Markovitz (left) donated $5,000 to Larry Oleinick of Heart 2 Hart Detroit.
Strip club owner Alan Markovitz made good this week on his promise to turn over the proceeds from the sale of his 12-foot-high sculpture of an obscene middle finger to a local charity that feeds and clothes the homeless in Detroit.
The bronze statute was placed in the backyard of his Orchard Lake home in November to send a not-so subtle message to his next door neighbor, who now lives with his former wife. The finger got world wide attention and became fodder on the late night TV circuit.
Markovitz, who paid $7,500 for the sculpture, got $5,000 on eBay a couple weeks ago, and this week donated that money to a homeless charity, Heart 2 Hart Detroit, founded in June 2012 by Larry Oleinick. Both men both grew up in Oak Park.
"It was the right way to end the story," Markovitz told Deadline Detroit. "The middle finger came full circle and did a good deed. The money from the middle finger will feed and clothe a lot of people. With the arctic freeze, people are hurting more than ever."
Someone who wants to remain anonymous bought the finger, he says, and it was shipped to Ohio.
"But I don't know if that was the final destination," he said.
Besides owning strip clubs in Metro Detroit, Markovitz is starring in an upcoming reality show on HBO/Cinemax called "Topless Prophet." The show, which was slated to be aired this winter, will likely debut in the spring instead, Markovitz said.
The series will feature Markovitz, his three metro Detroit topless clubs, his managers, agents who recruit dancers and the performers themselves -- on stage, backstage and outside the clubs.
Film crews have shot more footage the past couple weeks in Detroit, Markovitz says. "They think the show is very very good, but they want to make it great," he adds.
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