James O'Keefe's dildo prank on CNN's Abbie Boudreau falls limp
The latest bizzaro hidden camera stunt orchestrated by conservative filmmakers James O'Keefe and Ben Wetmore has, by all accounts, epically failed.
Maybe documenting the whole plan in writing wasn't the best idea.
According to CNN, O'Keefe planned to lure correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat riddled with all sorts of romantic props -- dildos, condoms, handcuffs -- and make sexual passes in an attempt to embarrass her. If gone as planned, the whole incident would have been secretly video-taped.
It did not, however, go as planned. Izzy Santa, executive director of the young conservatives' organization, Project Veritas, confessed the plot to Boudreau when she arrived for the meeting with O'Keefe.
Boudreau had agreed to meet O'Keefe in his office to discuss a CNN story she was working on about O'Keefe and other activists who have made headlines, largely with controversial hidden-camera stunts.
O'Keefe rose to right-wing fame in 2009 when he released a video of what appeared to be himself posing as a pimp and soliciting legal advice from ACORN members on setting up a brothel. The video was scandalous for ACORN. A New York district attorney cleared ACORN of any wrongdoing earlier this year, however, citing selective editing on the video.
O'Keefe found himself in the media spotlight again in January when he and three others were accused of tampering with the phone of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu. Minnesota-native Joe Basel was among O'Keefe's accomplices in this stunt (read more about the odyssey of Basel here).
All four were sentenced to probation in May.
CNN obtained some pretty telling e-mails outlining the plan to "punk" Boudreau, including a script O'Keefe was apparently supposed to recite to introduce the video. Here's a sample, via CNN:
Instead of giving her a serious interview, I'm going to punk CNN. Abbie has been trying to seduce me to use me, in order to spin a lie about me. So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.O'Keefe says he didn't write the script, and didn't plan to use it. According to CNN, the script is credited to "Ben" and it appeared in an e-mail from Ben Wetmore.
Wetmore is a conservative activist both Basel and O'Keefe have called their mentor. Both men were staying at Wetmore's house in New Orleans when arrested for the phone tampering incident.
Read more about Wetmore, O'Keefe, Basel and the rest of the gang here.
Watch a collection of other hidden camera videos released by the activists here.
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