A couple of girls gone wild have opted to settle with Snoop Dogg.
Louisiana natives Jaime Capdeboscq and Whitni Candiotto filed suit against Snoop (real name: Calvin Broadus) last year after a picture of them flanking the rapper and flashing their breasts appeared on the video and DVD covers of Girls Gone Wild: Doggy Style. GGW founder Joseph Francis was also named in the suit.
Capdeboscq, who was 17 at the time the pictures was taken, and Candiotto, who was 18, said Francis promised them the shot would not be used in connection with the Girls Gone Wild series.
In addition, they accused the Doggfather, who hosted said edition of GGW, of offering them Ecstasy and marijuana in exchange for revealing their goodies.
Snoop responded to the accusations by filing court papers claiming that the girls “voluntarily consumed alcohol and other intoxicants” during the photo shoot, and that they flashed their breast of their own free will.
The picture in question was snapped at a 2002 party for Snoop at a New Orleans hotel. Both the rapper and Francis contended that a sign posted in the filming area proclaimed, “By entering, you consent to the use of such film and your image in a commercial film product.”
But Capdeboscq and Candiotto were still more than a little surprised to discover themselves gracing the DVD and video covers in all their glory. (So, we imagine, were their parents.)
Terms of the settlement reached between the two parties were not disclosed. The agreement was approved July 21 by U.S. Magistrate Sally Shushan and signed off on by U.S. District Judge Robert McNamara.
Snoop Dogg distanced himself from Francis and the Girls Gone Wild franchise more than a year ago, claiming that he was turned off by the omission of women of color in the videos.
He was seen on the big screen earlier this year in Starsky & Hutch with Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller and in the box-office clunker Soul Plane with Tom Arnold. He also hosts the MTV comedy show Doggy Fizzle Televizzle.
In May, he filed for divorce from his wife of seven years, Shante Broadus.
Meanwhile, Francis and his production company, Mantra Films Inc., which churns out the Girls Gone Wild series, face mounting legal issues.
Last year, Mantra Films agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a claim by the Federal Trade Commission that the company shipped unwanted skin flicks to unwitting recipients, and then charged them for the videos.
As part of the settlement, the company will refund more than $548,000 to about 84,000 people who returned the videos, but got burned on the shipping costs. The FTC claims the average refund will fall somewhere in the area of $5.
That’s not Francis’ only legal woe. After a filming session in Panama Beach during Spring Break 2003, he was hit with 43 charges including racketeering and encouraging minors to indulge in X-rated behaviors. No trial date has been set in the case.