7-2-2004
Girls, step aside: It's 'Guys Gone Wild'

Dropping trou makes for 'gag gift,' says spokesman

"It was about something different for a different audience," says "Guys Gone Wild" company spokesman Bill Horn.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Harvey Keitel has done it. Ewan McGregor has done it at least four times. Now all red-blooded American males can drop trou for the cameras.

Introducing "Guys Gone Wild," an all-male version of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series, which promises "the hottest, wildest, most beautiful real co-eds," stripping for the cameras during spring break and doing things they'd never do back home.

" 'Girls Gone Wild' has been around about seven years, and every person who's been involved with it on many different levels has been asked once or multiple times, what about a 'Guys Gone Wild'?" said Bill Horn, spokesman for Mantra Entertainment, which produces the videos.

"It was about seeing something different for a different audience," Horn said Thursday. "We took the mirror image of what we had been doing with 'Girls Gone Wild."'

Starting July 13, three titles will be available on DVD and video through a Web site and an 800 number: "Guys Gone Wild," "Guys Gone Wild: Spring Break" and "Guys Gone Wild: Frat Boys."

The stars are young, good-looking guys who aren't shy about taking it all off and letting it all hang out. They gyrate like strippers, do push-ups and, in one memorable scene, bounce up and down on their hotel room beds while tossing a football back and forth.

Hike! Yikes!

So who exactly would shell out $19.99 to see this?

"Based on the reactions I've gotten, college-age girls, maybe older," Horn said. "I think it's going to be a big gag gift, bachelorette kind of gift."

(A recent screening for a group of friends -- male and female -- elicited squeals of appalled laughter, followed by embarrassed fascination, followed quickly by boredom and shutting off the VCR.)

But Horn also expects the videos will to appeal to gay men. "There's a certain amount of gay women who purchase 'Girls Gone Wild,' " he said.

'We were there to capture the reality'

The big difference between the male and female versions, though, is the absence of kissing. Much of the allure of the "Girls Gone Wild" series, with titles such as "Girls Who Like Girls" and "Mardi Gras Co-eds," is the fantasy it dangles before its viewers -- the possibility that the wholesome girl next door could, on a drunken spring break whim, tear off her T-shirt and make out with one of her sorority sisters.

"Let's face it -- there's a double standard when it comes to guy-on-guy as opposed to girl-on-girl," Horn said. "It's sexy to see two girls making out. It's not considered sexy to see two guys making out. That's just the reality and we were there to capture the reality."

Misty Nicole, a member of the "Guys Gone Wild" crew, wrangles guys for the series.

Misty Nicole, a 24-year-old aspiring actress, did just that as a member of the all-female "Guys Gone Wild" production crew. At sunny destinations including Cancun, Mexico, and South Padre Island, Texas, Nicole scoured the parties and sweet-talked the guys into appearing in front of her video camera.

"I look for cute guys," she said Thursday. "I go up to them and I go, 'Hey, you're cute. How crazy and wild are you?' They'd be like, 'I'm pretty wild.' Then their friends would come over and they'd see the camera, they'd see the shirt and they'd go, 'Oh, my God, you're with 'Girls Gone Wild!' "

From there, getting them to take off their shirts and yell "Guys Gone Wild" is pretty easy, she said -- but about half the time, it requires a little coaxing to get them to go further.

"Some of them, they just need reassurance," she said. "They just gotta talk to you a minute."

'Sometimes they get out of control'
Another occupational hazard: being hit on constantly.

"Sometimes they get out of control," Nicole said. "Sometimes they try to get my camera and pull me into the shot. I have to deal with about five or 10 minutes of, 'What are you going to do for me? I'll show you mine if you show me yours."'

A bodyguard always came along to protect the female crew, she said.

When a male production team went to a vacation spot to shoot footage for "Girls Gone Wild," a second female crew would go along to grab video of guys, Horn said.

"If there's going to be a good party there for 'Girls Gone Wild,' odds are it's going to be a good party for 'Guys Gone Wild,' as well," he said.

But sometimes, Nicole found, there's a hangover of regret once the party's over.

"There are a few people who come up to me the next day or later that night and say, 'You know what? I'd really prefer that you not use that. My dad is the governor of blah-blah-blah.' Or 'I'm planning on going into politics.' Or 'I'm going into the army,' " she said. "I lost some really good footage, but I can't do that to them."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

               Email: moun@moun.com