YNOT – Perhaps Girls Gone Wild producer Joe Francis should avoid opening his mouth in public, because his feet are beginning to look like Swiss cheese.In the latest in a long line of embarrassing public spectacles, Francis and his attorneys have threatened The Weinstein Co. and actor Jerry O’Connell with a lawsuit over O’Connell’s role parodying a soft-porn producer in Weinstein’s Piranha 3D, which opens Friday.
Numerous published reports have chronicled O’Connell’s remarks about basing the character on Francis, an over-the-top soft-porn auteur who seems to go out of his way to grab tabloid headlines as often as humanly possible. The attention seldom is positive. Francis has engaged in bar brawls, done time on federal tax evasion charges and attempted to make a mockery of Las Vegas casino mogul Steve Wynn’s successful lawsuit to collect a multimillion-dollar gambling debt.
Now Francis is worried his image will suffer as a result of O’Connell’s portrayal of “Wild, Wild Girls” producer Derrick Jones, who snorts coke, cavorts with naked young women and loses his penis to a swarm of ravenous Stone Age fish that are loosed when an earthquake strikes a Spring Break-mobbed beach.
Dude. It’s the penis-loss part that’s bothering you, isn’t it?
The movie, described by TWC as a horror-comedy, became the subject of a “friendly letter” from Francis attorney Stanton L. Stein, warning TWC it could face legal action if the film is “promoted at the expense of Mr. Francis’ name and reputation.”
“Any defamatory or disparaging statements or depictions, in the media or in the film itself … will be met with swift litigation to recover substantial damages…,” Stein wrote.
While warning O’Connell and TWC to keep their traps shut or face dire consequences, Francis evidently couldn’t wait to discuss his position with the press. Of particular interest to him are implications O’Connell’s Piranha 3D character films underage girls, although The Hollywood Reporter noted it could find no references to minor females in the film.
“I appreciate a good parody as much as the next guy, but to associate me with drugs and the filming of underage girls crosses a definite line,” Francis told THR less than one week after the date on Stein’s letter. “Jerry O’Connell has repeatedly and emphatically stated on the public record that he is ‘playing Joe Francis,’ not a fictional character based on me. Mr. O’Connell has done this despite having been warned by his own lawyers not to admit this.”
In the interest of full disclosure, O’Connell did tell DailyBeast.com “I get to play Joe Francis! Oh, wait. For legal reasons I’m supposed to say, ‘I play someone loosely based on Joe Francis.’”
Also in the interest of full disclosure, Francis pleaded guilty to filming underage girls at least once and has faced multiple civil suits making the claim.
Nevertheless, Francis’ panties are in a bunch over what may or may not be an unflattering representation of a character that may or may not be based on him in a fictional work that may or may not do well at the box office … but it stands a better chance of recouping backers’ investment the longer Francis drags the potential dispute into the public spotlight.
“I believe Mr. O’Connell may lose more than his penis if he and The Weinstein Co. choose to release this film and continue to falsely associate me with its questionable content,” Francis told The Hollywood Reporter, at the same time admitting he has not seen the movie.
The film fracas is not the first time Francis has taken issue with someone besmirching whatever he considers his image and reputation to be. In October 2009, following his ejection from a popular Los Angeles nightclub, Francis filed a lawsuit seeking financial damages from The Hills star Brody Jenner and his Playboy Playmate girlfriend, Jayde Nicole. In the suit, Francis claimed Jenner and Nicole assaulted, battered, slandered, libeled and generally portrayed Francis in a false light with significant negligence for the effects their behavior might have on Francis’ reputation.
