Double Take
When an aging celebrity gets caught masturbating in public, Tomorrow writers are there to investigate. Twice.
Cord and Amanda went down to Ye Ole 24-Hour Porn Theatre (They still exist. This is Hollywood, baby.) the Tiki where actor Fred Willard was arrested for bein’ nasty last week. Then they wrote about it for Gawker and Slate, respectively.
According to Cord, the prospect of getting caught may be part of the thrill:
One of the more interesting things about the Tiki is that, unlike most other sin bins in the world, it has no rear entrance that might allow customers to enter and exit with some modicum of modesty. To get in, one must go through the front, which sits on one of the busiest roads in one of the largest cities in North America. If you are a person who is even a minor celebrity in L.A., there are literally dozens of more private places you can go to look at pornography (and that‘s not even including in your own home with your own computer). I didn’t want to speculate about Willard’s motivations before I’d even set foot in the theater, but it seems that if you’re at the Tiki, chances are you either want to get caught, or that the thought of getting caught is part of excitement.
But Amanda saw the porn theater experience as more of an escapist pursuit:
[A]t the Tiki, you leave your life behind, turn off your brain, and watch whatever the screen offers in the four-hour window your $13 buys you. These men weren’t there to engage with other members of the voyeur community, or to revel in the theater’s specialized environment. They were there to shut out the rest of the world. They don’t go because the theater’s context appeals to them—they go because it allows them to watch porn with even less human context.
In my opinion, Willard’s “lewd act” is just another reason why old people need better internet training (the first being so they can donate to your Kickstarter).
Today, do an elderly person in your life a favor and send him a link to the sexiest video you can find. Just make sure it’s not in the same email as the one asking for money for your new magazine.
But that’s another story…
