US porn industry also seeks $5-B bailout
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:38:00 01/09/2009
Filed Under: Entertainment (general), Pornography, World Financial Crisis
LOS ANGELES—Two porn moguls, including Hustler magazine founder Larry Flynt, are seeking a $5-billion bailout from Washington, arguing that the limp US economy has thrown cold water on the adult entertainment industry.
Flynt and “Girls Gone Wild” video series creator Joe Francis asked the newly convened 111th Congress “to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America” in a bailout move similar to the one set aside for US auto manufacturers.
“Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation’s most important businesses, (and) we feel we deserve the same consideration,” Francis said in a statement.
“In difficult economic times, Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment.”
The pair were quick to admit that “the $13-billion industry is in no fear of collapse, but why take chances?”
DVD sales down
Francis, recently imprisoned for nearly a year on a prostitution-related charge after pleading no contest in a plea bargain, cited industry figures that show adult DVD sales and rentals decreasing 22 percent in 2008, as people turn to the Internet for adult entertainment.
“With all this economic misery and people losing all that money, sex is the farthest thing from their mind,” Flynt said.
“It’s time for Congress to rejuvenate the sexual appetite of America. The only way they can do this is by supporting the adult industry and doing it quickly.”
Flynt said people were “too depressed to be sexually active.”
“This is very unhealthy as a nation. Americans can do without cars and such, but they cannot do without sex,” he said.
Agence France-Presse
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