By Peter Berton
CHICAGO – For more than a decade, MrSkin.com has featured the female nudity culled from mainstream film and TV. The website, based on a series of books by the same name, is a pop-culture phenomenon.
Jim McBride, the man behind Mr. Skin’s mask, hopes the same success will attach to his latest venture: a site baring male mainstream actors. Somehow, the celebrity men who appear on MrMan.com don’t seem all that reticent to expose their private details.
YNOT.com: Give us a little history on this mainstream nudity fetish.
Jim McBride: I launched MrSkin.com in 1999, and we quickly became the No. 1 resource for female celebrity nudity. In 2000, the “Mr. Skin Minute” became a regular weekly feature on the Howard Stern Show, and in 2007, Mr. Skin was the surprise guest star of the movie Knocked Up. All these years, later Mr. Skin is more popular than ever, which led to the launch of Mr. Man.
What, exactly, does the new site offer?
Mr. Man is very much the male version of Mr. Skin. If there’s a movie or TV scene featuring a nude dude, we’ve got all the pics, videos, reviews and pertinent skinformation.
Why did you wait so long to launch the male site?
Partly, it’s a sign of the times. The internet, smart phones and other mobile technology have enabled women to enjoy a lot of what used to be solely the domain of men. Guys have always been willing to beat down whatever doors necessary to get the sexy material they’re after.
Women are different. Clearly, a vast, untapped female market for adult and “naughty” material has emerged in the past few years. And then there is the gay audience. They’re out, they’re proud and they’re looking for hot, naked stars just as much as straight guys are.
Another reason for creating Mr. Man is the challenge. At Mr. Skin, we have mastered the medium. We’ll always add more nude starlets to Mr. Skin and always work to refine the user experience, but expanding into a whole new gender is the opportunity to make history again — naked history.
Name some names and tell us how nude they are.
We have every male celebrity from the biggest names in Hollywood to up-and-comers in indie flicks, B-movies and cable TV shows. In terms of how undressed they are, we have a Top 10 list of A-list actors who have gone full frontal. And that’s just the tip — pun intended.
Where do you find your content?
Studios have always sent DVDs and other promotional materials to Mr. Skin. We’ve sold a lot of product for them. And it’s the same with Mr. Man.
What kind of content do gay viewers want? Do their desires differ from what straight clients seek at Mr. Skin?
Gay clients want an all-encompassing celebrity nudity site that’s fast, funny, clear, authoritative, sexy and easy to use. In other words, they want the exact same experience that straight audiences want. Only the private parts change.
What are the most unusual clips you’ve found to date, and where did you find them?
Among the real eyebrow-raisers on Mr. Man are Macaulay Culkin’s butt in Party Monster and Huey Lewis answering nature’s call in the wood in Short Cuts. Huey’s got some really big news.
Are you eyeing any other niche markets?
Who knows what the future holds? For right now, all the naked women and all the naked men in the history of movies and TV should keep us — and our customers — happy and busy for quite a while.
