This article in The Daily Beast is very highly skeptical about the Showtime “reality” TV series Gigolos set in Las Vegas.

They compare gigolos who work exclusively for women to Bigfoot. A creature of legend that does not really exist.

As The New York Times’ skeptical review noted: “It’s not unheard of for women to pay for sex, but if Internet ads are any indication, the market looks a whole lot stronger for gay male escorts. So a look at women-only gigolos in Las Vegas is a little like a cooking show devoted entirely to vegan steak recipes.”

And then there are those, including male porn star Christian XXX, who flat-out think gigolos are an urban myth. “Male escorts work for guys, and the ones who claim to only do women are lying,” he told me. “I know a lot of men who do escorting, and the money is only in guys.”

The Philadelphia Police found – by reading Craigs List ads -that a dedicated baseball fan, a woman, was offering to trade sex for tickets to the World Series. So officers met up with her and arrested her for soliciting prostitution.

We’re sure that Philadelphia is a much safer place now…. (not)

HBO has a new comedy called Hung, about a teacher with a gigantic schlong who becomes a straight male escort to make ends meet. It seems to be well worth a look.

There’s news that the Shady Lady, one of Nevada’s legal brothels, is looking to employ male prostitutes.

“There are a lot of career-minded women out there who are looking for romance but not necessarily a relationship,” Shady Lady owner Bobbi Davis told FOX.

Other venues across the state also have inquired about adding men to the menu. But brothel industry lobbyist George Flint discourages the practice because he believes it is socially unacceptable – and he doubts it will have any effect on the bottom line.

The British Home Secretary got into trouble for accidentally billing the taxpayers for the cost of two porno movies, which were watched by her home-alone husband. That would be quite sufficiently embarrassing all by itself…

Matters are not made better by the fact that Ms. Smith, who leads the British government department overseeing immigration, drugs policy, counter-terrorism and the police, recently announced plans to change the law on prostitution in Britain to punish men who pay for sex, in an attempt to cut down on demand. As The Guardian reported in November:

“Ms. Smith that in the past the government has concentrated on addressing the ‘supply side’ issues relating to prostitution. Now the government wanted to curtail the demand.

“‘At the end what we also need to recognise is that if there is no demand for sex with women, there will be less trafficking,’ she said.”

It is such a darned nuissance for the people who want to control other people’s lives when they get caught doing such a poor job of managing their own lives (or those near and dear to themselves) ain’t it?

(We do, however, hasten to add that to the extent that the concern here is for women who are unwilling participants in being “trafficked,” then we have all sorts of sympathy for them!) And no sympathy at all for hypocritical holier-than-thou government officials.