According to the magazine's owner Bob Guccione, " We began to show pubic hair, which was a big breakthrough.

Although Guccione was American, the magazine was founded in 1965 in the United Kingdom, but beginning in September 1969 was sold in the United States as well.

At the height of his success, Guccione, who died in 2010, was considered to be one of the richest men in the United States.

Guccione was in the process of building the Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and needed financing.

It was directed by Tinto Brass, with additional scenes filmed by Giancarlo Lui and Penthouse founder Bob Guccione.

It was written by Gore Vidal, co-financed by Penthouse magazine and produced by Guccione and Franco Rossellini.

After Guccione was unable to come to an agreement with more established directors John Huston and Lina Wertmuller, Tinto Brass, a relatively young Italian director, was selected by Guccione to direct the film.

Guccione was impressed by Brass ' previous work, the controversial 1976 film Salon Kitty, which fused explicit sex with a big budget historical drama.

It was soon apparent to the filmmakers that the aggressive shooting schedule developed by the inexperienced Rossellini and Guccione was unrealistic for a film of such scope.

The production was plagued by delays due to disagreements between Brass and Donati over Brass not using Donati's completed sets, as well as Brass and Guccione disagreeing over the sexual content of the film.

Lui was instructed to refashion the film into something more in keeping with what Vidal had first scripted, while delivering the sexual content demanded by Guccione.

* When Io, Caligola was released on video, the distributor put back in some of the hardcore material shot by Guccione ( it was deleted by Franco Rossellini ) in order to boost the sales.

Bob Guccione ( pronounced " goo-chee-OAN-eh ", December 17, 1930 – October 20, 2010 ) was the founder and publisher of the adult magazine Penthouse until his resignation in November 2003.

Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione was born in Brooklyn, New York, of Sicilian descent, and raised as a Roman Catholic in Bergenfield, New Jersey.

One approach Guccione took was offering editorial content that was more sensational than that of Playboy.

An April 2002 New York Times article reported Guccione as saying that Penthouse grossed $ 3. 5 billion to $ 4 billion over the 30-year life of the company, with net income of almost half a billion dollars.

According to Guccione in a 1980 Penthouse magazine interview, Vidal ( whom Guccione called a " prodigious talent ") started trouble with a Time magazine interview in which he called directors " parasites living off writers ", and that the director need only follow the directions provided by the author of the screenplay.

In 1981, Anneka Di Lorenzo, who played Messalina, sued Guccione, claiming that he damaged her career by using hardcore sexual scenes in the final cut of Caligula without her knowledge, thereby associating her with a pornographic film.

DVD-ROM content includes Gore Vidal's original screenplay, an interview with Bob Guccione, and several hundred production photographs.

The magazine changed hands a few times, landing at Disney until 2005 when Bob Guccione, Jr. purchased the magazine with private equity partners.

In 2007, Guccione was ousted as CEO, in what was described by the New York Post as " a falling-out over philosophical differences with his financial backers about how to run the company.

Publisher Bob Guccione named his magazine Penthouse, with the trademark phrase " Life on top ".

In late 1987, publisher Bob Guccione Jr .' s father, Bob Guccione Sr., abruptly shut the magazine down despite the fact that the two-year-old magazine was widely considered a success, with a newsstand circulation of 150, 000.

Guccione Jr. was able to rally much of his staff, locate new investors and offices, and after missing a month's publication, returned with a combined November – December issue.

The latter film was a collaboration with celebrated author Gore Vidal, Franco Rossellini and Penthouse magazine publisher Bob Guccione.

In 2007, Guccione was ousted as CEO, in what was described by the New York Post as " a falling-out over philosophical differences with his financial backers about how to run the company.

Guccione began his 2007 season in Adelaide with a wildcard entry at the Next Generation Adelaide International.

Prior to the AO Series 2008, John Newcombe lashed out at Guccione for his lack of match fitness, saying that " with his height and his serve, he could be fucking lethal out there ", and for not realising his considerable potential: " he should be top-30 in the world and trouble anyone if he was properly fit.

Guccione responded with a run at the Medibank International in Sydney.

However the following week at the 2009 Sydney International, Guccione bounced back with an impressive 6 – 3 6 – 4 win over 6th seed Tomáš Berdych before going on to lose in the following round to eventual finalist Jarkko Nieminen, 7 – 6, 6 – 3.

Guccione teamed up with Lleyton Hewitt in March 2009 to play Thailand in the 2nd round of the Davis Cup Asia / Oceania Zone.

According to Guccione, an enraged Brass responded to Vidal's comments by throwing Vidal out of the studio.

As the film entered post-production, Guccione took control of the film footage, fired Brass for running up huge costs ( Guccione claims Brass shot enough film to " make the original version of Ben-Hur about 50 times over "), casting actual criminals as Roman senators, and using what Guccione considered " fat, ugly, and wrinkled old women " in the sex scenes instead of his Penthouse Pets.

Many of the disturbing sexual images shot by Brass were removed, replaced by approximately six minutes of hardcore sex shot by Guccione and Lui.

In the unpleasant aftermath, both Brass and Vidal launched independent tirades against the film and lawsuits against Guccione, delaying the release of the film.

It features two cuts of the film, the 156-minute print and a new edit created from an alternate pre-release version which re-arranges some scenes and does not include most of the explicit sexual inserts added by Guccione ( a few shots were left in by mistake and various outtakes from Brass ' shoot and a handful of 16 mm behind-the-scenes footage were used to fill in for the deleted material ).

" In the Guns N ' Roses song " Get in the Ring ", Axl Rose verbally attacked critics who gave the band negative reviews because of their actions on stage ; such critics as Andy Secher, Mick Wall and Bob Guccione, Jr. were mentioned by name.

In 1978, after two attempts at going into the publishing business on his own, the young, London-raised Guccione, Jr. went to work for Penthouse publisher General Media International, a company owned by his father, Penthouse founder Bob Guccione.

In 1976, Guccione used about US $ 17. 5 million of his personal fortune to finance the controversial historical epic pornographic film, Caligula

* 2010 – Bob Guccione, American publisher ( Penthouse magazine ) ( b. 1930 )

Outraged by a derogatory cartoon published in Hustler in 1976, Kathy Keeton, then girlfriend of Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, filed a libel suit against Flynt in Ohio.

* Bob Guccione ( born 1930 ), founder and former owner of Penthouse.

Penthouse, a men's magazine founded by Bob Guccione, combines urban lifestyle articles and softcore pornographic pictorials that, in the 1990s, evolved into hardcore.

On November 13, 2004, Guccione resigned as Chairman and CEO of Penthouse International, the parent of General Media.

In turn the plaintiffs issued a statement lauding Penthouse publisher Guccione and his magazine for their " personal and professional awards.

* Guccione, M., 1983, Quaternary sediments and their weathering history in northcentral Missouri.

Weinberg approached Guccione and told him that an Arab sheikh wanted to invest $ 150 million in the casino project, but only if the casino had obtained a gaming license.

Weinberg wanted Guccione to pay a $ 300, 000 bribe to New Jersey gaming officials to get the license.

" After the Abscam scandal came to light, Guccione sued the federal government, but lost.

When the pair could not obtain financing, Vidal contacted media mogul and Penthouse founder and publisher Bob Guccione.

Guccione agreed to finance the project on two conditions: that the film would be transformed into a flamboyant, luxurious spectacle akin to Hollywood's sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and 1960s, and that extra sex and nudity would be added to the script in order to promote Guccione's magazine.