SNOOPA mutual friend introduced me to Snoop Dogg in 2000. I was thrilled to learn that Snoop was a fan of the “Girls Gone Wild” videos. Snoop is a remarkably sharp businessman, and had an immediate appreciation for what I had accomplished with my company. He invited me to his house one day. I remember arriving in the driveway to see four or five big guys come out of nowhere to ask me who the hell I was. But Snoop was smiling on the porch and invited me inside. He took me upstairs to his bonus room, where we sank into a couple of beanbag chairs and spent the rest of the afternoon in a smoky haze, laughing like idiots at old episodes of “Good Times” on video. Over the course of that afternoon we made plans for Snoop to appear in a Girls Gone Wild video and host an infomercial. I remember being driven back to the city with not only a sweet deal, but also a sudden, overwhelming case of the munchies. I must have stopped at every fast food place on the way, and it took me four hours to make it home, just 35 miles away.

Snoop and I went on a wild tour of Mardi Gras and Spring Break together, and had a blast. In fact, we continued traveling after we’d shot enough material for the show, just because we were enjoying ourselves so much. Among other places, we went to Brazil, where Snoop asked me to appear in the video for his “Beautiful” track with Pharrel Williams. Snoop is a good guy, great fun to hang with, and I can tell you we stirred up some shit. Too many stories about those wild trips to recount here, but “Girls Gone Wild: Doggy Style” remains one of the most popular titles in our company’s history. Snoop remains a close friend today and we’ve recently been discussing working together again in the near future.

THE BUS

When the “Doggy Style” infomercial hit the airwaves, we received tons of offers from other celebrities who wanted to align themselves with the Girls Gone Wild brand. We signed a deal to tour with Eminem, who was at that time the hottest rapper in the world. For the tour, we rented a million-dollar bus and decked it out with the Girls Gone Wild logo. It become a rolling billboard, and created a lot of attention for the brand. Everywhere we went people were fascinated with the Girls Gone Wild bus. They’d chase us down the street, begging for a peek inside. It convinced me to purchase my own tour bus as a movable “home base” for the Girls Gone Wild crews. We own two luxury tour buses now, and they travel the country year ‘round.

Eminem and I had fun on the road, but we didn’t enjoy the same chemistry that I had with Snoop. For one thing, because I’m 6’2” and Eminem can’t be more than 5’3,” we made an awkward pair on camera, and I think it made him feel insecure. Just as we finished editing the show together, Eminem’s movie “Eight Mile” came out to unexpectedly good reviews. I think he imagined he was going to be the next Brad Pitt, so he asked us to scrap the Girls Gone Wild project. Tales from that tour that are as insane as anything you’ve ever heard; someday I’ll share them with the public.

HOLLYWOOD

By 2000 I was making a solid living with Girls Gone Wild. I moved from my rented condo and into the L’Ermitage hotel, a leafy hideout in Beverly Hills. It’s a beautiful urban retreat and an awesome place to take girls. My adventures there deserve their own chapter, but the hotel staff began to gossip a little too loudly about the constant stream of girls I was entertaining, and I finally had to buy a house of my own.

With a little more money to spend, I started treating myself to the better restaurants and clubs of L.A. I made a lot of new friends, and found myself moving in circles that included a lot of young actors and actresses who were starting to become successful just as I was. I suddenly found myself dating some of the hottest girls in town (in Hollywood, that’s saying a lot), and even a few celebrities. I remember being in bed with Tara Reid one night when she asked “How does it feel to have sex with an A-list movie star?” I laughed and thought to myself, “How did she hear about that?” Reading this back, I realize that despite the fact I’ve been told, “This is the kind of stuff people want to hear about,” it’s impossible to tell too many of these stories without sounding like a boastful ass, so I’ll stop right here. Believe me, I’m as amazed as anyone at the opportunities that have come my way, and I tell you honestly, I am deeply grateful for all of it.

As my public profile grew, I began to come under increasing and intense scrutiny, and even judgment, by the press. It seems that people who’ve never even met me quickly decide they either love me or hate me. As a USC graduate who was just trying to build a business, I never expected to become such a polarizing figure. I truly believe it’s happened because society hasn’t entirely adjusted to me or what my company represents. It’s the trailblazers in society who always absorb the sharpest volley of slings and arrows. I’m not a professional athlete, musician or actor, and I never set out to become a public figure. I am one of only three people in the history of the world who have become known for building a successful business based on naked girls, and I’m not the first to be persecuted (or prosecuted) for it. In the early days of Playboy, Hugh Hefner went through the same thing: pilloried as a “smut peddler” and mocked for his unbridled enjoyment of life. He had to suffer a lot of false accusations, and in 1963 was even arrested and jailed on obscenity charges for publishing photographs of a nude Jayne Mansfield. But Hef as a public figure grew into an institution and became a hero to many for his stand on first amendment rights. Years later, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt suffered even harsher attacks, and at one point was sentenced to 25 years in prison for publishing pictures of naked girls. Flynt was shot for exercising his First Amendment rights. Today, Flynt is accepted (if not always respected) by the mainstream as a successful businessman who continues to champion our civil right to freedom of expression.

Personally, I never understood the furor over nudity. I grew up with a European mother, who dragged me as a child through endless museums containing paintings and sculptures of nude women, as well as beaches and public baths where nudity was absolutely no big deal. I suspect the wrath I draw from conservatives is based on the fact that Girls Gone Wild features real girls, not models or porn actresses. Perhaps this brings the issue “too close to home” for puritans who can’t accept that our videos feature girls who could be their daughters, sisters and girlfriends. Some people refuse to accept, despite all evidence to the contrary, that these girls actually seek out our cameras for a chance to celebrate themselves, and thoroughly enjoy their experience with “Girls Gone Wild.”

Far too many people refuse to accept that there is nothing intrinsically wrong with nudity! It’s the hypocrisy that amazes me: An unusually large part of our sales are shipped to the Bible Belt and other conservative areas of the country – to the same people who so publicly denounce the very idea of “Girls Gone Wild.” As I continue to face scrutiny and court action for exercising my First Amendment rights, I have to believe that society will eventually find a way to understand me and “Girls Gone Wild,” too. At least I hope so.

Everything I learned in business school and observed from my father contributed to the growth of “Girls Gone Wild.” I was (and remain) constantly on the lookout for new ways to heighten the brand’s profile and expand our product line. In every project I look for the potential of “scalability” – expanding it into something larger. I expanded our catalog of titles, opened new markets such as pay-per-view TV and video-on-demand, and hired a talented production staff to sharpen the look of our videos. But the core element of “Girls Gone Wild” has always remained the same: real college girls, real hot. By staying true to our original vision, we eventually achieved what most marketers can only dream of: brand ubiquity. A quick look at the “media” page on this web site will demonstrate that “Girls Gone Wild” –- especially the phrase “gone wild” has undeniably become part of our cultural vernacular. Even USA Today affirmed Girls Gone Wild as one of the top 25 most important trends of the last quarter-century.

PARADISE FOUND

In 1998 I took a vacation in Punta Mita, a beautiful stretch of beach near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. After a few return trips, I decided I’d found the perfect place for a Girls Gone Wild corporate retreat. We purchased acres of the most beautiful oceanfront property we could find, and I spent more than a year with my designers Martyn and Tripp, meticulously designing a resort compound featuring a main house, two guesthouses, three pools and lush tropical gardens. Construction took nearly five years. When it was completed in 2005, I named the estate Casa Aramara from the local Hichoul Indian name for “The Goddess of the Pacific Ocean.” The house has been featured in several magazines and TV shows and is a centerpiece of the book Casa Mexicana Style by Tim Street-Porter. It remains one of my proudest achievements. Jennifer Anniston, Vince Vaughn, The Kardashians and Jenners, Lindsay Lohan, Courtney Cox, Sheryl Crow, Quincy Jones, Farrah Fawcett, Kimberly Stewart, Mimi Rogers and many others have stayed there and sung its praises. The property also serves as retreat for company executives and a shooting location for our infomercials, making it a valuable asset to the company and an excellent investment, much like the Playboy Mansion.

As the “Girls Gone Wild” brand grew, the sophistication (some would say the outrageousness) of our infomercials grew, too. In 2004, we sent comedian Doug Stanhope on the road with Girls Gone Wild and he returned with hilarious footage. Doug pretended to have great difficulty getting girls to flash for the Girls Gone Wild cameras. At one point, he gestured at a girl’s breasts and demanded, “Show us where babies feed!” This line became a popular catch phrase as a result of the infomercial and Doug reports (perhaps regrettably) that audience members still call it out to him wherever he goes.

Girls Gone Wild had gone from being a hit, to being a sensation, and by now was a national (and eventually worldwide) phenomenon. Imitators came and quickly faded away, as if to demonstrate that my company’s success wasn’t due to the idea, but to the way we executed that idea. Frankly, it’s always bothered me when people congratulate me for having stumbled upon a great “idea,” as if that’s all it took to build a company. Hell, I have an “idea” to cure cancer, too – but that’s not going to help anyone unless I figure out how to execute that “idea.”

Regardless, success has its various prices, and in the case of Girls Gone Wild, we became a target for many archconservative elements that still believe, just like those teachers from my childhood, that there’s something intrinsically wrong with celebrating the female form. In early 2003, I made several TV appearances announcing that Girls Gone Wild was planning a live Pay Per View event during spring break to be broadcast from South Padre Island, Texas, Panama City, Florida, and other locations. The mayor of Panama City, Lee Sullivan, a quintessential “Good ol’ boy,” publicly announced that we weren’t welcome in his town and he would shut down the GGW event. The mayor and I squared off on Fox News Channel’s Greta Van Sustern show, during which the mayor threatened me by saying that if I stepped foot in his town I would be arrested.

I countered this outrageous threat by filing a lawsuit against Sullivan, as well as the local Sheriff, the Chief of Police and the city of Panama City, asserting my first amendment right to visit Panama City and the right of Girls Gone Wild to videotape public events there during Spring Break. As a result, I won a restraining order against the city and its officials, and Panama City was forced to back down. I imagine the mayor and other officials were pretty embarrassed when local news channels aired footage of them getting served with legal papers. I also know for a fact that the city officials were enraged after having to back down as a result of my First Amendment lawsuit. But I had no idea that rage would lead to what became a destructive relentless and vengeful personal crusade against me. Just two weeks later, incredibly, I would find myself facing a potential 335 years in prison.

When we arrived in Panama City, I knew the local police and sheriffs would be shadowing us. I wasn’t worried because I knew we weren’t going to do anything even remotely outside of the law. But while Girls Gone Wild was in Panama City, a couple of underage girls lied to a GGW cameraman about their ages to appear on Girls Gone Wild. Their parents notified the police, and that’s all the city needed. The police stormed our rented condos, tearing the rooms apart and confiscating every piece of private property they could find. They arrested 10 of my crewmembers, and me, even though I had not been present for the videotaping (or even knew it had happened) and hadn’t even met the girls till later. Even though I wasn’t involved in the filming of the girls, the state attorney claimed that I bore responsibility anyway, because I own Girls Gone Wild (though this was really about revenge). I was hit with a staggering list of 71 bogus felony charges that added up to 335 years in prison. The city impounded my recently purchased Gulfstream jet, confiscated my car and accused me of everything from drug trafficking to racketeering. This was all clearly in retaliation for my having filed and won that First Amendment lawsuit! The city was just trying to distract the conversation away from my lawsuit by attempting to criminalize me. It was totally ridiculous. I strongly denied the charges, all of which, except for four felonies were thrown out by Judge Dee Dee Costello. The judge determined that the police had lied on their arrest reports, lied on their search warrant applications, and in any case went totally overboard in their handling of the situation. The judge ordered the Sheriff to release my plane (which they claimed had carried illegal drugs, another total fabrication).  You can read about it in detail on the “Legal Story” of this web site.  And the vendetta that Panama City started against me at the time did not end there. In fact, it got worse – much worse, as you will see later in this story. Needless to say, I was fully exonerated, and I can promise you, I won’t stop until the city of Panama City Beach, Florida apologizes to me for what the Bay County Florida Judge herself described as the local government’s “extreme, absurd and unlawful actions”.