Hustler Head Hunting for Heads
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Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt told Yeas & Nays on Saturday that the newspaper ad he took out last week offering a million-dollar bounty for evidence of illicit sexual activity with lawmakers has yielded about 200 tips so far. He said he’ll let them continue to trickle in over the next two weeks or so before his team begins to follow up on them. “We’ll be lucky if we get 2 to 4 percent” hard leads that could yield a payout, he said.
Flynt, bedecked in a monogrammed silk shirt, a diamond bracelet and multiple rings, said he fully expects to snare a big fish or two from the effort. When asked why he decided to go ahead with this now, he reminded us that he also did this for the first time way back in 1976 and likes to do so regularly to expose the hypocrisy of high-ranking officials (he did it again during President Clinton’s impeachment in 1998). With an election coming up, Flynt thought the timing was right.
“We do the same thing the mainstream media does,” he said, adding that his efforts annoy mainstream reporters because he upstages them.
As far as taking out another ad, he implied that he got enough of a bounce off the one that it wouldn’t be necessary.
“You’d be wasting money,” he said.
Flynt was in town Saturday evening to attend the annual Larry King Cardiac Foundation gala at the Ritz Carlton. Flynt, it turns out, has gotten to know Larry King well after appearing on his show 12 times and has attended a similar gala in Los Angeles. King asked him to come to this year’s D.C. event and, a day after Flynt’s ad ran, he bought an entire table.
Flynt and his entourage made an exit before the evening’s final act, Donna Summer, took the stage.
Other notes from the evening:
- Talk about power of the purse … Chance and Cannon King, the young children of Larry King and his wife Shawn, had a merry time in the event’s silent auction room. Turns out the boys were only supposed to bid on three sports-related items, but they kept running around the room bidding up a storm, leaving their nanny to run around behind them, scratching out their bids.
“They do this all the time and then we get things sent to the house,” she said. “Like I can really outbid Larry King’s kid,” one bidder was overheard saying.
- Democratic fundraiser Beth Dozoretz shelled out $1,000 to balloon twister Adam Lee. Beth’s son is having a bar mitzvah in February and, after giving Lee a picture of her son, he’ll make four ($250 a pop) replicas of her son made out of balloons.
- Actress Fran Drescher, who already spends loads of time here in Washington, clearly wants to spend even more time in D.C. She bid on auction items for such local spots as the Occidental Restaurant and Chef Geoff’s and LIA’s. In addition, she also bet on a VIP tour of Capitol Hill and an autographed Chris Samuels Washington Redskins jersey.
| Cannon and Chance King, sons of Shawn Southwick King and Larry King. (Carrie Devorah) |
