Terry Richardson's James Franco in Drag, Courtesy of the artist and OHWOW Gallery

Franco poses in drag for fashion photographer Terry Richardson, as part of the "Rebel" exhibit currently on display at JF Chen.

"There's just a lot of dicks in there. A lot of porno," painter Ty Williams says, shaking his head. "But I get it, though. I understand the prevalence of penises."

We're standing in the alleyway behind JF Chen, a collectible-furniture showroom and exhibit space, at the opening party for "Rebel," an off-site MOCA multimedia extravaganza produced by the world's most famous grad student, James Franco, in collaboration with an all-star cast of contemporary artists, including Ed Ruscha, Aaron Young, Terry Richardson, Paul McCarthy and Douglas Gordon.

Though Franco was somehow involved in all of the projects shown here, and his ongoing obsession with the sexual secrets and adolescent turmoil behind James Dean and Rebel Without a Cause drives the exhibit, the lineup of bigwigs confers an air of legitimacy lacking at some of Franco's previous shows and stunts.

The exhibit itself has been impressively built-out, looking like a soundstage resembling the Chateau Marmont, with videos playing in individual bungalows and shrubbery strewn with blow-up sex dolls and other detritus referencing the art.

And yes, there were a number of penises on display inside, as Franco and his partners grappled with the pent-up, feverish sexuality of adolescence by exploring, among other themes, the homoerotic tension on-screen in the 1955 film, Dean's real-life bisexuality and a smattering of behind-the-scenes affairs that reportedly took place before and during the shooting of the movie.

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All photos by Star Foreman

Dita Von Teese wears a vintage dress from The Way We Wore and bracelets by J. Max.

See also:
*A gallery of pictures from our photo shoot at Dita Von Teese's Los Feliz home.
*Top 10 Strip Clubs in Los Angeles
*Marilyn Monroe's Seven Never-Before-Seen Mostly Nude Photos at Duncan Miller Gallery

Dita Von Teese can't remember the first time she took her clothes off for someone. It was probably early on, before she became the queen of burlesque and undressing became her job. Probably after ballet class, changing in front of other girls.

She does remember the first time she stripped. She was 19, and back then her name was Heather Sweet. She had been working as a scantily clad go-go dancer in the Los Angeles underground scene when, one night, a friend took her to a bikini club. She was fascinated.

She auditioned on a Monday -- amateur night. Rock & roll and blondes in neon bikinis were the name of the game. But she took the stage in a pink corset with black velvet trim, black stockings, long black gloves.

"You're wearing a lot of clothes up there," the manager said afterward. He hired her anyway. "Dita Von Teese" was born that night, a stage name Heather Sweet pulled out of a phone book.

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Illustration by Jonathan Bartlett

By Dr. Paul Abramson and L.J. Williamson

Riot Act is a semi-regular column that challenges conventional wisdom in controversial issues

In 2008, a 35-year-old LAUSD teacher got one of his fifth-grade students alone in the classroom at lunchtime, and convinced the 10-year-old boy to masturbate him to orgasm. The teacher continued to molest the boy when other students left the room, including performing oral sex on him, into the following year. The abuse finally ended during the summer, when the father sought to include the teacher in more family activities, at which point the horrified kid blurted out the truth.

For a pedophile, the first order of business is to gain access to children. We're not talking about trolling the playgrounds with a sack of candy. That's for amateurs, and the committed pedophile is far more sophisticated. He's in it for the long haul. So he gets a teaching credential, or becomes a member of the clergy, or maybe even a pediatrician. He creates a foundation for wayward boys. He becomes a foster parent. He finds a single mom and starts dating her, working his way toward becoming a stepdad. In short, he manages to put himself in a position of trust so that he will have access to kids on a regular basis.

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Raymond Burr: His longtime partner confirms that they met thanks to Scotty Bowers -- who arranged "tricks" for dozens of closeted Hollywood stars.

It was a real-life Perry Mason moment in the public trial of Scotty Bowers' credibility.

In his sensational memoir, Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars, Bowers claims he procured female lovers for Katharine Hepburn and had threesomes with Cary Grant and his longtime companion, Randolph Scott. He depicts Old Hollywood as teeming with closeted gay stars willing to pay for discreet sex because they were worried about morals clauses, studio snitches, Confidential magazine and those self-appointed Hollywood watchdogs, columnists Louella Parsons and Hedda Hopper.

But the press has largely covered Full Service as cocktail-party gossip. Even the New York Times simply repeated Bowers' claims, with the down-and-dirty details -- e.g., that Charles Laughton liked shit sandwiches, that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were both gay, that Cole Porter would suck off as many as 15 young men at a time -- heavily sanitized.

Bob Benevides' conversation with the L.A. Weekly, then, was something new: fact-checking. Reached by phone, previously unaware that he was even mentioned in the book, he confirmed everything.

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Illustration by Jimmy Giegerich

By Dr. Paul R. Abramson & L.J. Williamson

The good news: Joycelyn Elders, former surgeon general of the United States, reads L.A. Weekly!

The bad news: She's pissed at us. We made Dr. Elders mad because we said that condoms suck.

Maybe if we hadn't said anything, no one would have noticed. Maybe instead, they would have believed the study Elders cited in her letter to the editor, which found "no difference in terms of pleasure, arousal and orgasm between those who used a condom and those who did not."

Um, really?

We've admired Elders ever since she had the guts to state a plain and obvious truth about masturbation, a truth that got her fired. Which is why we're now blown away by her so-silly-it's-embarrassing insistence that there is no difference between sex with a condom and sex without one. What happened to the courageous, straight-talking woman we fell in love with in the '90s?

She's now on Trojan's payroll.

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Lina Lecaro

Angels pair up with Kings nightly at Pete Wentz's rockin' Hollywood bar Angels & Kings

If there's one thing Valentine's Day hammers home, it's the suckiness (or lack thereof) of being solo. We're talking S-E-X, people, and for you poor souls who had an unsatisfying week sans even a prospect for V***** or D*** (we're talking body parts, not venereal disease), it's time to put it all behind you and get to prowling the bars again.

We can't guarantee a hookup at any of the following, but we will say that, based on atmosphere, comely crowds, our own get-hit-on ratios and those of our scenester pals (both male and female), these drinking holes seem to provide the best chance to get your hoe down.

As always, boozers looking to get bumpin' should drink responsibly, not drive and be safe about who you go home with. Tell a friend where you'll be, with whom, and promise to call the next day. Here's hoping all you have to deal with after your hookup is a hangover, a walk of shame and a little regret. Who knows? Maybe you'll actually meet your Valentine for next year?

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Women clearly have an ambivalent relationship with Disney characters. In question 12 of our sex survey, UCLA vs. USC: Who's Sluttier?, we asked about the worst date movies, and Disney films were named again and again by our female respondents: The Little Mermaid, The Princess and the Frog and "anything Disney" were frequent answers.

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@viewfromaloft via Twitter

Lots of crazies get in trouble in our fair city, and lots of those crazies are also nude. Just this week a naked man (above) climbed a radio tower in downtown L.A. and threatened to jump.

Do they have this problem in, say, North Dakota? What is it about L.A. that brings out the unhinged unclothed?

Here we give you the 11 craziest nude scandals in L.A. in the last year, culled from our sister blog, The Informer.

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See more from L.A. Weekly's Sex Issue: "Condoms Suck," "The Swingers' Story: How Two Married People Found True Love While Swapping Partners," "10 Condom Reviews for the Well-Endowed Man," "9 Best High-Tech Vibrators to Buy for Your Valentine, Reviewed by our Experts," and "Twelve Tales of Sexual Mortification."

The stereotype is that USC students are richer and ditzier than their counterparts -- and now you can add sluttier. Following up on last year's UCLA sex survey, L.A. Weekly headed across town to administer the same questions to 108 USC students, and let's just say this: It's a good thing that USC picked a world-famous condom magnate as its school mascot.

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See more from L.A. Weekly's Sex Issue: "Condoms Suck," "The Swingers' Story: How Two Married People Found True Love While Swapping Partners," "10 Condom Reviews for the Well-Endowed Man," "Twelve Tales of Sexual Mortification," and "UCLA vs. USC Sex Survey 2012: Who's Sluttier?"

As told to L.J. Williamson

A heart-shaped box of chocolates? Sentimental and short-lived -- not to mention fattening. But girls like having nice things, and boys like having girls who have nice things. So why not get your honey a high-tech vibrator?

The Weekly asked a married couple to test-drive some of the latest models. Here's what the missus reported back.

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