Celebuptopia got some pics of Mary Carey drunk off her ass coming out of a Hollywood niteclub with manager/boyfriend David Weintraub. Hollywood, Florida should be happy to know the Carey circus is coming into its town.
HOLLYWOOD, Florida - Swingers and Hollywood have not exactly been loving bedfellows.
Yet starting today, the city that once declared war on a downtown swingers club and tried to ban 2 Live Crew's smutty rapping is playing host to Swingfest 2008, billed as the "world's largest swingers party" and adult trade show.
The four-day-and-three-wild-nights event takes over the entire Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa, rife with themed parties, hundreds of exhibitors, a shuttle service to a nude beach and the Fore Play golf tournament.
Porn stars, including former California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey, will be in town, mingling with the expected 10,000 or so convention delegates.
"Everyone has been talking about Hollywood and looking to meet there," said convention spokesman Greg Freeman.
While there have been other large-scale swingers conventions over the years, Swingfest is considered the first of its kind on the East Coast.
Freeman said organizers chose Hollywood because it's tucked between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. Miami-Dade's nudist play land, Haulover Beach, is only a short shuttle bus-ride away, he said.
When not partying, conventiongoers will attend seminars such as "Pole Dancing," "Swingers and Nudists Can Co-Exist" and the all-important "Legal Issues Affecting Swingers Clubs."
Hollywood is the perfect backdrop for that last tutorial.
Freeman said he wasn't aware of Hollywood's rocky relationship with swingers and the legal showdowns over risque issues that took place in 1990 and 2001.
In 1990, city officials backed then-Broward Sheriff Nick Navarro when he arrested members of the 2 Live Crew rap group during a performance at a Hollywood club. Navarro won an obscenity ruling in federal court but the decision was overturned on appeal. The band became a national symbol in the debate over censorship and free speech, with Hollywood portrayed as chief moral crusader.
In 2001, city officials and downtown-area residents were in an uproar over a downtown swingers hot spot that operated quietly under the names Hollywood Catering and Xchange. After neighbors complained city officials rushed to adopt ordinances that essentially shut down the club despite lawsuit threats by the club's owner.
Oasis Church is now at Federal Highway and Plunkett Street, where the club used to be.
Today, while city officials are not planning to hand out keys to the city at the Diplomat, neither will they refuse the $1.5 million organizers say the convention is bringing into the local economy.
"We're aware of it, but as far as we're concerned, it's an event taking place inside private property," said Hollywood Police Department spokesman Lt. Manny Marino.
Some city officials sounded surprised the convention was coming to town. "I didn't even hear about it," said Mayor Peter Bober.
Bober said he was not ready to proclaim his city a swingers hotbed, even though the city now has "couples friendly" Harrisons Wine Bar downtown and a "lifestyle" hotel, Rooftop Resort,on the beach.
"Hollywood needs something to spice up this town, and we're here to provide it," said Harrisons owner Richard Duncan.
Duncan said the city has been mostly cooperative since he opened six years ago. He said his bar has been attracting many visitors to a slow downtown in desperate need of a libido pill.
"We're talking about upscale couples who spend a lot of money at the restaurants and the bars and then they go to their hotel rooms and do what adults are free to do," said Duncan.
This week he purchased the now-infamous "Brothel Bus" that made headlines last month when undercover Miami Beach police officers discovered it was cruising South Beach with an open bar and female passengers providing lap dances and other sexual favors.
Duncan plans to shuttle the swinging conventioneers between his bar and the Diplomat.
