Jerry O’Connell has been warned. The actor plays a soft-core pornographer filming bikini babes on spring break in “Piranha 3D.” But he’s not supposed to say he’s playing Joe Francis, the founder of “Girls Gone Wild.” “For legal reasons I’m supposed to say, ‘I play someone loosely based on Joe Francis,’ ” O’Connell told journo Jacob Bernstein. Now, Francis’ lawyer, Stanton Stein, has fired off a letter to the Weinstein Company, which produced the horror flick through its Dimension Films: “We caution all of those associated with this film to refrain from maligning Mr. Francis . . . Any defamatory or disparaging statements . . . will be met with swift litigation.”
Francis flak puts Jerry O’Connell on notice
