LA Weekly's Top 11 News Stories of 2011

Christian Hernandez

Our most popular news stories in 2011 make last year's fare -- alleged John Travolta sightings at a gay spa, Vegas broads who sell sex to make rent -- look wholesome by comparison. Los Angeles was a blur of nude pics and racy murders these last 12 months, and yes, we wrote all about it.

Here are LA Weekly's top 11 news stories of the year, by measure of web traffic. Nostalgia, ultra:

11. "Give Sodomy a Chance"
By Paul R. Abramson and L.J. Williamson
January 27

This lawyerly entry in LA Weekly's big wintertime sex issue raised all the right questions about our right (or non-right) to fornicate when, and how, we wish. It brought in more readers, somehow, than the UCLA sex survey and Sailor Moon/giant bunny photo shoot combined.

To be clear, sodomy law refers to either oral or anal sex. It would be a bleak day if Congress made the eradication of the backdoor and the blow job a priority over war, economic upheaval and environmental disasters, but that's beside the point. The bigger question is, does sex, sodomy included, warrant constitutional protection?

Star Foreman/LA Weekly

Even bigger question: Does the Ninth Amendment cover cartoon characters? What about furries?

XPays

Please don't sue us.

In a federal lawsuit against 843 "John Does" who uploaded "1 Night in Paris" to the Internet -- identified only by their IP addresses -- XPays, the company who inherited Hilton's swan song from Rick Salomon, made a somewhat laughable attempt to uphold sex-tape copyright in the digital age.

Not only does the company claim it has lost lots of money, it also says in the lawsuit that such illegal distribution of the sex tape allows minors to "download adult entertainment content without being subject to the age verification process that most adult content-providers require."

See, it's not just all about the money. It's about the children.