Just watching Good Morning America on ABC for Sunday morning and the second story lead on this national show (after Egypt) is the sickness out break at the Playboy Mansion party which was part of Domainfest.
Referred to by ABC now as the Playboy Plague.
In the teaser for the show are the familiar faces of Howard & Barbara Neu.
If your up and around (its now 8:05 AM EST) check out ABC and you will catch the story
I will update this story as the segment actually ads.
UPDATED The segment of the outbreak at the Mansion aired around 8:20 EST and featured an interview with Howard and Barbara Neu as well as David Castello who ended the segment saying he I have no reason to blame them I just want to know what this was and he is not ruling out a return visit to the Mansion.
You can watch the segment here.
The “Playboy Plague” as they are calling it
Thankfully neither Judi nor myself got ill at the show, even though some of those who did get sick were in our room visiting during the show .
Hopefully everyone who got sick is well on the mend.
You can read a lot more about this situation on DnJournal.com which has been following the story since the beginning
Here is the link to the coverage.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/playboy-plague-12905290?tab=9482931§ion=1206835&playlist=1363742&page=1
I missed it. If anybody has a link to the video segment, please post it. Hoping everybody continues to recover.
Just updated the story and the link to it
http://abcnews.go.com/ The Playboy Plague is the name of the story. I couldn’t find a direct link, but the video is on the front page right now.
Here is another one with David on KTLA http://www.ktla.com/videobeta/?watchId=4575d682-82f3-43bc-8ed7-a04083a140df
here’s a direct link:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/playboy-plague-12905290
Hello Mike,
We find it totally amusing that there was very little if any mention about the fact that this was a domainers party. We all know it was ,but someone watching the clip or news probably dont have a clue. Gee we wonder why they did not plug domainers more? Our guess is that the old Garde news people want to subdue Domainers. So they can continue to pick up domains on the cheap in non-disclosure purchases. The last thing they want is to compete with others for the names they covet. I wrote about this very fact years ago on my blog. Sooner or later everyone will know that the genie is out of the bottle, because underlying market forces will drive their hand into the ditch.
Gratefully, Jeff Schneider (Contact Group) (Metal Tiger)
Front page above the fold of the Local section in the Sunday LA Times this morning http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-illness-cluster-20110212,0,6036281.story
99.9% of ABC viewers DO NOT CARE that the incident happened at a domain meeting.
ABC covered the 3 major points (in this order).
1. It happened at the Playboy Mansion.
2. A lot of people unexpectedly became seriously ill.
3. The possibility of legionnaires disease.
Everything else is trivial to the world.
Anyone think it ironic that the owner of the competing event (with a 100% solid track record for sending more guests home healthy and happy more times and running shows without incident) was the one asked to comment?
Don’t want to seem judgmentalbut mixing GOD’s technology with the DEVIL’s sin on earth like at the Playboy Mansion is NOT a good idea!! Bad SPIRIT and KARMA there and against the word of the Lord Jesus Christ! John: 3:16 You must be born again!
Owen
That irony was not lost on me.
Even more interesting I could swear that the ABC report said or at least indicated that Howard was the organizer of the show.
Watch it again
The Man
Wonder why it took until the 3rd year for God to strike
From the LA Times:
“”Legionellosis is caused by a bacterium that grows in warm water and can take root in hot tubs””
Howard and Barbara you should have stayed out of the Grotto.
)))::
It also appears to the layman that they “brought in girls” for the guys and they got them sick steering ones thoughts to a venereal diseases are gonorrhea
They must have cut Howard’s part. He never misses an opportunity for a plug.
It has now made TMZ —> http://www.tmz.com/2010/09/09/playboy-mansion-legionaires-disease-hugh-hefner-respiratory-health-crisis-internet-entrepreneurs-conference-l-a-county-health-dept-center-for-disease-control/
Congratulations to Ron. At least TMZ gave him credit for the photo.
@Owen – “”Anyyone think it ironic that the owner of the competing event (with a 100% solid track record for sending more guests home healthy and happy more times and running shows without incident) was the one asked to comment?””
Nice typical cheap shot Owen, just like your ludicrous digs against forums you’re not wanted in (by any of the members!). And since you pointed it out, you forgot (conveniently) that one competing event needs to be held 3 times to equal the ‘also happy and healthy’ crowds of the other. Only you would try to use this ‘serious sickness’, which I and my wife got too, to instigate things out there. No one spends more time smearing their own reputation than you. But you do it well.
Absolutely shocked about this one…. PlayboyPlague.com is available! Cheers and remember where you heard it.
This is going out of control. Could have just as easily been spread (depending on what is actually is) with all the handshakes that took place. Guess that is the end of the road for Playbooy Mansion domainer events.
Chip
The really strange thing about this is people like myself and my wife Judi were at all the events and the Playboy Mansion and even hung out with many of the people that got sick, some can to our room for drinks and we went to their rooms as well, but fortunately we didn’t get it.
Meyer – no congratulations necessary in this case. TMZ.com STOLE the photo from our website with no authorization whatsover, Telling people who you stole from does not make the THEFT OK. I have asked them to take it down immediately. Good Morning America asked to use our photos too and I refused because they only wanted to show photos from the Playboy Mansion. If they wanted to be fair, they would have wanted to show photos from all of the week’s events as it has not yet been proven what the source of the infection was. They were not interested in doing that because anything other than a focus on the Playboy Mansion was not sensational enough. Almost all of the mainstream media outlets already had the story they were going to tell in mind and they were not going to let facts get in the way.
Howard Neu is to be commended for noting that the infection “could have occurred anywhere”. David Castello also did a solid job in relating the facts with fairness in mind in the many media appearances he made.
Obviously those who are full of piss and vinegar were immune.
Yesterday was the first time I’d been out of bed in a week. Good Morning America wanted to interview me and, as fate would have it, I was going to be 3 blocks away from the Fairmont having dinner with my brother and Bruce Marler to discuss Grape.com. I figured I had enough energy to do the interview, but when I arrived at the Fairmont I was shocked to see KTLA, FOX, and ABC news trucks waiting for me. Then CBS showed up. By the time I did Good Morning America I could barely stand.
After I mentioned it, looks as if someone grabbed PlayboyPlague.com. Wonder if it is “The King”?
Looks like his registrar and nameserver choices. What could he be doing with this kind of P****Sh*t domain?
Maybe no though. Just speculating for fun.
I really would like to get the origin of this pinpointed….I actually had a soar throat and notably raspy voice on Thursday morning, way “before” heading over to da Mansion party…. a few people even said to me on Thursday “John you’re loosing your voice”….maybe that part of it’s just coincidental (but not sure) because of 2 outdoor parties on back to back chilly nights before Thursday…I had most of the other severe symtoms for most of this past week.
Halvarez’s Revenge ???
Pretty irresponsible journalism to link the 2 together without facts. DK pointed that out here : http://www.purposeinc.com/pwp/2011/02/13/playboy-legionnaires-domainfest
@David Castello
Take some of that Grape!
“Grapeseed contains flavonoids called oligomeric procyanidins (OPCs), which provide the body with 50 times more antioxidant protection than either vitamin C or vitamin E, and helps prevent and correct damage to capillaries throughout the body”
Myself, I have been getting in the habit of having one glass of wine or port (just one) before bed in the evening, it’s supposed to be very beneficial for the immune system and heart.
David
Don’t forget if there are any major deals coming up on grape.com don’t forget your good friend that owns the plural
I do know David just worked hard drinking plenty of wine while we talked Grape.com , I think it was for the medicinal purposes:)
Kudos to David working so hard on the interviews. After being down hard sick for the week (even though he still responded to texts daily, sheesh rest lol) he still felt a responsibility to get out and do these. He was worn down and still found every opportunity to promote our industry to the media folks he was dealing with.
Bruce
I already privately did this but I Hereby nominate David as the domaining “King Of All Media”.
We couldn’t have better representation
Thank you, MHB
They had a huge thing on Fox late night tv. joking about it for 15 min, Anne Coulter on the panel laughing it up too, they start off by saying hundreds got legionarries at playboy………due to Swedish men dressed like women, and wondering why “Ron Jackson’s wife” is at Playboy mansion without him in the first place, etc, hilarious.
Mike
Do you know if that video is on Fox’s site or on YouTube.com?
Did they actually say “Ron Jackson’s Wife”?
they said “ron jacksons wife” they went off on the “swedish men” and to wear a body condom in the grotto, said its about time that place was checked for disease…… said all kinds of other craziness, it was hilarious, cant believe Im the only one who saw it
Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld, Ron Jackson needs to get copy
Fox is always BS, cant find Gutfeld clip but other:
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4541921/200-sick-after-playboy-mansion-party
she says “hugh hefner hitting the tweet blog” on this topic, please
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4538498/dozens-sick-after-playboy-mansion-event
http://video.foxnews.com/v/4542332/illness-plagues-playboy-mansion
“they never change the water in the hottub” of course is absurd as is almost everything you will ever hear on Fox or CNN, or from a Democrat or Republican
We’re closing in on 3 weeks now……Anybody get some type of confirmation on what this massive illness “thing” really is yet and the real origin/cause ?