US porn baron's appeal for $5bn bailout

Larry Flynt is hoping to bring off one of the more bizarre PR coups of the credit crunch by asking the US government for a $5bn (£3bn) rescue package to firm up America's limp pornographic industry.

Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine, and Joe Francis, the man behind the Girls Gone Wild video series, are seeking Congress's help in propping up the porn market, which, they say, has become the latest victim of the global economic downturn.

At the end of last year the US government pumped $23.4bn into the US's struggling car industry after Ford, General Motors and Chrysler began to feel the effects of the recession.



Flynt and Francis, who say that adult DVD sales have dived 22% over the last year, argue that they, too, deserve a helping hand.

"Congress seems willing to help shore up our nation's most important businesses [and] we feel we deserve the same consideration," Francis said in a statement.

"In difficult economic times Americans turn to entertainment for relief. More and more, the kind of entertainment they turn to is adult entertainment."

There's a very serious BBC interview with British pornographer Ben Dover here.