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At Pasco Clothing-Optional Resort, Hers Is A Well-Known Face

Tribune photo by CHRISTINE DELESSIO

Angye Fox, Caliente's public relations director, hopes to introduce younger people to the clothing-optional lifestyle, which she says is imperative if the industry is to survive.

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By GEOFF FOX | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 12, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - Angye Fox wasn't sure she would be comfortable at a nudist resort.

That was four years ago.

Now, she is public relations director for the opulent, clothing-optional Caliente Resorts off U.S. 41 in Land O' Lakes. The owner of AdSizzle Inc. Marketing & Public Relations in Odessa, Fox obviously enjoyed her initial nudist experience.

"The mindset of a clothing-optional person is to be embraced," said Fox, 37, a Green Bay, Wisc., native. "It's very open-minded and friendly."

Caliente's high profile – it was once featured on "The Simple Life" reality show that starred Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie – makes her one of the most recognizable faces in one of the world's largest nudist communities.

Pasco County is home to at least 14 nudist or clothing-optional resorts or retreats – and about 12,000 "nude votes," state Sen. Victor Crist, R-Tampa, estimated last year.

News out of Caliente isn't always light and fun, though.

Last year, the resort withdrew its membership with the American Association for Nude Recreation, which offers lobbying and marketing leverage to member resorts, after AANR began investigating rumors of sex parties at Caliente.

Some residents and members also were angry that Fox spoke at Swingfest 2008, an adult trade show in Hollywood, Fla., where she led a workshop promoting the co-existence of swingers and nudists.

To an outsider, nudists complaining about swingers might sound as ridiculous as a homeowner's association grumbling about people keeping their grass too short.

But many nudists have long sought to disassociate their lifestyle with scenes from "Caligula," which is how many people who have never been to a nudist resort probably assume they live.

Regardless, Fox defended the Swingfest appearance as a means of introducing younger people to the clothing-optional lifestyle, which is imperative if the industry hopes to survive.

She also seemed popular among the staff, members and residents observed at Caliente on a recent weekday.

Doug Allen, a guest relations worker and resident at the resort, said Fox is "terrific." He and wife Barbara have been nudists for about 30 years.

"She totally gets what Caliente is about and she represents it in a great way," he said.

In the last year, Caliente has pursued younger demographics through advertisements in Creative Loafing, a local alternative newspaper, and on a local sports talk radio station, where Fox and Caliente's events and entertainment director Deb Bowen have been on-air guests.

The resort also e-mails a weekly newsletter and connects with the younger crowd on MySpace, the popular social networking site, and is creating national and international media kits with photos, videos and podcasts that people can download and listen to on their computers or iPods.

Of course, what draws many younger people to Caliente are its theme parties, such as last year's "Arabian Nights" event, where guests dressed as genies, kings or queens, or the "Eyes Wide Shut" party, an homage to the 1999 Stanley Kubrick film with Tom Cruise. Attendees were encouraged to wear masks.

These are the events described by some residents as wild sex parties.

Fox and other Caliente officials say that simply isn't true.

She now hopes to establish Caliente as America's first clothing-optional polling site.

Brian Corley, Pasco County's supervisor of elections, doesn't seem to think that will happen any time soon.

"It's way too premature" to think about, he said last week. "We don't tailor precincts to specific purposes. It has to be needs-based. The rule of thumb is you don't tinker with precincts unless you have to. I did not commit to anything" with Caliente.

Despite last year's backlash and the odds that Caliente probably won't become America's first clothing-optional voting precinct in 2010, Fox's enthusiasm for nudism and Caliente seems unequivocal.

Maybe it's in her roots.

"My father is German, and social nudism originated in Germany," she said. "A lot of us Germans totally get it. My father's jealous because I can be naked right now down in Florida."

Reporter Geoff Fox can be reached at (813) 779-4613 or gfox@tampatrib.com.

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