STRIPORAMA NEWS AND COMMENT JUNE 2006

June 23 2006 - Topless 'freedom fighter' walks free from court

A former TV presenter and stand up comedian who ran topless through the streets of a red light district in protest at being evicted from her flat walked free from court this week after charges against her were dismissed.
35 year old Tara Stout, a former local BBC and Sky News presenter, streaked through Soho after being from her flat when she refused to pay her rent.
She stopped paying the rent after her landlord Paul Raymond - who made a fortune from soft porn mags and strip clubs, and owns property company Soho Estates, refused to carry out repair work.
On March 30th bailiffs arrived at her Dean Street flat to evict her but found her wearing just a pair of bikini bottoms. Stout then ran past the bailiffs into the street to a stream of wolf whistles and catcalls from builders working on a nearby site .
She was arrested and later charged with a public order offence.
She appeared before Bow Street Magistrates Court this week where she admitted stripping off but denied disorderly behaviour likely to cause offence.
CCTV footage was shown to the court in which she was seen walking down Dean Street wearing just a pair of skimpy bikini bottoms and an open white coat.
Stout told the court: "There was a show going on - I was putting on a show and so were my landlords. Everyone in the street had already seen me with no clothes."
The two police officers who arrested her appeared as the only prosecution witnesses.
The amusingly eccentric Stout, who represented herself in the 90 minute trial, recited a poem as her closing argument.
Magistrate Nicholas Evans dismissed the charge of disorderly behaviour and told Stout: "You are free to go, but this time keep your clothes on!"
Outside court afterwards Stout, now of Clapham, south London, said: "This has just been a whole waste of time and money. It is a victory for free speech. I am a freedom fighter and there is no way to protest in this country at the moment."
Quite how not paying your rent makes you a freedom fighter we don't know, but more power to topless protesters in future we say.

June 23 2006 - Strip Club advertising upsets prudes

A Melbourne strip club has predictably upset a right-wing lobby group by using its dancers to promote its services .
The strippers have set up a sexy car wash in East Bentleigh. A bus featuring a photo of a reclining, scantily clad woman is parked at the car wash to promote the Kitten Club tabletop dancing venue.
The religious, right-wing Australian Family Association says there are numerous 'offensive' billboards across Melbourne promoting brothels, strip joints and sex-enhancing products. Not to mention churches...
The association's national secretary, Gabrielle Walsh, said: "We're sick of it. We need to protect families and children from this advertising blight and that is not happening. This sort of advertising demeans women and damages a child's sexual development."
"The main problem with this sort of advertising is it completely misses the point," a spokesman for St Paul's Cathedral said.
"A good sex life is about a good love life - mutual love, respect and friendship."
Well, that's one opinion, but forgive us if we don't take the musings of Christians on sexual happiness TOO seriously.
Kitten Club spokesman Angelo Dimozantos said the ad worked: "Wait until summer and the strippers wash the cars in their bikinis."

June 23 2006 - Famed strip club closes after 40 years

Florida strip venue Club Juana has closed after 43 years.
Owner Mike Pinter has been made to sell his property for $3.4 million to the Florida Department of Transportation to make way for a highway overpass. He now is expected to have such a fight on his hands when he tries to relocate within Casselberry.
Later this month, the city's planning and zoning board is expected to consider relegating new adult entertainment businesses to a few acres around Belle Avenue and Helen Street, in an industrial zone in the northern part of town.
Pinter says that's unacceptable.
"If I was just moving into town, that would be one thing," he said.
The Pinter family has run Club Juana for more than 40 years. The club evolved from a nightclub with pretty but clothed waitresses and big-name acts into a strip club that featured total nudity until the prudish local government cracked down in the mid-1990s and required dancers to cover up with panties and pasties.
On the closing night, Pinter arrived at Club Juana in a white stretch limousine. The group with him included Alex Taylor, a Penthouse Pet who was one of the night's featured entertainers.
Pinter said as customers started dwindling over the years after local government required dancers to wear pasties and panties, he hadn't brought in such headliner acts.
The closing of the club leaves 80 people without a job.

June 23 2006 - Strip club loses license

The liquor permit of Pleasant Moments Caf, a strip club in Bridgeport, was suspended from Monday to July 9 because its dancers reportedly' exposed themselves' (surely their job?) and fruit flies were found in several liquor bottles.
Jack Suchy, executive director of the state Liquor Commission, said on Monday that liquor control agents and Bridgeport police watched the caf before entering and found three dancers exposing their breasts.
They also saw three open bottles of liquor containing fruit flies, he said.
The caf was charged with 14 counts of violating state standards of conduct, relative to the actions of the dancers, and with not complying with a sanitation rule.
In addition to the permit suspension, the caf has paid a $9,000 fine, the commission said.

June 23 2006 - Streaker auctions bikini

A New Zealand woman who 'streaked' during an international rugby match was fined last week for disorderly behaviour—but her online auction of the bikini she wore already had drawn a bid more than 10 times the fine.
Lisa Lewis ran onto the field during the international rugby match between New Zealand and Ireland before being escorted away by security guards.
In the Hamilton Magistrate’s Court on Friday, she was convicted of disorderly behaviour and fined the equivalent of $206 US.
"I'm happy, I thought it was going to be a lot more,"she told National Radio.
Lewis added she "couldn't believe the judge was so forgiving."
Earlier in the week, Lewis began an online auction of the bikini to help pay the fine. Just hours before it was due to close Friday, bids for the garment had reached $4,000.
"I'’m just blown away by the support from people who don't even know me and can be so forgiving about my past," the former stripper commented.
However, a former boyfriend of Lewis claimed he bought the bikini for her and told a newspaper he wanted the online auction halted and that if not, the proceeds should go to him.
The greedy opportunist, who did not want to be named (I'll bet not), said he also paid for breast enlargements for Lewis.
"Counting the boobs and the bikini," Lewis was baring more than $9,340 worth of presents he had given her, the man said. What does he expect, payment every time anyone looks at her breasts?

June 23 2006 - Aussies shocked by topless barmaids

Topless barmaids in an Australian country town have sparked uproar with wives refusing to allow their husbands to go to the pub and predictably outraged church leaders demanding something be done.
Police have received numerous complaints about the new entertainment at the Oberon Tourist hotel.
"We don't want this type of sleaze, this isn't King's Cross," said one woman, who has been putting the hose on patrons as they leave the pub. What a harridan!
Yet in reality, most people in the one-horse town are happy with the topless barmaids. These days it's a packed house whenever they appear, said new licensee, Jan Smithers.
"This place was dead. We'd be lucky to have three people in here on a Friday, now it's packed with about 100," Smithers said.
The topless barmaid, who did not want to be named, said Oberon patrons were more polite than city clientele. "In the country, because they never get this sort of thing, they're a bit embarrassed and treat you with respect," she said.
But many womenfolk, including Sarie Stapleton, won't allow their husbands to go to what's been dubbed 'titty night'.
"No fear would he be going. He wouldn't dare ask, or he'd never get in the house again," Stapleton, 34, said. We suggest Mr Stapleton starts to reassess his marriage - it's not too late to find a woman who actually likes sex and isn't pathologically jealous , mate...
Ms Smithers said she was shocked at the reaction: "I thought it would be accepted, just like a disco. It certainly created a lot of controversy in the town."
Long-term resident Ian Cunningham said people were overreacting.
"Why don't they get a life. It's like watching television - if you don't like it, switch it off. What else is there to do in Oberon except freeze to death?"

June 23 2006 - Prudish Swedes suspend sexy weather girl

If you still think of Sweden as a hotbed of liberalism and sexual openness, read on and weep...
TV4 meteorologist Tone Bekkestad is being punished by the station after the Norwegian weather forecaster posed for 'sexy' pictures in a recent issue of a popular men's magazine.
The piece in the wonderfully named Slitz magazine was highlighting Sweden's best looking women.
Bekkestad posed in tight, low-cut jeans, an open black jacket, and with her cleavage partly showing - you can see the most 'explicit' here, and we're sure you will agree that they are hardly full-on porn or even anything close to nudity - but the images were apparently too much for the broadcaster.
Bekkestad, who said she was duped by the magazine thinking it would use other less provocative pictures (which hardly explains why she agreed to pose for these other shots), was put on at least three months' leave from her duties as a result.
"She won't be in the frame because her pictures in Slitz don't fit with what TV4 stands for" said po-faced Kinna Bellander, channel spokeswoman.
The magazine said it did not trick Bekkestad, saying she had a great time during the photo shoot.

June 23 2006 - Dad abandons son to visit strip club

19-year-old waster Kenneth Royal was arrested this week on child endangerment charges after he left his 21-month-old son in his car while he visited Stiletto's Gentlemen's Club in Pharr, Florida with his friend Mark Dixon.
Royal said that "cause he was asleep, I didn't think it was such a big deal, 15 minutes." Policeman Lupe Salinas said it was more like 40 minutes. A security guard at the Club had called authorities when a parking lot attendant noticed the baby crying.
Both men are being held on $50,000 bond, facing up to two years in jail if convicted.

June 18 2006 - Miss England hopeful works as an escort

A Miss England finalist has been disqualified from the contest after it emerged she works as an escort .
Rachel Coulter had reached the finals of the Miss Newcastle stage of the competition, but organisers were unaware the 22-year-old worked as an escort for the North East-based Notorious Girls agency. Topless photos of her appear on the site together with glowing affidavits from satisfied customers who praise her talents: "Best BJ I have ever had & she swallowed the lot - Fantastic!" raves 'Steve'.
Sonia Strong, the contest’s regional organiser said Coulter would now be disqualified.
"Miss England rules, which are handed down to the regional heats, state that contestants must not have posed nude or topless, so offering escort services is just completely out of the question,"she said.
"I had no idea that Rachel had done anything like this, and would not have put her through the competition if I had. She has cost us a lot of time and effort, particularly as a TV crew have been filming the whole process as part of a documentary. We've been following her and had a lot of shoots set up for her this week. Now we've started the documentary we’re going to have to mention this and the fact that she will now be disqualified."
Yeah, the documentary makers must be gutted...
Strong said when she confronted Coulter, the model asked if she could be removed from the TV documentary because her parents were unaware she worked as an escort girl. Instead, Strong blabbed to The Sun. Nice.
More than 400 women entered the Miss Newcastle competition and Coulter was one of 30 who had reached the final, which will be held on June 23. The winner will go through to the Miss England contest on July 14.

June 18 2006 - Livingstone drops strip club appeal

London Mayor Ken Livingstone has abandoned his legal challenge to the Rembrandt lapdancing club on Tooley Street.
Local residents were told at a City Hall meeting that the mayor's legal advisors had advised him to halt his attempts to seek the revocation of the Rembrandt club's licence via the courts. Instead he will continue to support local groups calling on Southwark Council to review its licensing policy.
The Mayor - noted for regularly playing host to terrorists and extremists - has received legal advice that the best way forward is to continue to work alongside local residents, businesses and other objectors to highlight and to challenge Southwark Council on its licensing policy, which has allowed an establishment like this to open so close to schools, tourist attractions and offices. Better yet, he could shut up entirely and get on with his job.

June 18 2006 - Teacher sacked over topless photos

Austin High School art teacher Tamara Hoover was been removed from her job after topless photos of her were found on the internet .
The photos were posted on Flickr.com by her partner and depict Hoover in the shower, lifting weights, getting dressed, in bed and doing other routine activities. None of them are remotely pornographic as far as we can tell, although the images no longer seem to be online.
"I'm an artist and I'm going to participate in the arts," Hoover said. "If that's not something they want me to do then I want to be told that. I don't feel as if I was doing anything that was beyond expectations."
The school district claimed the photos were inappropriate and violate the "higher moral standard" expected of public school teachers. As she was escorted out of class last month she was told she's become an ineffective teacher. The district now wants to revoke her teaching certification, which would keep her out of Texas classrooms permanently. Hoover will appeal the ruling and is prepared to take the case to court, she said.
We don't blame her, and suspect that there is a hidden agenda here: Hoover's partner is another woman, and the whole thing smacks unpleasantly of homophobia. The photos came to light last month as a result of a feud over ceramics equipment with another art teacher, who then exposed her rival to the authorities. What a nasty piece of work she must be.
Austen Clements, one of Hoover's students, noted that many artists have nude pictures, including Georgia O'Keeffe.
"If Georgia O'Keeffe wanted to teach at Austin High, I don't think they'd say, 'No, you have nude pictures online,'" Clements said.
You can read more about the case on Hoover's Myspace page.