from www.latimes.com – An Australian media executive arrested in connection with the hit-and run death of a woman on the Sunset Strip operates a company that runs the Australian version of “Girls Gone Wild.”

Ryan Bowman was arrested on a charge of manslaughter in connection with the death of a 21-year-old woman who was struck and killed by a Bentley while crossing Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department officials said. Bowman, 34, surrendered Thursday afternoon at the sheriff’s West Hollywood station.

Bowman is suspected of being behind the wheel of the Bentley that slammed into Lauren Ann Freeman as she was in the crosswalk at Hammond Street about 11:50 p.m. Wednesday. Freeman’s body was thrown about 50 feet after the collision, officials said.

Sheriff’s investigators said Bowman fled in the car, and that debris found at the scene suggested that the vehicle could have been a dark-colored Bentley. They later found such a vehicle abandoned in a residential neighborhood near the intersection of Melrose Avenue and La Cienega Boulevard, about 1 1/2 miles from the incident.

Bowman is a director of Sydney-based Zeal Entertainment, which owns the rights to “Girls Gone Wild” for Australia and worldwide rights for the “Girls Gone Wild” mobile application outside the United States. The company has offices near the scene of the fatal hit and run.

He made headlines in Australia in 2007 when he proposed a “booze cruise” for high school graduates, a plan that resulted in public rebukes by government officials. Bowman was quoted as saying he plans to set up a cruise off Australia’s Gold Coast for those graduating high school, serving alcohol to promote the “Girls Gone Wild” Australia product.

Bowman told an Australian publication he expected “dancing, singing, maybe a bit of nudity, who knows.”