Joe Francis, 34, the multi-millionaire founder of Girls Gone Wild films, was arrested

Girls Gone Wild founder in federal custody
Joe Francis surrendered to marshals, ordered held without bond

Joe Francis, 34, the multi-millionaire founder of Girls Gone Wild films, was arrested on contempt of court charges after lawyers for seven women complained he shouted obscenities and threatened them during civil suit settlement negotiations.




PENSACOLA, Fla. - The founder of the “Girls Gone Wild” video empire was taken into custody by federal marshals early Tuesday to face a contempt of court citation after initially defying a federal judge.

Joe Francis was booked into the Bay County Jail, said Ruth Sasser, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office. “His attorneys continue to work toward a settlement,” Ronn Torossian, a Francis spokesman, said in a statement e-mailed to The Associated Press.

Francis, 34, makes an estimated $29 million a year from videos of young women exposing their breasts and in other sexually provocative situations.


He appeared Tuesday afternoon before federal Magistrate Larry A. Bodiford, who ordered him held without bail. Torossian said Francis would likely be held until at least Thursday, when he is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Richard Smoak, the judge who issued the contempt citation.

He drew the contempt citation during negotiations in a civil lawsuit brought by seven women who were underage when they were filmed by his company on Panama City Beach during spring break in 2003.


Lawyers for the women told Smoak that Francis became enraged during the settlement talks, shouting obscenities at the lawyers and threatening to “bury them.” Smoak ordered Francis to settle the case or go to jail for his behavior.

Negotiations continued with the help of a mediator, but broke down Thursday, and Smoak issued a contempt of court warrant.

Francis initially refused to surrender and called Smoak “a judge gone wild.”

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta refused to let him remain free pending an appeal.

THAT'S HOT !

Birkhead the father of Anna Nicole Smith's daughter

Larry Birkhead got the news he's been waiting months for Tuesday — he's Dannielynn's dad.





Baby's guardian to take custody of Anna Nicole Smith's body







Another mystery in the Anna Nicole Smith saga has been solved: Photographer Larry Birkhead is the biological father of Smith's 7-month-old daughter, Dannielynn, experts announced today.
Birkhead was "determined to be the father based on DNA testing" Michael Baird, of the DNA Diagnostics Center in Fairfield, Ohio, told reporters. "I told you so," a teary Birkhead said, adding, "it's been a long road."



The Bahamian judge told reporters outside the courthouse that a custody hearing is scheduled for Friday.

The child has been living with Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern, who is listed on the birth certificate as Dannielynn's father. Monday, Stern withdrew his last-ditch effort to block paternity test results from being introduced as evidence. Before the hearing, Stern's attorney told the Associated Press that Stern and Birkhead would cooperate in the transition of Dannielynn to Birkhead's custody if test results proved the photographer is the father.


Birkhead also gave signs the men would work together. "The thing we both want to do is what's best for Dannielynn," Birkhead told Access Hollywood. "And it does not do Dannielynn justice for her name to be out there and all these fights. … We both just agreed that there would be no fights, you know, after the results are revealed."

Birkhead filed suit in Los Angeles and the Bahamas last October, weeks after Dannielynn's birth, claiming he was her father and contesting the birth certificate. Legal squabbling turned vitriolic after Smith's death Feb. 8 in Florida. Medical examiners concluded the death was an accidental overdose of prescription drugs.

Stern, Birkhead and Smith's mother, Virgie Arthur, were all involved in hearings to determine custody of Dannielynn as well as guardianship of Smith's body. As Smith's only child, Dannielynn could inherit the bulk of the former pinup's estate. Smith, who was married to oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall, had been involved in decade-long legal battle with Marshall's heirs over the estimated $500 million fortune.

But while the paternity issue has been resolved, a new legal twist has been added to the Smith saga this week. Stern hired Atlanta-based powerhouse law firm Powell Goldstein LLP to fight media speculation that Stern was involved in Smith's death or in the death of Smith's son, Daniel. Daniel was 20 when he died of an accidental drug overdose while visiting his mother in the Bahamas in September. An inquest into Daniel's death has been put on hold.

"Accusations that Mr. Stern is guilty of murder have been recklessly and maliciously invented," L. Lin Wood said in a Monday statement that threatened to file lawsuits against media outlets that make "false attacks on (Stern's) reputation." Wood has represented Richard Jewell, John and Patsy Ramsey, and former congressman Gary Condit. "Stern is an innocent individual who has never been charged with any crime but finds himself on trial in the media. … The nightly television, tabloid and Internet trial of Mr. Stern in the court of public opinion based on sensational lies, speculation, rumor and gossip is over."