Maybe you heard that a naked dominatrix's slave wandered around Newt Gingrich's forum in Second Life last week?

You heard wrong. Even though CNN covered her fg"naughty bits" with black squares — the virtual woman had actually been wearing a virtual skimpy bikini. And even that brief footage was taken an hour before Gingrich arrived. By the time Newt showed up, the activist "put on a little bit more clothing," acknowledged CNN.

But in fact, Newt was never in any danger of being exposed to naked women. Why? Thank Twig Tomorrow, a Second Life user with an all-female team of professional moderators for chat rooms, message boards, and virtual worlds.

The group — called Metaverse Mod Squad — had previously determined exactly how much nudity would be allowed at Newt's event. (None!) To fight nudity (and possibly other disruptions), her group collaborated closely with Gingrich's American Solutions group, along with Clear Ink, the creators of the virtual private island where Newt made his appearance.

Their avatars are "gorgeous brunette quintuplets," according to one article, "wearing outfits from an old James Bond film (or at least Austin Powers)." Usually they wear mini-skirts, but when the former Republican Speaker of the House hired them, they'd decided to wear pants to dial down the hipness.

But they were on a collision course with Summer Seale, a sexy activist who designs and sells clothing for the citizens of Second Life.

Summer is also the co-owner of Second Life's CattyShack, whose web site announces they're "in the business of the oldest business in the world." ("We have mistresses and slaves," announces one profile of the business.) Summer showed up for Newt's event — an hour early — wearing "an outfit better suited for the French Riviera," says Twig.

"None of Summer's parts were visible, but just barely."

Naked, not naked… Summer was apparently too close to that line. "She had actually just won a contest for that very design and was proud to show it off," remembers Twig. "But given the solemnity of the event and presence of national media, I made the judgment call to ask for a wardrobe change."

The sexy showdown turned out to be surprisingly amicable. "I messaged her and told her the outfit was adorable and I would love a copy to wear under my uniform," says Twig. "But how about for this event, she wear one of her other designs."

Summer Seale was delighted. She remembers that "The pink outfit I put on afterwards was designed by Callie Cline, and happens to be my first outfit I ever got in Second Life!" Twig Tomorrow says it turned into a win-win situation.

"She happily changed into the most darling pink design, and we all had the benefit of seeing two of her outfits."

Ultimately the event went by almost without a hitch. (Although one eyewitness said Gingrich kept mistakenly calling the game "Second Voice.") One report pointed out that the only way to get to Gingrich's private island stop was to receive an invitation, so the potential from trouble-making was limited. And even with the small group of invited protesters, Twig's group had a plan — "hover just above them, in case trouble erupts."

Twig does confirm there was a healthy round of democratic heckling. "The newspaper report that cyber-hecklers comments were removed is false. There was absolutely no censorship at the event. Everyone was free to shout out comments, suggestions, gripes, and support to Mr. Gingrich."

In real life, Twig lives in Sacramento, but in an interview after the event, she gladly confirmed for us that "there were no other incidents of inappropriate clothing and no incidents of nudity at all." But there is one press report that she refuses to confirm or deny.

"We may or may not carry virtual tasers.

"What we have underneath these black coats is also proprietary!"

Entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 10:36 pm under Second Life.  Print This Post