Cheerleaders as young as nine used to promote strip club — controversy somehow ensues

Calendar Girls is a notorious strip club in New Zealand (two convenient locations to serve you), so when a group of mostly 15- and 16-year-olds were introduced at a recent event as the “Calendar Girls Cheerleaders,” no one should have been surprised when controversy ensued. It happened at an international ice hockey match on Saturday in Christchurch, where the All Star Cheerleaders were scheduled to perform — which included one nine-year-old. Their sponsor was Calendar Girls. Oops.

Coach Claire Stackhouse said the group did not expect to be associated with Calendar Girls.

She was not in town for the event but said she had been told the cheerleaders, mostly 15 and 16-year-old girls, were introduced as the Calendar Girls cheerleaders.

She said some parents were concerned.

“They’re disappointed they announced them as that, as they spend a lot of time and money for their kids to train,” she said.

“They don’t sign up for other people to pass them off as Calendar Girls, but then again their parents were all there and they didn’t pull them from their performance.”

Strip club owner Jacqui Le Prou said she sponsored the event and asked Stackhouse to provide a squad of older girls.

“They were announced as All Star Cheerleaders brought to you by Calendar Girls,” she said.

“The whole reason we didn’t want young girls is because [the cheerleaders] were being brought to you by Calendar Girls and we didn’t want there to be a problem.”

What’s next, Little League team parties at Hooters?

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Young cheerleaders’ link to strip club causes upset [Stuff.co.nz]