“The Playboy Foundation’s new Freedom of Expression Award is designed to support the work of an exceptional person dedicated to protecting the First Amendment rights of all Americans,” said Christie Hefner, Chairman and CEO of Playboy Enterprises Inc. “This new award is a great addition to the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards, and will help to focus public attention on the continuing threats to our civil liberties.”

The $25,000 Freedom of Expression Award will help to support the work of an individual whose record of accomplishments indicates a promising future as an effective advocate for the First Amendment. Preference will be given to emerging leaders for whom the cash grant will make a significant difference in their ability to pursue the goal of protecting and promoting free speech in all its forms.

Christie Hefner created the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards in 1979 to honor individuals who have made significant contributions in the vital effort to protect and enhance First Amendment rights for Americans.

Over the last three decades, more than 125 valiant advocates for First Amendment freedoms — from lawyers and journalists to librarians, filmmakers and high school students — have been recognized with the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award. Historically, award winners have worked in journalism, education, book publishing, arts, entertainment, government and law.

In addition to creating the new Freedom of Expression Award this year, the Playboy Foundation is doubling the value of the cash award for the original Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Awards to $10,000. The Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award winners will be honored at a ceremony to be held at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

Some believe that it is unusual while other think it is over the top. The logo features mermaid topless and bare-chested with her tail fin split in half. As soon as the photos hit the controversy was on. A Christian group based in San Diego found grounds for outrage over the new retro-style logo for Starbucks Coffee, a report from the Associated Press notes.

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The Resistance says the new image “has a naked woman on it with her legs spread like a prostitute,” Mark Dice, founder of the group, said in a news release. “Need I say more? It’s extremely poor taste, and the company might as well call themselves Slutbucks.”

As noted earlier, an anonymous person looked up the old website of the Los Angeles based “Bella Models” escort agency via Archive.org in hopes of finding something on Massaro. As luck would have it, Massaro’s page was archived on the web archive site, and a link to the archived page was disclosed to some wrestling news sites. Apparently, there was a picture of Massaro on the page at one point, but it was deleted or simply wasn’t archived. Although, Massaro’s name was never erased. The page said that Massaro was based out of New York City. Of course, the WWE Diva is from Long Island, New York, which is nearby New York City. The page also listed her nightly booking fee at $25,000.

Regarding Massaro’s employment status with World Wrestling Entertainment, Gargiulo’s sources are saying that she is not expected to be terminated from the company, nor is she really in any trouble — at least with them. Rather, company officials have told Massaro to keep quiet about the situation in hopes that the story simply goes away without further investigation or media attention.

The story itself was written by Michelle Grigoriadis, who recently did a heavily praised story on Britney Spears for Rolling Stone, which was very well written and researched. Considering that Massaro hasn’t said more on the subject and nobody has retracted, it pretty much confirms that nobody has provided enough suitable evidence to Rolling Stone or TMZ.com (which heavily investigated the possibility of a mistaken identity) to show that this is simply a case of mistaken identity. Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com asked Grigoriadis to comment on the story and net theories. Grigoriadis told Johnson, “Obviously, I stand by my story.”

The Ministry stated, “Material covered will include necrophilia, bestiality, and violence that is life threatening or likely to result in serious injury.” Under the new law, criminal liability now extends from the producer, who was responsible under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act (OPA), to the consumer.

The law’s change was spearheaded by a person related to a British murder victim. Half a decade ago, Jane Longhurst 31, a teacher from Brighton, England was murdered. When investigators found the killer and studied the crime, it emerged the murderer was compulsively accessing extremely graphic adult-content oriented websites with such names as, “Club Dead,” and “Rape Action,” that specialized in selling images of women being abused and violated.

After the sentencing of Graham Coutts, 39, from Hove, Sussex, who received at least 26 years, Jane’s mother Liz, began working to get the laws changed. Liz’s mother is from Berkshire, and her demand for a change in the law was backed by Reading West MP Martin Salter, as she waged a three-year campaign to ban violent online images and movies.

The Ministry of Justice stated that the law was crucial to battle against easy Internet access and sale of such violent obscene images. The Ministry stated that such material “can be accessed in the UK from abroad via the internet.

Legislating in this area will ensure that the possession of such material is illegal both on and off line. This Government will always seek to close gaps in the law caused by misuse of new technologies, such as the internet, which allow existing controls to be avoided.” The legislation covers real photography and also images not photographed, such as moving images, and files or data able to be converted into pictures.

The new law has an element that makes it more nuanced in terms of focusing on peddlers of the worst and most degrading types of images. The text allows for grading the context of images, and gives the prosecutor and judge discretion in deciding whether an image which might seem to constitute extreme depictions in isolation may not be such in a broader context.

The Ministry of Justice claims that the new law is neither intended to target those who accidentally come into contact with obscene materials; nor target mainstream entertainment products that broadly are legal within current obscenity laws.

Ms Longhurst believes Libertarians have pegged her as “a horrible killjoy,” and these same critics fear non-criminal images consumers who use violent pictures images as part of consensual relationships could easily get swept up in raids. Liz Longhurst disagrees, saying “Sometimes the freedoms of like-minded, decent people have to be curtailed because of a few others. I know some would argue women choose to do this. But I believe a lot of women who have been trafficked are forced to be on these sites.”

But Ms Longhurst believes if the violent porn sites had not been available for Coutts, her daughter might still be living. She said, “It made it seem all right. I think he knew from quite a young age that it wasn’t really all right. But I think he thought: ‘Well, there are all these sites, I’m not the only one and it must be all right really’ and so he just went with the flow.”

MP Salter agreed that the campaign was no “moral crusade” but instead was targeting the “violent end of the market - material that was already illegal but with the advent of the internet was unregulated”.

Salter continued, “This is the combination of a three-year campaign waged by Liz Longhurst and myself, which garnered the support of church groups, women’s organizations, 189 MPs, and generated 50,000 signatures on a national petition.”

Fresh off her Miami Ink appearance, exotic beauty Gianna Lynn launches into a wild weekend of rocking the stage at The Northern in North Dakota. Gianna continues her conquest of gentlemen’s clubs, adding another venue to the list of places she’s hit on her 2008 tour. Lynn is on stage tonight through Saturday May 17th, sexily strip teasing and stealing the hearts of all that venture out to the gig.

“I love going on stage, it’s really exhilarating!” notes Lynn. “With the music pumping and heavy energy in the air, it’s an intense feeling. It comes across to the audience, they feel it, I feel it. It’s a heavy connection. When you see Gianna Lynn dance, my goal is to have you leave with the feeling that you have just been through an amazing experience!”

Gianna will also be appearing after every show to sign autographs, pose for pictures and make available her latest hit DVDs. Gianna’s show info is as follows: