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Former politician and high-profile broadcaster Pam Corkery has been linked to plans for New Zealand's first brothel for women.
The Herald understands the ex-Alliance MP is on the hunt for a property to house the bordello - where sex workers will be male and clients female.
She is believed to
be looking for property in central Auckland.
One source said the concept involved a spa, bar and bordello where women could "come and either just drink and be titillated, or go the whole nine yards".
Publicist Paul Ellis, a former New Zealand Idol judge, said he had met Ms Corkery in the past week to discuss her business plan.
Mr Ellis, who was approached by the Herald after it learnt of his meeting, said Corkery wanted the brothel plan "to be shot as a TV project".
"It's not my place to comment. It was one of myriad things. She's doing a whole raft of things. One of the great things about Pam is she's got so much energy," Mr Ellis said.
Ms Corkery set up a company, DWT Limited, last Friday jointly with television producer Rebekah Freeman Hay, and it is believed that the brothel will continue to operate after filming for the proposed TV series is complete.
The reality TV show would be focused on the hiring of the male sex workers.
Mr Ellis said he had not decided whether he would be involved with the project, which he believed was still some time off.
When contacted yesterday, Ms Corkery said she was unable to talk about the project and hung up.
Ms Hay, who is listed as a 50 per cent shareholder of DWT, also refused to comment.
Another source said Ms Corkery had been seeking properties in central Auckland and was understood to have approached property developer Andrew Krukziener.
Mr Krukziener yesterday refused to discuss the matter, instead suggesting the Herald deal directly with Ms Corkery.
Auckland City Council and Waitakere City Council staff said yesterday they had not received any application for a brothel licence in the name of Ms Corkery or her company.
But a Waitakere spokesman said that if the brothel was a "home occupation" employing fewer than four staff on site, it did not need a licence.
Annah Pickering, of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective, said a brothel dedicated solely to women would be the first of its kind.
"The male sex workers working out of the male escort agencies we have now serve both male and female clients," she said.
Ms Pickering said the main clientele would probably be "cougars" - older women who are attracted to and have sex with significantly younger men.
But the business would still struggle to survive in New Zealand.
"It's easier to meet men, and get picked up at bars and night spots."
Australian feminist advocate Melinda Tankard Reist, who will be in Auckland this week to speak at a forum run by lobby group Family First, said she was disgusted with the idea of the sale of sex from men to women.
Turning the tables did not make prostitution right or the situation any better for women, she said.
"It's no great advancement for women's empowerment to say that we can now buy men for sex. It's no great sign of liberation.
"Prostitution from men for women is still about the trade in human bodies and human flesh ... just because it's men that's being sold doesn't make it any better. It's still very wrong."
Last year, Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss tried to establish a brothel catering to women, called "Heidi's Stud Farm".
She had an agreement with the HBO television network but the project later stalled.
