Girls Gone Wild was a popular film series in the early 2000s. The documentary-style movies would film the activities of young, typically college, girls as they partied on spring break or at their schools. The movies have long been controversial, and a new docu-series, Girls Gone Wild Exposed, is adding more fuel to the fire.
Former ‘Party Girl’ Claims ‘Girls Gone Wild’ Founder Assaulted Her
In the first episode of the show, former “party girl” Jannel alleged that Girls Gone Wild creator Joe Francis raped her in the back of the show’s tour bus. She went on to describe the encounter, saying that Francis picked her from the dancefloor at the club they were both partying at.
Jannel claimed he fed her alcohol “like it was water,” then invited her onto the tour bus. She assumed she would be asked to flash her breasts for the Girls Gone Wild cameras, but was sexually assaulted by Francis.
“He kept trying to kiss me and saying, ‘It’s going to be OK, it’s going to be OK.’ And I was like, ‘Get off of me, get off of me,’” Jannel said. “He basically forced himself on me, and it hurt because I wasn’t ‘turned on,’ so it really hurt . . . He took hold of me. I was this 100-pound little girl. I didn’t give my consent that night, and he totally raped me. And then he got off of me like I was garbage.”
Director Of Series Points Fingers At Famous Faces Like Brad Pitt, Kardashian Clan
Girls Gone Wild Exposed will go on to tell the stories of many of Francis’ accusers, many of whom were employed by the Girls Gone Wild franchise. Director Katinka Blackford Newman told The New York Post, “Behind the fun, the wet T-shirt competitions and the faux-feministic liberation centered around flashing your breasts in front of a camera, lives were being ruined.”
“Young women like Jannel thought Joe Francis was OK because he hung out with celebrities,” she continued. “Nobody could believe that somebody who rubs shoulders with the Kardashians, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston could be a violent abuser and a criminal.”
Francis launched the movie series in 1997 and quickly became an overnight success, receiving almost $100 million a year in profits from the movies. Like Blackford Newman said, many celebrities were self-professed fans of the films. There’s footage in the TNT series that shows Pitt talking about being a fan of the videos, even saying that then-partner Aniston gave him some as a gift.
The director shared that she hopes her work will make some celebs think twice about who they befriend: “Younger, impressionable women, like Jannel . . . trusted Joe Francis because of his celebrity [affiliation]. [These celebrities] need to understand that they have a responsibility that if they befriend abusive child pornographers like Joe Francis, they’re giving them credibility.” Girls Gone Wild was deemed controversial even during its heyday, and Girls Gone Wild Exposed ensures that the stories of the women Francis allegedly assaulted will come to light.
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