Girls Gone Wild Founder Ordered to Jail

Just days after narrowly avoiding jail time, the multimillionaire founder of the "Girls Gone Wild" videos was again ordered to jail Wednesday for contempt of court.

Joe Francis, 34, has until noon Thursday to turn himself in to authorities, The News Herald of Panama City reported. A federal judge ordered Francis jailed on Wednesday after lawyers suing him complained that unbeknownst to them he had substantially changed the conditions of an offer they'd agreed to.

U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak found Francis in contempt of court last week after lawyers for seven women complained he shouted obscenities and threatened them during civil suit settlement negotiations. The women were filmed on Panama City Beach during spring break in 2003 for a Francis video. His videos generally show young women baring their breasts and acting out other sexual situations.

Smoak had ordered Francis arrested Saturday if he did not reach a settlement in the case but suspended the order after learning that Francis had made an offer the plaintiffs later agreed to.

Plaintiffs' attorney D. Ross McCloy told the judge during an emergency hearing Wednesday that he thought the case was resolved but later learned Francis had altered the conditions of the offer, making it unacceptable to his clients.

...

The judge reinstated the civil contempt order, which means Francis will be in jail until a formal mediation session can be set up and he participates in a meaningful way.

Smoak said he would look into possibly starting a criminal contempt process. He also increased the amount of money Francis would have to pay to the plaintiffs' lawyers, The News Herald reported. It was not clear what the new sum was.

What a wanker. But then, we already knew that.

Did some CSI writer really use the line "Man, forensics be jammin' a brother up"?

TWICE?

McD was great as Buck Compton in Band of Brothers, but I haven't liked him in much else since then (haven't ever seen Boomtown).

Love shrift's hair!! Very pretty cut.

I am now waiting online to keep track of the ebay auction for my bridesmaid dress for sister's wedding--Kris (sis) is bidding on it for me up to a certain amount, and if it goes over that, I'm taking over the bid. Only have to wait until 9:38 central time, and it's currently at $33.98 (Kris's bid).

My swim after work was not as relaxing as I would have liked--I was partway through my mile, sharing the lap with another slow lap swimmer, and all of the sudden this lady comes strolling into the other swimmer's half-lane and sets up her aerobicize flotation devices to work out on the side of the pool. I went up to her and explained the circle swimming arrangement standard if you have three people in a lane, and she agreed to doing lap swimming instead of her aerobics, but I could tell she wasn't going to. Then, she noticed that the guy swimming on the other side of the pool was done and told me to go over there. I told her to since I was in the lane first, and she gave me some bullshit story about how she couldn't go there because it was deeper than our lane (completely false--it was the same as our side), and then she couldn't go there because her arm was sore and would bump into that wall (again, bullshit because she would have to swim the other direction, thus putting her "sore" arm on the inside of the pool). Finally, I just got all huffy and stomped over to the other side, fuming over people who don't know proper lane etiquette. It completely ruined my rhythm, and still makes me mad!

Dana, I saw that--the same character said it both times, so I figure it's his go-to motto when he encounters the crime scene guys yet again.

OK, I just realized why the 30 Rock "Salute to Fireworks" is weirding me out (besides the obvious): a place I used to work had two main fundraising events: Salute to Achievement, and a fireworks thing.

OMG Shrift cut her hair!

t is gobsmacked

It looks fabulous, I'm just all astonished!

And Tom does indeed have the Best Smile Ever.

shrift, the hair is lovely. between you and liese, I am close to being inspired to cut my hair!

I still need to make an appt to get a haircut. It's long. Still quite passable, curled under or flipped up, but... (it's a whole 2 inches long at the shortest!) it usually is a 2 week wait for my stylist, and I usually reach the "awfuckIhateit" stage one week earlier than I can get a cut. Or rather, when I finally bother to make an appt.

sara has great hair! I don't have the energy for maintaining a cut that cute though.

(FYI, sara, I tried to return your call)

Hey, if you wanna, I'm about to get offline now. Another friend called and diverted me. Incoming.