In case you hadn't heard the news, Octomom invaded the Valley of the Sun yesterday. Don't worry, little harm was done to either person or property.
Nadya Suleman, the notorious attention seeker baby factory Orange County mom who birthed a brood of eight children back in 2008, traveled to Phoenix on Tuesday to promote her new porn flick.
The 60-minute DVD, entitled Octomom Home Alone, is just the latest attempt by the cash-strapped Suleman to extend her waning 15 minutes of fame, grab headlines, and parlay her notoriety into dollars.
Besides making the rounds on Valley radio stations, Suleman also staged a meet-and-greet at a local Castle Megastore, where she met with porn connoisseurs and other curious parties. Except for us, that is.
We stopped by the adult novelty store on Washington Street last night to interview Octomom and maybe grab a few snapshots, only to be shut down by her handlers.
When we requested an opportunity to speak with Octomom, both a manager at the Castle location and one of her representatives firmly stated that Suleman didn't want any press about the signing itself.
Despite the fact that Suleman dished to local radio jocks like KUPD's Fitz and 104.7's Johnjay and Rich earlier in the day, she apparently didn't desire any coverage of her interaction with fans and wasn't granting any further interviews.
We were, however invited to pick up a copy of Octomom Home Alone (retail price $19.99) or fork over $30 for an autograph or Polaroid in order to get some facetime with Octomom.
Perhaps we should've dropped $20 per minute to interview Suleman via the Dial-A-Star service, like a colleague at our sister publication OC Weekly did back in April.
One would think the Suleman would want to milk every last drop of free publicity to sell her DVD or promote such other money-making ventures as her strip club appearance in Florida (which earned her dissings from other exotic dancers) or endorsement of payday lending service OctoLoan (which is sorta ironic, considering she declared bankruptcy in April).
We even hear she's considering launching a music career.
From what we witnessed, the signing was well-attended by more than 50 people, each of which were eager to buy her DVD, snag an autograph, or get their two minutes of interaction with Octomom.
An equal number of men and women, including tattooed bros, several couples, and a few bored housewives lined up in a partitioned-off area patrolled where Suleman sat. One gent sporting the horrific "Stop the Octomom Before She Shits Again" T-shirt created by death metal band Cattle Decapitation, and another fellow who literally wore a barrel held up by suspenders.
In some ways, it felt akin to some sideshow attraction at an old-timey carnival ("See the Woman Who Gave Birth to Eight Babies at Once") or modern-day version of the exploitation of the Hottentot Venus. It's one of many subjects we wanted to discuss with Suleman about during her appearance, as well as this query: "Is there anything you wouldn't do for cash?"
At least no one tried to accost Suleman (like one nut attempted to do when she participated in a foxy boxing-style battle last year) and carry out Cattle Decapitation's directive.
