Two weeks ago today I published a guest post by Madison Graham; if you haven’t read it yet, you should do so before proceeding with this one. I’ve never published a rebuttal to a guest column before, because no one has ever asked me to; however, since the writer of this one, Christina Parreira, is a previous guest columnist herself who is knowledgeable on this subject, I saw no reason to decline her request. In the future, I will entertain submissions for rebuttals or responses as long as A) I have reason to believe the respondent knows what she’s talking about; B) the response stays cordial and mostly factual, without opinions clearly expressed as such; and C) the response is submitted in a timely manner, so that I can publish it in the same month as the original if possible.
Now, onto her article about Hof and the Odom incident. It rests on the premise that Hof was the one who called TMZ- this is in the absence of proof. Nobody actually knows who called TMZ, period. Also, I’m skeptical of the notion that a man is afforded secrecy when he himself has brought illicit drugs into a legal place of business, and then gets rolled out in an ambulance! What is a business owner supposed to say when this happens? Nothing? Madison states that Lamar will never again get an endorsement deal; this is simply mere speculation. She also slams Hof for “taking advantage” of the publicity, but it sought him. Odom almost died at his brothel; that was not a story Hof needed to call the press over! They were knocking down his door.
Next, she addresses drugs in the brothels, saying she has she’s never seen so many addicts since working in legal brothels, and claiming that women are allowed to continue working with drugs in the house. I myself have seen drugs in the house; it happens, though not as often as Madison would have you believe (although this is just from my own personal experience). I have also seen those same girls get fired once it was confirmed that they were using. She claims they are told to pack up and go to rehab. In reality, many are fired and never heard of again, while others (my guess is those that have been around a long time and are part of the family, so to speak) have been sent to rehab by Hof himself. He has told me stories of paying for rehab in hopes that some of these women would stop using. I think that’s very kind, but let’s not stray too much into opinion-land; let us get back to my observations. As far as girls too drunk to work, I have never personally seen this, but I imagine it does happen. What I have seen is girls get cut off before they begin to overdo it, and I remember one woman in particular who had an alcohol problem and was not served alcohol; she was not allowed to drink in the brothel or bring liquor in. This may seem punitive to some, but it is a place of businesses and she would become unmanageable drunk (from what I heard). I never saw her drunk behavior, but I did work with her during her drinking ban.