Celebrity Mound

The “Girls Gone Wild” founder is vowing to sue Gawker.com for $10 million after the Web site labeled Francis “a rapist” while crowning him the winner of its “Douche of the Decade” poll. Francis received 32 percent of the nearly 9,000 votes cast.

“You messed with the wrong guy. No one makes up lies about me and gets away with it,” Francis e-mailed Gawker founder Nick Denton. “I lost a $10 million deal as a direct result of you calling me ‘a rapist.’ You will be paying me every dime of that back and more! Are you mentally retarded? Do your research first. I am coming after you harder than I ever went after anyone. I am going to wipe you off the grid!!!! YOU ARE DONE! I will take everything you have. You, Nick Denton, are truly the douche of the decade. Merry Xmas IDIOT!!!

Francis attached a shirtless photograph of himself, adding, “I sent you an updated picture of how I look now . . . because you seem to be quite sexually obsessed with me.”

Francis said that the Gawker item caused him to lose a $10 million international distribution deal. “They used Wikipedia as their source. It’s pathetic,” he said. Francis has never been accused of rape, although in 2006, an 18-year-old girl told the Los Angeles Times how she was pressured into having sex with him on the back of the “Girls Gone Wild” bus.

Gawker managing editor Gabriel Snyder told us, “We really wanted to retire the word ‘douche’ by crowning Joe Francis as its apotheosis, but it looks like he’s determined to remain the standard-bearer.” Snyder said Gawker had not been served with any papers by Francis and that the site has no plans to take down its original story.

(source)

Joe Francis insists his decision to join the gay rights march in DC had nothing to do with rehabilitating his troubled image — but all about civil rights. The “Girls Gone Wild” creator told us, “With the gay movement, it’s personal. The same religious-right [bleep]holes who took away my civil rights and put me in jail for a year because they don’t like what I do for a living have taken away gay rights. I know firsthand how it feels to have your civil rights stripped from you.”

But proving that the leopard never really changes its spots, Francis added, “P.S., lots of lesbians marched, too.”

(source)

Looks like Joe will avoid further jail time in a tax case that spanned two states and several years, court filings show.

Records filed Wednesday in Los Angeles show the “Girls Gone Wild” founder will plead guilty to two counts of filing false tax returns and one count of bribing Nevada jail workers in exchange for food.

The plea agreement states Francis will pay $250,000 in restitution and receive credit for jail time served. Francis was indicted by a federal grand jury on tax evasion charges in 2007 and has spent 301 days in jail. He will receive a year of supervised release.

The amount Francis is agreeing he underreported, nearly $563,000, is far less than the more than $20 million in fraudulent deductions prosecutors alleged Francis made. The deductions were for a Mexican home where Francis entertained celebrities, a Porsche, and other items.

Francis also will acknowledge giving more than $5,000 in goods to a pair of Washoe County, Nevada jail workers in exchange for food. Francis was held at the jail from June 2007 to March 2008.

He is scheduled to be sentenced at 2 p.m. Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court.

Francis’s attorney, Brad D. Brian, said Wednesday he could not comment until after Wednesday’s sentencing.

Brian has said in court that prosecutors didn’t understand Francis’ business model and that the expenses were part of building the “Girls Gone Wild” brand. Trial exhibits that may have been shown to jurors included clippings from magazines showing celebrities such as Orlando Bloom and Kim Kardashian joined Francis at the estate in Mexico.

The agreement comes weeks before the scheduled start of Francis’ trial, which has been frequently delayed since a Nevada grand jury indicted him on tax evasion charges in 2007.

The most recent delay came after a key government witness, Francis’ former accountant, turned over hundreds of previously undisclosed e-mails. Francis has used the e-mails as a basis of a civil lawsuit against his former accountant, Michael Barrett, and other former employees, contending they set up a shadow company and fraudulently billed him for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Barrett’s credibility as a witness came into question in recent weeks, with the federal judge overseeing the case, S. James Otero, warning prosecutors that Barrett posed problems for them. The judge noted that Barrett had sought a reward for turning Francis in, even though he may have also committed a crime.

Otero told prosecutors during a hearing earlier this summer that they should consider resolving the case before it went to trial.

The agreement calls for any tax liabilities of Francis or his companies from 2002 to 2008 to be handled in civil or administrative arenas.

The Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Dept. is looking for Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis after he allegedly assaulted Brody Jenner’s girlfriend Jayde Nicole at Guys and Dolls nightclub in West Hollywood.

According to Jenner, he and Jayde were celebrating his birthday at the club, when Francis began hitting on one of his ex-girlfriends. Jayde, Playboy’s 2008 Playmate of the Year, felt Francis was harassing the woman and threw a drink on him.

Francis became enraged and allegedly pulled Jayde’s hair, punched her in the face, threw her to the ground and kicked her.

A friend of Jayde’s tried to fight Francis off and he allegedly hit that girl also. Security broke up the fight and Jenner tried to grab Francis, ripping his shirt. Both men were thrown out of the nightclub.

Once outside, Jenner says he punched Francis in the face, before being tased and falling to the ground.

Police received a call at 2:46 a.m. Francis left the scene before they arrived. No one was arrested. A police report was filed and Nicole says she will press charges.

In addition to some of her hair being pulled out, Nicole’s injuries include a black and blue cheek, her face is swollen, she has a bruised left rib and her lower abdomen is sore.

Jenner posted about the incident on his Twitter page:

Joe Francis beat up my lady this morning for no reason! Pulled her to the ground, punched & kicked her..what does that say about him?
How can you call yourself a man when you beat up a girl?? Joe Francis is a piece of shit
Joe Francis needs to be in jail!!!

Francis is scheduled to stand trial in October on tax evasion charges.