Joe Francis threatens to sue Gawker for naming him Douche of the Decade

[ShellyCrash]

We were worried that naming Joe Francis Gawker's Douche of the Decade might go to the drunk-girls-with-low-self-esteem kingpin's head. Would he simply rest on his laurels and give up the pursuit of douche perfection? Luckily, Francis has not failed us.

Last night, Francis emailed a nastygram (with a prize inside!) to our vacationing overlord Nick Denton, myself, three attorneys (Cyrus J. Nownejad, Brad Brian, David P. Schack), and for good measure two media contacts: Mike Waters, the news manager at TMZ, and Richard Johnson, the editor of the New York Post's Page Six. Francis is threatening to file lawsuit today over his Douche of the Decade award, claiming that he's lost a $10 million contract because we used the word "rapist" in the bio accompanying the prize. (Last week, when Francis' company lawyer Terry Yeom wrote his own letter, this mysterious lost bit of business only amounted to $4 million.) Here's the missive in full:

Click for Full Article and "Awesome" Email from Joe Francis

WOW.

[Fletch XXX]

with the number of underage girls coming forward with claims..., one could actually call him much worse and get away with it. One girl claims she was 13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Francis

[ShellyCrash]

with the number of underage girls coming forward with claims..., one could actually call him much worse and get away with it. One girl claims she was 13.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Francis

Funny you should mention that, his Wikipedia article is one of the items Gawker is siting in their response to his claims. There are much larger assassinations on his character on the web with much higher SEO relevance than Gawker naming him Douche of the Decade.

[BobG]

I mean really... Is there even a close second? This seems like a landslide victory.

[TheDoc]

Joe is the evil villain that proudly gives a monologue while the good guy preps to embarrass him even more.

[american pervert]

I mean really... Is there even a close second? This seems like a landslide victory.

I was waiting for the 'let me know how that goes' comment from you

[Fletch XXX]

Funny you should mention that, his Wikipedia article is one of the items Gawker is siting in their response to his claims. There are much larger assassinations on his character on the web with much higher SEO relevance than Gawker naming him Douche of the Decade.

When underage teens go to their parents with stories of being giving drugs and being filmed naked, its kind of hard to just constantly make it out like he is just a guy with bad luck. He has a record longer than some guys I know in jail.

The owner of the "Girls Gone Wild" video empire was arrested yesterday on racketeering charges after Florida cops learned that several underage girls were filmed topless and bathing together at a local motel. Investigators allege that Joseph Francis, 30, and his cohorts filmed the minors last week during spring break festivities in Panama City.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ggwild1.html

The guy has been busted more than once when it comes to underage girls, the fact he continues to buy himself out of it all is proof the legal system is horseshit.

[SykkBoy]

He's probably pissed they typoed "decade" for "all time"
I hope he falls into a giant puddle of AIDS

[L-Pink]

Douche hall of fame.


.

[kristin]

That's awesome.

[Fletch XXX]

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/ggwild1.html

The guy has been busted more than once when it comes to underage girls, the fact he continues to buy himself out of it all is proof the legal system is horseshit.

let me elaborate:

"Most importantly, cops reported, they found explicit video of the underage girls"

so why again is he a free man?

[L-Pink]

let me elaborate:

"Most importantly, cops reported, they found explicit video of the underage girls"

so why again is he a free man?

Not to mention the COCAINE found !



.

[BobG]

I was waiting for the 'let me know how that goes' comment from you

LOL. The court case... yeah, let me know how that goes for sure!

[Roald]

I name his douche of the century!!!

Now when is the courtcase?

[L-Pink]

"Francis repeatedly passed gas during the deposition"


(Francis attended a deposition in connection with the lawsuit and tried to take the fifth amendment with respect to almost all questions asked, including whether or not he owned a cell phone. During the deposition Francis repeatedly took out his cell phone and appeared to answer emails, and at one point took a call. Steve Wynn's attorneys reported that Francis repeatedly passed gas during the deposition. ?As the court will see from reviewing the video clips of Francis? deposition, his utter contempt for the judicial system is apparent, including his repeated attempts to disrupt the deposition with flatulence,? the lawyers wrote. Ultimately, the judge in the case ruled that Francis was liable for the entire $2 million, calling Francis? conduct ?the most ridiculous exercise of the Fifth Amendment I think I?ve ever seen.?)






.

[JFK]

let me elaborate:

"Most importantly, cops reported, they found explicit video of the underage girls"

so why again is he a free man?

Justice is Blind ??

[fris]

lets all email joe@ggw congradulating him on dbag of the year

[SykkBoy]

lets all email joe@ggw congradulating him on dbag of the year

better yet, everyone should buy a massengil douche and mail it to him...imagine him going out to check his mail and getting a huge shipment of douchebags....

[ShellyCrash]

better yet, everyone should buy a massengil douche and mail it to him...imagine him going out to check his mail and getting a huge shipment of douchebags....

Now that is a golden idea!

[Roald]

better yet, everyone should buy a massengil douche and mail it to him...imagine him going out to check his mail and getting a huge shipment of douchebags....

LOL awesome idea!!!

[SomeCreep]

Lol, that's funny. That dude's life is a mess.

[Quentin]

Douche of the Decade is indeed an achievement, but Joe still has yet to land the most coveted Douche award of them all....

[Quagmire]

He's just pissed off that the only gave him the 'decade' title when clearly he deserves bigger and better. Century doesn't even begin to cover it.

[MaDalton]

lets all email joe@ggw congradulating him on dbag of the year

i'll make it easier for you: [email protected]

maybe all webmasters that are owed money could drop him a note here...

[TheAmericanCannibal]

it's [email protected]

[Persius]

ah gad fail

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Joe Francis, the entrepreneur behind the deplorable Girls Gone Wild videos, filed for bankruptcy due to the IRS? withdrawal of $100 million dollars and tax levy of $33 million more.

The shock wasn?t due to the bankruptcy bombshell, or that Joe Francis had become ensnared in legal woes?he has more than he can afford to keep track of. The shocking part was that Joe Francis had made enough money over the course of three years?three pivotal years for Girls Gone Wild, 2001, 2002 and 2003. These three unpaid tax years totaled 133 million in taxes, the tip of the iceberg on a stack of hundreds of millions more, all from exploiting vulnerable drunk ?wild? women.

The IRS withdrew $100 million from several different bank accounts, then placed a lien on the $33 million they are yet to procure. Joe Francis? decision to file for bankruptcy will delay the tax lien but will by no means erase it. Most tax debtors filing for bankruptcy file Chapter 13 bankruptcy that helps map out the debt over a five year repayment plan; Joe Francis quite obviously is not like most tax debtors and his 33 million dollar debt will be treated like the debt of a business, in a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The worst part for Joe Francis is that his tax debt would have gone unnoticed, or even rendered uncollectable as tax debt does after ten years, if not for his continued tax delinquency.

Joe Francis filed a fraudulent tax return with a comparatively negligent $250,000 penalty. Now his tax debt has him knee-deep in a hundred million dollar bankruptcy, a bit of karmic retribution for a repeat criminal offender.

Not sure how Joe Francis is going to pay Steve Wynn back now...

ADG

[TheAmericanCannibal]

Not sure how Joe Francis is going to pay Steve Wynn back now...

ADG

he already did

[JFK]

he already did

a man in the know

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

Not sure how Joe Francis is going to pay Steve Wynn back now...

ADG

he already did

Last I heard (in November), is despite Joe claiming he had already paid the money, the court still found him liable for $2 million in money owed to Wynn's casino, and that Wynn was seeking to seize possession of at least one of Joe Francis' properties to satisfy the debt (Wynn is seeking about $3 million now, due to the accumulated interest penalties).



So, when did Joe Francis repay Steve Wynn?

Please cite a news source/article.

ADG

[D Ghost]

Omg lol, go Gawker.

[SykkBoy]

it's [email protected]

happen to have a mailing address? maybe even to mantra Films? haha

[neonlights]

doesn't matter who is right....what matters is gawker now has lawsuit to deal with...great job gawker.

[CDSmith]

doesn't matter who is right....what matters is gawker now has lawsuit to deal with...great job gawker.

The lawsuit doesn't matter either. What matters is that since everyone knows only a true douchebag files a lawsuit over being called a douchebag (especially when he is one) that no judge in the world is going to offer a judgement in his favor.

If he goes through with this suit he could wind up having his award upgraded to douche of the century.

[SleazyDream]

doesn't matter who is right....what matters is gawker now has lawsuit to deal with...great job gawker.

what's sad is you'd hope for a traffic spike from something like this but nope

[Quentin]

It just occurred to me that Francis must not have heard our podcast interview with Doug Stanhope, eh? (The part about Francis comes near the end of this clip)

Compared with what Stanhope had to say about Francis, Gawker's Douche award seems downright reserved....

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

doesn't matter who is right....what matters is gawker now has lawsuit to deal with...great job gawker.

Gawker responds:

It falls to Gawker Media's legal honcho Gaby Darbyshire to handle complaints like these. In her reply to Yeom, she pointed out that there are about 140,000 Google search results for "joe francis rapist," including his Wikipedia page. And the old Defamer post we linked to last week is based on a 2006 Los Angeles Times profile of Francis by Claire Hoffman in which an 18-year-old girl gives an on the record account of Francis having sex with her on the Girls Gone Wild bus despite her repeatedly saying no. The whole thing is really worth a read. As Gaby wrote, "frankly, let's face it ? given his chosen career and his actions to date, it would be hard to say that your client really has any reputation of social probity and standing to damage at this point, now does he?"

We're sorry that Gaby had to take time during her Christmas break to deal with this. But we are relieved that Francis hasn't let success temper what got him to the top of the douche heap. Shine on, you big beautiful oozing boil of a human being!

Update: Okay, fine. After some consideration, we're sorry for calling you a "rapist" since you are more accurately "an alleged rapist." After all, we've never seen you doing the raping, only read about it.

This is an excerpt from the LA Times article Gawker cited:

Above the dance floor, the stage is full of girls who rotate, twist
and shimmy their way up and down three strip poles. One of them is
Jannel Szyszka, a petite 18-year-old who prances around the stage like
a star. At her feet, a crowd of hundreds is gyrating to the pounding
house music. Dozens of polo-shirted boys shout up to her, making
requests like ?shake your titties? and ?get crunk? (meaning
crazy-drunk).

Szyszka tells me later that as she was spinning around the strip pole
that night, Francis appeared, grabbed her arm and pulled her toward
him. ?You are so going on the bus later,? she recalls Francis saying.
?I was like, ?Um, OK.? I was shocked. I was like, ?Whoa', ?Joe?s, like,
trying to talk to me, like out of all the girls in here.?? Francis
invited her back to the VIP area to do shots with him, she says, and
she said yes.

Szyszka says the more shots she drank, the cloudier her judgment
became. She says she agreed to join Francis and his crew on the ?Girls
Gone Wild? bus. ?I thought ?Girls Gone Wild? was like flashing, and I
thought I would flash them and be done. And so when I?m walking to the
bus, that?s all I?m thinking is going to happen.?

At first she felt comfortable, she says. Inebriated and excited, she
says she was led to the back of the bus, to a small bedroom. The
double bed, with its neatly folded iridescent purple sheets, takes up
most of the room. A flat-screen TV faces the bed, and cabinets are
filled with remote controls, lubricants, condoms, sex toys in plastic
bags, baby oil, a DVD called ?How to be a Player? and a clipboard full
of waivers for girls to sign. A small bathroom is off to the side,
with a half-sized shower with faux marble tiling, and on the floor of
the shower is a crate holding cheap and fruity-flavored rum, whiskey,
tequila and Kool-Aid.

Footage from that night shows a close-up of Szyszka?s driver?s
license, proving she?s not a minor. The camera then captures Szyszka
lying on the bed. Her nails are chipped, her eyes coated with makeup.
Following a camerman?s instructions, she shows her breasts and says,
?Girls Gone Wild.? She seems shy but willing. She smiles. The unseen
cameraman asks her to take off her shirt, her skirt, then her
underwear.

She sprawls on the bed, her legs open. At his suggestion,
she masturbates with a dildo, saying repeatedly that it hurts but also
feels good. Francis enters the room at certain points and you hear his
voice, low and flirtatious, telling her, ?You are so adorable.? When
she says she?s a virgin, he responds: ?Great. You won?t be after my
cameraman gets done with you.?

When I talk to Szyszka seven days later, she says she ?didn?t quite
realize? she was being filmed. ?But I didn?t care because I was drunk
and who cares?? Then she adds: ?It didn?t feel good to me at all, but
I was totally faking it because I was on ?Girls Gone Wild.??

Eventually, Szyszka says, Francis told the cameraman to leave and
pushed her back on the bed, undid his jeans and climbed on top of her.
?I told him it hurt, and he kept doing it. And I keep telling him it
hurts. I said, ?No? twice in the beginning, and during I started
saying, ?Oh, my god, it hurts.? I kept telling him it hurt, but he
kept going, and he said he was sorry but kissed me so I wouldn?t keep
talking.?

Afterward, she says, Francis cleaned them both off with a paper towel
and told her to get dressed. Then, she says, he opened the door and
told the cameraman to come back, saying, ?She?s not a virgin anymore.?

Szyszka says Francis told her that what happened had to stay between
them. She says she agreed, and they walked to the front of the bus.
Szyszka remembers that one of the crew returned her driver?s license.
Another asked if she wanted to hang out on the bus. She declined, she
says, but asked for three pairs of ?booty short? underwear that
Francis had promised her for appearing on camera. ?They gave me a
weird look like that was too much,? Szyszka recalls. ?They were, like,
?Three of them?? and I was, like, ?Yeah, three.??

Within days, Szyszka says, she told her father, who was angry about
what she said had happened but kept quiet at her request. A month
after the incident, she says, she told her sister and mother.

She?s confused, she admits, about what happened. She feels guilty, she
says, for getting herself into the situation in the first place. She
says she never would have undressed for the cameras if she hadn?t been
completely drunk. And she is adamant that she said ?no? to Francis.
She says she?s haunted by that night.

?I feel like it was planned,? she says. ?Sometimes I?m driving along,
and I think about it and all of a sudden feel weird.?

Six weeks after that night outside Chicago, when I call Francis on his
cellphone and ask him about the incident, he says he doesn?t remember
Szyszka and that he didn?t have sex with anyone that night. He seems
to lose control, repeatedly referring to me by a crude word for female
genitalia. ?If you print that, I will [expletive] sue the [expletive]
out of you. If you print that, baby, you just put the nail in your own
coffin,? he tells me. ?You are a [expletive expletive]. You decided to
blast me . . . You are a [expletive] bitch . . . I will get my last
laugh on you. I will get you.? He then refers me to Burke, his lawyer.

In an e-mail, Burke says Francis and Szyszka did have sex ?consensual
sex?, and that neither Francis nor anyone affiliated with ?Girls Gone
Wild? gave her any alcohol. ?Neither Mr. Francis nor any of the GGW
staff in or around the bus recall Ms. Szyszka making any complaint or
comment about Mr. Francis.

Rapist or alleged rapist, I still think they got it right about Joe Francis being the "Douche of the Decade", for these among other reasons:

On March 12, 2008 Francis was convicted on child abuse and prostitution charges

On March 25, 2008, four women filed suit against him in Florida for filming them while underage, with one girl claiming she had been 13 when filmed.

It might be a little harder for Joe to "settle out of court", if in fact, he doesn't have the financial resources to buy off his accuser's silence anymore.

ADG

[MaDalton]

happen to have a mailing address? maybe even to mantra Films? haha

sure....



(funny - now they blacked out the "Joe" in his email address - as if no one would guess that)

[L-Pink]

It just occurred to me that Francis must not have heard our podcast interview with Doug Stanhope, eh? (The part about Francis comes near the end of this clip)

Compared with what Stanhope had to say about Francis, Gawker's Douche award seems downright reserved....

that was funny!


.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

what's sad is you'd hope for a traffic spike from something like this but nope

Actually, the Douche of the Decade article came out on December 22nd:



I imagine when the numbers are posted in a few days (that take into account today's article), there will be another uptick.

Keep in mind that Gawker's Alexa rank is currently 1,023 in the world, and 336 in the U.S. (so it takes way more activity in order to see trends):



I mean. I realize they Gawker is no "Yes Signals" when it comes to traffic and ranking, but hey, they try damn it (btw, why do you get so much non-US and non-Canada traffic?)...

ADG

[SykkBoy]

sure....



(funny - now they blacked out the "Joe" in his email address - as if no one would guess that)

one special care package going out to Santa Monica in the morning....anyone else up for it?

[Semi-Retired-Dave]

Nobody seems to care about the confidentiality clause he has on his email.

[MaDalton]

Nobody seems to care about the confidentiality clause he has on his email.

isn't that like "don't click if you are not 18 yet"?

[DaddyHalbucks]

Does GGW Cash pay webmasters? What's your experience?

Does anyone still promote GGW Cash?

?

[ShellyCrash]

one special care package going out to Santa Monica in the morning....anyone else up for it?

I'm down. I mean, there;s nothing illegal about mailing someone a gift, right?

I gotta go to the post office tomorrow anyway.

[AaliyahLove]

I mean really... Is there even a close second? This seems like a landslide victory.

that Francis guy from Iporn..whats his name? I think he comes in a close second, but Joe def earned this title

[candyflip]

Actually, the Douche of the Decade article came out on December 22nd:

[IMG]

I mean. I realize they Gawker is no "Yes Signals" when it comes to traffic and ranking, but hey, they try damn it (btw, why do you get so much non-US and non-Canada traffic?)...

ADG

Have you ever seen the Sleazydream.com stats when he started flooding the site with Chinese traffic?

[MaDalton]

that Francis guy from Iporn..whats his name? I think he comes in a close second, but Joe def earned this title

Francis Koenig

[MrMaxwell]

This clown is still alive?

[Exit-chat]

Joe owes us over 60k

Does GGW Cash pay webmasters? What's your experience?

Does anyone still promote GGW Cash?

?

He screwed me out of our rev share deal after 2.5 years recovering over 1mm in sales and he decided to stiff us. My team has just filed suit against him... we will see what happens...