By Stu Robinson

Last month I discussed how ginning up a controversy featuring sex and/or violence can be a win-win-win for artists, the entertainment business and the media.

By covering the brouhaha about a poster of actress Eva Green in a sheer robe for an upcoming movie (Faux Film Fight Plays Us for Boobs), I demonstrated the how it drew publicity for the movie, provided faux credibility for the Motional Picture Association of America (MPAA) and enabled me to highlight my blog with a racy photo.

So I was shocked – SHOCKED! – when the New York Post’s Page Six reported Monday that Now Eva Green is too sexy for ABC. According to the Post, the network rejected a trailer with the same image that offended the MPAA. And so, the cycle began again.

• ABC, like the MPAA before, pretended to be concerned about community standards.
• The movie,  Sin City: A Dame to Kill For, got another marketing boost.
• Green received more publicity.
• The Post ran before and after images of the poster from the earlier squabble.
• And I have an opportunity to run the same racy photos.

Photo: Newseum

Except I’m not going to post the image again. Because I’m virtuous? Nah. Because the editors at the Post, G-d love ’em, provided an even timelier case study. They used a report of fisticuffs between singer Justin Bieber and actor Orlando Bloom as a pretext to splash a bikini photo of Bloom’s estranged wife, model Miranda Kerr, across today’s front page.

As I noted previously, concerns about the exploitation of women tend diminish when there is a racy story from which all parties can benefit. The math is just too easy.

EPILOGUE: Apparently Kerr is not one to let the Post exploit her image more than she can herself. During the time I was writing this blog, the model Instagrammed a photo of herself in a bathtub, wearing only wet jeans, her arms covering her breasts. Which, of course, enabled Page Six to repost it online with the headline: Kerr posts topless pic amid Bieber beef.”

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Stuart J. Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications.

Tags: ABC, Eva Green, Miranda Kerr, New York Post, Page Six