Sex Tape Scandal Tarnishes Iconic Dolphin’s Image

HOLLYWOOD - Beloved television dolphin Flipper, star of his own network series in the mid-1960s, is at the center of a brewing sex scandal after a tape depicting him performing various sex acts with a female dolphin was forwarded to the German newspaper Bild by an unknown source.  

Bild describes the video as “depraved, even by German standards.”  Flipper has filed a $20 million lawsuit against the magazine, claiming breach of privacy.

Flipper is no stranger to controversy.  In the early 1980s, several prominent performers in Hollywood’s animal community took out a full page ad in The New York Times condemning him for not doing enough to promote animal rights.  In its most stinging line the ad asserted, “Flipper wants to pretend that he’s human.” 

The ad was triggered by Flipper’s decision to be circumcised to appease his first wife, Christie Brinkley, in a practice almost exclusively reserved for humans.  Herschel Bernardi, then the voice of Star Kist pitch-fish Charlie the Tuna, called Flipper a “self-loathing dolphin.” leading to a permanent rift between Flipper and Bernardi. 

Flipper has been married five times and has two children with his second wife, Elle MacPherson: Zeb, 22, and Faith, 17.

Aug 8

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