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August 13, 2003

Internet Killed the Pornography Star


...or at least badly dinged one publisher, as General Media, Inc., the company that publishes "Penthouse," files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after blaming the Internet, a weak economy, and a sagging phone sex industry for its woes.

obAdolescentRecollection: I babysat a kid for a summer when I was 18. His dad kept a library of fairly raunchy porn stashed away in a closet. I don't remember the titles, and I'm not copping the prude thing when I say I spent about five minutes looking at a few samples before deciding his tastes ran to the repulsive (I know, I know... one man's "repulsive" is another man's whatever). "Penthouse," though, wasn't evidently considered hard core enough to hide: there were six or eight stacked on the back of the toilet in every bathroom in the house because, you know, you don't mind polite company seeing the arty stuff.

Posted by mph at August 13, 2003 10:02 PM

Comments

Too bad for Penthouse, for some reason I'm not feeling any sympathy. I did the porn thing as a teenager, snuck into the collection of my friends' brother, we must have read through about 8 years of Penthouse and Playboy, even saw a Hustler or two. I may have just had my fill back then, but ever since, I have never been able to consider nudity art.

Posted by: Wendi at August 13, 2003 10:42 PM

They lost me when they started doing the 'water sports'. Yech

Posted by: Sean at August 13, 2003 11:15 PM

Since Sean and Wendi commented ;) Damnit! No more hustler! I mean that was the classiest of the dirty mags :( Really! I'm being serious and no playboy doesn't count. That's just nudes w/ strange unreal backdrops for the photo shoots. Where are the days of women like Betty. (now I leave you all to wonder if I'm being honest or not.. hehehe)

Posted by: Celina at August 14, 2003 12:52 AM

What a quandary for Ashcroft - a major porn purveyor is going under, but only because of internet porn. Hardly a victory. What to do, what to do...

I worked in a law office where a stack of Penthouse magazines were kept on the back of the toilet. Only in the employee bathroom, of course.

Posted by: Cristina at August 14, 2003 05:54 PM