City Commissioner Gets Lapdance In Restaurant

[Rictor]

In Birmingham, stripper intrudes on dinner

Birthday show at restaurant dismays diner
April 20, 2004

http://www.freep.com/news/locoak/strip20_20040420.htm

BY LAURA POTTS.
FREE PRESS STAFF hahahahahaR

A bra-and-G-string-clad Ms. Malibu helped Birmingham City Commissioner Tom McDaniel celebrate his 65th birthday Friday with a striptease and a Wam-Bam Birthday Message Gram in a popular restaurant kitty-corner from Birmingham City Hall and the police department.

But not everyone at the upscale 220 E. Merrill restaurant appreciated the early evening show, in which the stripper, described by her employer as "a living Barbie doll," performed to two songs, stripping down to a bra and G-string panties. Tony Hassan, owner of Erotic Image Inc. in Lathrup Village, which employs Ms. Malibu, confirmed that McDaniel's wife, Susan, hired the stripper for $110.

One patron, Birmingham resident Mike Whiting, filed a police report, alleging that the stripper, identified by police as Tamara Lyn Thomas, was performing lap dances, lifting up her denim skirt to reveal no underwear and exposing her groin. Reached Monday, Whiting, an attorney, would not confirm the details of the report and declined to comment until he "sees what the city's going to do about it, if anything."

"I will at the right time, but I'm going to wait to be contacted by the city," said Whiting, who was dining with his wife but left after contacting police, who arrived at the restaurant around 7:30 p.m.

The report said Whiting was very offended and tried to talk to the restaurant management but "they did not seem interested."

McDaniel, who was elected in November, said at Monday's Birmingham City Commission meeting that the performance "certainly was not appropriate for both the situation and the venue."

He said his wife had wanted to do something special for his 65th birthday, and the performer "assured her she would do a tasteful striptease down to her bikini."

He said his wife cleared the performance with the restaurant's management ahead of time and "that plan went badly awry. It was a faux pas unbefitting of a community leader. We regret the embarrassment that may have been caused."

Birmingham Deputy Police Chief Don Studt said city obscenity ordinances and other laws prohibit nude and partially nude performances, but he said a "bra and panties are not considered partially nude." Topless dancing is considered partially nude, he said.

"I don't think that violates anything," Studt said of the performance. "They brought in a dancer who kept her clothes on, and we have one person who said she didn't. I don't know if she sang happy birthday to him in her underwear."

According to the report, when the two police officers arrived, Thomas was wearing a short denim skirt and a pink blouse and told them she was always clothed and didn't perform a lap dance. Franklin Tillman, manager of 220, told officers that there was no nudity or lap dancing.

"It's a closed case as far as I'm concerned," Studt said. "I don't see that anything more needs to be done."

Ms. Malibu was not charged.

Restaurant owner Judith Roberts said she was not at the restaurant Friday night and didn't "know the whole story." She said a patron "overreacted and called the police."

"I still didn't like it. It shouldn't have happened," Roberts said. "It's not like we were on 8 Mile."

Commissioner Scott Moore said he attended the birthday party but "had no idea something like that was going to happen." He said about 20 partygoers were gathered when he heard something going on at the other side of the room "and I stayed where I was."

"Out of the corner of my eye I saw things happen," he said. "Those kinds of things just don't interest me."

Birmingham Mayor Donald Carney and Commissioners Rackeline Hoff and Julie Plotnik declined to comment Monday. Commissioners Dianne McKeon and Gordon Thorsby and City Manager Thomas Markus could not be reached for comment.

Hassan said his 15-year-old business employs about 100 male and female performers, including dominatrixes and midgets who give partial and fully nude performances. Strippers are hired for "mild, classy-and-tasteful, wild, or play-it-by-ear" shows, which is what was requested for the McDaniel party. In those performances, "the girl uses her judgment . . . and could have turned it into a wild" show.

"The show is like a lap dance," and can conclude with the performer sitting on the guest's lap to deliver the Wam-Bam Birthday Message Gram, a purple hat and a noisemaker, Hassan said. He called Ms. Malibu "very, very classy."

"For someone to be offended about what she was doing and call the cops, I just can't believe that," Hassan said.

[PornoMan]

everyone needs a lapdance

[DR_PHIL]

pays to be on top

[lagwagon]

[zzgundamnzz]

Looks like his fun was ruined by one single over-conservative patron...

Would of been funny if it was the police commissioner. The cops would of probably got lapdances.

[axelcat]

[LiveDose]

Isn't this in the same backswards ass state that outlawed vibrators?

[jm_247live]

HE'S GOT MY VOTE