They say sex sells, but it apparently wasn’t enough to keep the company behind “Girls Gone Wild” out of bankruptcy.
GGW Brands, which is famous for its racy video series in which young women drink and dance in various states of undress, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Wednesday. The company says the decision isn’t indicative of its financial state, but rather the result of several costly legal battles.
"The company Girls Gone Wild remains strong as a company and strong financially,” the company said in a statement Thursday. “The only reason Girls Gone Wild has elected to file for this reorganization is to restructure its frivolous and burdensome legal affairs.”
Chief among those affairs is a $10 million debt that the company owes casino mogul Steve Wynn. Last year, “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis was ordered to pay Wynn $40 million for defamation and emotional distress, after he falsely told a court that Wynn threatened to kill him and bury him in the desert over a $2 million gambling debt. A judge later reduced the award to $19 million.
The company also owes more than $5 million to Tamara Favazza, a Missouri woman who won her own lawsuit against Francis-owned Mantra Films Inc. and MRA Holdings LLC in April 2012. Favazza claimed that in 2005, as a 20-year-old college student, she was dancing at a St. Louis, Mo. club when a “Girls Gone Wild” employee lifted up her tank top and filmed her breasts for one of the company’s videos.
Read more at Thomson Reuters.
For more coverage of the adult entertainment industry, see:
Universal Studios sues porn company for “Fifty Shades of Gray” copyright infringement
Woman seeks class action status in lawsuit against 5 porn companies
