The morning after attending the Hollywood premiere party for Bigger Stronger Faster, we were lucky to find Lou Ferrigno outside our hotel on Venice Beach on the set of a new Hollywood movie “I Love You, Man” starring Jason Segal, Paul Rudd and Jaime Pressly slated to arrive in theatres in 2009. His role is a small role (and he’s not credited in Internet Movie Database yet) but they still filmed his scene all day today. Of course, Lou Ferrigno is no stranger to Hollywood having starred in the popular television series “The Incredible Hulk.” We had some live video coverage of the movie filming today that were originally aired real-time at Qik. My full report along with Lou Ferrigno photographs will appear on Muscletime.
Elite Fitness published an article today discussing the implications of Liberty Media’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Bodybuilding.com:
Many people have already heard that the world’s largest bodybuilding company, bodybuilding.com, sold a huge controlling stake to Liberty Media, parent of QVC, for $100 million dollars. However, what some people don’t know is that there are those who are panicking for various reasons and some even believe that the sale could cause the sport of bodybuilding to die off!
I was one of the people panicking about the implications for professional bodybuilding. When there are changes in ownership, particular when a closely held private company is acquired by a publicly traded conglomerate, there are often changes in strategy and management.
So, within hours of the January 7, 2008 acquisition announcement, I contacted Ryan DeLuca, the CEO and founder of Bodybuilding.com to clear the air. DeLuca granted me an interview (which was published on Muscletime) the same day. Ryan assured me that the Bodybuilding.com strategy included increased involvement in the sport of pro bodybuilding:
[Bodybuilding.com's involvement in pro bodybuilding] will continue to increase. We are 100% dedicated to giving back and helping the sport of bodybuilding to grow and prosper. If anything, this deal will only help us with that mission!
In spite of Ryan DeLuca’s refutations of changes in strategy as I confirmed in my Muscletime interview, Elite Fitness points out how the rumors persisted.
Strewn across Internet sites and forum boards are claims that bodybuilding.com must remove anything even remotely controversial from their site as part of the deal. That means anything to do with steroids and other hardcore bodybuilding topics must be axed in order to suit Liberty Media.
The change in the Bodybuilding.com forums that fueled many of the rumors was the relocation of the “steroid forum” to a sub-forum of the “IFBB section.”
When asked of any changes he had noticed on the site, Hawryliw said, “The biggest change I have seen was the steroid section being moved to the IFBB section. They claim it was to help to keep “noobs” (beginning users) from asking stupid questions. We all know the real reason was to take the steroid section off the front page to avoid any negative light. Ironically, steroids were prohibited from being talked about in the IFBB section before. Now, steroids are a sub-section.”
This was noticed several weeks ago prior to the acquisition announcement by Liberty Media.
But there is a big difference between censorship (deletion) and a reorganization of the forums of a message board. Elite Fitness further confirmed that Liberty Media has not asked Bodybuilding.com to delete controversial steroid content from their forums.
And he told me what is really going on with the issue of controversial material being moved or removed due to the Liberty Media deal mentioning, “This is not true. They have not asked us to remove anything or change anything on our site. Of course, with more national media watching what we are doing than ever before, we have to be extra careful with what we do or say so we don’t end up on Dateline.”
Unfortunately, it is not raining steroids, but at least the sky is not falling.
Isaac Hinds reports that 36-year old amateur bodybuilder Erik Fromm was found dead at his home in Wisconsin Monday night (February 4, 2008). The cause of death has not been determined. Isaac is in touch with Erik Fromm’s sister and will report details as they become available.
Erik Fromm was a popular amateur bodybuilder who consistently finished in the top ten at NPC bodybuilding championships. His last competition was the 2004 NPC Nationals Bodybuilding contest. He suffered major setbacks in 2004 with a torn bicep and a torn pec but wanted to return to competition to obtain his pro card.
Source: Getbig
Photo credit: Muscletime
Flex Online spoke with the attorney for Hidetada Yamagishi and confirmed the steroid-related charges against Hide that we first learned over three weeks ago from Muscletime. Allan Donnelly writes:
Yamagishi is charged with six felonies and three misdemeanors.
The felonies are: unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance, trenbolone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance, testosterone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance chorionic gonadotropin; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale of a controlled substance mesterolone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale of a controlled substance, oxandrolone; unlawful transport, import into the state of California, sell, furnish, administer and give away and offer to transport, import into the State of California, sell furnish, administer and give away, and attempt to import into the State of California and transport a controlled substance trenbolone, chorionic gonadotropin, testosterone, mesterolone, oxandrolone and stanozolol.
Shawn Chapman Holley, Hide’s defense attorney, confirmed that the amount and quantity of anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs found in Hidetada’s luggage at LAX was consistent with personal use for a competitive bodybuilder.
It’s clear that the quantity of steroids at issue is consistent with personal use and far less than one would expect to see in a case of sales. Moreover the quantity is consistent with what one would expect to see for a bodybuilder with the competition schedule Hide had posted on his Website before his arrest.
The State of California is apparently abusing misusing the law by attempting to prosecute Hidetada Yamagishi as a distributor of anabolic steroids; Hidetada clearly had no intent to sell steroids only to compete in professional bodybuilding competitions.
California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, knows a thing or two about the quantity and type of anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs included in precontest bodybuilding steroid stacks. He could easily confirm that the steroid stack imported by Hide was consistent with personal use by a professional bodybuilder. Someone should appeal directly to Arnold Schwarzenegger and ask that he explain this to California prosecutors.
There is a good chance that Hide’s defense attorney will be able to do the same and reach a plea agreement to misdemeanor charges on behalf of Hidetada Yamagishi.
I am hopeful that on February 6th we will have worked out a deal where, hopefully he will plead guilty to a misdemeanor count and be placed on summary probation with credit for time served and that will be the end of the criminal case.
Nonetheless, it is terrible that Hide will have spent no less than 8 weeks incarcerated on trumped up charges.
A good friend of Hidetada Yamagishi tells me that Rokkuku Construction had terminated Hide’s sponsorship contract of last month as a result of his arrest and incarceration. They are apparently withdrawing completely from the sport of bodybuilding having also cancelled the IFBB Japan Pro scheduled for 2008.
Muscletime has listed the mailing address where bodybuilding fans can send Hide fan mail.
Hidetada Yamagishi #1089220
P.O. Box 86164
Terminal Annex
Los Angeles, CA 90086-0164
Please observe inmate mail regulations when sending mail to Hide. Also, consider purchasing gift packs.
Very little bodybuilding food is available, but he may appreciate a phone calling card as I’m sure international calls back home to Japan are quite expensive. For more information, go to http://www.lasdpackages.com
I speculated on Muscletime.com that the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro Bodybuilding Show scheduled for October 13, 2008 would be cancelled as a result of Hidetada Yamagishi’s arrest and ongoing incarceration since his big money sponsor was also behind promoting the show:
This is also bad news for the IFBB, IFBB Japan, and especially Hide Yamagishi’s sponsor, RKS Planning (a division of Rokkuku Construction Company in Japan) who has invested significant funds in promoting Hide domestically and internationally. They accompanied him to the 2007 Mr. Olympia weekend distributing free merchandise to promote Hide; the company produced a couple of commercials featuring Hide which can be seen here and here. Furthermore, they are sponsoring the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro in Tokyo in October of 2008; recent events suggest that this may be cancelled depending on the outcome of the Hidetada Yamagishi case.
Now, it appears that the 2008 IFBB Japan Pro show has been removed from the official IFBB calendar of events. There is no official word on the show, but I expect that RKS Planning will cut their losses if Hidetada’s legal problems are as serious as they appear.
