MIAMI – The staff at FlavaMen magazine doesn’t care whether Spectacular, the front man for R&B quartet Pretty Ricky, is gay or straight. All they know is the quarterly magazine’s parent company, gay adult studio Flava Works, managed to round up $100,000 to offer the singer in exchange for his nude body on the pages of their next issue.
“The company has secured and confirmed private investors to provide [Spectacular] with $100,000 in compensation for a photo spread featuring him as the magazine’s cover model,” a FlavaMen statement noted Friday.
The offer was set in motion in late May when, in an attempt to drum up buzz for Pretty Ricky’s upcoming single “Tipsy,” Spectacular posted on YouTube a video of him grinding to the tune — wearing only skimpy red briefs. The video, entitled “Strip with Spectacular,” also challenged other young R&B artists including Trey Songz, Day26, Chris Brown and Omarion to prove they could do better. The scandalous clip went viral almost immediately, prompting questions about Spectacular’s sexuality.
Spectacular quickly affirmed his heterosexuality, telling a Chicago radio station the suggestive video was “for the ladies” and he performed in the almost-buff in order to show off his “spectacular” body.
FlavaMen made the offer to give Spectacular another venue for showing off.
“FlavaMen magazine made the offer due to the company believing that even straight men can pose for FlavaMen magazine,” the company noted in its statement. “The magazine’s target audience is gay ethnic men of color, but many of its models do not engage in [same-sex] sexual acts or practice a homosexual lifestyle.”
Flava Works Chief Executive Officer Phillip Bleicher added, “I would love to have Spectacular do a spread. He would be the first male celebrity to do so. That would be history.”
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