its peak, the GGW empire was worth a reported $100m. A cultural phenomenon was born Francis was riding the wave of reality television’s advent and the normalization of amateur pornography - the kind of videos that made Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee infamous. ![]()
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