TAMPA - A nude maid cleaned up good at a Florida man's home.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office says the maid stole more than $40,000 from a Cheval home despite not wearing any clothes.
The 50-year-old man hired the maid from the Internet on Friday to clean his suburban Tampa home.
Authorities say the woman arrived at the home in a one-piece, light colored dress. She took off the dress and cleaned the house for $100-per-hour.
Swing is out
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
A Bay of Plenty schoolteacher has quit after her appetite for sexual swinging was revealed in an anonymous email to her headmaster.
Now the teacher's husband has launched his own inquiry into who sent the email, saying the person had ruined his wife's life.
The anonymous email, which revealed the teacher and her husband had been advertising for swingers on the website nzdating.com, follows a similar one sent by the same person to the principal of another school. That email revealed naked images of one of that school's teachers.
The teacher in the latest case decided it was best for her to leave the school.
"I mean, what people do, whether they are swingers or wife-swapping - they are not actually affecting anybody are they?" said her husband.
"We have learnt a huge lesson about the internet, you know. I have my own investigation going on. These people have ruined my wife and my family by doing this and it is absolute rubbish. It's definitely gutless.
"She is a great teacher - what she does in her private life has nothing to do with anyone."
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The teacher was reluctant to comment, other than to say she did not know what had motivated the anonymous emailer.
Teachers Council head Peter Lind said teachers operated by a code of ethics. This included ensuring they did not do anything to discredit the teaching industry.
"Any case or complaint needs to be investigated in a fair and reasoned way so I can't just make a blanket comment. But the process is there to protect the public and to protect teachers from unjust and unfair complaints."
Lind said the rules were similar to those in the medical profession.
Teachers had clear responsibilities and were in an occupation that was in the public view and if an action was likely to have an impact on their professional responsibility then they needed to consider that very carefully.
"VOTER FRAUD IN THE LIFESTYLE"
Monday, October 13, 2008
Recently we received an email from a lifestyle site that it was "Voted Best Value in a Lifestyle Site" (we also noticed that this site was a scaled down version of their more expensive site). We thought hey we didn't get to vote on that and when we asked our friends they did not get a vote either...
Take heart we have organized a bipartisan Blue Ribbon committee to investigate this:
and the Task Force is on the case.
We did find out that ACORN was "not" involved in the voter registration of those who voted in the first survey of Swingers sites "Voted Best Value on the Web", but we did find that it was an organization called DEEZ-NUTZ
The so-called voters never had the facts, luckily the task force on their J-O-B and have compiled and easy to read chart located here
The task force has finally recommended against a recount and has officially demanded a vote from the people by the people for the people. Cast your vote here
Which Sites are really Free for members?
"Vote for Best Value in a Lifestyle Site"
What acts are reserved for "intimate" partners?
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
2 ex-workers sue Neiman Marcus over sex tape
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Northbrook store's manager allegedly made illegal tapes
Two former security employees at the Neiman Marcus department store in Northbrook who were fired last year for engaging in sex at work filed a lawsuit Tuesday alleging they were illegally videotaped.Steven Chalem and Veronica Miranda, identified in the lawsuit as residents of Evanston, allege they were secretly videotaped by a manager while employed as loss prevention investigators at the store in 2007. They describe themselves as "close friends" who worked together for several years.
The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, alleges that the manager installed a hidden camera in the office and began recording them and other employees. Chalem and Miranda were fired last October "for engaging in sexual activity with each other in the loss prevention office" on two separate occasions, the suit said.
The suit alleges the manager shared the videotape with several other people and on a nationwide online database of security personnel.
Both Chalem and Miranda have been unable to find jobs in the retail loss prevention industry since their firings, the suit said.
The plaintiffs asked for damages for violation of Illinois' eavesdropping statute, infliction of emotional distress and other complaints.
A representative for Neiman Marcus Group Inc. said she cannot comment on pending litigation.
Dead End: Train Crushes Couple Having Sex
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Talk about going out with a bang.
Two South Africans were run over and killed while making love on a railroad track in Mpualanga Provence, ignoring shouts from the train's engineer, who saw them too late to stop.
The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and the woman died several hours later at a local hospital, according to South Africa's Beeld newspaper.
At the time of publication, the bodies had yet to be identified and relatives had not stepped forward to help with the investigation.
This much is clear: If neither of them heard the train, just imagine how great the sex must've been.
Denver's Craigslist Flooded With Sex-Ads During Democratic Convention
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
DENVER--An unusual phenomenon has recently appeared on Craigslist's Denver Web site. Sex-wanted ads spiked this week, which happens to coincide with the Democratic National Convention.
Ads seeking casual sexual encounters through the Denver Craigslist site increased an average of roughly 70 percent to 80 percent over the same days of the week earlier in August.
"Casual encounter" ads spiked the week of the Democratic National Convention. But correlation does not, by itself, prove causation. The vertical axis is posts-per-day, and the horizontal axis represents every day of August to date.
"Casual encounter" ads spiked the week of the Democratic National Convention. But correlation does not, by itself, prove causation. The vertical axis is posts-per-day, and the horizontal axis represents every day of August to date.
On average, 425 posts on Craiglist's "Casual Encounters" area appeared on the first three Sundays in August. But this Sunday, when tens of thousands of people had arrived for the convention, 763 posts appeared--an 80 percent increase.
The general content is what you might expect. Posts suggested "Here 4 DNC? Come get sexual with me"; "Does the DNC make you hot?"; and "Looking to service a young Democrat." (Most are far more explicit, but unsuitable for our upstanding, discriminating readers. Use your imagination.)Other days showed the same week-over-week jump. Monday increased 77 percent over the average of earlier in the month; Tuesday increased 69 percent; Wednesday's increase was 74 percent.
This is where we insert the disclaimers. Mere correlation does not imply causation: other factors could explain this rise in advertisements.
Perhaps universities are back in session, or it's warmer or colder out. Perhaps loyalists of another political party are intentionally posting fake advertisements in hopes that the Democrats will be blamed. Perhaps the thousands of journalists in town are seeking extracurricular activities. Make up your own mind. And yes, we'll be paying attention to what happens during the Republican convention as well.
Poll: Would you have any problems swinging with a couple that has a huge age gap?
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
David Duchovny in rehab for sex addiction
Friday, August 29, 2008
LOS ANGELES (AP) - David Duchovny has entered a rehabilitation facility for sex addiction. In a statement released Thursday by his lawyer, Stanton Stein, the actor said he did so voluntarily, adding: "I ask for respect and privacy for my wife and children as we deal with this situation as a family."
The actor's publicist, Flo Grace, confirmed the rehab report, which first appeared on People.com.
She and Stein both declined to elaborate further.
Duchovny, 48, plays a sex-obsessed character on the Showtime series "Californication," which earned Emmy nominations for casting and cinematography. The show's second season begins Sept. 28. Showtime had no comment Thursday.
The actor appeared in the film "The X Files: I Want to Believe" earlier this summer. He has been married to actress Tea Leoni since 1997. They have two children.
Single but has a partner...hummm
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Alright, I am single but in a lifestyle such as this when you have a partner that you swing with does that mean you can't have a vanilla boyfriend?
I have been trying to keep the two worlds separate at least I think I am, but I am drawn to the men in this world. Some of them seem to be so level headed about sex that it is almost unreal. I mean before I even came into this lifestyle it seemed that when I was dating a man and we had sex things would change with them. Some of them would get possessive over "it", which would start to cause problems. But in the lifestyle the only thing you have to get past is the first eye contact and then if things click...straight to the bed, floor, table where ever the mood strikes. Then there is no awkwardness people just go on to the next person and that is that. If they are interested in you after the clothes have been taken off and the deeds have been done then cool. If not the world doesn't stop turning and there is anothe dick waiting to be riden.
So is it ok to have a boyfriend that is not in the lifestyle and a separate partner for the lifestyle?
Enough is enough
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Being single and in the lifestyle is sometimes hard to do. It could have something to do with expectations that you have for yourself and the expectation you think others have of you. You wake up in the morning eat breakfast, got to work, talk with some of your coworkers, finish your work day then drive back home and might even call your mother or one of your close girlfriends before you order your dinner for the night. You go through the motions of going out to clubs or bars trying to find a guy that will seem sane enough to start a relationship with, but the thing is all you really want to do is have sex, get up and leave them before they leave you. You get tired of trying to explain to your mother why you don't have a boyfriend or why you just sit at home on Friday and Saturday nights because she is getting more action than you. You go through the motions day after day and then finally one day you tell yourself enough is enough, I need something more.
So you start looking around the world of the internet. It is definitely one of the best inventions of the 21st century. They say what ever you are looking for can be found in this technological wonderland and low and behold I stumbled upon a few websites for adults. Now it wasn't the vanilla type adult fun that I was used to reading about. I mean I was on geo cities with the "y" before, but this world was new. When I first registered with the adult website I got the usual creepy come ons, and the continuous emails from people that just wanted to get off on just reading. I also stepped out of my box and met a couple of them, but not to my surprise they should have just stuck with writing emails.
Then it happened I met my very first actual swinger....and wow what a different world I am living in now. It took about two weeks for this guy to convince me that his wife was actually ok with me having sex with him. I got mad, got confused as to why I was getting mad. I guess I finally forgave myself for wanting to do what the vanillas call immoral. Sleeping with someone's husband, how could it be okay?
After it was explained to me the rules of the swinger lifestyle it was a little easier to accept the concept. Now my new friend and his wife had been in the lifestyle for nearly ten years so they pretty much have the communication, trust and understanding of the rules as they apply to their relationship. I went over to their den while the wifey was out of town, I was nervous didn't quite know what to expect. I couldn't have been at their house for more than fifteen minutes before the wifey called to check on the progress of the newest venture. They talked on the phone in front of me then I heard the wife call out to me to have fun.
To say the least I was still a bit stunned at the fact the idea of another woman telling me to have fun with her husband. Wow!!!!
It was a fantastic first time experience and I walked away feeling sexy, wobbly legged, and confident in my abilities to take pleasure in another woman's man. I did feel a little bit guilty for a little while, but that was because I've been so brain washed into thinking that it is wrong to have sex with another woman's husband. So I vowed to myself to not have sex with another womans' husband or man unless she knew about it and gave him permission to do so. I do what I can to keep true to that vow, but I can't always tell when someone is telling me a the truth. I try to keep the confusion down by only parttaking in parties that my group throws. I have my regulars that I know don't have women only because I've actually stayed at their places more than once to know they are not attached.
Being a single woman in the lifestyle has its perks one being you don't have to feel guilty for enjoying your sexuality. It's sometimes a turn on for some men when they find out you are a swinger, but you have to explain to them that just because you part take in the swinging lifestyle you are not a slut or promiscuous and still deserve respect. You can keep things in perspective when it comes to men and sex. You aren't having sex with hopes of getting married to that person, because that is what had been programmed in your mind by the vanilla world. You have more confidence in who you are and you enjoy your body more. It's a secrete diet pill that could never be sold on the market. Although the show "Swingtown" is trying.
The down side of being in the lifestyle is that unless you find a boyfriend who has been in the lifestyle or is in the life style they won't understand your desire to be in the lifestyle. How open the communication can be between couples that are in the lifestyle. It's just a different world all together.
So like I said in the beginning...enough is enough....get out there and be who you are. Embrace this lifestyle for all it is worth and enjoy!!!!! It has such pleasures to show you.
Woman Sentenced for Web Site With 'obscene' Stories
Thursday, August 7, 2008
A Pennsylvania woman has been sentenced to five years of probation, including six months of home detention, and forfeiture of her computer after pleading guilty Thursday to obscenity charges for running a Web site that featured text stories that were sexual and violent in nature.
Karen Fletcher, 56,of Donora, Pennsylvania, owned and operated the Web site, Red Rose Stories, which featured stories describing sexual molestation and violence against children. Other stories included torture, rape and murder of children, and Fletcher sold memberships to her site, where members could get full stories, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Fletcher, using the pen name Red Rose, wrote most of the stories herself, the DOJ said. Some of the stories were available as audio files, but the site didn't include photos, according to press reports.
Fletcher reportedly was abused as a child and started the site as a form of therapy, according to news reports.
The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation ordered the site closed in late 2005. Some constitutional lawyers have questioned the prosecution of Fletcher, saying many pieces of popular literature have contained similar descriptions of abuse or murder.
Fletcher pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh to six counts of using an interactive computer service to distribute obscene materials. She must serve the first six months of her probation under home detention and pay a US$1,000 fine, Judge Joy Flowers Conti ruled.
Mary Beth Buchanan, the U.S. attorney in the Western District of Pennsylvania, has filed obscenity charges against several defendants.
Buchanan "has gone on a rampage trying to stamp out expression that doesn't meet her standards of morality," Marc John Randazza, a law professor at the Barry University School of Law in Orlando, wrote on his blog.
Randazza, who teaches about free speech rights and other legal issues, acknowledges that the content of Red Rose Stories was shocking, but he suggested the U.S. Constitution protects fictional stories. "If you believe in the Constitution, and you believe in what this country means, you can NOT believe that any American should ever face prison for writing fiction -- no matter what the subject matter of that fiction might be," he wrote in a blog post.
Want to own a piece of Swingers.com?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
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Will the Real Swinger Please Stand Up
Monday, August 4, 2008
You would think with all the clubs, websites, parties and groups with the name Swinger attached to it, that we would have no problem finding genuine lifestyle folks in our area. But despite the multitude of options, finding "the real swinger" is proving more and more difficult.
I almost hate saying the word real swinger. When we first got into the lifestyle 6 years ago, this turn was thrown around as a debate between the up and coming soft swinger movement and the fullswappers. As I have seen more and more "soft" swingers become fullswap, I would rather just say that they are swingers waiting to have their cherry popped. However, as the popularity of swinging has grown, so has the even softer swinger. These are the "swingers" that have made it more difficult to find the real swinger, soft or fullswap. These swingers refuse to go to a party unless it has 5 to 6 other activities to do outside of playing. They must be severely liquored up and drunk before they feel comfortable in taking part in any activities. Worst of all they are uncomfortable with themselves and sex.
It is unfortunate that lifestyle communities are now infested with this new softer swinger, but even more unfortunate is how the infestation began. The door to the lifestyle was once difficult to find let alone squeeze through. My wife and I searched for a lifestyle club for a year before we were brought into the secretive world. That door has been slowly creeped open by those whom seek to make profit, whether it be money or popularity. For every rule a club, group or website has, that is 5 to 10 to 100 potential customers whom they have to turn away. I have seen many good friends who began a club or event with good intentions of creating a haven for the community, and then slowly let those intentions erode as the inticement of greed becomes too great.
Out of the dozens of clubs and parties in our area, only 3 (one of which is ours) screens people before they attend. One club is the etitomy of the softer swinger, nonsexual banging club music all night, an invite list that consists of their real estate agent and family members, single men roaming in feral packs, play a severe rarity, an entry fee that is exhorbant when considering it is located in a residential apartment. As an example of a rampant new ideology in the lifestyle, the softer swinger is the new swinger, as the owners have told us.
In a turn of irony, the real swinger is slowly being pushed to the back of the lifestyle, as the more socially pallattable softer swinger style influences the lifestyle clubs and events. But, there are still secrets to finding other likeminded real swingers. Signup on websites that are run by lifestylers. The more questions they ask before approving your profile the better. If you sign up for an event and the organizer never speaks to you, be leary. Word of mouth is more important than how many individuals are on the guest list. The Real Swinger may have to inact strategies of the swingers from a decade or two ago, before the internet, and ask other real swingers where to go. Read a club's rules and forms. How genuine do they seem in the lifestyle. Ask around. Ask do the hosts play. Does it seem like they are running a sex show where the 3 or 4 real swingers who go will be the main attraction? The real swinger may be difficult to find, but it certainly is not going extinct.
9 Sexy Las Vegas Swingers Clubs
- Sea Mountain Inn Spa and Resort
- Hotel, resort and spa for adults only, clothing-optional. Includes photo gallery of rooms, rates and specials, details of spa packages and special events.
- The Red Rooster
- The Vegas Red Rooster was the first Swingers Club/Party opened in Las Vegas in 1982 by Mike and Chris. They opened the Red Rooster with the belief that ...
- Couples Oasis
- Couples Oasis is the premiere private club in Las Vegas. The focus of Couples Oasis is couples swinging with couples. At many other clubs, an unlimited ...
- Green Door Las Vegas
- Must Be 18 Years or Older!!! Enter the World Famous Green Door Now! Click Here to Enter.
- Red Twilight Parties
- Red Twilight is the gateway to Sin City's "Upscale" night club events & private parties. Our events are held at the hottest locations with the most alluring ...
- Hush Swingers Club
- Swingers Clubs: This is the best Swingers Club in las Vegas. The las vegas swingers club called the Hush Club. The Hush Club Las Vegas privides a great ...
- Purrfect Las Vegas
- We are extremely excited to present Purrfect Las Vegas -- formed by a woman who saw a desire for exclusive upscale events in the Las Vegas area & other ...
- Vegas Bi-Wives Club
- Welcome to the Bi-Wives Club, the best resource for bisexual females and their partners. We currently host KICK ASS swinger parties in a few different ...
SwingTown Lash Back
Monday, June 30, 2008
SWINGTOWN UNDER FIRE! Nielson Ratings Message Board Slaughtering Swingtown! A mass effort has been launched by vanilla, and organized religious groups, to have CBS remove the summer series Swingtown from the air! Swingtown is not perfect, but few things in life are! If it is anything, it's entertaining, and informative. In the pilot episode, it got right to the heart of why we all joined the lifestyle, to set aside time for each others pleasure, strengthen our relationships, eliminate jealousy, build trust, and not having to venture outside the relationship for friendship, companionship, or to have our needs met! Even with all those benefits stated, vanilla, and religious groups have launched an all out war to have CBS remove it from the air, stating it's content demoralizes family values. These are the same people waving the morality flag, that you'll see out in the bars having extramarital affairs, or who's leaders you'll be reading about in the headlines, for committing child molestation, or other sex crimes! We as a community have to stand up and let these groups know that we are not going to have them dictate what we can, and can't watch on television, just because it doesn'tgo along with their beliefs. What about our beliefs? If they don't like it, they should watch one of the many reruns showing on the other channels. The Gays, and Lesbians had to fight for their rights, and now this is just yet another example of why we must do the same! What's next, consenting adults can't do what consenting adults want to, or maybe we can't even do what we want to do in the privacy of our own homes? Show your support, and have your voice heard by voting on the Nielsen Ratings Board *** ***. WE DID! Watch Swingtown Thursday evenings 10pm, on CBS. Here is just one of the many comments! CANCEL THIS SHOW NOW!!! CBS's last gasp: it has prostituted itself with toxic waste. Vomitting in public was once considered a poor form of self-expression. CBS has resurrected public vomit, that vile bile and indigestible rot from the pit of one's gut, with it's pilot, Swingtown. Swingtown features empty characters, decadent lives and moral depravity. Sheer self-involvement and selfishness reign across current media. If it weren't so damaging to family values, Swingtown would be laughable. Like many of CBS's other shows, Swingtown lacks depth, real humor or insight. It's a shame to squandered real cash on such a dismal pilot to again show the world that the USA is a material, sex obsessed, heathen nation. No revelations here. This show is worse that 2 and a half Men and That Seventies Show. Trash. Trash. Trash.
Labels: Current Events, Swingers, Television
Sex and the Ayatollahs
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
When it comes to sex education, the Iranian authorities are anything but squeamish
Pomegranate-flavoured condoms anyone? In Iran, sexuality in public may be cause for police harassment and worse but sexuality in private (as long as it is heterosexual) is there to be enjoyed as a blessing from God - or so the authorities would have it. A decade ago there were more flavours of condom in Iran than in London, New York or Paris.
Gay people, infamously, can be singled out and killed, but gay and lesbian activity thrives in Iran's big cities, just as in other countries that abuse such human rights.
However, it is in the realm of sex education that Iran is markedly different from most countries in the region. HIV/Aids seems a good gauge of the effectiveness of sex education policy in terms of health. After all, this is a country that has suffered massive violent upheaval followed by a US-fostered renaissance of drug and human trafficking on its borders. It seems that a Shia theocracy isn't a bad system when it comes to sexual health.
While NGOs backed by politicised money like to concentrate on the bizarre emphasis of President Ahmadinejad on a ridiculous herbal "cure" for Aids, the Islamic Republic has in fact been earmarking tens of millions of dollars for Aids programmes. It was back in 2005 that postage stamps bore the red ribbon for Aids awareness and today, vending machines in the capital sell cheap condoms and syringes. Official estimates put the number of regular drug users in Iran at two million among a population of just over 70 million - per capita, the highest rate in the world. The situation has worsened since start of the US-backed war in Afghanistan from where 2,500 tonnes of narcotics a year now enter the country.
It was in the 1980s - not long after Britain screened its first advertisements warning of the dangers of HIV - that the Iranian government began Aids-awareness campaigns and a modicum of sex education. It was also around that time that campaigns were launched to promote two-children families, overturning Khomeini's postwar policy of outlawing contraception and instructing women that their chief role was to bear children. In 2002, a wide-ranging study in Tabriz pointed to the effectiveness of sex education in schools in preventing the spread of HIV. The clerics of Qom and Mashhad gave their blessing. Nevertheless, government bureaucracy is preventing Iran from being a world-leader in HIV/Aids-prevention – specifically the lack of statistics and basic record-keeping that blights Iranian medical research in all fields.
Iran is, however, ranked by the UNDP as having some of the best health and education provision in the region. Perhaps it's not surprising that a country that has gone through the turmoil of a revolution and an eight-year war with Iraq should not be on top of things. The current economic crisis alone is degenerating into a prostitution epidemic. A remarkable facet of Shia Islam, though, is its lack of squeamishness about teaching youngsters the dangers and practicalities of sex - unlike many Christian and Sunni countries. One only has to look across the Gulf at a fleshpot dictatorship like the United Arab Emirates where 80% of the population live in abject poverty and the government gives a tacit nod and a wink to the massive, miserable sex trade.
But for all this, the role of women in society is the key indicator when it comes to any analysis of sex education in Iran. Despite the high proportions of women in senior management and the professions, they still tend to be treated like children. Given that Iranian women have not even organised themselves to get rid of the compulsory hijab let alone achieve equal property rights, sexuality even in the large middle class is dictated by men - not least when it comes to depictions of what is most alluring. Whether it be the high rates of rhinoplasty surgery at one level to the much more shadowy world of the temporary – even hour-long - marriage, blessed by clerics, Michel Foucault would have had an easy time ascertaining the power relations here. But a post-structuralist analysis demonstrating the importance of identity over class when looking at sex education in Iran would only be a beginning.
Take My Wife. Please. I’ll Take Yours.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008


WHEN the television series “Swingtown” has its premiere on June 5, viewers can expect to see the following scenes in the first episode: a ménage à trois; a high school junior smoking pot and later flirting with her English teacher; the flagrant enjoyment of quaaludes and cocaine; and the sight of the neighborhood scold unwittingly stumbling upon a groaning and slithering orgy. “Why don’t you kick your shoes off, Mom, and join the party?” is how a middle-aged participant, clad only in mutton chops, says hello.
Debauchery, however, is only an appetizer for the main story line: the open marriage of an airline pilot and his wife, who, in pursuit of new partners, set about seducing the businessman and housewife who have just moved in across the street.
Seems like something that would be right at home on HBO or Showtime, where programs tend to loiter in the muck of moral ambiguity. But “Swingtown,” a one-hour scripted drama, will appear on CBS. Though perhaps not as prim and upstanding as it was when shows like “Murder, She Wrote” and “Touched by an Angel” defined its airwaves, this network tends to be more decorous than others where sex is concerned. So basing a series on sexual experimentation and other taboos, even if from a bygone era — “Swingtown” is set in the mid-1970s — is a notable experiment in and of itself.
“Swingtown” was born in large part from a serendipitous collision of circumstances. A CBS executive happened to have a hankering for ’70s retrospection at a time when the network was looking for critical cachet and a way to expand its brand beyond grisly crime dramas and mainstream comedies. “Swingtown,” then, is something of a trial balloon.
One CBS official said it was probably inevitable that some companies now advertising on “Without a Trace,” the show temporarily yielding its time slot at 10 p.m. Thursdays to “Swingtown,” would beg off during the new show’s run. But with a subtle release of its 13 episodes between June and late summer (the heart of its promotional campaign is a teaser already on YouTube and spots on classic-rock radio stations), the network is hoping to beckon new viewers without alienating old ones.
“We wanted to give people something fun and fresh in the summer,” said Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment and the person who greenlighted the series. “The summer gives you a kind of different license.”
In setting the tone for “Swingtown,” its producers— including Mike Kelley (a writer for “The OC” and “Jericho”) and Alan Poul (a principal director of “Six Feet Under”) — said they aimed to combine the raucous abandon of “Boogie Nights,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s tongue-in-cheek take on the 1970s porn industry, and the sweetness of “The Wonder Years,” the ABC series (starring Fred Savage) in which a grown man looks back on his upbringing in the late ’60s and early ’70s.
While “Swingtown” does not have a narrator, it is certainly born of an adult looking back on his childhood. In 1976 Mr. Kelley, the show’s creator, was 8 and living in Winnetka, Ill., the Chicago suburb in “Swingtown.” And while the show is fiction, he said he was inspired by his memories of the Harvey Wallbanger-fueled parties that his parents and their friends staged on Saturday nights; he would often watch from a perch on the stairs.
When he wrote the pilot episode, he surrounded himself with photographs his mother took of those times, and some of their details have been virtually grafted onto “Swingtown.” One character drives a maroon Cadillac Eldorado convertible and works as a trader, just as Mr. Kelley’s father did. Another wears the long denim skirts his mother favored and sips gimlet martinis, her favorite drink. (The singer-songwriter Liz Phair, a classmate of Mr. Kelley’s at New Trier High School, has created the show’s original score.)
Mr. Kelley, now 40, also says that at least some of the show’s more salacious moments are based on real events. “I remembered one summer where the kids all hung out, and some of the parents in the neighborhood kind of switched partners,” he said in a recent interview. “It felt like they all just moved one house to the left. Eventually most of those marriages broke up.”
In a later conversation Mr. Kelley’s mother, Marcia Arnold, speaking with her son at her side, said that particular recollection was “embellished a bit.” “Mike saw it through young eyes,” she said, adding that she had no frame of reference, for example, for anything remotely like the basement orgy depicted in the series pilot. (She has seen that first episode twice.) Mrs. Arnold did acknowledge, however, that within her circle of perhaps 20 couples, most of them in their 30s by the mid-1970s and many of them already parents to adolescent children, there were flirtations, breakups and eventually remarriages.
“A lot of us married very early because that’s what you did, and some people grew apart because they probably shouldn’t have been together in the first place,” Mrs. Arnold said.
Mr. Kelley’s parents were among those who separated, much to his relief. “It was hard to see your parents so unhappy in something they didn’t seem to be able to get out of,” Mr. Kelley recalled as his mother sat next to him in the big backyard of his red-brick home, which is near Hollywood but looks like it could be in the northern suburbs of Chicago. “Even though I was 20, I remember feeling thrilled for Mother in particular.”
He shifted his gaze toward her. “You did something that was right for you emotionally, personally,” he added.
With both his parents now happier in new marriages than they were in their first, Mr. Kelley said he has taken their experience to heart.
“Watching my mom navigate her first marriage and the crazy second adolescence she and her friends seemed to be living in the 1970s inspired me to be as brave and honest as I can be in my own adult relationships and not worry so much about what other people think or say about them,” he later wrote in an e-mail message. “But the jury is still out for me on marriage and monogamy.”
Asked if he is now involved in a relationship, he said only, “I’ve been lucky to have had a handful of primary relationships over the years, none of which society would probably deem conventional.”
In setting out to sell a story as unconventional as “Swingtown,” Mr. Kelley said, he did not immediately think of the broadcast networks.
Mr. Kelley and Mr. Poul first pitched the idea to executives at HBO, where Mr. Poul had a development deal following his run on “Six Feet Under.” HBO passed, Mr. Poul said, at least in part because “Big Love,” which is about polygamy and was already in production, and “Tell Me You Love Me,” a soft-core treatment of intersecting relationships that was in development, were deemed too similar. The producers then began to shop their idea to Showtime.
But in the interim an acquaintance of Mr. Kelley and Mr. Poul mentioned to a dinner companion that her friends had conceived a TV series that touched on open marriage in the 1970s. Lucky for Mr. Kelley and Mr. Poul, that dinner companion was Ms. Tassler. Luckier still, Ms. Tassler’s second cousin, Nena O’Neill, had with her husband written “Open Marriage,” a well-known 1972 book that encouraged couples to consider experimenting sexually outside matrimony as long as everyone’s cards were on the table. (It went on to sell nearly four million copies through the decade and beyond.)
“I said, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” Ms. Tassler, 50, recalled in a recent interview. “That’s right in my sweet spot, in terms of my nostalgia.”
Less than 24 hours later Ms. Tassler was reading the script. “It was a page turner,” she said. “I called the next day and said, ‘I want it.’ ”
There was, however, the not insignificant matter of nudity and the graphic depiction of sexual acts. The script, as written for cable, was rife with both. Mr. Kelley, in consultation with Mr. Poul, was directed to do a rewrite.
“I think we’re able to be more groundbreaking and more culturally subversive by putting this on a network, where more people will be exposed to it and where we’ll have to deal with these adult issues in an oblique way,” Mr. Poul said.
Mr. Kelley agreed. “I actually think the shackles of having to show more explicit things every week to week to week on cable would have been far more constricting.”
What remains to be seen is whether viewers accustomed to the quick and easy doffing of clothes on cable will be interested in a network series about sex with no more nudity than an afternoon soap opera — and far less than “NYPD Blue” had on prime time on ABC in the 1990s.
Still, whatever restraint the network and creators have imposed on themselves is unlikely to quiet a vocal segment of the viewing public that feels prime-time television is sufficiently polluted and in no need of a series in which the central characters may well go off to bed in groups of three, four or more.
“I have seen the promo for it that was posted on YouTube,” said Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council, a watchdog group that has campaigned for years against what it considers inappropriate content on shows including “NYPD Blue” and, recently, “30 Rock.”
“It’s sort of driving a stake through an institution most of us regard as being fundamental to our culture and to our society,” she said.
Ms. Henson said she would wait to see the show until she and her group would act. “We’re certainly disturbed by the premise,” she said, “or at least our understanding of the premise.”
None of the series’s stars will be immediately recognizable to most viewers. Molly Parker, who plays one of the lead characters, a housewife named Susan Miller, appeared in “Deadwood” and “Six Feet Under” on HBO, and Jack Davenport, who plays her husband, Bruce, was in the original British version of “Coupling,” a sex-obsessed comedy.
The best-known actor to American television viewers is probably Grant Show, of “Melrose Place,” though he is hard to place behind the long blond mustache he has grown to play Tom Decker, the pilot.
Mr. Kelly gave Mr. Show one of the most memorable lines in the first episode (and in that YouTube trailer) — one that signals to viewers early the ride on which they are about to embark.
“Your wife’s going to kill me,” a flight attendant says to Tom after she has inadvertently spilled a drink on his shirt in the cockpit.
Discuss this article at www.coast2coastswingers.com in the forums section
Video Shows Naked Woman Ramming Car Into Men Searching for Lost Cat
He got a real housecleaning: Nude maid steals $40,000
Sheriff's office spokeswoman Debbie Carter says the man told deputies he left the maid alone in the bedroom to clean.
When the man's wife came home from vacation, she discovered $40,000 in jewelry missing from their bedroom.
Police are investigating.
Swingers club seeks nightclub approval
Friday, May 23, 2008
A Brisbane swingers club has asked the City Council for official approval as a nightclub venue.
Couples International runs partner-swapping nights at an industrial estate in Woolloongabba.
The Brisbane City Council says the application is controversial, but Councillor Helen Abrahams says there have been no complaints lodged so far.
"Council cannot make a determination on the ethic grounds or the moral grounds of a swingers club," she said.
"They have to make it on, this is a club, a nightclub, and what are the impacts of that nightclub ... on the local residents?"
Club owner Brian Horn says he has met Council guidelines.
"The lifestyle has become more accepted," he said.
"We are running a proper business here and in order to do that we really want to operate above the radar as it is." If approved, the club would be Queensland's first official swingers club.
California's top court overturns gay marriage ban
Thursday, May 15, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO - The justices' 4-3 decision Thursday says domestic partnerships are not a good enough substitute for marriage. Chief Justice Ron George wrote the opinion. The city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples and gay rights groups sued in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Both sides in the gay marriage debate will be watching California's highest court Thursday to see if the nation's biggest state goes the way of Massachusetts and legalizes same-sex marriage. The California Supreme Court was scheduled to rule on a series of lawsuits seeking to overturn a voter-approved law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. If the court rules in favor of the plaintiffs, California could become the second state after Massachusetts where gay and lesbian residents can marry. "What happens in California, either way, will have a huge impact around the nation. It will set the tone," said Geoffrey Kors, executive director of the gay rights group Equality California. Supporters and opponents of gay marriage predicted a number of possible outcomes from the California court's seven justices, six of whom were appointed by Republican governors. Like the top court in Massachusetts, they could hold that prohibiting same-sex couples from marrying constitutes unlawful discrimination and order state lawmakers to remedy the situation. Less likely but still feasible, they could bypass the Legislature and simply strike the one man-one woman definition from the marriage statutes, according to Kors. In that instance, the soonest couples could start walking down the aisle would be in 30 days, the time it typically takes for Supreme Court opinions to become final, he said. A majority of the justices could also join the top courts in four other states that have upheld gay marriage bans. Such a decision would leave any subsequent changes in the hands of voters or the Legislature, which has twice passed laws to make gay marriage legal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed them both times, citing the ban approved by voters in 2000. "If California issues a decision legalizing same-sex marriage, it will reinvigorate the fight for same-sex marriage" nationally, said Jordan Lorence, an attorney with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund. "But if they affirm that marriage is for a man and a woman, then what has happened is that Massachusetts is leading a one-state parade." Lorence and Kors agreed that there is another, more nuanced option. The court could strike down the 2000 ban, known as Proposition 22, but give the Legislature the leeway of devising a solution that falls short of allowing marriage for all. That's what the New Jersey Supreme Court did in 2006. After that court ruled that gay couples should receive the same legal protections as husbands and wives, New Jersey legislators opted to allow same-sex couples to enter into civil unions, designed to give them spousal rights without marriage. California already offers same-sex couples who register as domestic partners the same legal rights and responsibilities as married spouses, including the right to divorce and to sue for child support. It's therefore unclear what additional relief state lawmakers could offer short of marriage if the court renders the existing ban unconstitutional. A coalition of religious and social conservative groups is attempting to put a measure on the November ballot that would enshrine California's current laws banning gay marriage in the state constitution. The Secretary of State is expected to rule by the end of June whether the sponsors gathered enough signature to qualify the marriage amendment, similar to ones enacted in 26 other states. The cases before the California court were brought by the city of San Francisco, two dozen gay and lesbian couples, Equality California and another gay rights group in March 2004 after the court halted San Francisco's monthlong same-sex wedding march that took place at Mayor Gavin Newsom's direction.
The California Supreme Court has overturned a gay marriage ban in a ruling that would make the nation's largest state the second one to allow gay and lesbian weddings.
Labels: California, Current Events, News, Sex and the Law
Duncanville Takes Aim At Swingers Club Again
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
The City of Duncanville has reworked an ordinance aimed at shutting down a swingers club.
The Cherry Pit has been throwing adult-oriented parties inside a private house. The city maintains that the Cherry Pit is a Sex Club, which violates city law.
But the owner of the Cherry Pit claims it's not a business because the house only accepts voluntary donations.
The new ordinance addresses the issue of donations by stating that if donations are solicited, accepted or paid, even if the donations are voluntary, the Cherry Pit can be considered a sex club and can be shut down.
The new ordinance does provide a victory for the swingers club. It now states that the Cherry Pit is entitled to a hearing if the city inspector attempts to shut down the house.
Labels: Current Events, News, Swingers Club, Texas
Owners of wife swapping venue in Lorca lock themselves inside as police tape up the premesis
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Le Chateau swingers club planned to open at the end of the month. The owners of a swingers club in Lorca, Le Chateau, have locked themselves inside the building after it was closed down by local police last Saturday for not having a licence.
The local town planning councillor, Francisco García, told the press that owners had not complied with a previous order giving them four days to shut down, and that given that two men did not want to leave the premises, they were taped by the authorities with the people inside. There is a small side door which remains accessible if they do want to exit, he added.
Le Chateau was to officially open as a couple swapping venue on May 30th, but the local town hall ordered a halt to building work on the 5th, given that there were no licences for the construction.
Swingers club owner: 'Sex sells'
Friday, April 25, 2008
Owner of Club Amnesty in Orange gives tour of facility and promises to re-open in 2009.
ORANGE -Gary Nalder gave a short answer to the question of why he chose to convert a photography studio in Orange to an underground swingers club.
“Sex sells,” he said with a smile.
Nalder obtained a Sexually-Orientated Business License from the city in 2004 indicating he planned to run a nude and semi-nude photography studio at 1548 N. Brian St. Instead, the photography studio turned into Club Amnesty, which held weekly sex parties for couples for more than three years.City officials recently cited the New Zealand native for operating without a proper business license and violating numerous city and fire code violations. Nalder, speaking outside the building, said he planned to shut the club down.
“They want us to get a conditional use license or permit, which means that it has to go through the council, through a committee, through police and fire, the city attorney’s office, planning and business license,” Nalder, who declined to be photographed, said. “I think it’s going to be impossible.”
City Attorney David DeBerry said the club would only need a conditional use permit to allow patrons to bring in alcohol.
“If you are going to have alcohol, whether it’s brought in by patrons or you sell it, you need an alcohol license. All alcohol licenses, in turn, require a conditional use permit from the city,” DeBerry said. “If he chooses not to allow alcohol into the facility anymore, then he just has to comply with the regulations we have in the code.”
A guided tour
With the understanding there would be no photographs; Nalder gave a tour of the club, beginning in the foyer where several bags of clean, white towels rested. The main room was a bar area, with a dance floor, pole and silhouette screen. In a small room off to the side was a billiards room. A narrow hallway led to a locker room area, complete with showers. “I built this all myself,” said Nalder, who lives in Fullerton and owns a plumbing business. Down the hallway were the different-themed playrooms, some rooms had one or two beds, others had several. The art on the walls were
more sexually-themed the further down the hall. “I’ve been to many swing clubs,” Nalder said. “So I took a little bit of everything and put it all together.” Nalder pointed out a wall he took down to comply with the fire code. In the Gothic Room, he pointed out an empty spot where a cross in the shape of a capital "X," with wrist and ankle restraints used to be. “If we have restraints, we have to be an institution,” Nalder said. The final room, the Group Room, was painted black and had a loft with a bed on top and a bed inside. The main feature was the set of six full-sized beds pushed together, with three beds raised over the other in a multi-deck. “People came here to have sex,” Nalder said. Also present were signs reminding patrons that closed curtains surrounding the beds were the same as closed doors. “Sure, people are going to break the rules a little bit, but not really,” Nalder said. “We really haven’t had any incidents, no fighting, no nothing.”A stressful time
Though he was sad the club was closing, Nalder said he was also a bit relieved. “It’s been stressful for the last three years. Just putting on parties every Saturday was just stressful,” he said. “It takes a lot of time and a lot of work. When you’re dealing with 5,000 members, they’ve all got a question, you know?” Nalder said he planned to relocate the club elsewhere in 2009 to protect his membership. “People in this lifestyle want to be kept secret. They don’t want their neighbors to know what they’re doing because people have a negative connotation about it,” Nalder said. ”They think it’s bad. But what’s bad about it?” Even though his name is in the news and his face was on the television, Nalder said he didn’t think finding a new location would be a problem. “News is great for the first day, but after that, it’s not news anymore,” Nalder said. “People forget. News is only temporary.”Fears over village swingers' club
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A north Devon farmer has caused a stir among villagers by diversifying into hosting a swingers' club.
Roger Stanbury said the premises in Horswell near Bishops Tawton were providing a "harmless" service.
But some villagers say the club, promising "sexy fun", is the wrong type of entertainment for a rural area.
The venue was originally a barn which was converted into a weddings venue by Mr Stanbury in 2001 using money from South West Tourism, said Mr Stanbury.
One neighbour, Sheila Moorcroft, 62, said: "I don't think it's fitting. I think it's pretty sleazy."
Divorced dairy farmer Mr Stanbury, 54, said he decided to diversify in 1996 following the BSE crisis.
First he set up a holiday park and in 2001 converted a barn on the site into a weddings and functions venue.
Last year he attracted some adverse publicity when he introduced a once-a-month strip night at the venue, called Club Vanilla.
On 26 April he is planning a once-a-month swingers club.
The club's website says it offers "a sophisticated club environment designed for sexy fun" with "erotic areas, a jacuzzi, dance floor and an "exotic floor show".
Mr Stanbury told BBC News: "We put on a few strip shows and it went down very well.
"I wouldn't have put on a swingers club unless I knew there were a lot of people who wanted this type of thing.
"It's not illegal. It's not sleazy. It's a club for mature couples who want to meet other people who want the same thing and have an enjoyable night out."
He added: "No-one is going to be harmed. Most people are broad-minded enough round here to find it quite amusing."
Colin Petty, who also lives nearby, said: "As long as it's confined and doesn't go over the top, then it's ok.
"I'm not a prude, but if this affects the way I live, then I will be doing something about it."
Malcolm Bell, chief executive of South West Tourism, said it supported any legal enterprise.
He said: "As long as it is legal then technically there is no problem.
"It's a sign of the times, but we always encourage people to get the maximum amount of local support for a new venture."
A North Devon Council spokesman said: "There are no restrictions on the licence which say they can't have adult entertainment."
Anti-porn group seeks license plate
CIRCULATING PETITION FOR MOTTO 'IN GOD WE TRUST'
By Bill Estep
BESTEP@HERALD-LEADER.COM
An anti-pornography group based in Louisville has renewed its effort to create an "In God We Trust" license plate in Kentucky.
Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) started an online drive this week to gather names on a petition supporting its application for a state specialty plate with the motto.
ROCK said in its application that it would use the money from sales of the plate to raise awareness about harm caused by pornography and the sex industry and to help people hurt or victimized by porn, sexual predators and the sex business, such as women who want to quit stripping and children targeted by online molesters.
ROCK operates a program called Stepping Out Ministries to help women trying to leave the sex business, as well as their children, but hasn't had enough money to fully meet the need, said MaryAnn Gramig, research and policy coordinator for ROCK.
"The sooner the commonwealth approves this," Gramig said of the group's application, "the sooner funding becomes available to reach some of the most vulnerable and hurting citizens."
If approved, the plate would cost $34, but buyers could volunteer to add $10 that would go to ROCK, said David Devers, a spokesman for the Transportation Cabinet.
The group could get a significant amount of money.
Indiana has sold more than 1.6 million "In God We Trust" plates since January 2007. The Hoosier State has a larger population and does not charge extra for the plate, but it's not hard to imagine many Kentucky drivers would want a license plate with a religious message, and that a good number would donate to ROCK.
Nearly 400 people signed the online petition in the first 48 hours, Gramig said.
Interest in creating an "In God We Trust" plate here mirrors a trend. Several other states have approved such plates.
ROCK's proposal for an "In God We Trust" plate, if approved, would not amount to an unconstitutional government endorsement of religion because it would be a specialty plate and the donation would be voluntary, said Michael Aldridge, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky.
"It's really a free speech issue," he said.
ROCK's application has some hurdles to cross after a failed effort by state lawmakers to approve an "In God We Trust" plate in the session that ended this month.
That effort created some controversy.
ROCK applied to the Transportation Cabinet to sponsor a specialty plate before state Rep. Jim Gooch, D-Providence, filed a bill to create a plate with same motto, and the two essentially were in competition.
If Gooch's bill had passed, the money would have gone to veterans' programs.
But the Transportation Cabinet did not decide whether to approve ROCK's plate request. Instead, an official told the group the cabinet would defer to the legislative proposal.
The House passed the bill 98-0, but did not get a vote in the full Senate.
Now, ROCK wants its application approved.
It's not clear, however, whether the group needs to submit a new application if the earlier one is still good, said Chuck Wolfe, a spokesman for the cabinet.
The competing proposals for an "In God We Trust" plate created a situation the cabinet hadn't faced before.
Transportation Secretary Joe Prather has asked officials in the agency to research the issue, including whether ROCK should submit a new application.
ROCK thinks its application is still good, Gramig said.
Why can't Celebs Keep Their Boobs to Themselves?
Sunday, April 13, 2008
By Guy Basnett
We've got the breast… sorry, best shots of the most beautiful celebs giving you a cheeky eyeful after suffering a wardrobe malfunction.
And we're sure you'll agree, there's no shame when these girls make a boob of themselves.
Click here for more sexy pics of celebrity wardrobe malfunctions
No stranger to baring all, no-one should have been surprised when busty pin-up Jordan, 29, made an unexpected appearance at her book signing.
Promoting her new work: ‘Pushed To The Limit' she did exactly that to her low-cut red and white dress.
Pop princess Lily Allen, 22, ironically grabbed some headlines for her New Look clothing and accessories range-when she forgot to dress properly.
A bit too relaxed, the ‘Smile' singer let a little too much hang out of her blue top.
Fans of the gorgeous Nadine Coyle, 22, got a surprise when she coyly exposed her nipple while arriving at G.A.Y in London's Astoria.
Fellow pop group member Sarah Harding, 26, gave us a sneaky peek of her left breast when she blew a kiss to fans on Oxford Street.
Paris Hilton, 27, seemed to be doing everything right when she paired up with her upmarket mum Kathy Hilton for a posh lunch in swanky Beverley Hills.
But it was another twosome that stole the limelight when Paris accidentally leaned forward too far.
And she lost her top completely when she took a dip in the sea.
Another posh lady demurely giving us a treat was double-barrelled Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, 36, with her arrival at The Opera House in Holland Park.
And the gorgeous Nell McAndrew, 34, showed why she's everyone's favourite pin-up when she slipped ever-so-slightly out of a figure-hugging gold corset.
Big Brother star and former lap dancer Charlie Uchea, 22, had no room for subtlety as she showed off how upfront she could be at London's Embassy Club.
And former model Sophie Anderton, 30, revealed her true colours as she arrived with barely a stitch of clothing at the Mayfair Club.
Glamour girl Alicia Duvall popped out of her bra while strolling down the street. Her strapless black dress clearly couldn't keep up with the active socialite.
Even Amy Winehouse, 24, showed her bad behaviour can extend to her dress sense, as she clumsily flopped out of a car in a dirty beige loose-strapped top.
It's all a far cry from demure Posh Spice Victoria Beckham, 33. Posing for an shoot outside The Louvre in France, David Beckham's squeeze looked a masterpiece behind the thinnest of beige tops.
Lost actress Bai Ling, 36, inadvertently popped out of her dress while attending the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, California.
Sex scandal puts future of Formula One official Max Mosley in doubt - Los Angeles Times
Friday, April 11, 2008
LONDON -- The scandal probably would have been a ho-hum tale of sex and bondage of little interest to jaded Europeans were it not for two things. The man holding the whip was one of the most powerful men in motor racing. And when he ordered his "prisoners" to submit, he was speaking in a practiced German that called up disturbing images of a distant past.
The man was Max Mosley, president of the international body that governs Formula One racing -- and the son of Oswald Mosley, the controversial founder in the 1930s of the pro-Nazi British Union of Fascists.
Mosley's five-hour encounter with five women in a bondage orgy has prompted accusations of Nazi role-playing and engulfed the Formula One world in a leadership crisis, prompting the sport's ruling body Wednesday to announce that its governing assembly would meet June 3 to decide whether Mosley can keep his post.
The controversy heated up even further when a judge in Britain allowed Rupert Murdoch's News of the World to air on its website a videotape excerpt of the encounter between Mosley and the women. The racing chief says the session was a consensual adult gathering and the airing of the tape an invasion of his privacy.
The newspaper also published an interview with a woman who said she was one of several prostitutes hired by Mosley to pose as prisoners and Nazi guards.
The website's traffic immediately jumped, by 600%, as did the troubles of the 67-year-old Mosley. He now faces calls from Formula One drivers, manufacturers and automobile associations to resign as president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, world motor sports' governing body.
Mosley's parents were interned during World War II because of their support for the Nazi regime in Germany. His mother was the former Diana Mitford Guinness, one of the celebrated Mitford society sisters. She and Oswald Mosley were married in 1936 in the Berlin home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and Diana Mosley claimed until her death to have been "very, very fond" of Adolf Hitler.
Max Mosley had his own run-ins during his youth in defense of his father. But he has long sought to shed his past and to pursue both a law career and his long-standing love affair with motor sports, becoming one of the most powerful figures in Formula One.
He has admitted having a sex session with the women but says it had nothing to do with Nazism. He said he speaks German in parts of the video because one of his sex partners was German.
The guard uniforms, he said, were not Nazi apparel but featured a modern German air force jacket, while the women were wearing not concentration camp uniforms but U.S. prison garb.
"It goes without saying that the so-called Nazi element is pure fabrication. This will become crystal-clear when the matter comes to trial," Mosley said after filing suit against News of the World, alleging invasion of privacy.
"I don't think any of this should affect my work on motoring safety, the environment or the sport," he said. "I believe that 21st century adults do not worry about private sexual matters as long as they are legal and harmless."
But News of the World and its lawyers said Wednesday that many questions remained about Mosley's account.
"Why are German military uniforms worn? Why does he issue orders and threats in German to women who cannot speak German? . . . Why are the victims of these beatings in German made to put on sinister striped uniforms?" Tom Crone, News Group Newspapers' legal manager, said in a statement. "Why the head lice inspections, the forced shaving of body hair and the sinister references to inmates being housed in 'facilities'?"
The newspaper itself was even more hard-hitting in its leading article Sunday.
"Formula One boss Max Mosley is a grotesque sexual deviant who acts out Nazi death-camp fetishes," it proclaimed. "His feeble, bleating assertion that his sex acts are 'harmless' flies in the face of the evidence. . . . We absolutely refute and challenge his assertion that we have invented any elements of his depravity."
Mosley apparently learned German when his parents sent him to study for two years in Bavaria at the age of 13.
In one portion of the video, which the court said was made when one of the women "was able to conceal a camera in such clothing as she was wearing," Mosley counts in German, according to a transcript also posted: "Maybe a few more beatings. . . . Eins! Zwei! Drei! Vier! Funf! Sechs!" he says as he spanks one of the women with a strap.
Later, he speaks English with a German-like accent. "Zey need more of ze punishment, I think," he says.
Mosley had asked a court to order the News of the World to continue its voluntary removal of the video from its website after its original publication March 30. But Justice David Eady declined, saying it was too late to protect his privacy -- the material was already too widely available on the Internet.
"The dam has effectively burst," the judge said. "I have, with some reluctance, come to the conclusion that although this material is intrusive and demeaning, and despite the fact that there is no legitimate public interest in its further publication, the granting of an order . . . at the present juncture would merely be a futile gesture."
At the same time, the judge made it clear that Mosley might hope to prevail in his lawsuit. If the edited video is considered proof that Mosley intended a Nazi scenario, he said, "it certainly is very weak."
After the ruling, Mosley's lawyers said their client intended to "vigorously pursue" damages against News of the World, the proceeds of which he would donate to the FIA Foundation.
Meanwhile, Mosley faces a flood of demands for his resignation as FIA president. The Automobile Assn. of America, a member of the FIA, called the incident "distressing and embarrassing."
"While this matter may be viewed as private by some, the damage to the image of FIA and its constituents is clearly public," the organization said in a statement. "AAA has conveyed to Mr. Mosley that it would be in the best interest of all concerned if he were to step down."
Orgies: a brief history of group hanky-panky
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Sunday, 6 April 2008
When the News of the World revealed that Max Mosley, the president of Formula 1 and son of the fascist poseur Oswald, had been videotaped in a basement enjoying sadomasochistic sex with five prostitutes dressed in Nazi death-camp uniforms, it had no hesitation in calling the activity an orgy.
It seems a far cry from the original meaning of the word orgia: secret worship. Shouting commands in German while helping one lady of the night whip another is hardly the same as attending a night-time prayer meeting to worship Dionysus or Orpheus. Sex wasn't supposed to come into it. But these things get out of hand so easily. Since the worship of Dionysus involved music, dancing, drinking and eating animal sacrifices, it was inevitable that some group rumpia-pumpia would ensue.
The Romans weren't noted for their restraint in god worship, particularly of Saturn, lord of death, and Bacchus, god of wine. As Christianity took hold, the no-holds-barred Saturnalia and Bacchanalia festivals were spoken of with disapproval; and the Latin orgia came to mean something depraved. But then, imperial orgies really were depraved. Tiberius Caesar, according to Suetonius, was a connoisseur: "teams of wantons of both sexes, selected as experts in deviant intercourse and dubbed analists, copulated before him in triple unions to excite his flagging passions."
The word "orgy" passed into English in 1589, and evidence exists that the English were no slouches at group sex. Dancing round a Maypole wasn't always mere skipping-with-ribbons. It was ritual phallus-worship, after which the dancers would head for the open meadows. "What clipping, what culling, what kissing and bussing, what smooching and slobbering one of another," remarked the 16th-century Puritan Philip Stubbes, from his vantage point behind a bush.
After the Restoration, things calmed down. The orgy became the toy of the aristocracy. In England, its apogee was the rise of the Hellfire Club, founded by Sir Francis Dashwood, an MP for 20 years and a full-time rake. He leased Medmenham Abbey on the Thames. In the garden stood a statue of a naked Venus, bending over so that visitors walked straight into her bottom. He built a network of caves and passages under a hill, with individual "cells" where the friars could wench. The friars hired London "dollymops" and ferried them down the Thames on barges.
In France, the Marquis de Sade inherited the beautiful Château La Coste, overlooking the Vaucluse valley. Possibly bored by the lovely view, he and his wife signed up young male servants and pretty girls and subjected them to violent sex, cruelty and coprophagy, as depicted in The 120 Days of Sodom.
In the 20th century, orgiasts were disappointingly few and far between. The Bloomsbury group famously "lived in squares and loved in triangles", but drew the line at actual group sex. Aleister Crowley, the writer and self-publicist, tried to revive the spirit of Dashwood by presiding over black masses, worshipping Pan and taking the motto, "Do what thou wilt is the whole of the law". He moved to Sicily and headed a community of orgy enthusiasts.
Hippy culture introduced the concept of free love to an uptight American world in 1967. The counter-culture promoted a version of sexual democracy that saw the staff of Suck magazine having sex during editorial meetings.
Then The Joy of Sex was published. Readers stared at its "Orgy" section, the line drawings of naked, bearded accountants and indefatigably middle-class women fondling each other – and decided that, Dionysus or no Dionysus, they were sure as hell never going to do that.
And suddenly, after 2000-odd years, the orgy (or'gy, noun: "A revel involving unrestrained indulgence, especially sexual activity") just didn't seem like a great idea any more.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/orgies-a-brief-history-of-group-hankypanky-805133.html

