“I was at lunch at Jeffrey Katzenberg‘s house, and his son David was like, ‘You’ve gotten sued a lot.’ We’re all playing backgammon. “I’ve had 1 percent of all the lawsuits Steven Spielberg has had,” he insists. STORY: How to Keep a Celebrity Sex Tape Off the Internet That made him a millionaire many times over but also opened him up to lawsuits from women who claim they weren’t fully cognizant when they signed release forms. Soon after, he filmed young women, often intoxicated, exposing themselves and created the Girls Gone Wild franchise. He got his first big break when he compiled TV outtakes into the video Banned From Television, using innovative direct marketing tools to sell it. If I wasn’t me, I’d f–ing hate me.”Īctually, despite his braggadocious quotes, he is in person generous, trusting, warm and eager to please, qualities that have endeared him to a Hollywood who’s who - from next-door-neighbor Quincy Jones to CAA’s Kevin Huvane to Paris Hilton to the Kardashians.įrancis grew up with three sisters in Laguna Beach, Calif., the son of an entrepreneur and homemaker with whom he has severed all ties. I’m not conceited, but like - look, I have girls around me all the time, whatever I want. Then Francis is back to explaining why juries hate him: “I have private jets, I have a great life, I’m a good-looking guy. “No way!” she yells, vanishing into the kitchen. “It’s been widely reported my penis is huge, but look, I have nothing to prove” - upon which he tries to do just that, tussling with his rather sweet girlfriend and urging her to tell me about his assets. Tell me!”Īnd how about the size of his own, um, manhood? He laughs gleefully.
Everybody who says, ‘Oh, Joe Francis is this’ - look at their penis and tell me if it’s small. “Anybody who criticizes me, anybody who - it’s just a jealous guy. “You know why I’ve been criticized, why I’ve been brutalized?” he says. PHOTOS: ‘Girls Gone Wild’ Creator Joe Francis: ‘If I Wasn’t Me, I’d F-ing Hate Me’ But none of it, says Francis, is his fault. Todd Neilson, who filed suit to keep Francis off the premises.Īdd to all this Los Angeles Times reporter Claire Hoffman‘s claim in a 2006 article that he pinned her to a car and twisted her arm so hard tears flooded her eyes - and that’s an awful lot of mischief. “Only the stupidest of the stupidest people end up on juries, you know? I’ve never met a smart person who’s done jury duty.”įrancis has been jailed in Florida and Nevada successfully sued for defamation by Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn, whom he now owes $20 million indicted for tax evasion and filming underage girls blamed for the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of a company connected to Girls Gone Wild (which he says he no longer owns) and banned from entering GGW’s Santa Monica offices by bankruptcy trustee R. “The problem with the jury system is that anyone who’s not smart enough to come with an excuse to get out of jury duty doesn’t get out,” he continues.
We are well into our third - or is it fourth? - $55 bottle of Double Diamond Bomber X cabernet. He sits on a couch in his sleek, Bel-Air home, sandwiched between his girlfriend (25-year-old Wilhelmina model Abbey Wilson) and this reporter. PHOTOS: Tax Evader and Accused Jailbaiter: Inside Joe Francis’ Criminal ChargesĪfter multiple e-mails and phone calls, he has agreed to an exclusive interview just before departing on a long-planned vacation to India - first saying he wouldn’t address anything “legal,” then agreeing to talk about the latest charges as well as all his other issues. But Francis is adamant he is innocent of the allegations brought against him on behalf of three young women, who said he took them to his house, kept them there and even assaulted one. It’s the latest brush with the law for a man who could write a treatise on running afoul of it, who keeps a veritable posse of lawyers in his employ at any given time.
Just the day before, a Los Angeles jury deemed the Girls Gone Wild founder guilty on three counts of false imprisonment and one of assault likely to cause great bodily injury, and now he faces the real possibility of time in prison when he is sentenced in July (though he notes the charges are misdemeanors, not felonies). It’s early evening on Tuesday, May 7, and Francis, 40, dressed in jeans and a T-shirt that clings to his muscular frame, is seething.
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