Mr. Skin Discusses the Dos and Donts of Celebrity Nudity

CHICAGO/CYBERPACE—Jim McBride knows more than a thing or two about celebrity skin, but he clearly knows just as much about how to throw a great party. That point was made on August 22, when native Chicagoan McBride and his colleagues at Mr. Skin threw a bash in the Windy City to mark the 15th anniversary of the celebrity nudity site. (Click here for a gallery from the event.) In addition to drawing from the top echelon of the adult industry, the party was armed with enough mainstream celeb firepower to garner a write-up in the town daily, the Chicago Tribune. Reporter Luis Gomez was duly impressed by the boob-shaped cupcakes and catering courtesy of the Weiners Circle—not to mention the plethora of skintastic entertainment. The crowd, which packed into The Chop Shop on N. Milwaukee St. in Chicago, included such notables as adult megastars Ron Jeremy and James Deen, The Room director and star Tommy Wiseau, and several regulars from The Howard Stern Show (on which McBride appears as a frequent guest) including Ronnie "The Limo Driver" Mund. Entertainment was provided by hip-hop cover band Too White Crew, as well as aerialists, dancers, and women and men adorned in body paint. Also supplying eye candy were Whitney St. John, Eila Adams, and Carli Bei from Naked News, which is part of the Mr. Skin empire. And there was no shortage of the form of entertainment that helped McBride made his mark in adult. The Mr. Skin founder took the stage to unveil his newly recalculated Top 150 Celebrity Nude Scenes of All-Time. The new eight-point rating system meant that his former No. 1 nude scene of all time, Phoebe Cates in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, was bumped down to ninth place, making way for a new No. 1, Scarlett Johansson in the recent sci-fi flick Under the Skin. Mr. Skin's brand has grown over the years, but nowhere more dramatically than it has in the last two years. The company launched MrMan.com, a site devoted to male nudity in film and television, and acquired the adult blog Fleshbot.com. And the public’s unwavering interest in seeing famous people laid bare would seem to ensure Mr. Skin’s continued success. That obsession with celebrities unclothed was in the news in a big way just a little over a week after Mr. Skin’s party when some 200 private nude photos of various A-listers made their way around the web in an event some called the Fappening (and yes, there’s even a Wikipedia page already). So it seemed like as good a time as any to pitch a few questions McBride’s way. Can you explain how sites that post naked selfies differs from your websites? Absolutely. We are in the business of posting legitimate nude photos from films and television that feature celebrities who have agreed to appear nude in those mediums. The photos that were leaked last week were never intended to be seen by the public. Despite the rather ribald commentary we add to our reviews and celebrity bios, the content on MrSkin.com and MrMan.com is presented in the same context in which the celebrities are not exploited but rather celebrated. We’re over on the other end of the spectrum, waiting patiently for celebrities to willingly appear nude on film without having their privacy invaded. What sort of responsibility do you think lies with Apple in this situation? Obviously the main culprit here is the person or persons who acquired the photos through unscrupulous means, so it’s hard to say. I think they will likely look into how this happened and seek to avoid it happening again, but at this point in time, it’s impossible for me to say. What are the most important lessons you think need to be learned from this celebrity hack? I think it will give people pause before deciding to share intimate photos of themselves. Though the target of this particular breach was celebrities, I think the average person will think twice before uploading or sharing anything that they think could potentially end up in the hands of the wrong people. What are your feelings about revenge porn sites? And what about the legislation to outlaw revenge porn that is sweeping the nation? Will it have a chilling effect on legitimate adult entertainment? Again, these are sites that traffic in exploitation, and usually it’s the exploitation of average people, both men and women. Drawing comparisons between revenge sites and legitimate adult entertainment only further helps those lines to be blurred when they’re actually two very different, very distinct things. As much as the average citizen may think that pornography is exploitation, the legitimate adult industry is the farthest thing from exploitation imaginable. The real problem is continuing to compare the two. Who was the first celebrity whose nude scenes were posted on MrSkin.com—or the first one to go viral and generate tons of traffic? We launched MrSkin.com with 1,000 actresses back in 1999, so there wasn’t any one who was the first on the site. The one I remember driving a ton of traffic to the site, however, was Katie Holmes in The Gift. We were the first website to post the pictures from the DVD in early 2000 and Howard Stern mentioned it on the air. Once he mentioned the website, our traffic went through the roof. That was the first time we had a huge viral hit. Are there certain perennial celebrities that visitors to your sites seek out, or is it more a case of the flavor of the month? And is it the same for both Mr. Skin and Mr. Man? The big names are always the most popular, but it’s not always the big names that generate tons of traffic. Last year when Margot Robbie went full frontal in The Wolf of Wall Street, she shot to the top of the most popular list. Some other great, more recent examples of that would be Alexandra Daddario who went fully nude on HBO’s True Detective and hasn’t left the most popular list since, and even more recent than that is Sarah Silverman, who just did her second nude scene on Showtime’s Masters of Sex and is currently in the Top 10. The flavor of the month is always going to be a huge traffic driver as well, though. Currently our number 3 most popular celebrity on MrSkin.com is Rachel Korine, who just did a nude scene on Cinemax’s series The Knick. The TV shows really drive people in and propel those actors and actresses onto the most popular lists. The same holds true for MrMan.com, where the Brad Pitts and Leonardo DiCaprios of the world will always be popular, but when someone like Justin Theroux gets nude on HBO’s The Leftovers, he drove in a lot of traffic as well. Does Mr. Skin have a "most wanted" list for celebrity nude scenes? There’s not an official list, but of the actresses currently working, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Christina Hendricks would both have to be at the top of any most wanted list. In the history of film, however, I am still bummed out that Raquel Welch never did a nude scene. What has been the most surprising response from a celebrity who has commented on his or her images being on MrSkin.com? Because of the nature of what we do, and how positive we are about the actresses and actors, they’re often flattered and incredibly gracious about seeing themselves on our site. Susan Sarandon’s daughter Eva Amurri Martino retweeted us calling her nude scene on Showtime’s Californication the best nude scene of the year back in October 2009, and thanked us for the positive feedback. Ashley Hinshaw, another actress whose career exploded after she did a nude scene in 2012’s About Cherry, tweeted that she was flattered at her place atop our Top 10 nude scenes that year. And speaking of Californication, on an episode in 2012, David Duchovny’s character told Sarah Power that she should win a Mr. Skin award, and frankly we agreed with him, also placing her on our Top 10 in 2012. There was also a great moment on the reality series Denise Richards: It’s Complicated where she visited our site in the first season, and was thrilled that she was a Mr. Skin Hall of Famer. It’s moments like those that really make me feel as though we’ve been successful at doing what we set out to do, which is to celebrate these actresses. For more on McBride's thoughts about the Fappening, here's a Q&A in the Telegraph. Pictured: Mr. Skin's Sam Rakowski (right) and Jim McBride (middle) with Kink.com's Peter Acworth and some of the painted ladies at the 15th anniversary party. Photo by JFK/FUBARWebmasters.com