Actor Paul Reubens (PeeWee) Pleads Guilty in Obscenity Case

[kskiska]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Actor Paul Reubens (news), who won fame as children's television star "Pee-wee Herman," pleaded guilty on Friday to a misdemeanor charge of possessing obscene material and was sentenced to three years of informal probation that requires him to stay away from children.

Prosecutors, as part of an agreement with Reubens, agreed to drop second charge of possessing child pornography and allow the actor, who maintains that the pictures at the center of the case are part of his art collection, to continue an appeal of the case.

end of story
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=638&e=2&u=/nm/20040319/en_nm/crime_reubens_dc

[FloridaPat]

1. This guy is dumber than the one sitting in the White House.

Art collection my ass.

[QC]

8. He collects old "physique" magazines.

Some of them, which were published in the 50s and 60s, have models in them who are now, under current law, underage. Quite a few people collect these magazines--check out Ebay and you will see a lot of them on sale at any given time.

[DrWeird]

2. So it wasn't child porn?

Prosecutors call it obscene, Reubens calls it art?

What was it, Jock Sturges photos?

[LividLiberal]

6. naked children, sounds like

hardly sounds like "art"

[bleedingheart]

7. Well there are famous Renaissance paintings with naked cherubs

which look like children...but I doubt that is what he had in his collection...

You would think he would have learned after his first run in with the cops.

[Democat]

10. Have you ever heard of Sally Mann?

Just because you might think of a naked child as sexual doesn't mean everyone else does.

[DrWeird]

13. Hardly sounds criminal.

You can go down to the corner Barnes and Noble, go to the arts section, and get a book with photographs of naked children.

Sounds like a witchhunt to me.

[yella_dawg]

3. Again?

You'd think he'd learn to be more careful, if nothing else.

Dumb as dirt.

[Zookeeper]

4. With all of the rapists, child molesters, serial killers...

out there, I really can't understand why so much time is spent checking up on Pee-Wee.

[mac56]

5. Because he's a famous eccentric.

Specifically, famous for being somewhat eccentric.

Which is all the more reason to be super-damn careful.

(edited to make more specific)

[tinanator]

9. the last quality children's program stomped into the mud.

coincidence?

[Sandpiper]

15. He's got no one to blame but himself for that

n/t

[tinanator]

16. no kiddin

used to be you could just go blind.

[kskiska]

11. Lewis Carroll took photographs of naked little girls

Who knows? Maybe today he'd be in prison and "Alice Through the Looking-Glass" would be banned.

[tinanator]

14. Thats RIGHT! I saw them too!

They were on exhibit last September at the Museum of Modern Photography(?) in NYC, and a very impressive display. What an excellent point, but probably pearls before the lynch mob. What our culture may be reduced to in the near future is terrifying to consider.

[Kolesar]

12. What did JFK have in common with the man sitting in the row...

...in front of Pee Wee Herman in the theater?
A: They both got shot in the back of the head.

[TolstoyAndy]

17. But ...

didn't JFK get shot in the front of the head?

(that's a good chuckle anyway - thanks!)