Issues acquired a bit too wild.
A brand new documentary covers the rise and fall of Joe Francis, 51, the disgraced mastermind behind “Girls Gone Wild.”
First created in 1997, “Girls Gone Wild” was an leisure franchise that caught common women appearing “wild” on digicam at events, typically flashing the digicam throughout school spring breaks.
Now streaming on Peacock, “Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story” uncovers the seedy underside of what was actually occurring behind the scenes, and plumbs the secrets and techniques of Francis, who has been arrested a number of occasions and served almost a yr in jail.
Francis can be a longtime buddy of the Kardashians, has been romantically linked to Tara Reid, and has been photographed partying with celebs equivalent to Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.
Listed here are the largest bombshells.
Francis’ complicated backstory
Within the docuseries, Francis, who at the moment lives on a compound in Mexico and hasn’t been interviewed in years, agreed to speak to journalist Scaachi Koul in an audio-only interview.
His voice may be heard describing a hardscrabble upbringing that led him to a rags-to-riches life.
“I did this all by myself with incredible hard work,” he described his empire.
Francis added, “And it was all methodical. Let me just really take you back. I am a paper boy at like 7 years old. I have been an entrepreneur my whole life, always making money. My dad had a lot of financial problems so I ended up getting a special work permit so I could scoop ice cream.”
Francis claimed he supported his household when he was 13, and purchased his first non-public jet a mere decade later.
Nevertheless, Koul factors out that these alleged “facts” have been laborious to corroborate, and each element that it’s doable to seek out about Francis’ childhood factors to it being, “affluent and pretty comfortable.”
Most of the women have been underage and felt coerced
Danielle, who isn’t recognized by a final identify, is now a mom of three. She appeared onscreen to reminisce about her time stripping down on digicam on the “Girls Gone Wild” bus.
Janet, who additionally went on the bus and stripped down on digicam, recalled, “Whatever they could say, they would say it, to get you on that bus.”
She alleged that the cameramen promised younger insecure women that they might develop into well-known, everybody would assume they have been lovely, and booze awaited on the bus.
Danielle recalled, “I remember tripping the entire time I was walking, that’s how intoxicated I was, to this bus.”
Danielle was 18 on the time and did signal a launch earlier than filming. She defined that she was naive and didn’t learn the paper. “I want to be a part of something that I thought was cool at the time…After we sign, then it got more sexual, like a ‘lets take your shirt off now’ situation.”
Danielle added, “I felt like what I had to say did not matter. I very much got that vibe from this cameraman. Like, if I didn’t comply, things could go really badly for me.”
Janet recalled that after she was taken on the bus, the doorways have been shut and locked, and he or she was taken into the again room the place the mattress was.
“I remember my older brother was trying to get me off the bus,” mentioned Janet. “And they wouldn’t let him get me off the bus. They locked the door on him.”
Danielle and Janet have been each eighteen on the time, however some women weren’t.
Lori, who wasn’t recognized by a final identify, appeared topless on a “Girls Gone Wild” tape in 1999, when she was 16. The video unfold round her highschool, and a trainer requested her to signal a replica of his tape.
“I was so humiliated. I was 16, I was so young,” she recalled.
After she noticed the footage, she mentioned, “I was obviously drunk.”
She was so embarrassed that, “I just stopped going to school, I didn’t know what to do.”
Ultimately, she acquired a lawyer who mentioned she was too younger to be taped, and he or she acquired “a small settlement.”
“But I wasn’t ever after the money, my little tiny 9 seconds of mistake, I wanted it to go away…there are so many girls on that tape that are underage,” she mentioned.
Following a 2003 raid, authorities discovered footage of at the very least 30 underage women on tape for “Girls Gone Wild.”
After that incident, workers acquired extra diligent about documenting themselves checking girls’s identification to make certain they have been 18 years previous earlier than taping them.
Onscreen in his audio-only interview, Francis may be heard saying, “I don’t want f–king minors in my s–t. I don’t want to go to jail. Am I totally misunderstood? Absolutely.”
Concerning The “Girls Gone Wild” cameramen who filmed minors, Francis mentioned, “I was the owner of a company. You can’t hold Jeff Bezos responsible for what one of his hundred thousand Amazon delivery guys does. If he pees in someone’s lawn — and that is basically what we are talking about right here.”
A rape allegation
Joe Francis shouldn’t be at the moment in jail. At numerous occasions, he has been convicted of tax evasion, bribery, false imprisonment, and he has pleaded no contest to baby abuse and prostitution.
The documentary covers how a girl recognized as Jannel alleged that Francis raped her.
The lady doesn’t seem onscreen, and the account is relayed secondhand. Nevertheless, Jannel has spoken out about this alleged incident in earlier documentaries, such because the 2022 TNT doc “Girls Gone Wild Exposed.”
Textual content onscreen explains that Jannel filed a police report on the time, however didn’t press costs. The doc covers how Francis denied it on the time.
His voice may be heard telling Koul throughout their interview, “Trust me. By now, there would be so many other girls saying that I raped them, if I had. I have never raped a woman. Ever. or a man. Or a child.”
Within the doc, former “Girls Gone Wild” cameraman Mark Schmitz alleged, “Joe doesn’t have any boundaries whatsoever with anyone, especially with girls. I got him literally on tape lifting a girl’s shirt up. It’s horrible to watch that stuff.”
Francis alleged that he solely ever had intercourse with consenting grownup girls.
Francis doesn’t really feel unhealthy
When requested if he “feels bad” for the underage women who have been inebriated and pressured to movie nude scenes, Francis may be heard saying, “No, because I don’t believe they were victimized. They victimized me.”
Francis additionally mentioned concerning the lasting cultural affect of “Girls Gone Wild,” that “it loosened everything up. I think it just made for a…more fun generation, I think it created the ability to have, obviously, the Kardashians. And it did so much more. More, everything, more for society, for life.”
“Don’t take ‘no’ for an answer”
In leaked audio from a 2005 coaching session for “Girls Gone Wild” workers, high-ranking workers may be heard instructing fellow workers to seize girls on digicam in sexually specific acts.
“We want to avoid what we see a lot of, which is just the camera goes on, the girl flashes the camera, the camera goes off, and that’s all we got. We go to the tape and it’s like, ‘That can’t be all we’ve got,’ ” one man’s voice may be heard saying.
“That’s not what we want,” they added. “We want a longer scene.”
He may be heard instructing workers that if women are shy or reluctant to strip down or carry out sexual acts on digicam, “Don’t take no for an answer.”
Cameramen for “Girls Gone Wild” have been additionally reportedly instructed to “be aggressive” and “be persistent” if women have been reluctant.
“Girls Gone Wild: The Untold Story” is at the moment streaming on Peacock.
