Calling Deuce Bigalow and gigolos everywhere: Heidi Fleiss needs you. The former Hollywood madam plans to open a ”rooster ranch” — a brothel catering to women — in Nevada.
”I am opening up a stud farm,” Fleiss told the Associated Press. ”I’m going to have the sexiest men on earth. Women are going to love it.”
She plans to convert an existing bordello, the Cherry Patch, 32km north of Pahrump, a small town in the Nevada desert which boasts the state’s two largest brothels, Sheri’s Ranch and the Chicken Ranch. After a Hollywood-style makeover, the Cherry Patch’s bar and collection of trailers will be renamed Heidi’s Stud Farm. The cowboy theme will be replaced with waterfalls and palm trees.
”I’m going to put out a casting call for about 20 guys,” said Fleiss. ”I bet I get thousands of applicants.”
In 1995, she was convicted of running a sophisticated prostitution ring. She would fly models-turned-prostitutes around the world in exchange for up to $10 000 a night. Fleiss (39) served 21 months in prison for money laundering, tax evasion and attempted pimping. She was freed in 1999, and has since started various business ventures.
However, her conviction could stand in the way of her plans. Pahrump, 130km northwest of Las Vegas, is in Nye County, one of 10 counties in Nevada where prostitution is legal. But convicted felons are not allowed to run brothels. In papers submitted to local authorities, Fleiss is described as a ”hostess/madam”. In a letter to them, her partner in the business, Joe Richards, owner of the Cherry Patch and two other brothels, wrote: ”I look upon this added offered service as a positive effort to address an ever-increasing fact of life. Society is witnessing a unique evolution of the female gender reaching out for the same type of service we now offer male clients. This service will now be available exactly as is presently offered except for the gender reversal between client and prostitute.”
But will Heidi’s Stud Farm attract any customers willing to pay $250 an hour?
”Women are more independent these days,” said Fleiss. ”They make more money and it’s hard to meet people. You wouldn’t believe the number of women who’ve told me, ‘Heidi, if you do this, I’ll be the first one in line’. I mean, relationships are harder than dieting — you know what I mean?”
Richards said: ”Say a guy gets into an argument with his wife. What does he do? Lot of times, he goes out, gets a drink, goes to a place to be serviced. Now, women can say, ‘Hey, if you can do it, I can, too’.”
Other brothel owners are not so enthusiastic about the prospect of having a notorious Hollywood madam in their midst.
”I’m not a fan of Heidi Fleiss,” George Flint of the Nevada Brothel Owners Association told the Las Vegas Review Journal. ”We have to kind of tread softly, and I’m not sure if Heidi’s capable of learning to tread lightly. My biggest problem with Heidi is she talks too much. You can’t turn this business into a promotional machine… and expect to survive.”
He didn’t have any objection to a brothel for women, however. ”I’m not sure Nevadans are ready for it,” he said. ”On the other hand, my reaction is, ‘Why not?”’ – Guardian Unlimited Â