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| quote: | Mag says it has topless photos of Jessica Lynch
George Rush
New York Daily News
Nov. 11, 2003 06:50 AM
A skin magazine claimed Monday it has pictures of Iraqi POW Jessica Lynch frolicking topless with male soldiers before she went off to war.
A spokesman for the 20-year-old Army private - the subject of Sunday's TV movie on NBC that drew 14.9 million viewers - called the plan by Hustler magazine to publish the purported photos "unspeakable."
"Leave it to (Hustler publisher) Larry Flynt to do something like this," said Paul Bogaards of Alfred Knopf, publisher of "I Am A Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," which was released Tuesday.
"Jessica Lynch was left for dead and left as a prisoner of war," Bogaards told the New York Daily News. "If she can survive that, she can survive anything."
Bogaards said he had not asked Lynch about the magazine's claim of topless photos, but added: "It's unspeakable that someone would stoop to these levels. ... The press has been using Jessica Lynch to serve its own needs."
Lynch's new torment erupted the day before Veterans Day - and on the same night she made a dramatic appearance at a Manhattan awards event with fellow rescued POW Shoshana Johnson and pop star Britney Spears.
Lynch, walking in public for the first time since her rescue, used crutches to enter the American Museum of Natural History for Glamour magazine's 2003 salute to the "Women of the Year."
Flynt originally said he planned to run the photos in Hustler's February issue, which goes on sale the first week of January.
He claimed they show Lynch topless and cavorting with two men stationed with her at Fort Bliss, Tex., before she shipped off to Iraq last spring.
Flynt later said he changed his mind about using the photos because Lynch is a "good kid ... and a victim of the Bush administration." According to two people who have seen them, the person they identify as Lynch is wearing just jeans in one photo and a blue thong in another.
Flynt said the pictures - which he claimed to have gotten from two former soldiers who served with Lynch - would prove "she's not Joan of Arc."
"I'm not interested in bashing Jessica Lynch, who really was a victim in this," Flynt insisted. But he said the Lynch book and movie "should have been an honest portrayal of her role in the war. Everyone wanted a hero from this war."
Calls to Lynch's lawyer were not returned.
Flynt said Hustler consulted an outside "photo enhancement lab" to establish that the woman in the photos was Lynch. "You think I'm going to publish nude pics that aren't her?" asked Flynt, who is believed to have paid six figures for the shots. "I like owning my company."
Last year, Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione was hit with a costly lawsuit after he wrongly claimed to have topless pictures of tennis star Anna Kournikova.
Monday night, Lynch and Johnson both received awards at the Glamour magazine event.
Lynch walked up the red carpet on crutches with Johnson at her side. She wore a black gown embroidered with red roses, and sneakers - the only shoes she can wear because of a brace on her left leg.
A posthumous award was presented in the memory of Lori Piestewa, the first female U.S. soldier killed in Iraq. Lynch, Johnson and Piestewa were in the same unit.
"This Glamour Women of the Year event honors heroes," Lynch said. "To me, the real heroes are those who have given their lives for our nation, the soldiers who risked their lives to rescue me, the professionals who served in the military medical department - they perform miracles every day to save lives. To me, these are heroes." |
At least he's not publishing them:
| quote: | Flynt says he won't publish Lynch photos, calls her 'a good kid'
Associated Press
Nov. 11, 2003 11:00 AM
NEW YORK - Pornographer Larry Flynt claims he bought nude photos of Pfc. Jessica Lynch last month to publish in Hustler magazine, but changed his mind because she is a "good kid ... and a victim of the Bush administration."
The photos, which Flynt's publicist says show the undressed Army supply clerk posing with male soldiers, were sold to Flynt last month, according to a statement from Flynt that was read to The Associated Press on Tuesday by his publicist.
The publicist, who would not give her name, said Flynt "has no plans to use the photos."
"Jessica Lynch is a good kid, she's not a hypocrite or out to fool anyone," Flynt's statement said. "She's just a victim of the Bush administration, who is using her to justify the war in Iraq and force-feed us a Joan of Arc."
In an interview with the AP on Tuesday, Lynch declined to comment on any aspect of the matter, including whether such photos exist.
The interview was scheduled to publicize her biography, "I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story," which was released Tuesday. It covers the days between March 23, when her 507th Maintenance Company convoy was ambushed in Nasiriyah, Iraq, and April 1, when she was evacuated from a hospital by U.S. commandos.
After her rescue, the young soldier from Palestine, W.Va., was celebrated as a hero prisoner of war.
Published reports Tuesday said the photos showed Lynch topless, but Flynt's publicist claimed the former soldier is nude in the pictures.
"At this point Mr. Flynt has no comment as to the content of the photographs except to say Jessica Lynch is not wearing any clothes in them," she said.
Flynt's publicist would not say how much the publisher paid for the pictures, or who sold them.
Flynt has been in a wheelchair since an assassination attempt in 1978. His magazine won a landmark Supreme Court decision in 1988 that held that even pornographic spoofs enjoy First Amendment protection. |
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Last edited by DaveSZ on Nov-12-2003 at 07:10
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