Porn mogul to offer free hotel rooms for guests who perform

by Meg Nesterov on

How far would you go for a free hotel room? Swedish pornographer Berth Milton Jr. hopes you’d go all the way; he’s proposing a new chain of “sex-themed, five-star hotels” and would offer free stays for guests who have sex on webcams. Barbara DeLollis reports in USA Today that Milton believes subscriptions could bring in nearly $44 million a year from viewers who will pay to watch amateurs having sex.

Milton made his fortune making adult DVD versons of popular films like “Gladiator” but has since been fighting a legal battle over $10 million he allegedly borrowed (and didn’t repay) from his company Private Media as well as a creditor that could take his shares in the company’s board. The porn hotels idea is just one venture he hopes will restore his empire.

Milton did some field research at swingers clubs in Spain and concluded the hotels would have to appeal to guests other than aspiring porn stars. “It has to be a hotel for non-swingers as well — not super-explicit where everybody’s running around naked,” Milton told the New York Post. “That takes the style and class out of it.” Of course not, couldn’t have a porn hotel without style or class. Citing Charlie Sheen’s recent Plaza Hotel romp, he believes there is room for porn in mainstream. “If you take a show like ‘Two-and-a-Half Men,’ it’s all about an adult lifestyle,” Milton said.

Would you stay in a porn hotel, as a performer or otherwise? We’re still skeptical, but hey, different strokes for different folks.

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[Photo by Flick user Laram 777]

Australian customs pushes foreigners on porn

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Tourists and business travelers are getting annoyed with the Australian government. Hey, nobody likes airport security and customs employees in any country, but this time, the Aussies have just gone too far. In an attempt to pacify fundamentalist Christians in the country, the authorities decided to target porn.

And hilarity ensued.

According to TechEye, “[S]ince that would not go down well with your average Aussie, they decided only to scare the hell out of foreigners coming into the country.”

Basically, porn is only bad if it’s carried by foreigners. Australian-carried skin flicks are good to go. There’s no indication of whether the fundamentalists weighed in on this. But, it’s safe to assume that it really is the foreigners that make porn bad, not the locals.

So, how can you get busted for toting the collected works of Seka down under? First, you’re asked to ‘fess up on the landing cards. And, they want to know how you’re bringing your nightlife substitute porn into the country: computer, camera or phone. The risks associated with lying are high, TechEye notes: “The risk for a tourist was that if a border patrol sniffed their computer and found boobies they could be deported, or fined on the spot.”This is pretty much where the hilarity kicks in:

According to the Australian Sex Party spokesman Robbie Swan, one case involved a couple on their honeymoon, who thought they had to declare naked iPhone pictures of themselves after reading the incoming passenger card.

This does sound like a pretty awesome fmylife submission … especially because the couple was forced to show the photo while in line with other people.

Unsurprisingly, the government realizes it may need to change the rules, at least because the average foreigner probably doesn’t know how “pornography” is defined under Australian law. So, they either need to show their material to someone in a face-to-face situation or rely on the ol’ Justice Potter Stewart standard, which has served the United States so well … “I know it when I see it.“

[Via The Awl, photo by lucyfrench123 via Flickr]

What Middle Eastern country bought its Twitter name from a porn site?

by Tom Johansmeyer on

@Israel hasn’t been used much since being registered on Twitter in 2007. Back then, well before the company crossed the 100 million-user mark, you could get just about any Twitter name you wanted, and Israel Melendez decided he wanted to use his first name. Think of the glory! If this Twitter thing ever hit it big (which, obviously, it did), he’d have the equivalent of a first name Gmail addressor AIM handle. This can be a real badge of honor in some circles.

Well, right away, Melendez thought better of tweeting under @Israel. It turns out that some people thought he was tweeting on behalf of the country, and the Miami resident – and porn site owner – found himself on the receiving end of hefty amounts of political anger and anti-Semitism … 140 tiny characters at a time.

The NY Times reports:

“My account was basically unused because I was getting dozens of replies every day from people who thought the account belonged to the state of Israel,” Mr. Meléndez said.

The country bearing the same name as Melendez was more than happy to take it over, but it didn’t get to do so as a favor to the original owner. According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the country did have to pay, and it refused to disclose the terms.

Follow @Gadling on Twitter!

[Via Gawker]

Minnesota porn ban to spank some hotels, except when too expensive

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If a porn ban in Minnesota‘s Winona County passes, hotels will have to operate under a “clean hotel” policy. County employees wouldn’t be able to stay at properties that have adult fare on the menu, though there are some specific exceptions to this rule. Ostensibly, this measure is intended to lower incidents of sexual and domestic violence, which the county says has a link to porn according to some studies (though there are indicators the other way, too).

According to a Winona Daily News:

“In and of itself, this policy is not a cure-all,” the document reads, “but it is an important effort to help prevent a social disease and its related costs to the public.”

Winona County officials believe that keeping porn out of hotels will alleviate the $221 million spent on issues related to sexual violence (in 2006). They feel that this form of prevention will lead to lower law enforcement costs. Winona Daily News continues:

“It is logical to assume that prevention of certain criminal activities would reduce the costs of providing these services,” the issue paper states. “Prevention would also prevent the much greater social cost to the community.”

In an effort to keep county workers from viewing adult entertainment – and banning local hotels from selling it in order to get county business, the state could be doing far more harm than good. The question staring me in the face is a simple and important one: does the county bring hotels more business than porn?

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For county workers, hotel stays entail local travel, so the business opportunity can’t be terribly high. The Winona Daily News notes that “law enforcement officials and other employees often require they spend the night in a hotel.”

Meanwhile, in-room adult entertainment is good for some big cash. The Family Research Council and a dozen other anti-porn organizations estimate that this form of entertainment is good for 60 percent to 80 percent of in-room entertainment revenue (though this is a dated estimate). Of course, the opponents of the freedom to view adult entertainment have had a tendency to pump up market size and other business-related numbers (as I found during four years of covering the business side of the adult entertainment industry) in order to emphasize its reach and influence. So, it makes sense to take a look at another source.

J.W. Marriott, whose background makes him no fan of adult content, is pretty clear on the importance of steamy televisions to his business. He wrote to the American Decency Association:

“If we were to eliminate R and non-rated offerings, the systems would not be economic [sic]. We believe it is more practical to have a system available through a wider variety and to allow our guests to make their own selections.”

Of course, the choice between county cash and porn cash may not be necessary. Given the nature of the hotel market in the state and the existing porn options, the measure may be close to irrelevant. Already, more than 480 “clean hotels” exist in the state, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. And, the rule only applies if a property is the “host site” for an event that the county employee is attending. Also, money does talk: if staying in porn-free digs would cost at least 15 percent more than staying at a porn-friendly establishment, the cost of “morality” isn’t worth it.

[Via USA Today, photo by Steve Zak Photography]

Porn star rights Customs’ wrong

by Tom Johansmeyer on

A Brooklyn guy was faced with the worst of scenarios. Coming through customs on a return trip from Puerto Rico, he was cuffed in San Juan. He was accused of transporting child pornography, because a copy of the DVD “Little Lupe the Innocent” was found in his bags. Of course, Carlos Simon-Timmerman claimed his innocence, so in his mind at least, he was staring down two decades in prison for something he didn’t do.

At times like this, you cross your fingers and hope for a knight in shining armor to rescue you. Carlos got his knight … in the form of porn star Lupe Fuentes. He was freed from the can when Lupe flew down to Puerto Rico earlier this month to prove in court that she was 19 when the movie was made. The fact that she produced her passport and photo identification was much more compelling than the pediatrician called by the feds who insisted that the actress was underage.

So, if you’re taking porn through customs, you may want to do a little research. Get the stars’ cell numbers, or keep copies of their documents on file. You never know when you’ll need it.

And, just for fun, do you know what Carlos does for a living?

Ding dong … you’re pizza’s here.