Sadomasochism

In the opening scene of the recently released film "Secretary," the heroine, Lee Holloway (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) has just been released from a mental institution. For reasons that are unclear, she seeks relief from life's stresses and disappointments by cutting herself. As part of her rehabilitation, she attends a secretarial school after which she lands a job with a lawyer, E. Edward Grey (James Spader).

A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval rack. Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismemberment.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Obscenity and Pornography is urging the county to search for some legal method to close down the Club Chateau, a sadomasochism parlor that moved from Hollywood to a former bakery in North Hollywood in March.

A dominatrix pleaded not guilty Friday to charges she chopped up a client after he apparently died of a heart attack during a bondage session, and then dumped the body parts in a trash bin, court officials said. Barbara Asher, also known as Mistress Lauren M, was indicted by a grand jury in Norfolk County on charges of manslaughter and unlawful disposition of a body in the July 2000 disappearance of New Hampshire resident Michael Lord.

As a poster boy for the Orange County chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Bob Flanagan presented the image of an angelic teenager condemned to early death by an incurable genetic disease. But by the time he died last year at 43, a ripe old age for someone with cystic fibrosis, Flanagan had become a very different sort of icon: a masochist who successfully courted art-world celebrity by turning his mutilated body into a harrowing existential exhibit.

The Los Angeles County Commission on Obscenity and Pornography is urging the county to search for some legal method to close down Club Chateau, a sadomasochism parlor that moved from Hollywood to a former bakery in North Hollywood in March.

The owner of an illegal Hollywood bondage parlor was charged Wednesday with soliciting the murder of a competing licensed bondage shop owner. Michael Neumann was charged with nine felony counts, including the solicitation of murder, two counts of arson and one count of using a destructive device and explosive, Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Johnson said.

After using the desk computer to figure out his employees' commissions, minus deductions for taxes and the health plan, James Hillier began printing out and signing the payroll checks--one of the most important tasks of the small businessman's week. "I have a lot of people who depend on me," Hillier said. "Just like any other normal business." Meanwhile, many of the 28 people who depend on Hillier for their paychecks lingered in the rooms outside his office.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Tuesday to seek legal avenues for closing a bondage-and-discipline club in North Hollywood and for barring similar sadomasochist establishments in unincorporated areas of the county. The board, acting on a recommendation by the county Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, agreed to form a special committee to look for ways to revoke a zoning permit for Club Chateau, approved by a Los Angeles city zoning administrator last August.

A psychologist testified Thursday that Gregory Scott Smith's kidnap, rape and murder of 8-year-old Paul Bailly of Northridge had all the earmarks of premeditated sexual sadism. Christopher Hatcher, a San Francisco expert in child abduction cases, testified in Smith's penalty trial in Ventura County Superior Court that evidence in Paul's death resembles evidence in dozens of other child slayings that he has analyzed.

In the opening scene of the recently released film "Secretary," the heroine, Lee Holloway (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal) has just been released from a mental institution. For reasons that are unclear, she seeks relief from life's stresses and disappointments by cutting herself. As part of her rehabilitation, she attends a secretarial school after which she lands a job with a lawyer, E. Edward Grey (James Spader).

As a poster boy for the Orange County chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Bob Flanagan presented the image of an angelic teenager condemned to early death by an incurable genetic disease. But by the time he died last year at 43, a ripe old age for someone with cystic fibrosis, Flanagan had become a very different sort of icon: a masochist who successfully courted art-world celebrity by turning his mutilated body into a harrowing existential exhibit.

Will that be spanking or non-spanking, sir? A new little French restaurant in town is serving up mild sadomasochism with the food, offering such fare as a birthday paddling, boot cleaning or the chance to eat from a dog bowl at the feet of a whip-wielding mistress. "It's like Disney meets S&M," said comedian Joan Rivers, who loves the place, La Nouvelle Justine, in the city's Chelsea neighborhood. "Our busboy didn't bring the bread fast enough, so the maitre d' spanked him."

A San Clemente grandmother and self-proclaimed dominatrix charged Friday that the whips, harnesses, ropes and chains of her sadomasochistic "upscale dungeon" are being unlawfully held by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

A 57-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of running a bondage "dungeon" in her home, charging clients $200 an hour to be shackled, will not face prostitution charges, a prosecutor said Wednesday. Betty Johnson Davis and John Lester, 63, were arrested at Davis' Vista Encanta townhouse Feb. 2 after an undercover sheriff's deputy posing as a customer answered an advertisement in a sexually explicit magazine. No charges will be filed against Lester.

The owner of an illegal Hollywood bondage parlor was charged Wednesday with soliciting the murder of a competing licensed bondage shop owner. Michael Neumann was charged with nine felony counts, including the solicitation of murder, two counts of arson and one count of using a destructive device and explosive, Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Johnson said.

After using a desktop computer to figure out his employees' commissions, minus deductions for taxes and the health plan, James Hillier began printing out and signing the payroll checks--one of the most important tasks of this entrepreneur's week. "I have a lot of people who depend on me," Hillier said. "Just like any other normal business." Outside his office, some of the 28 people on the payroll waited for their checks.

A Los Angeles city committee has decided against asking city staff to search for a way to close down the Club Chateau, a bondage and discipline club in North Hollywood. The City Council's Planning and Land Use Committee decided Tuesday not to act on a letter from Los Angeles County supervisors, who asked the city to look for a way to revoke the operating permit for the club at 7310 Atoll Ave. Supervisors were responding to a recommendation by the county Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.