Girls Go Wild for Revenge on Joe Francis

Wed., Jun. 13, 2007 4:33 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Joe Francis is sporting a jailhouse jumpsuit these days. But for what it's worth, he might as well wear a bull's-eye.

Adding to his long list of woes, two Florida women have just sued Francis and his Mantra Films, claiming he reneged on a deal not to include salacious footage of them in a Girls Gone Wild video.

The breach-of-contract suit, filed Monday in federal court in Panama City, alleges that the Girls crew "enticed" Brooke Patsolic and Christina Brose, who were under 21 at the time, into engaging in sexual activities on a tour bus in exchange for free clothes and alcoholic drinks.

The plaintiffs are hoping to persuade a federal court that they only agreed to be filmed in the compromising positions with the explicit understanding that the images would not be released.

The women contend that they were shocked—shocked!—to discover their sexcapades were featured in Girls Gone Wild: Endless Spring Break Vol. 6 and in a trailer advertising other Girls products.

The plaintiffs, who are seeking unspecified damages, claim the only way they might have given their consent was after they were illegally plied with booze.

The complaint comes less than two months after Francis settled an exploitation lawsuit brought by seven underage girls who wound up in a Girls video. Like that earlier case, the new lawsuit will be presided over by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Smoak. Smoak jailed Francis for contempt of court in the former case after he screamed profanities at the plaintiffs during mediation talks.

Pastolic and Brose's Orlando-based attorney, Christopher Hill, did not immediately comment on the lawsuit.

Mantra's Los Angeles counsel, Michael Burke, told Panama City's News Herald that people wrongly assume that Girls crews use alcohol during shoots. Instead, he said they rely on security at the nightclubs to make sure participants are of legal age.

In any event, another civil action right now is the least of Francis' problems.

The 34-year-old boob impresario remains holed up in county jail in Reno, Nevada, where he's awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to federal tax-evasion charges.

The judge in that case has refused to allow Francis to post $1.5 million cash bond because he is deemed a flight risk and has a case pending in Florida. Francis also faces six state felony charges, for counts that include conspiracy, prostitution and filming underage girls in sexual situations. That case will be adjudicated after the federal case, which is tentatively set for trial July 24.

The next date in the Florida case is June 20, but officials say Francis won't be there. He will also be MIA for a June 26 hearing in Los Angeles on a misdemeanor count of sexual battery in Los Angeles. As with the other criminal cases, he had pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, the Girls guy is spending his time in lockup lamenting his fate, and that of friend and fellow jailbird Paris Hilton.

In a letter to TMZ.com, Francis writes that he and Hilton are receiving harsher treatment because they're rich and famous.

"The stark reality that I've encountered in the five previous facilities I've been in is that celebrities are segregated from other inmates, and it can be quite a lonely existence with no human contact," he writes.

"It seems as though Paris is seeing this first hand now that she's been sent back to jail to serve her original 45-day sentence. If her name was Jane Doe and everything else in the case remained unchanged, she would never have served a day in jail...I empathize with Paris because I too would not still be in jail were it not for my 'high profile status.' "