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Air workers in calendar stripper row

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

Air workers in calendar stripper row
By Stephen Moyes 22/12/2008

Fun Stories to read from the past

Airport staff were banned from making a nude charity calendar because bosses thought it might put off potential buyers of Gatwick.

The fundraiser for children with cerebral palsy was to feature 40 men posing for raunchy shots round the site.

It had won the backing of the managing director.

But just as workers were ready to strip, the new director of communications banned the shoot as he felt it was inappropriate.

Calendar organiser Alan Skinner was told bad press could affect the airport’s sale.

The BAA security guard said: “I’ve no idea how a calendar with workers raising funds for charity would influence this. If anything it would have shown we’re a forward thinking company. I’m sure we’d have sold hundreds.”

BAA Gatwick replied: “The idea showed real creativity, but the calendar boys theme was felt inappropriate in a work situation. It is important we work hard to protect the airport’s reputation.”

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Go-Go Joint is gone-gone

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Oct 25, 2006

Vargas, who owns Lenny’s Deli on Triangle Street, recently bought the Go-Go property from Vincent Mavilia and plans to sign an agreement with the city not to have topless entertainment, although zoning allows it.
On Tuesday, Vargas met with the Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team at the former club to give an overview of her plans for the 1,200-square-foot building.
She plans to remove the circular bar, which still has full bottles of beer and half-full bottles of hard liquor, and renovate the interior to include a small stage for live music.
Vargas doesn’t plan to serve a full menu of food but will serve appetizers, liquor and other beverages. She also plans to add a patio and a plasma television.
“I want to bring in a mariachi band and maybe some jazz,” Vargas said.
City officials have received complaints for at least two years about the Go-Go Joint, which was previously known as Bada Bing and Wiggles.

In March, a judge ordered Mavilia to install a video surveillance system so police could monitor activity inside the Shelter Rock Road strip club.
Judge Douglas Mintz required the cameras about a year after local police and personnel from the Office of the Chief State’s Attorney shut down the club under the state’s nuisance abatement law.
Police arrested six women in August 2005 who were charged with prostitution for offering to have sex with undercover officers for money.
Another dancer was charged with prostitution in February after asking an undercover officer for money in exchange for sex.
According to the city, Mavilia never installed the cameras. He put the building up for sale.
A sign outside the building says the property is for sale for $375,000, cash only. Vargas would not say whether she paid cash.
“You are doing us a favor. This is a very positive thing for the city,” Rich Antous, a member of the city’s Unified Neighborhood Inspection Team, told Vargas on Tuesday.
City officials plan to help Vargas get the necessary permits to get the new café up and running. Vargas said she hopes to have it open by December.
“I am just really pleased that we have been able to resolve this neighborhood issue, and I wish her the best of luck with her business,” Mayor Mark Boughton said Tuesday.

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Detroit Adult Clubs, Gentleman’s Clubs and Strip Clubs

Friday, June 19th, 2009

Detroit strip clubs have their own intrinsic Motown mojo and range from casual Detroit strip clubs to posh, cigar and brandy lounges and from just topless Detroit gentleman’s clubs to fully nude Detroit strip bars. A classic Detroit gentlemen’s club, Detroit’s Coliseum strip bar has a dress code (collared shirts, please), simply gorgeous half naked women, and prices to reflect its status as one of Detroit’s best gentleman’s clubs. For a hearty, no holds barred Detroit strip bar, downtown Detroit’s Bouzouki Club is an ideal club complete with beautiful dancers and fast drinks. Want to take it all off? Detroit’s Club Le Elegant spotlights fully nude strippers, but does not sell liquor—all those roving, admiring eyes just might lose control.

Booby Trap
141 W. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.366.9030

The Booby Trap is a small, casual strip club that has the feel of an old neighborhood pub, except at your Dad’s old watering hole there weren’t dozens of topless babes. Okay, maybe there were, but that doesn’t change the fact that if you’re looking for a more intimate strip club, with decent drinks and good looking women, then the Booby Trap is it.

Bouzouki Club
432 E. Lafayette, Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.964.5744

Located right in Downtown Detroit, Bouzouki Club is everything you could possibly want in a strip club. The dancers are gorgeous and very personable, the drinks arrive quick and there’s plenty of them, and the whole atmosphere of this strip club screams a good night out.

Centerfold Lounge
20222 John R St., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.892.7333

Centerfold Lounge is your typical Detroit strip club with a wide range of ladies to fit everyone’s taste ensuring a good time for all. Hey, a word to the cost conscious, the private dances here are about five bucks cheaper than at most strip clubs, just don’t skimp on the tip.

Chateau Vert Lounge
16550 Telegraph Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.532.2242

At best, Chateau Vert Lounge is hit or miss, and although they don’t have the typical slew of Barbies that most strip clubs offer, the girls are cute and friendly. However, this strip club is small making the private dances not so private. so, we guess if you’re doing the Detroit strip club tour, stop in; if you have limited time and budget, skip it.

Club Le Elegant
17040 Plymouth, Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.836.7562

In Detroit, as in most major cities, no clothes means no booze, a shame for fully nude strip clubs. However, at Club Le Elegant the prices aren’t bad and the girls are decent. You can always get your drink someplace else and stop by, but we prefer to kill two birds with one stone. Besides, other Detroit strip clubs are topless, it won’t overtax your imagination to picture the girls bottomless too.

Coliseum
11300 E. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.308.4116

The Coliseum is an above average gentleman’s club across the board, if a little pricey. It’s seriously state of the art, they have premium liquor, and the women are hot from the strippers right through to the service staff. It’s a casual strip club (the only dress code is a collared shirt) and even the bouncers are chill, a definite rarity at most strip clubs. Like we said though, bring extra cash, all this doesn’t come for free.

Cover Girls
10631 Whittier, Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.527.0700

You have to love a strip club with a free buffet and, if they’re still doing it, dollar pitchers on Sundays. Cover Girls has beautiful women, good drinks and your typical strip club atmosphere. Oh, and if you’re nearby on a Tuesday you have to drop in, Cover Girls host the best amateur night in the state.

Crazy Horse Detroit
8140 Michigan Ave., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.581.7400

What can you say about the Crazy Horse Detroit? Well, we can say plenty, but most of it probably wouldn’t be printed here. However, we will say that this adult club is top notch, with beautiful live nude dancers and reasonably priced booze and, hey, you have to love a gentleman’s club that opens early during baseball season.

Hard Body Cafe
7443 Michigan Ave., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.841.2225

The Hard Body Cafe Detroit is a no-frills adult club, meaning there’s no food to interfere with the live entertainment and consumption of libations. Come on, do you really go to strip clubs for the food? In case you’re stumped, the answer is no.

Hot Tamales
13109 W. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.863.3444

When you’re looking for strip clubs in Detroit, a huge red flag should go up when you contemplate Hot Tamales because nothing else will. Seriously, this strip club needs some major work. The drinks are okay, but if the best thing you can say about a strip club is that the drinks are okay, there is something wrong. We would liken this to an old strippers home, if there were such a thing.

La Chambre Lounge
14100 Telegraph, Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.537.5420

We have it on good authority that La Chambre Lounge is one of Detroit’s best strip clubs. An unpretentious adult club, La Chambre is kicked back, casual and always a good time. The ladies are decent, the liquor is cheaper than most clubs, and the pricing structure for cover charge and lap dances beats out any other gentleman’s clubs.

Platinum
14541 W. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.342.7944

Easily one of the best strip clubs in Detroit, Platinum has simply gorgeous women,almost all of them black, a sick DJ that helps them shake their natural assets, and a liquor selection that shames most other strip clubs. The atmosphere is totally kicked back, comfortable, and the service from the staff is impeccable.

Player’s Lounge
13710 E. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.371.6970

The Player’s Lounge redefines the term “gentleman’s club.” It’s a very upscale venue, serving fine cuisine, a well rounded wine list, a fine selection of cigars, and reasonably priced drinks. Oh, yeah, they also have some of Detroit’s hottest women dancing live for your viewing pleasure. Not a rowdy strip club by any stretch of the imagination, so leave your adolescent inner self at home.

Silk Stockings
15569 W. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.864.3838

Silk Stockings is among a handful of fully nude strip clubs in Detroit, which in layman’s terms means no booze. But, the women are fine and the pricing is comparable to other adult clubs and, hey, they’re fully nude. Drink someplace else.

Subi’s Place
12916 Northline, Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.283.2050

Subi’s Place has been catering to Detroit’s adult club needs since 1971, so you know with a running history like that it has to be good. Some of the hottest girls of any strip club we’ve seen and, oh what variety, it’s like being a kid in some adult candy store. The drinks flows freely and they also offer lunch and dinner, but we believe that after you see the ladies, food will be the last thing on your mind.

Toy Chest
18728 Ford Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.593.1645

We’d say that the Toy Chest is probably the most fun strip club in Detroit. You’re encouraged to let a little of you’re wild side out which separates the Toy Chest from most other gentleman’s clubs, we mean you still have to respect the rules of the road, as it were, but have fun, that’s what strip clubs are for. Also, the Toy Chest, has phenomenal women with some national stars rolling through when they’re in Detroit.

Trumpp’s
21413 W. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.592.1190

Seriously, you can feel like the Donald himself at Trumpp’s. This gentleman’s club is upscale and they really do accommodate your every need. Good drinks, covered. Fine dining, covered. Cigars, covered. Beautiful ladies, uncovered. Anyway that is the whole point of a strip club, getting taken care of while watching some hotties.

Tycoon’s
12210 E. Eight Mile Rd., Detroit, Michigan; Tel. 313.372.0660

Tycoon’s is a good place, but not in the upper echelon so far as Detroit strip clubs go. The drinks are good and the prices are right, but the entertainment could improve. If the cabbie takes you here, tell him to keep driving there are better adult clubs out there, find them.

—Detroit bar and club reviews by Ryan Osterbeck

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Strip Club Owners Protest New Rules

Friday, June 19th, 2009

ttp://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19766784/detail.html/

http://www.clickondetroit.com/video/19782131/

Council Concerned New Rules Go Too Far

POSTED: Tuesday, June 16, 2009
UPDATED: 7:16 pm EDT June 17, 2009

DETROIT — Strip club owners and dancers showed up in downtown Detroit Wednesday to protest rule changes for strip clubs.

The new rules would put some distance between strippers and customers and ban alcohol consumption inside the clubs.

Detroit City Council took up the new rules during a meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Strip Club Owners Don’t Want New Rules

The city has about 30 topless bars. If the new rules are approved, topless dancers would remain six feet from the patrons and on a stage at all times. There would also be no lap dancing and no mingling in so-called VIP rooms.

The proposed changes follow a court battle in which a federal judge in 2007 struck down Detroit’s regulations on where strip clubs could open and ordered them rewritten.

The rule that concerned council members the most was no alcohol inside the strip clubs.

“The two just go hand and hand. It’s like a casino. Is anyone going to go to a casino that doesn’t serve alcohol? Is anyone going to go to a sports bar to watch the Red Wings or the Pistons and not want to have a beer? Come on,” said Ken Cockrel Jr., Detroit City Council President.

Club owners said the rule changes would put them out of business.

The council has been under intense pressure from church groups to crack down on the clubs. Thirty-one of them are now licensed to operate in the city and that is about 40 percent of the total for the entire state.

The city is already facing lawsuits for refusing to transfer some club licenses. Council member Sheila Cockrel fears more litigation. “I’m not voting for any of these because it’s constitutionally protected behavior even if I think it’s disgusting,” said Cockrel.

The new rules would also keep new strip clubs 1,000 feet away from schools, churches or other strip clubs.

Strip Club owners appeared happy after the meeting because it appears the council members think the new rules go too far, but the issue still has a long way to go before a final decision is made on the rules.

Tell us what you think about the new changes

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The pole vaults into a new role

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

46923934The pole vaults into a new role
Pole dancing, long associated with strip clubs, is sliding into the mainstream as an art and a (clothed) competition sport.
By Susan Josephs
May 24, 2009

Wearing a gauzy blue two-piece costume that resembles a circus acrobat’s uniform, Laura Martin climbs up an 11-foot steel pole in a move popularly called the “Caterpillar Crawl.”

Aggressive and athletic yet fluid and hyper-flexible, she proceeds to blaze through a pole-dancing routine of inverted suspensions, spins and slides.

Hoots and whistles from the female-dominated crowd compete with the live music provided by the rock band Avowed. One woman screams to a friend, “It’s just like trapeze!”
Martin, a former exotic dancer, appreciates the comparison of what she does to something other than adult entertainment.

“I want to see pole dancing get away from the stripper connotation,” says the 30-year-old San Diego-based performer and personal fitness instructor. “I want people to see it’s like any other dance form.”

The weekly showcase at Club Good Hurt in West Los Angeles represents the latest evolution in pole dancing’s migration from the strip club to the fitness class to the mainstream performance venue. It features Southern California pole dancers performing to live rock music in a setting where, according to show producer Emilee Wilson, there’s “no tipping and no stripping.”

While pole dancing has been gaining acceptance in recent years as a form of physical fitness — classes are offered in gyms and dance studios across the country — there have been few performance opportunities outside of exotic dance clubs for dancers who spend years perfecting their skills and seek professional, artistic recognition.

Though the fact that the dance poles are easily portable and installable on a variety of surfaces point to a range of performance possibilities, Wilson and others say the opposite is true.

“There’s just not a lot out there right now so that people can see pole dancing as a serious dance form,” says Leigh Acosta, a 30-year-old pole dance instructor, aerial artist and recent performer at the showcase. “I think a lot of people still see it as something scandalous, the way people thought burlesque was scandalous, or belly dancing.”

That may change, however, considering that Cirque du Soleil hired a champion pole dancer in January to perform in its Las Vegas-based “Zumanity,” and pole-dance competitions judged by dancers and choreographers have sprung up all over the world.

The year-old New York City-based US Pole Dance Federation, for example, plans to sponsor annual competitions and pledges on its website to promote pole dancing as a “sensual and athletic art form.”

Locally, there’s Wilson’s effort to produce an “acrobatic pole show for women who want to perform but not in a strip club.

“What I’m doing is offering women a safe space where they get respect,” says Wilson, a 27-year-old actress and pole dancer who used to perform at Jumbo’s Clown Room, a Hollywood bikini bar. “Most of the women I met at Jumbo’s were really artistic, and none of them had implants. They were there because they really wanted to perform, and performers need an audience.”

About 100 people — with a roughly 3-2 female-male ratio — packed the red-paneled bar and checkered dance floor area on a recent Monday to watch a lineup of performers that included Acosta, Nicole Williams, a popular local pole-dance instructor, and Mina Mortezaie, whose forte seems to be perfectly executed vertical and inverted split maneuvers.

Mortezaie, 26, trained in gymnastics, modern dance, jazz, ballet and hip-hop before discovering pole dance. “I got addicted to it immediately because it combines everything I’ve been obsessed with: strength, flexibility, grace.”

Though she considered working at strip clubs, Mortezaie has created her own performance opportunities, which have included staging “pole nights” at the Culver City restaurant and bar Rush Street and forming her own burlesque dance troupe that incorporates the pole in its repertoire.

“I didn’t want to dance for men in clubs,” she says. “I wanted to dance for myself.”

For her performance, Mortezaie wore a tiny pink-and-black bikini and sported thigh-high shiny black boots. All of the performers wore bathing-suit-type costumes, a necessity, they say, since bare skin allows them to perform moves that require gripping with various parts of the body. As for their high heels, “every dance has its shoe,” observes Anna Grundstrom, the co-founder of the US Pole Dance Federation. “In high heels, you can grip higher on the pole.”

As a dancer, Mortezaie seemed to accentuate the sexy elements of her movements. She considers this “empowering,” while other dancers, like Martin, favor a less overtly sexual approach.

“I actually try to numb that part down,” says Martin, a self-taught pole dancer who cross-trains in martial arts, yoga, boxing and running. “You can’t take a woman’s natural seductiveness away from her, but I tend to stay away from the shake-your-ass maneuvers.”

Acosta, who demonstrates a languid, graceful performance quality in her routines, feels she’s “not a very sexy performer” but defends the dancers who are.

“I think it would be wrong to take out the sexual appeal of it, otherwise pole dancing would be nothing more than just stunts and gymnastics,” she says. “So much of dance is sexy. I’ve seen modern dance performances where it looks like the dancers are having sex.”

Judith Lynne Hanna, a dance scholar at the University of Maryland, points out that many dance forms contain sensual or sexual elements and were stigmatized at various points in their histories.

Hanna, who has served as an expert witness on more than 100 court cases related to exotic dance regulation, also mentioned examples of highly regarded choreographers such as modern dance pioneer Anna Halprin, who received a warrant for her arrest in 1967 when she presented a dance involving female nudity in New York.

“And then you have belly dancing, which contended with stigmas similar to pole dancing,” Hanna says.

Though some people attempt to trace contemporary pole dancing to the traditional Indian sport of Mallakhamb, or pole gymnastics, Hanna says the form really got its start in the 1980s, when strip clubs “became more upscale and elegant. I’m not sure when it became so gymnastic, but at some point, pole dancers became very skilled,” she says. “After all, if everyone’s doing the same thing but you do something different, you could attract more tips.”

Outside the strip clubs, pole dancing continues to evolve, with new tricks and terms being invented and dancers exchanging information by posting performance and instructional videos on YouTube.

“What I call an outside leg hook might be called ‘the firefly’ in one studio and ‘the fireman’ in another,” says Grundstrom, who mentions efforts to “put a Web page together with names of moves we all agree on.”

Grundstrom feels that pole dancing is “in the middle” of significant evolution. “Some people have kept the flowing, circling movements, others are more athletic,” she says, noting the recent petition to get pole dancing included as an event in the 2012 Olympics.

“The athletes will see it more as a sport and the dancers as more of an art,” she said. “Our goal at the Federation is to make pole dancing credible . . . the more you put pole dancing in other places, the more you change people’s minds.”

calendar@latimes.com

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Strip Club King The Story of Joe Redner

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

STRIP CLUB KING

Described as the Larry Flynt of the South, Joe Redner is the classic American- Dream story come true!!

Joe Redner owns one of the most famous nude clubs in the world, The Mons Venus and has been called a pimp, patriot, intellectual, self- promoter, humanitarian, hypocrite, publicity hound, pig, exploiter, criminal, narcissist, hero and genius.

Take a journey into the life and career of the self-made millionaire who started with nothing, got into the strip club business, and then continued to build a real estate empire.

Many have tried to stop him, but they have failed.

Why? Because Joe Redner has more balls, brains, and tenacity than the average human being…he fights for his Constitutional Amendment rights and wins!!

Joe dropped out of school in the 10th grade, has been arrested over 140 times, sometimes up to 4 times a day, had his clubs raided hundreds of times, earned his GED in jail at the age of 40, became an avid student of the law, got clean and sober, and has run for local public office 7 times.

Joe has been featured on national television for years including ABC’s 20/20, The Daily Show, Tru TV, Playboy TV, The Montel Williams Show, Maury Povich, The Late Late Show, CNN, and the Fox News Channel.

Whether you love him or hate him, you will want to watch him every step of the way!!

For more info, please contact:

Shelby McIntyre, Director
shelby@joerednerthemovie.com

www.StripClubKingMovie.com

Lord of the Lap Dance

Doc profiles notorious owner of Florida’s Mons Venus

In the movies, Don Ameche played Alexander Graham Bell, father of the telephone. Spencer Tracy played Thomas Edison, father of the electric light. Paul Muni played Louis Pasteur, father of pasteurization. But for the father of the nude lap dance, no actor would do. The guy for whom that distinction is claimed, Joe Redner, plays himself onscreen.

Shelby McIntyre’s documentary Strip Club King: The Story of Joe Redner chronicles the famous/notorious Redner, owner of the celebrated Tampa, Florida, strip club Mons Venus. For more than two decades, Redner has clashed with authorities over attempts to regulate lap dancing, especially the “Six-Foot Rule” which requires that distance, at a minimum, between dancer and patron. He’s run repeatedly for public office, and has waged legal war with Ronda Storms, who sounds like a stripper herself but is actually a rabidly conservative Florida Republican pol with a taste for homophobic ordinances.

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Strip club set to serve ‘Drunken Captains’ for Fleet Week ’09,

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Strip club set to serve ‘Drunken Captains’ for Fleet Week ’09, with proceeds going to the troops

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_strip_club_set_to_serve_drunken_captains_for_fleet_week_09_with_proceeds_going_t.html#ixzz0IQS3QcHf&D

Welcome to New York, sailors!

As Fleet Week rolls into town Tuesday, one Manhattan strip club will be waiting with a special drink called the Drunken Captain and, the owners say, all proceeds will go back to the troops.

HeadQuarters, located just blocks from the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum on the West Side, is selling the cocktail for $16 during Fleet Week. Military personnel can buy it for $10.

“All of us here at HeadQuarters appreciate all the men and women who put themselves at risk every day to allow us to have the freedom to express ourselves,” general manager Serafina Fiori said.

“We welcome them always so they can see firsthand what they’re fighting for!”

The Drunken Captain is a mixture of coconut, mango and pineapple rums with a little pineapple juice and a splash of cranberry.

Fiori said proceeds from the sales of the drink will go to the Soldiers’, Sailors’, Marines’, Airmen’s & Coast Guard Club in Murray Hill. The club has been housing soldiers and veterans while they visit the Big Apple for the past 90 years.

The annual Fleet Week celebration isn’t all about letting loose. It’s also a chance for the Navy to show off some of its finest war ships.

This year’s main attraction is the amphibious assault ship Iwo Jima. The vessel has been deployed in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and responded during Hurricane Katrina. This is its third appearance at Fleet Week here.

The week is filled with events for the public, including search-and-rescue demonstrations, tours of the ships, concerts and crew competitions.

“Fleet Week is a salute to the sea services,” said Lt. Jonathan Blyth.

It’s also an opportunity to “thank the citizens of New York City for showing their appreciation to those of us who serve and protect our nation,” he said.

sgaskell@nydailynews.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/05/19/2009-05-19_strip_club_set_to_serve_drunken_captains_for_fleet_week_09_with_proceeds_going_t.html#ixzz0IQSWkPNO&D

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Rihanna Hits the Strip Club

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Wed., May. 20, 2009 8:00 AM PDT by Cristina Gibson, Ashley Fultz & Claudia Rosenbaum

Rihanna’s been working and playing hard during her time in NYC.

While the singer’s been busy in the recording studio during the days, she’s been spending her nights out on the town.

On Sunday night, RiRi and her band hit Flashdancers gentlemen’s club on Broadway around midnight, after finishing up in the studio.

According to a club insider, it was her first time at the strip club, but that didn’t stop her from tipping the topless girls dancing.

“She and her group were tipping the girls quite frequently…it wasn’t only Rihanna,” a source tells E! News. “They had a good time. They were drinking sodas and water.”

So did Rihanna just watch from afar or did she get up close and personal with the dancing girls?

A source says that the Barbados beauty didn’t get a lap dance and left the club around 2:30 am.

She’s also been partying at hot spot 1Oak, where she hung until 3:30 am on Saturday night.

Now that we know she and Lady Gaga didn’t really collaborate, can’t wait to hear what’s keeping her busy during the day.

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Sex Sells, but does it pay?

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Sex sells, but does it pay? Strippers claim Inver Grove Heights club violated wage law

By David Hanners
dhanners@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 06/03/2009 09:25:36 AM CDT

The King of Diamonds strip club’s Web site touts a “non-stop show” where “your dreams come true.”

Maybe for the customers of the Inver Grove Heights “gentleman’s club.”

But two strippers claim in a federal lawsuit that the club didn’t pay them wages and required them to pay the owners a nightly “house fee” for the privilege of working there.

King of Diamonds classified the women as independent contractors when they should have been salaried employees earning at least minimum wage, according to the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis.

The women allege that their only income came from customers’ tips. Besides having to pay a house fee ranging from $50 to $100 a night, they claim they were forced to pay the owners “late fees, fees for failing to sign up for their shifts in advance and fees for leaving early.”

“Certainly, in some instances, the entertainers would make money at the end of the night,” said E. Michelle Drake, a lawyer representing the women. “But there were some cases where they lost money. From a legal perspective, they shouldn’t.

“You can’t make your employees pay to come to work,” Drake said. “The law is very clear. Money only flows in one direction, from the employer to the employee.”

The club’s owner, Susan Kladek, said she hadn’t seen the lawsuit and would have to talk to her attorney before commenting on it.

“We have nothing to hide,” she said.

Susan Kladek is the wife of the club’s founder, Larry

Kladek. He gave up ownership in December, the same month he pleaded guilty to a single count of income tax evasion.
In September, a federal grand jury indicted Kladek on nine criminal counts that alleged he cheated the government out of nearly $913,000 by filing false individual and corporate tax returns between 2000 and 2003. He reached a deal with the U.S. attorney’s office, pleading guilty to a single count of income tax evasion. The other counts were dropped.

His sentencing will be July 8.

The women bringing the civil suit seek to make it a class action because they believe more than 100 former or current employees of the King of Diamonds could have been subjected to the same conditions. Drake said she hasn’t figured out how much the women are owed but says the sum “is substantial.”

The claims in the civil lawsuit involve Jessica Van Vliet, of St. Paul, who worked at the club as an entertainer from June 2006 to November 2007, and Rebecca Carlin, of Falcon Heights, another entertainer who worked there from May 2005 to April 2007.

Drake claimed the adult entertainment industry “is notorious” for classifying employees as independent contractors and not paying them wages. A check of two Minneapolis strip clubs — Déjà Vu and Sheik’s Palace Royale — found different approaches to paying performers.

“Most of the places don’t” pay, said a man who answered the phone at Déjà Vu and declined to give his name.

But Gary Scellin, area director of Sheik’s, said all the club’s workers “are paid employees.”

“They all have the opportunity to get tips, but they all make a salary. They get paid an hourly wage,” Scellin said. “As far as the industry goes, it varies from club to club. A lot of clubs have their entertainers contracted as independent contractors, not employees.”

But Drake said the U.S. Department of Labor considers entertainers at strip clubs to be employees. She said the clubs often take advantage of women, believing the workers won’t report workplace violations.

“The club took advantage of the fact that many women in this industry may be reluctant to raise a wage-and-hour claim in the courts because of concerns about coming forward about the kind of profession in which they engage,” Drake said.

“It’s perfectly legal, perfectly respectable, and these people are just as entitled to protection of wage-and-hour laws as anyone else,” she said. “They’re just as protected as pizza delivery drivers, people who work at Starbucks or people who work at Wal-Mart.”

The suit claims Van Vliet and Carlin were hired as entertainers and weren’t required to have specialized training or background.

“Defendants have, however: established specific work schedules for entertainers, required entertainers to dance at specified times and in a specified manner on stage, regulated entertainers’ attire and interactions with customers, and financed all advertising efforts undertaken on behalf of the King of Diamonds,” the suit says.

It also said that while the women got tips “in exchange for performing lap dances and/or for spending time with customers,” they were re-quired to share the tips with bartenders and disc jockeys.

The suit also includes wage-and-hour claims by two other women, one of whom still works at the King of Diamonds. Corbin Dantzscher, of South St. Paul, still works at the club as a “floor host,” while Brittina Hedman, also of South St. Paul, worked there from April 2008 until March.

Dantzscher and Hedman claim they didn’t get paid for all the hours they worked. Also, the suit contends that while they received tips, they were required to share them “with other employees who did not directly serve the customers who gave the non-entertainers those gratuities.”

“As a result of Defendants’ failure to pay employees for all hours worked, Defendants’ practices caused employees’ pay to fall below the minimum wage,” the suit contends.

David Hanners can be reached at 612-338-6516.

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Burlesque star Christina Aguilera

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

Burlesque star Christina Aguilera
Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Christina Aguilera will play a stripper in a new musical.

The ‘Candyman’ singer has signed on to make her film debut in ‘Burlesque’, a film about a shy American girl whose life changes when she takes a job at a Los Angeles strip club.

Clint Culpepper – from Screen Gems, the studio making the film – said: “I couldn’t be more excited, as this was a project written with her in mind.”

This is the first time Christina, 28, has appeared in a film, though she voiced a character in the 2004 animation ‘Shark Tale’.

‘Burlesque’ – which is reportedly based on Bob Fosse’s iconic musical ‘Cabaret’ – was written by Pussycat Dolls producer Steven Antin, who will also direct the project.

It will be produced by Donald De Line, who previously worked on ‘I Love You, Man’.

Filming will start in September and the movie is due for release late next year.

This is not the first time Screen Gems has worked with a chart-topping diva. Beyonce Knowles stars in new thriller ‘Obsessed’.

(C) BANG Media International

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