L.A. Times staff writer Claire Hoffman opens with a blow-by-blow account of Francis’ Panama City Beach, Fla. arrest in 2003, an event he reenacts by slamming the writer against the hood of his car, explaining that his treatment of her is akin to how the police treated him.
Francis recently won a critical motion in the case when Circuit Judge Dedee Costello granted a defense motion to suppress all evidence gathered during the search of his Francis’ Miami condominium. The case involves allegations that Francis engaged in the filming of underage girls.
Legal wrangling aside, the primary focus of the feature article is Francis himself, the 33-year old founder of Santa Monica, Calif.-based Mantra Entertainment, who candidly discussed his plans to further exploit “Girls Gone Wild,” pushing what he calls the “ultimate lifestyle brand” into the mainstream.
“In short, Francis wants to insinuate himself and his view of the world into the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the vacations you take and the entertainment—filmed and glossy — that you consume,” Hoffman said.
In the article, Francis talks about his plans to develop mainstream feature films, “Girls Gone Wild” restaurants and cruises and a new apparel line known as “Flirt,” which will feature racy, but not explicit clothing that he hopes could be sold in Wal-Mart.
"Sex sells everything," Francis told the L.A. Times. "It drives every buying decision. I hate to get too deep and philosophical here, but only the guys with the greatest sexual appetites are the ones who are the most driven and most successful."
While Francis has certainly been successful — the article puts Mantra’s annual sales at about $40 million per year — he does worry that the proliferation of his brand may mean that he’ll see diminishing returns in terms of the quality of girl he’s likely to attract to his cameras.
“But the women are changing, Francis tells me, and that makes him sad,” Hoffman said. “In the beginning, when ‘Girls Gone Wild’ cameramen first popped up in clubs, the women who revealed themselves seemed innocent — surprised, even, by their own spontaneity. Now that the brand is so pervasive, the women who participate increasingly appear to be calculating exhibitionists, hoping that an appearance on a video might catapult them to Paris Hilton-like fame.”
Hoffman, who gives a detailed history of Francis’ many legal battles, goes on to recount her wild night spent interviewing him and tagging along on one of his notorious shoots, summing up the man as a paradox, full of “charm and rage.”
