When the celebrity gossip world last saw Joe Francis, he was embroiled in a lawsuit with Ashley Dupre, hiring Holly Montag (sister of Heidi) as his new assistant, and generally making a huge, wholly unwelcome ass out of himself.

Hard as it is to believe, someone would actually, willingly like to see Francis again. U.S. District Judge S. James Otero issued a warrant for the Girls Gone Wild CEO arrest today after he failed to show up in court and could not be reached.

Francis was needed for a hearing to decide whether his lawyers could remove themselves from his tax evasion case, due to “strategic differences of opinion.”

Joe Francis is a leading expert in getting (often underage) girls out of their clothes in a hurry. Here, he puts on some of said clothes for a disturbing picture.

The lowlife’s trial, which concerns his decision to make $20-30 million in allegedly phony deductions from 2002 to 2003, is scheduled to to begin on March 31.

Hopefully, Joe Francis can find a firm that can represent him with a straight face by then. Or not. Even the Mark Vincent Kaplans of the world have standards.