Girls Gone Wild Goes to Court
By: Carolyn Scofield cscofield@wmbb.com
News 13 On Your Side
Mar 9, 2003


The head of Girls Gone Wild says his company has been in Panama City Beach before, and they'll stay as long as there is spring break.
Now Girls Gone Wild is preparing for a live broadcast from the beach.

Mantra Entertainment CEO Joe Francis says his videos are edgy documentaries about the real spring break.

“All we are are a bunch of guys with video cameras out there shooting what's happening and the mayor wants to come after us,” says Francis.

Panama City Beach Mayor Lee Sullivan says the Girls Gone Wild filming is illegal and anyone who bares it all will go to jail. “We don't want to be the stage for his peep show,” says Sullivan.

Lawyers for the company are headed now to court. On Monday, they'll seek a temporary restraining order against anyone who tries to stop the taping on Panama City Beach.

Francis says his crews will continue to film, and they're planning for a live broadcast from the beach later this week.

“We're still doing the pay-per-view from here,” says Francis. “We're just doing it from an undisclosed location. We're not afraid of the mayor, so he can come and get us.”

:D

Hell Yea! That away Francis, There is NOTHING wrong with a little public domain!

Mac

Here's some more news about Girls Gone Wild - this is from WJHG's website (local news station):

Court Hearing cancelled

PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fl., March 13 - The "Girls Gone Wild" story has a few new wrinkles.

Mantra Entertainment has dropped its request for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. Mantra owns "Girl's Gone Wild".
Just this past Monday, Mantra executives filed the papers in Federal Court on Monday, asking for relief from local law enforcement. The company claimed Panama City Beach police officers were violating their first amendment right to document Spring Break events.
The court hearing was set for Friday, but that will not be taking place. Today mantra withdrew its complaint saying city officials have agreed not to interfere with "Girls Gone Wild" camera crews.
A "Girls Gone Wild" live pay-per-view show is scheduled for later this week. It will originate from Panama City Beach and South Padre Island, Texas.


*the event was scheduled for tonight, and according to reports on the news last night, it will still happen.

I knew PCB would give in. They bring in 75 million a year during spring break and they know by doing that to GGW, it would give there city a bad rep. Then young people wouldn't show up next year for spring break and they'd lose all that money they bring in.
They made the right decision. Not just for themselves but for all of us too. Spring Break is a time to forget about everyday life and just party, non stop, for a week. And I know that's what I'll be doing.

WHATS DONE IN PANAMA STAYS IN PANAMA!!!;)

Great! I will be watching on PPV and I will be in PCB on March 24-30

So where did they tape from, I know they were in South padre but where were they in Panama City

As reported on a local news station...

GGW rented a beach house, but apparently all of the footage from PCB in last night's "live" ppv event was previously recorded.

There was no SAT truck (necessary for uplink) at the beachhouse, and all of the footage was shot on a foggy day (it hasn't been foggy since last week).

I also heard that the event was fairly boring... that the crowds at S. Padre were lame.

There's also some interesting news coming out of this whole fiasco... but I'm not going to post any rumors. I'll wait until the news stations do it first.

They were "live" from Harpoon Harrys last night. I heard it was boring and the PPV sucked. Oh well.

Damn bastards didnt invite me :)

Girls Gone Mild

PAY PER VIEW EVENT: Broadcast from Beach turns out to be a tease.

DANIEL JACKSON AND K EVIN P ORTER THE NEWS HERALD
Girls Gone Wild turned Girls Gone in Hiding Thursday on Panama City Beach with short, apparently live segments broadcast from a handful of locations.

Most of the first half of the 1½- hour event was live from South Padre Island, Texas, interspersed with quick, barely recognizable shots along Front Beach Road.

Harpoon Harry’s parking lot and the Girls Gone Wild beach house off Thomas Drive were the only recognizable spots. There was no nudity in front of Harpoon Harry’s.

But it didn’t take long for the Thursday night broadcast to publicize the ongoing clash between Panama City Beach and Girls Gone Wild. The first shot came three minutes into the show, with creator Joe Francis bragging that he could not be shut down.

As Francis came onstage, the announcer said Girls Gone Wild "was bigger than city officials" who wanted to prevent them from broadcasting nudity from Panama City Beach.

Panama City Beach Police Maj. David Humphreys said his department was aware of several apparent live shots from the beach. He said based on what they had seen at 9:45 p.m., "we don’t have an issue with them."

There was no way to tell late Thursday night if the broadcasts from the beach were live or taped.

The guessing on where the live broadcasts would take place began one day earlier, after Girls Gone Wild withdrew a request for a temporary injunction. It had asked a federal judge to prevent police from arresting film crews capturing college-age women baring forbidden skin.

Last week, Panama City Beach Mayor Lee Sullivan promised to arrest girls caught flashing private parts in public and anyone encouraging public nudity, including Girls Gone Wild crew.

Mantra Film Inc., the producer of Girls Gone Wild, sued Panama City Beach and Bay County officials one week ago today to keep them from interfering with videotaping during Spring Break. The suit named Sullivan, Panama City Beach Police Chief Robert Harding and Humphreys, as well as Bay County Sheriff Guy Tunnell and Capt. Jerry Metz.

Mantra also filed the motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against the Panama City Beach and Bay County officials. Though that motion was withdrawn Wednesday, "the complaint is still pending," said George Meros Jr., the attorney representing Mantra. "The request for emergency relief, the emergency injunction has been withdrawn."

If Bay County and Panama City officials comply with sworn statements, Meros said the lawsuit eventually will be dropped.

Bill Horn, vice president of communications for Mantra, said problems with Bay County leaders resulted in publicity for the live broadcast.

"I think its been mostly positive," Horn said. "Misconceptions that the live broadcast had been cancelled because of problems in Panama City brought more public attention to the event. Panama City is one of a number of cities that we are broadcasting from live remote." Alicia Williams, 6722 Gulf Drive, said she was glad to hear that Girls Gone Wild would not broadcast from its headquarters across the street from her apartment. Music at the beach house at 6719 Surf Drive got loud during a party earlier this week, but that’s normal during Spring Break, she said.

"Its part of living at the beach," Williams said. "It’s interesting because they’re right here. They’ve only been noisy a couple of times
• The writers can be contacted at djackson@pcnh.com and kporter@pcnh.com

Dana Mixer / The News Herald A Girls Gone Wild van is parked in front of a beach house in unincorporated Bay County that the video company rented.



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