WWW- A pro-family organization has started a campaign to make sure pornographic videos don’t infect hundreds of Hollywood Video stores after the company’s merger with Movie Gallery.
The American Family Association predicts Movie Gallery’s porn rooms will soon be added to small-town Hollywood Video outlets. A merger agreement between Movie Gallery and Hollywood Entertainment Corporation was announced last week.
After the $1.2 billion buy-out deal, the combined company will be the second-largest North American video rental company with approximately 4,500 stores located in all 50 U.S. states, Canada and Mexico.
“We have reason to believe that [Movie Gallery] chairman Joe Malugen plans to add his infamous ‘Mature Gallery’ in hundreds of Hollywood stores,” Randy Sharp, director of special projects for AFA, said in a statement. “A corporate headquarters employee tells us attorneys have OK’d plans to add XXX rooms to 800 of the acquired stores.”
Sharp cites six cities in Mississippi where Movie Gallery closed down XXX rooms after receiving letters from prosecutors stating they were in violation of the state obscenity statute.
“Until Malugen has been warned he may face criminal charges, his company has disregarded the law altogether,” Sharp said.
Sharp says he hopes Hollywood stockholders will take note of what Movie Gallery does with the company once it takes over.
“American families will not allow this kind of toxic perversion and its resulting atrocities to invade their small towns, and Joe Malugen, the rising king of porn, should take note of appointed Attorney General Albert Gonzales’ pledge to focus on obscenity enforcement,” Sharp said.
According to CBS MarketWatch, Blockbuster still holds out hope that it will be able to acquire Hollywood Entertainment despite Movie Gallery having outbid the company.