Friday, February 11, 2000

Email Luke

Brian Shuster

Rachel called: "The total sale price of that division he [Brian Shuster] sold (webjump.com, part of info.net) was $25 million. People are being canned left and right with no severance pay and no anything. Their paid time off that they had earned, they are not getting paid for. That's not legal. There's talk about a class action lawsuit. Brian has been promising stock options, benefits, and it is either not delivered or the division that has sold, they worked really hard to make sure it was a good division, and because it is sold, those employees will not get a bonus.

"Xpics is still going, barely. Just limping along. Brian's declaration of bankruptcy is really fishy because he's getting this $25 million. And the reason he's selling it is so he doesn't have to pay people their bonus. Brian's just screwing over all his employees."

The Domestic Life Of A Porn Star

The Orange County Weekly's sex issue profiles Candy Apples.

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/00/23/sex-schoenkopf.shtml

The apartment is plain. It has a barren little patio, a smallish kitchen, and a leopard-print rug over gray beach carpet to mark the sitting area. The bathroom is spotless, decorated by a couple of pretty blue candles. The only other decorations in the house—besides the Pokémon motif, the Japanese kid’s cartoon to which all three say they’re addicted—are the cow skull over the giant TV and a framed Tom Byron photo, inscribed, "To Candy: I wanna ram my big cock up your s---hole and then make you suck it, you whore!!!" Five bent-over women, displaying their assholes and snatches like collies in heat, complete the composition. There is a desk and an ugly file cabinet with neat red folders holding her pictures, which look fantastic. Someone has arranged the video games very tidily on the entertainment center.

That compulsively clean someone was probably Candy herself—the woman Hustler’s Dick Pursel describes as "the very top of the very bottom of the barrel. She can act, and she’s likable, and she seems a bit smarter than most. But she’ll do anything." It seems even porn stars are subject to your mother’s warnings: men only want good girls. If only they knew how very domestic she is.

Rob Roars

LGIDistributors.com sent me this press release: East coast based Lgi distributors will not release kendra jade from her Exclusive video contract. She is under contract to Lgi for 12 movies for Two years. Kendra Jade also signed and exclusive contract for the Internet And can not promote any other companies or products in any way on the Internet. Any company that plans to use Miss Jade should contact our corporate attorney Paul Cambria at 716-849-1333 Miss Jade’s agent Rob Spallone has use slander and lies On the Internet for weeks to try to get Lgi To release miss jade. These threat and attacks have continued and we are seeking appropriate legal action against these companies and individuals. Lgi distributors denies any wrong doing against Miss Jade we also deny Any illegal activities by our company or any representatives.

Luke talked to Rob Spallone by phone at 12:40 PM, Friday.

Rob: "I have a request. No, I have an order. I do not want to see Bo's name on your website anywhere for any reason."

Luke: "Ok. I can stop writing about him if I must."

Gene Ross covers the Spallone - Mitchell situation. Gene writes: "Haley Starr yesterday called AIM and was allegedly given by-mail instructions when AIM supposedly had discontinued its by-mail policy. When Gene Ross called to ask Mitchell if this had been the case, Mithcell said AIM had re-instituted its by-mail policy. Spallone claims that Mitchell did a hurry-up job to institute one to cover butt."

BobBlec> Luke: just so you'll know, Rob Spallone doesn't use real bullets in his gun, so feel free to pull the trigger.

Rob: "It's fine for us to step up and say when Sharon's doing things wrong... Maybe we went about it in a scumbag way, going through the internet... We should've talked to Sharon ourselves which is how I am going to react from now on. Hey Sharon, I hear you're doing this. It's wrong... Blah, blah, blah..."

Luke: "How was the Vivid shoot at your place Thursday?"

Rob: "They're as professional as they can be. That's what happens when you have big budgets."

Luke: "Did you meet Paul Thomas?"

Rob: "Yes, he was here. I didn't talk to him much.

"Bo had a problem with something he read on you yesterday. Because we'd made a deal the day before. He thought that I had put something on your site about him which I didn't. Then he read some things he didn't like and he wrote up that press release. Then we talked this morning and we straightened it all out. And he called back an hour ago, 'I want to let you know that my office sent out a press release... Just disregard it.' So I don't want to see anything more about Bo on your website."

MadisonFan> hey Luke, why dont you tell rob spallone to f--- off or get his own website?

l-keford> Because's my buddy and he's dangerous.

MadisonFan> why be in this busines IF you arent gonna at least have some balls? You're a puppet.

Luke Tours Danni.com

Playboy TV producer Eric Mittleman (ericm@danni.com) has quit his job producing Night Moves and other shows and moved to Danni.com where he runs their video division.

Danni.com aka Danni's Harddrive is owned by former stripper Danni Ashe.

Eric gave me a tour of Danni.com Friday morning.

Eric: "I've always said that I never wanted to do erotic content for anybody but Playboy, especially coming from a mainstream background. My three key words are bureaucracy, politics, and opportunity. Playboy was too full of bureaucracy and politics. It is a big company and has been around a long time. And you have a lot of people with a lot of different agendas and not all those agendas line up in the same direction. The world is moving too quickly to be concerned with the politics of any individual company which is where opportunity comes in. I deem the opportunity to be with the internet and streaming video. Right after I came over here was the AOL - Time Warner merger. And Psuedo.com hired the former president of CCNfN as their new president.

"We're all thinking about the same thing. Coming at convergence from the other side. Traditional broadcast and cable TV is a protected medium with few distribution outlets while the internet - buy yourself a server, get an ISDN line and you're a network.

"I've been talking to Danni and her husband for a long time and it just seemed like a smart move. It seemed that there was more opportunity. And no politics and no bureaucracy."

Luke: "Do you think the Time Warner - AOL merger was connected with your move to Danni's Harddrive?"

Eric: "I believe it was. I think they were watching my moves and said, 'We've got to get on top of this.'

"I was at Playboy for eight-and-a-half years which is a long time to be anywhere. I have a friend who's a TV writer... We started working at the same time. I asked him how many people he's worked for in the last eight-and-a-half years? He said twelve, at least.

"In entertainment, a lot of the educational process comes from moving around. Fortunately, during my time with Playboy, Playboy did a lot of changing so I got a good education in not only production and distribution, including international distribution. That's the nice thing with the internet. You don't need foreign partners. Playboy just sold most of their foreign business to the Cisneros Group for $100 million up front and an ongoing piece beyond that. With the internet, you are your own foreign distributor.

In December, 1999, I interviewed Eric by phone.

"They've just built five TV studios here and they're doing lots of netcasting," said Mittleman, speaking on his first day on the job at Danni.com.

Eric is just one of hundreds of smart independent creative persons shifting from traditional media for the freedom and challenge of the web.

Psuedo.com offers numerous webcasts of talk shows, including one by Disinfo.com's Richard Metzger, who used to work at Playboy and knew Mittleman. Richard interviewed Luke here.

Though Danni.com has talked about going public, it has yet to make serious moves to do so.

Playboy tends not to pay its employees much and keeps them wrapped up in bureaucracy. Eric gave them six weeks notice.

"As a producer, it got frustrating doing the same things over and over again and getting pigeonholed," says Mittleman, a white guy who stands 5'4" and has had the same beautiful girlfriend for over two years. "Danni.com already does a weekly live event [over the web] and a monthly feature, usually a movie parody... We'll be launching adult themed TV talk stuff... Some of it will be streamed on the free site and some on the pay site."

Eric says the standards and practices are different on the web as opposed to cable TV. "Physically you can see anything, but contactwise it must stay soft. There's no restriction on nudity but sex scenes must be really simulated. Whereas at Playboy you'd just shoot stuff from a certain angle..."

Webcasting companies like Den and Pseudo are losing money and sucking in more money to finance their losses. Like almost all internet startups. The one profitable section of the web is porn. Danni.com is already profitable.

"We do some stuff live. We do some pre-made stuff that we stream... Everything is fully digital. We have a machine called a Trinity which is to the control room what the Avid was to [videotape] editing. It allows you to do a lot of things with few people. The system can switch up to nine different sources and the controller can control five remote cameras with ten presets on each camera. So one person can shoot and switch an entire show."

Black Anals Sticking Point In Jade Contract

A demand by FANtasticonline.com that Kendra Jade get analled by a hung black guy a month has proved to be the sticking point in contract negotiations between the blonde busty porn star and FANtastic's Greg Vasiloff.

Greg's been in and out of the hospital for the past week with bleeding stomach ulcers from the prolonged negotiations. President Clinton is offering to mediate the dispute.

Jade wants a 'no anal - condom only' contract though on Monday she's doing a anal thing with a Stern fan!! What's up wit dat? And her eight month anal fling with Vasiloff, a well hung black man himself.

KendraJXXX@aol.com responds: take the kj/;black man s--- off and apologize you asshole

Norman Siegel - Head NY Jew For ACLU

Chaim Amalek writes: Norman Siegel is the head jew of the New York Civil Liberties Union, the most important component of the national ACLU. He writes in a local publication, the West Sider, of his fear that under Mayor Giuliani, New York is becoming increasingly hostile to free expression. His article offers a fascinating glimpse into the thinking of a certain type of secular New York Jew at the millenium, forever reaching to the Hitler era for ammunition to use against his political targets.

Norman first begins with the famous quote of Martin Niemoeller: "In Germany, they came first for the communists, and I did not speak up because I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak up because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, but I did not speak up because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I did not speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me and by that time, there was nobody left to speak up."

After conceding that things under Giuliani are not quite as bad as they were under Hitler, Siegel rhetorically asks what Niemoeller might write today, assuming the correct political thinking:

"In New York City, first they made it a crime to aggressively panhandle, and I did not speak up because I was not a panhandler. [Note - I think that it is great that unlike sneakier liberal jews like the honorary jew Hillary Clinton, Norman comes right out and establishes himself to be a f---ing idiot. As someone who has to contend with panhandlers still, on the subways of New York, my complaint is not that aggressive panhandling is illegal, but that the police are not sufficiently aggressive in enforcing the laws against such panhandling.]

Then they made it illegal to hold press conferences on the steps of City Hall, but I did not speak up because I am not someone who holds press conferences. [Steps are for moving up or moving down upon, not for preening before the press.]

Then they prohibited a march in opposition to the policies and practices of the NYPD, but I did not speak up because I am not a protester. [When was this? I see such protests every few months.]

Then they stopped the taxicab drivers from coming over the 59th Street bridge, and I did not speak up because I am not a cabby. [The cabbies' intent was to paralyze lower Manhattan. They were pissed off at the mayor for enforcing basic public safety laws prohibiting cabbies from speeding and otherwise endangering the welfare of others. Since the crackdown began, the number of pedestrians killed by cabs has plunged.]

Then they threatened the Hebrew Israelites with arrest if they continued to preach in Times Square, but I did not speak up because I am not a Hebrew Israelite. [Now this is really interesting. First of all, the proper name of the group to which he is referring is either "Black Hebrews" or "Black Israelites", not "Hebrew Israelites". No matter - what he does not say is that this is a fanatically anti-white and anti-semitic group of black racists who stand on street corners and scream abuse through bullhorns at passersby and who literally call for the physical extermination of all white people, all jews, and all blacks not willing to get with their program. If the Klan openly threatened such violence, would Siegel be speaking out on their behalf?]

Then they threatened to cut the funding of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, but few spoke up because they were afraid of retaliation from City Hall. [This is in reference to the Sensation exhibit of material owned by the Jewish Saatchi family, which denigrated certain christian iconography.]

Then they enjoined the Transport Workers Union from talking about going on strike, but I did not speak up because I'm not in a union. [The union was hours away from calling a strike that would have crippled the city. Giuliani's move served to remind the Union that strikes by transit workers are ILLEGAL, and helped prevent what certainly would have been a ruinous strike.]

Then they cut back my civil liberties, but my right to protest was gone. This cannot be allowed to happen."

Luke, I think you should have a contest to see who can come up with the most stirring example of Niemoeller-like prose in defense of porn. ("First they came for the _____. . . . and then they came for me, but no one was left to speak up.")

PS: XX writes: "He's almost sounding like some feminazi who thinks that any form of sex is rape and sees subversive anti-female slants in all media." OK, so first she refuses to declare that all races are of equal intelligence, then she criticizes the design of your web site for having certain elements that clearly are hebraic in their inspiration, and now she is attacking asian women as "slants". There is a pattern of hatred at work here, Luke. Is XX really any different from John Rocker? And when are you going to set up that 900 number? Hell, if you are too lazy to do it, I might be pursuaded to get the ball rolling for a 50% cut of the revenue. Have a gut yontef!

CEN Seeks $50 Million Out Of Court Settlement From UU.net

Art Naylor writes: "Hey Luke- I have been reading the posts on your site about the whole CEN-UU.net issue. We ourselves (www.videosecrets.com) had some problems with those bastards a couple of years ago. It was basically the same thing that happened to CEN. One of our marketing partner spamed, UU.net caught wind of it and shut us off. We were down for 2 days, but like they say, what ever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger. So yesterday I get a call from some guy at UU.net, asking us who does our hosting. I tell this moron that he has a lot of nerve calling us after what happened with CEN and he should do his homework. Also, it seems that many people know about UU.net's Fascist spam policy. If were ever get a spam complaint because of someone, it is always cc'd to UU.net. I hope CEN gets 100 million dollars. Also, just want to let you know that we are still doing our Free For February program, we offering all new marketing partners who sign up with our Secret Partners program (www.secretpartners.com) Privatechannels (www.privatechannels.com) free for the entire February (only 18 days left). And if you don't already know this is the ONLY DVD style format you will find on-line, and it features Private's (www.private.com NASDAQ:PRVT), full length movies with sound. It is a must for any membership site. "

Today's Wall Street Journal reports that MCI's profits are way up, partly thanks to UU.net, the backbone of the internet.

I talked to CEN owner Joe Elkin at 4:40 PST. He's back in Florida after a few days in Washington D.C. trying to deal with UU.net, the 800-pound gorilla.

Joe: "They're [UU.net] still messing with us. They're still blocking a couple of our smaller IPs. I don't even think they're legal department knows it. They're all confused over there. We have an attorney sending a "Cease and Desist" letter to them to unblock us on Monday. And a letter asking for $50 million in damages. Out of court. If we file in court, we're going to file for more than that."

Luke: "How were your meetings with them?"

Joe: "Meetings were... Basically we didn't get to meet with UU.net, to be honest with you. We got to meet around UU.net. So it was tough. That's why John [Bennet, Joe's partner] finally left Washington. They don't know what to do. They're in an uproar. They made a mistake. I will fax you the letter we have from them but I don't want to do it quite yet to see if we settle first. Otherwise our programs (www.cencash.com) are up and running. I promise you that you will be the first to know what is happening."

Sharon Mitchell's AIM Controversy

Sharon Mitchell's AIM (Adult Industry Medicine) clinic is in the news again. According to two sources, AIM has a new blood processing lab, their fifth. And that supposedly they are accepting blood through the mail again for testing.

XXX: "It's a fact. I have it on tape. She put it on GeneRoss.com three months ago and in AVN and said that she would never do that [take blood through the mail for testing] again, and that she knows it was wrong, and she apologized. A girl called today from Florida. She's coming in Sunday and has a movie Monday. How can she go about? And they said, 'Go to a doctor and get it put into a purple or lavendar top. That's the kind of vial. And send it to 14241 Ventura Blvd, Suite 105, Sherman Oaks, CA.' And I have the whole conversation on the tape recorder. And the girl spoke to Fritz."

Sharon Mitchell told Gene Ross: "We are reinstating the PCR-DNA by-mail policy. We have added specific and strict guidelines regarding identification and qualified personnel. It has to be signed off by a facility. There has to be two picture ID's. The identification has to be witnessed by the person signing off on it. They have to attach a copy of two picture I.D's The blood has to be sealed and shipped Fed EX in accordance with the new CDC regulation for bio-hazardous shipping. These are some of the changes being made. There's also a partner-notification release included in there.

"We feel we've sewn up all these things since October. When we discontinued it, we didn't really quite have everything sewn up like we do now. The fact that our critics pointed out some situations to us, we've been able to come up with excellent protocol in accordance with CDC shipping regulations. I feel very safe with it."

Sharon ran into Rob Spallone at Jim South's office Thursday afternoon. They talked for about an hour and they seem to have made peace.

Mitchell called me at 7:30PM.

Sharon: "You'll never guess what happened?"

Luke: "No. Did you make peace with Rob Spallone?"

Sharon giggles. "I think so."

Luke: "A miracle. What happened?"

Sharon: "This morning, someone that he knew called and talked to one of our volunteers on the phone about our by-mail policy which we are ready to reinstate... Thanks to our critics who tore holes in it, we were really able to patch up a good chain-of-custody protocol. Making sure that it only gets mailed to the facility...

"We had all this beef about it today. I had you calling. I had Gene calling. I was trying to make a statement but people were calling about Jim South cutting us off from referrals... It was wild. So I was thinking that today of all days, I wanted to prepare a statement...and mail it out... Now I get thrown back into all this terror.

"I spoke to Russ Hampshire today and I asked him to help me prepare a quote about our by-mail policy. He was very helpful. Because I knew it was going to be an onslaught. No good deed goes unpunished in porn. So everytime we make what I think is a groundbreaking expansion to the needs of the industry, I turn around and there's the army. Which is pretty good in many ways because they keep me on my toes real well. It's just difficult sometimes, more than I can handle. But I try to walk through it as gracefully as possible.

"So I called you and left a message. I dealt with Gene... And to be on the safe side, I showed the new policy to Jim South so he still feels comfortable referring people. So I went over there and talked to him for a long time and ran it by him. And I go back into the main room and there was Rob sitting in the little room on the side.

"So I go up and say 'Rob can I talk to you for a few minutes.' He says 'Yeah.' So we go into the room and Jim South closes the door. And we were in there for 45 minutes... And he told me what his perception was about the by-mail policy. So...we kicked stuff over. He gave a lot of good suggestions. And I double-checked some stuff... Then we talked about different suggestions for the industry. And having some meetings... He suggested that we use the location for different meetings, like industry meetings for talent. And I said, 'Do you know how many people we could help if we work together?' And he said, 'Yeah, well, I'd rather we talk to each other directly.'

"So we exchanged cards and we made a tentative agreement to have lunch next week and put all that s--- in the past behind. And I gave him a big hug. I always feel good when I make the attempt. It's not really about the response, it's about what I do... That's what love is.

"Now if I can make peace with Greg Zeboray, I've got it licked."

Luke: "Did you have a good time in at the CES in Vegas?"

Sharon: "It's like work to me... Standing there schmoozing and smiling... We raised a lot of money for the clinic. And we got a sense of how much we mean to so many people by having a booth."

Luke: "What do you think of Leisure Time's 'Positively Yours' [starring all-HIV positive porn stars] movie?"

Sharon: "I think it is a great idea. If it is done well, in a positive way, and if people in the porn industry who are HIV positive and want to work, and their viral load... With the drugs out now, their viral load is undetectable with RNA in about three months. They're still positive and can transmit but it lessens the risk. And with protection like condoms and vaginal microbicides. And if the partner if aware of the positive person's status and they have informed consent and choice, I think it could be a pretty good message for people who have HIV and are afraid... Any time we have a chance, no matter how risky or controversial it may be, to make a statement, then go ahead and do it.

"It is time we start teaching people that if you are HIV positive, there are things that you can do, protection... to expand your choices. What do you think?"

Luke: "An all-HIV movie sound weird..."

Sharon: "Yeah, it sounds controversial but I really think that they are going to present it in a nice way. And we know a lot of people who are HIV positive who have a pretty good sex life."

Porner: There is no way to insure that the blood is a person's unless it is drawn at a clinic in Ca by a licensed person..... Money can buy anythi... Blood by mail puts people at risk unles you fly there and do it yourself. Do we need to use people who are unable to get proper tests wherever they live and have to send blood here including false docs and idds.