According to the LA Daily News, on Thursday, January 08, 2009 Larry Flynt and Joe Francis are asking Washington for a $5 billion federal bailout. They are claiming that the porn business is suffering from the soft economy.

According to Joe Francis this is not a joke or publicity stunt.

“The government’s handing out money to the auto industry,” Francis, producer of the “Girls Gone Wild” video series, said on the phone from his Santa Monica office. “Why shouldn’t it hand some to an industry the nation could not live without?”

 Estimated revenue from San Fernando Valley based adult content companies in 2007 was estimated at $1 billion.

 According to the LA Daily News, one adult-film actress Jenna Presley has stated that her web site has seen over a 20 percent decline in customers. With this drop in business she has been forced to cut overhead. Despite the drop in business, Presley said that she considers the bailout bid by Hustler Chief Larry Flynt and Francis to be “a little crazy”. She believes that companies need to cut unnecessary expenses. She explained that similar to the auto industry, the porn industry is to blame, they have failed to change with the times.