The lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages. In legal documents, Dupré alleges that Girls Gone Wild representatives approached her while she was vacationing in Florida in 2003, offered her alcohol and cajoled her into exposing her breasts for their cameras when she was just 17 (and not of proper legal age to sign a release form allowing her to be filmed).

Since then, the suit claims, Girls Gone Wild has illegally exploited Dupré’s name, picture, voice and likeness in a number of deceptive ad campaigns and on Web sites.

Francis said he was “surprised and in fact amazed” by the lawsuit, noting he has not released new video of Dupré “due to corporate policy of not using footage of individuals younger than 18″ and asserting she gave her consent on video, providing identification.

“She’s seeking $10 million for topless photos taken in front of a room full of people, including two newspapers and multiple crews we had in the room,” adds Francis. “These images were taken in public places and contain no sexual contact. We expect to triumph in this matter.”

Last month, Francis was released from a jail in Nevada, where he continues to face federal tax evasion charges. He is currently fighting separate charges in Florida for allegedly filming underage girls in Panama City. Francis claims that the girls in question lied about their age.

The film shows a naked man who resembles Hendrix, the guitar legend who died in 1970, wearing a bandanna in his Afro, having sex with two brunettes in a dimly lighted bedroom. His full face appears on screen for only a few seconds, with his eyes closed. In other portions there are flashes of his profile. But his hands, bedecked with rings, roam large on the screen at times. The film has no audio.

Vivid, a large maker of pornographic movies that is releasing the film this week, has created a 45-minute DVD, called “Jimi Hendrix the Sex Tape,” that combines 11 minutes of sex footage with a retrospective of Hendrix’s career in the 1960s (but with none of his music included). The company, which has also released tapes of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, Kim Kardashian and others, will sell it for $39.95 in stores and over the Internet, and will also offer the film for downloading.

But the identity of the man in the film, which has circulated among Hendrix aficionados for years, is fiercely disputed by experts and former associates. And the DVD arrives on the heels of a string of hoaxes involving star look-alikes and one other dead superstar. Internet news reports recently cast doubt on the claims of a New York collectibles dealer who said he brokered the sale of an explicit Marilyn Monroe film.

The marketing of the intimate moments of dead stars adds a strange new dimension to the surge of voyeuristic entertainment that has swept Hollywood, where sex tapes can be considered a means to stoke or revive careers. It indicates how far people will go — and how far legends may fall — as audiences clamor for unvarnished details of celebrity life.

Vivid Entertainment said that after an extensive inquiry led by private detective agencies, it stands by the Hendrix film as the real thing. “I believe that we did our due diligence, and as a result of that clearly believe that it’s him,” said Steven Hirsch, Vivid’s co-chairman. “If they said that it wasn’t him, I would never have put it out.”

Mr. Hirsch said he became convinced that the tape was authentic after tracking down the man who shot it with an eight-millimeter camera; they reached a monetary agreement “for his approval for us to distribute this.” But Mr. Hirsch and his lawyers declined to say how the man was located or to put a reporter in touch with him, saying they were bound by a confidentiality agreement signed at the man’s insistence. No one was able to identify the women in the film, Mr. Hirsch added.

According to the sex-film distributor Howie Klein, who sold the tape to Vivid, the film surfaced when a collector discovered a tin labeled “Black Man” in a box of rock memorabilia bought at an unidentified auction in London. Upon recognizing Hendrix, Mr. Klein said, the collector decided to sell the tape. It was offered on eBay, apparently unsuccessfully, more than a year ago, although it is not clear if the same collector was involved.

The collector approached Mr. Klein in July but insisted that his identity not be disclosed, Mr. Klein said. He declined to say how much he paid for the tape but indicated it was less than $50,000. Mr. Klein sold the tape to Vivid, he said, because the company had the resources to handle it better than he could.

The DVD includes commentary from two women who met Hendrix and say they believe the tape is real: Pamela Des Barres, the author of “I’m With the Band: Confessions of a Groupie” (1987), and Cynthia Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster. Ms. Albritton is known for doing plaster casts of the genitals of rock stars, including Hendrix in 1968. (Mr. Hirsch said both women were paid for their contributions to the video but declined to be more specific.)

“I’m 100 percent sure it’s him,” Ms. Albritton, 61, said in an interview from her home in Chicago. “The facial bone structure is the same. The eyebrows and the mustache are true to the style he was wearing in 1970.”

But Kathy Etchingham, 60, one of Hendrix’s steady girlfriends during the ’60s, said via e-mail after viewing still photos from the film at the request of a reporter: “It is not him. His face is too broad and nose and nostrils too wide for Jimi. Also the hair is too low on the forehead.”

“He would never have allowed anyone to see that,” she said in a telephone interview. “In private he was very shy and would cover up.”

The film has also been dismissed by Hendrix collectors and historians. One expert said that the rings the man in the film is wearing do not resemble any he had seen in years of studying pictures and film of Hendrix. Charles R. Cross, author of the Hendrix biography “Room Full of Mirrors” (Hyperion, 2005), encountered the film during his book research. “It doesn’t add up to Jimi,” he said.

As a fan, he said, he felt the film was “horrible to watch,” as he thinks the man appears to be on drugs or heavily intoxicated. “I don’t want that to be what I think about when I think about Jimi Hendrix,” he said.

A spokesman for the Hendrix estate declined to comment.

Mr. Hirsch said he did not worry about a backlash from ardent fans of Hendrix, who died of drug-related causes at 27.

He said there was “a very, very small percentage who worship him in such a way that they just want to visualize and remember him onstage.” But, he added, “There are many, many more casual Jimi Hendrix fans who certainly will be curious to see the other side.”

Authorities announced Moorestown Officer Robert Melia Jr., 38, has been charged with four counts of animal cruelty after allegedly engaging in sex acts with cows between June and December of 2006.

Melia and his former girlfriend, Heather Lewis were previously charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault and one count of criminal sexual contact with three girls in his Pemberton home from 2003 until 2006.

The lively five-night-a-week, one hour program airs on Fox News Chanel at 3 a.m. ET. “Red Eye” takes an irreverent approach to covering the news, entertainment, sports, politics and gossip. Gutfeld, a former Maxim UK magazine editor and raconteur, hosts a round table of panelists and guests linked by satellite.

“Savanna has been on our show several times and she’s always been a hit with the viewing audience as well as our panelists,” said Mr. Gutfeld, who launched the show in February 2007. “We’re all delighted that she will be joining us to offer her humorous and insightful commentary on the current political scene.”

In addition to being recognized internationally as a Vivid Girl, one of the top actresses in adult film, the multi-award winning Ms. Samson received accolades as a wine entrepreneur with her firm Savanna Samson Wines. When she introduced her first wine “Sogno Uno” famous wine critic Robert M. Parker gave it a rating of 91 and subsequent wines have been highly praised by sommeliers and consumers.

“I’ve enjoyed my past appearances on “Red Eye” and was delighted to be invited to be a political correspondent. Sex and politics has always been a volatile combination and the more of both the merrier as far as I’m concerned,” noted Ms. Samson.

All it took was a rock and a little patience for the thief to make off with a rubberized copy of Jameson, one of the world’s most famous porn actresses, who has carved out an empire in the world of erotica films and products.

Video surveillance tape shot from inside The Erogenous Zone at 2449 E. Orangethorpe Ave. about 4 a.m. April 15 shows a man throwing a rock at the store’s glass front door.

When the rock bounces off without breaking the glass, the burglar throws the rock again. Apparently frustrated, he walks over to the display window and throws the rock. This time the glass shatters, and he walks in.

But the burglar’s luck doesn’t get any better. Video shows him try to break into the store’s cash register, but it wouldn’t open for him.

Instead of giving up altogether, he looks around, and makes his selection – a Jenna Jameson body double made of Ultra Realistic skin – and walks out of the store.

So what’s his new turn-on? Attacking hypocrisy - “the biggest danger” to American democracy - by exposing politicians such as former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his $4,000-an-hour prostitute, and Idaho Sen. Larry Craig and his men’s room peccadilloes.

While he’s at it, Flynt would like to run Cardinal Roger Mahony out of town after first tarring and feathering him over his role in the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal.

In an interview with the Daily News at his Beverly Hills office, the veteran porn peddler also has some harsh words for child pornographers.

But does he have a problem with middle-school girls wearing the “Porn Star” T-shirts sold in his stores? Not really.

Question: How have attitudes toward sex changed since the 1960s and ’70s?

Answer: The big change since the sexual revolution is women have taken their rightful place at the table. The guys are the same old wooden heads they’ve always been. But women are much more demanding about what they feel they are entitled to in a sexual relationship.

Women are not the shallow girls that grew up being a Girl Scout, selling Girl Scout cookies. Now, they’re making decisive decisions about what kind of sexual partners they want and what they want out of sex as a relationship.

Q Does the porn that you broke ground in three decades ago still give you the same thrill?

A: Nothing is more boring than pornography. I sell it. I treat it like any other product, like a jar of peanut butter. I am not obsessed with looking at the next nude photograph.

Q How much have you spent on your offers to pay a million dollars for verifiable stories proving members of Congress hired prostitutes or did other salacious things?

A: Well, over the years we’ve been doing it, we probably paid $3 million or $4 million. You’ve got to understand that there is more than one source involved, and they all don’t get a million dollars.

Q: Did Sen. Larry Craig’s arrest on charges of soliciting sex from a male undercover cop in an airport bathroom surprise you?

A: Not at all. We had a team of investigators following him up to two weeks before that happened. We were acutely aware that (Craig was one of) two gay congressmen. (He) was speaking out against every gay initiative there was, a real family-values guy. Thought being gay was not a part of that. He voted against all the gay-rights legislation. And then he gets caught in the restroom of an airport.

Q The Democrats aren’t angels, but the Monica Lewinsky affair looks like Sesame Street compared with what Craig, Sen. David Vitter, Rep. Mark Foley and other Republicans are alleged to have done. Are Republicans just kinkier?

A: Republicans say their prayers before supper and before they go to bed, and they’re advised that God will punish them if they don’t behave. So they keep all that pent-up sexual frustration inside them, and they are never able to let it go.

They’ve got all that baggage that’s attached with a ton of guilt, and they can’t get rid of it. They accuse me of being biased and always outing the Republicans and not the Democrats. But it has nothing to do with it. The Republicans are more fun, you know. …

If someone takes a position contrary to the way they live their private life. If they give you the old family values thing and they have three mistresses, then to me they’re a hypocrite. And I think the biggest danger that faces democracy is hypocrisy.

Q People could call you the hypocrite. You are busting them for things your publication endorses.

A: Hey, we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about them. I am not ashamed of what I do. For 30 years I have fought for my right to free expression in most of the courts in this land. Occasionally, when they want to sample the forbidden fruit, it’s OK. But it is not OK for Larry Flynt to publish what he publishes?

Q What would happen if you limited your $1 million offer to politicians in the Los Angeles area? Do you think we would be surprised by who might turn up on the list?

A: No. But economically, it wouldn’t make sense because if you bust a few small fries in this community it is not really going to effect change that much. Change comes out of Washington.

Q What about the Catholic Church? Why not go after them, extending the offer to catch some rogue priests and clergy?

A: We are always after them.

Q Did Mahony do enough to rid the Los Angeles Archdiocese of child predators?

A: I think he ought to be tarred and feathered. Send him to the pope, to Rome. Get him out of L.A. The stench is bad with him here.

Q The Internet has wiped out some of your competitors. How has your business held up in the digital age?

A: It’s not a problem. Our video division is profitable. Our publishing division is profitable. Our apparel division is profitable. Our broadcasting division is profitable, and our casinos … I’ve got a $20 million-a-year cash cow in them.

Q You ventured into casinos, and you have gone into politics, running for governor. Are you trying to create a legacy away from porn?

A: No, not particularly. We think the future expansion is going to be in the casino area.

Q Do you think there are pornographers out there now who have gone too far? Such as extreme porn, where there are simulated scenes of women getting hurt?

A: What some of the producers of porn are doing is they are giving the entire industry a bad reputation. … When you start messing around with kids, when you start doing extreme bondage cases, when you have rape scenes and things like that, to me they’re totally bad. I’d like to see them come down hard on some of the guys, especially the guys who are exploiting children.

Q Are you OK with 12-year-old girls walking around with T-shirts that say “Porn Star”?

A: We sell those shirts. Girls like them.

Q Even 12-year-old girls?

A: I don’t know. In my stores, a 12-year-old wouldn’t be allowed to buy one. If her older sister or mother buys one for her, there’s not much I can do about that.

Q Are you going to become more politically involved, maybe in the 2008 presidential election?

A: I am the kiss of death for politicians. I give quietly, and I don’t make any fanfare out of it.

Q Did Woody Harrelson do justice when he portrayed you in “The People vs. Larry Flynt”?

A: Woody played me better than I play myself.

Q What’s the single most important thing that Larry Flynt has done?

A: The single most important thing I did in my life was winning the Supreme Court case against Jerry Falwell by a unanimous decision, making parody protected speech. That case has been taught in every single law school in America as the single most important case since the Sullivan vs. New York Times case in 1964.