Nude Billboard Removed A justice of the State Supreme Court in Manhattan issued a temporary restraining order banning an advertisement featuring naked buttocks on a Times Square office tower, reports the New York Times. The complaint came from the Times Square Church, a tenant of the building on which the advertisement appeared, who filed a lawsuit to remove the ad citing it was "too indecent for public display." The advertisement is for the Washlet, a bidet from a maker of plumbing products. Creators of the ad campaign said it would probably be deemed too graphic for luxury print magazines, but is appropriate for billboards and Web advertising. Read more at Times Square Ad. 
Calendar Girls Spark Media Frenzy A group of women in their 70s and 80s who posed nude for a 2008 charity calendar were pursued by major media venues before the calendar was even printed, according to the Pittsburg Post-Gazette. The "Vixens of the Valley" planned to sell 500 calendars to raise $5,000 for the Monongahela Historical Society, but requests are coming in from all over the country after appearances on "Good Morning America" and "Inside Edition" among others. When word leaked out, over 2,000 more calendars were printed, and it is even being sold on eBay. The women made their first public appearance in the yearly Monongahela Fireman's Parade riding in three convertibles loaned by a local Ford dealer. Asked why the calendar is creating such media buzz, an 84-year-old retired college professor who appears in the calendar says, "Maybe it's the lightness of it, that it's not negative." Read more at Calendar Girls. Online Calendar Features Daily Nude Artwork Barebrush.com, a Web site that celebrates the art of the nude, has just posted its August 2007 calendar that features a nude artwork for each day of the month. Artists from across the United States and throughout the world entered 367 artworks in the n*des-of-the-month series. Click on the small images to see a larger version as well as details about the artwork, artist and contact information or shop for calendar merchandise. A free printer-friendly version and weekly planner are available. Find out more at Barebrush. Original Tweety Bird Censored It may be a little-known fact, but Tweety Bird, the lovable cartoon character created by animator Bob Clampett was supposed to be naked, according to "Mental Floss," subtitled "A timeline of TV censorship," on CNN.com. After seeing Clampett's original drawing without feathers, the Hays Office censorship bureau thought he was a little "too naked." Clampett covered Tweety's bare flesh with yellow feathers, but not without a dig at at the censors. In the first-ever episode of the cartoon, "A Tale of Two Kitties," a cat yells to another cat,"Give me the bird." The other cat responds,"If the Hays Office would only let me, I'd give him the bird, all right." The same edition of "Mental Floss" features an article titled "Nipples by the Numbers" that contains statistics about Janet Jackson's infamous "wardrobe malfunction" during the 2004 Super Bowl. According to the stats, Jackson's bare nipple appeared on-air for a scant 1.01 seconds but resulted in some hefty fines. The FCC fined CBS $550,000 and the cost to the NFL in sponsor refunds was $10 million. Read more at Censorship. |
