Keep It Classy

Family feuds are the worst:

Flynt accused his brother Jimmy Flynt's sons in federal court of tarnishing his image by launching Flynt Media Corp. and producing a series of videos he says are nothing but cheap knockoffs.

"The junk they publish hurts my reputation, which in turn hurts my revenue," the gruff, gravelly voiced porn king testified in U.S. District Court this week, where a Flynt family feud is playing out before a stone-faced jury and a no-nonsense judge.

...He testified that his nephews, Jimmy Flynt Jr. and Dustin Flynt, were a pair of bumbling, incompetent employees that he only kept on the payroll for years out of a sense of family obligation.

..."I felt they were doing a horrible job," said Flynt, who owns Hustler magazine and other publications, operates Internet Web sites, retail stores, produces films, owns pricey real estate and even markets a line of clothing.

Their father, who isn't named in the lawsuit, is fighting his own battle with Flynt in Ohio, suing his brother for attempting to evict him from a building in Cincinnati where he operates a Hustler retail store.

Larry Flynt, whose privately owned company has been said to be worth tens of millions of dollars, testified Wednesday that he terminated his brother last year to save money for his legal battle against the nephews.

...Jimmy Jr., 37, and Dustin Flynt, 34, testified that when they named their company and began producing videos with "FLYNT" in large letters on the boxes they had no intention of being confused with their uncle.

Although not household names to mainstream audiences as their uncle is, both insisted they are celebrities within the more insular world of porn and would be quickly found out if they tried to pass their work off as his.

"There was nothing to gain in trying to trick the trade," said Jimmy Flynt Jr., who bears a striking resemblance to his square-jawed uncle.

They also said their videos are classy, the design of the boxes less cluttered and more modern than what their uncle's company puts out and the sex is done tastefully.

"With the new line we are looking to bring back the class and elegance of erotica," said Dustin Flynt.

For his part, Larry Flynt acknowledged that although he long ago trademarked his well-known Hustler brand, he never got around to trademarking his name.

"I just never heard of someone using someone else's name," he said.

Still, he said, that name often appears on Hustler-produced videos, frequently on the top of the box, in the words "Larry Flynt's Private Collection."

And that, Flynt and his lawyers say, is an assurance to purchaser that they're getting the highest-quality porn their money can buy.