This is Wrong and Benjamin Massing is in the Eye of the Beholder

New York Daily News Says This:
Straight model sues gay magazine Genre over 'vulgar' photo
BY JOSE MARTINEZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Friday, September 26th 2008, 11:26 PM

Model Benjamin Massing is furious that a "cruel and vulgar" picture of him is running in a gay magazine and blog.

Massing wore a pinstriped suit for a 2006 Playboy fashion spread on dapper college men. The aspiring actor also has modeled for Estee Lauder and Abercrombie & Fitch.

If anyone's going to drool over Benjamin Massing's beefcake shots, gay guys need not apply.

The hunky model with eight-pack abs is suing a gay men's magazine and a Manhattan fashion photographer for bringing him unwanted male attention by publishing a "cruel and vulgar" picture of him nearly in the buff.

The sizzling snapshot listed his first name, where he lives and provided viewers an online avenue to reach Massing - subjecting him, the lawsuit says, to advances from strangers who "solicit him for homosexual sex."




"He's not [gay]," said lawyer Liah Catanese.
Massing, an aspiring actor majoring in micro-molecular biology at the University of Central Florida, was pictured in the March/April issue of Genre magazine on a page filled with ads for gay chat lines and sex toys.

"It's definitely put him in a class where he's going to have difficulty obtaining contracts for family-related shows," Catanese said.

Massing, 20, posed for the shots last December, stripping down to a snug pair of gray briefs free-of-charge for lensman Rick Day.
The invasion of privacy suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, says Massing wanted the pictures for his portfolio - and never expected Day to peddle them to a magazine that made him look "lustful and sexually promiscuous."

An agent for Day declined to comment, and Genre did not return calls.

The shots of Massing tugging on his shorts have since surfaced on numerous Web sites for gay men, where readers make gushing comments such as "Super sexy!" and "Love the hairy little legs ... yummie."
"That's kind of hard to erase," said Andrew Buzin, another lawyer for Massing.

In addition to unwittingly appearing in Genre, Massing has modeled for Estee Lauder, Abercrombie & Fitch and wore a pinstriped suit for a 2006 Playboy fashion spread on dapper college men.

The suit, which seeks unspecified damages, says he has suffered humiliation and damage to his reputation as a result of the steamy pics.




"He had a promising career," Catanese said. "I hope he's able to undo any damage that this has done."

Listen very carefully, Mr. Massing and your ridiculous lawyers: it is not humiliating if people think you're gay. He is a model. The pictures posted here were taken from his MySpace page. Me thinks the man doth protest too much.



Does he know these names: Christopher Meloni, Jake Gyllenhaal, the late Heath Ledger ... he should be so lucky as to have their careers. Oh wait, maybe he does know who they are and wants somebody to pay attention. Oh, and he modelled for Abercrombie & Fitch the paragon of heterosexual image ... puh-leez