Free Republic

OMAHA, Neb. -- Doug Hall's story is the story of an addict. Recovering for years from a drug addiction and alcoholism, his latest battle is pornography. Hall said he went from Playboy, to videos, to online porn, to jail. "My view of sex was all a skewed," Hall said. Hall said his addiction began simply. Years ago he saw his father reading a Playboy magazine. "First it was Playboy and then it's Penthouse, then it's Hustler, then it's -- you just name it. Name your poison," Hall said. When Hall turned to videos, he said, he couldn't wait to get...

SEC Charges Penthouse with Account Fraud 2 hours, 19 minutes ago Entertainment - Reuters Industry WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Adult magazine publisher Penthouse International Inc. defrauded investors in a 2003 quarterly financial report by improperly booking $1 million in revenues, U.S. regulators charged on Monday. Penthouse also put the electronic signature of former ex-CEO Robert Guccione on the report, even though he had neither seen nor approved it, regulators said. The Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites) brought accounting fraud charges against Penthouse, former Penthouse officer Charles Samel and Penthouse shareholder Jason Galanis in a legal action filed in...

The American Association for Retired Persons now calls itself simply "AARP" because some members are offended by the term "retired" and it wants to appeal to younger Americans. But the organization is now trying to explain a far more serious and deceptive practice. It hired an admitted former drug user and dealer as an editor of its 22-million circulation magazine. He has emerged as a spokesman on the so-called "medical marijuana" issue, telling America that seniors might benefit from smoking dope. With the assistance of Jeanette McDougal of Drug Watch International, anti-drug activists Joyce Nalepka and Dee Rathbone uncovered the...

New 527 Organization "MoveOnForAmerica.org" to Expose the Real John Kerry With Brutal, Hard-hitting Ads! The first ad will expose John Kerry’s role in securing freedom and parole for would-be cop killer who escaped a Massachusetts prison during a furlough, just like Willie Horton!!! A MUST SEE http://www.moveonforamerica.org/kerry_reissfelder.mov http://www.moveonforamerica.org/kerry_sharpton.mov

'When ya gettin' rid of him?' Tony Blair has become an embarrassment to Labour's natural allies across the Atlantic - the Democrats Mark Seddon Friday August 20, 2004 The Guardian Out on the stump in Brooklyn with Democrat Congressional hopeful Frank Barbero came a chance to talk to the footsoldiers in an election that all agree is the most important in decades. America is polarised between red and blue - or, as some Democrats whisper, between progressive America and a revived Confederacy. With George, the Vietnam vet turned transit worker, and Jeff Gold, the eternally optimistic full-time organiser, we leafleted...

Two large entertainment companies have filed for bankruptcy-court protection under Chapter 11 of federal IRS regulations. While both companies filed at different times -- Penthouse in August 2003 and Wherehouse Entertainment in January 2003 -- they have one thing in common: both are purveyors of pornography. Penthouse, published by General Media, Inc., has seen circulation of its porn magazine fall from nearly five million per month to current levels of about one-tenth that amount. Wherehouse Entertainment has closed close to 120 stores, but still has almost 250 locations open. Wherehouse attributes much of its financial demise to the weaknesses in...

Penthouse Publisher Guccione Says Men Are Basically the Same, Only Sex Lives Vary Depending on Country All men are basically the same, according to Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione only their sex lives vary depending on the country they're from. "The British are reserved, the French are arrogant, the Italians are lovers, and the Germans like to spank each other," Guccione tells Details magazine for its September issue. "Sex will always be the dominant factor in any man's life whether he realizes it or not. It's what motivates him to buy the car he drives, the house he lives in,...

Penthouse Publisher Files for Bankruptcy August 12, 2003 LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - General Media Inc., a subsidiary of Penthouse International Inc. (OTC BB:PHSL.OB) and the publisher of the racy adult magazine Penthouse, on Tuesday said it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection so it can restructure its operations and debt. General Media said it made the filing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York. It has closed on a $5 million debtor-in-possession line of credit from some of its secured bondholders. The parent company, Penthouse International, was not included in the filing. General Media said it still plans to...

Delicious Lollipops The Gore Presidency: The First Two Years By David Podvin Jan. 27, 2003 -- Washington, DC /AmeriNews/ Now that we have reached the midpoint in the first term of President Al Gore, it is time to reflect on what has occurred during the past two years. Under the president’s wise leadership, America is experiencing unprecedented prosperity at home and receiving unparalleled respect overseas; our nation has never been stronger. As the Washington Post recently editorialized, “It’s time for impeachment!” Of course, President Gore won the election in a controversial manner - by getting the most votes. The choice...

Just heard this - Laura, if you're here, tell us it's not so......whatever happened to Al Haig or better yet, Lindsay Graham??????

Judge Blocks Distribution of PenthouseBy LARRY NEUMEISTERAssociated Press Writer NEW YORK -- The daughter-in-law of fashion designer Luciano Benetton sued Penthouse magazine Monday, saying topless pictures supposedly of tennis player Anna Kournikova actually were pictures of her. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ordered the magazine to temporarily stop distributing the June issue to newsstands and blocked it from putting pictures on a Web site. The judge suggested the magazine had at least acted recklessly and said Judith Soltesz-Benetton, 28, would suffer irreparably if Penthouse sent the pictures beyond its current distribution of 1.2 million homes and newsstands. "The way Penthouse...

<p>Anna Kournikova is going to sue Penthouse to prove that topless photos the magazine is publishing are not actually her.</p> <p>Penthouse claims the snapshots taken on a beach in Florida show Anna sunbathing. And the raunchy skin mag has published an explicit, 10-page pictorial in the June issue of what it says are the court lovely's "full and firm" 36C breasts.</p>

  Porn magazine chief faces ruinby James LangtonPorn king Bob Guccioni has admitted he is facing financial ruin because of losses from his magazine, Penthouse. The publisher, 71, may have to sell his New York house - Manhattan's largest - and his art collection, which features works by Picasso, Degas and Renoir, to pay his debts. He founded Penthouse in 1965, but circulation has tumbled with competition from internet pornography. From a high of five million, it now sells 650,000 copies a month. General Media, the company that owns Penthouse, said last week that it would be unable to...

April 8, 2002 Cybersmut and Debt Undermine Penthouse By DAVID CARR ob Guccione, the publisher of Penthouse, fought for decades to introduce pornography to mainstream audiences. In succeeding, he may have built a gallows for his once hugely successful magazine. Pornographic images of every bent are now just a click away on the Web, often at no charge, and Penthouse, which once sold almost five million copies a month, now has a circulation of 650,000. The auditors of Mr. Guccione's debt-ridden company, General Media, the parent of Penthouse and affiliated enterprises, stated in its annual report that the company would...

The auditor for General Media Inc., publisher of Penthouse and other magazines, has said there is substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. In the company's annual report filed late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Grant Thornton LLP, the auditor, said the company's liabilities exceeded its assets by $22.3 million at the end of last year and it is unlikely that it can earn enough to make all its interest payments due in 2002. The privately held New York-based company said it had laid off 39 employees, 26 percent of its total work...

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he was "surprised and dismayed" that an interview he gave an Arab magazine wound up in Penthouse magazine. Appearing in the porn magazine alongside the interview on terrorism and the Middle East: articles on sex and March's Penthouse Pet centerfold, the Associated Press reported today. Penthouse ran the Q&A after it appeared in the London magazine al-Wasat. Reporter Russell Warren Howe said he had "full legal rights to sell this interview to anyone and everyone." And boy did he mean anyone. "Needless to say, we will no longer have any dealings with this journalist,"...