Harvey Levin & TMZ feast on Jimi Hendrix's dick

Don't let anyone try and tell you that the corporate porn-pushing gossip site TMZ.com has cleaned up its act when it comes to promoting pornographic videotapes-- not now that shaved bronzed midget frontman Harvey Levin and his band of boy followers have come off a sex tape-shilling hiatus with their most graphic and disgusting display since the days of their "Screech Saved By The Smell" outrage.

Jimi Hendrix Sex Tape!!! Gives Good Headband

is accompanied by a promotional video that's not only NSFW and over the top, but which features an explicit-to-the-vein plaster cast of the guitar god's member and the word "dick" thrown around more often than it is during TMZ internship interviews.

The sales tape posted on the TMZ site is branded with a website URL, so that, just as in the old days, viewers can click in and buy a copy of the long-rumoured but somehow-suspect Jimi Hendrix sex tape.   And just like in those days when TMZ got its first multi-million page views through an unholy union with late porn merchant David Hans Schmidt, the same old questions arise:

Does Harvey Levin get a cut of the X-rated sales? Does AOL? Time Warner? Are any of the proceeds used to finance TMZ's sister operation, CNN? Is anyone at TMZ cashing on the porn it pushes?

In any case, while we don't expect the "mainstream" media to go after a concern as powerful and noxious as TMX, this latest display stands well as another example of how out of touch the TMZ team is with American values beyond the border of West Hollywood border. And it's definitely one that the wives and golfing buddies of TMZ's corporate overlords at AOL and Time-Warner should get a gander at.

It's almost funny. This Hendrix sex tape story has been reported by media around the world. And as any good tabloid reporter knows, any story can be told to any audience with the right words, humour and tone. But for all its financing and powerful corporate push, only TMZ, led by Harvey Levin and his amoral, immoral team of subliterate boytoys, leaves a... ahem... bad taste in the mouth.

But who cares, right?