Thursday, June 11, 1998

I began my work day at 10:30 AM at Pretty Girl International. Reb Sawitz has taken a week off to be with his family. His long-haired assistant Shylar (born 9/1/70) runs the office. Sitting behind the desk smoking a cigarette, he watches the Jenny Jones show on TV.

The phone rings only once during my 30-minutes at the office. The place is eerily quiet compared to Jim South's World Modeling, and Rob Spallone's Star World Modeling, and Regan Senter's place.

Shylar, his real name, reluctantly gives me an interview. He speaks slowly, in a mellow tone. "Non-motivated filmmakers go into porn. They have loads of talent but they choose the easy way out. I am a non-motivated filmmaker.

"My old man [David Schmoeller] makes horror films. He teaches film. I wouldn't like to work for him. The only other way to get into the business was to get into porno.

"Working for Paul Thomas and Vivid is great. We get to travel all over the country and have fun. We're tight. I've been working for him as a Production Assistant for two years now. My wife, Katherine, for three years. She is his Production Manager. Runs the set. The same crew year after year. I think we are the only full-time crew in the business. PT shoots two films (yes, literally shot on film) a month (for budgets around $60,000 each). Shoots last up to eight days.

"Paul Thomas is a great boss. He's always running in circles. Says one thing and does another. But he gets it done. With bigger budgets than most. He's cleaned up his life. Been sober for over a year now. I think he's the best director out there. PT is the ultimate hippie. He could do anything he wants, and he chooses porno.

"We're doing another edition of Blondage, with Janine and Julia Ann, on July 15. We're shooting in strip bars. I know Janine. All the Vivid girls are good to work with. None of them are prima donnas."

Luke: Have you gotten to screw any of them?

Shylar: "Not me. I'm married. I get all [the sex] I want at home. None of our crew gets laid, except for a grip here and there. A birthday blowjob or something. All the girls know that Katherine is there… We don't swing. We've had a couple of threesomes."

Shylar, an only child who's worked for Reb for six years, lives with his wife in the back house at Reb's place in North Hollywood.

"My dad doesn't like my porn career. But I don't care. He accepts it. I want to direct one day. Porno. Features. I want to make a lot of money. If I didn't, I wouldn't live in LA. LA is an awful town. Porno is the way for non-dedicated filmmakers, actors, etc to make a lot of money. We have dedicated fans though. I don't watch porno. It's all the same."

Luke: "What do you think of the morality of pornography?"

Shylar: "There are no morals in pornography. And that's ok. I'm not a church-going guy."

Luke: "Is there much drug use in porn?"

Shylar: "No, aside from marijuana. Our set is a clean and sober set. When we wrap, we'll pass a beer and smoke a joint. Everybody shies from drug use because it leads to worse problems like disease…

"Business is strong. PT is still going strong. Last summer, we were in the news more because of Boogie Nights."

Shortly before 3 PM, I stop by the PAW office. I chat with Jackie Lick for a few minutes. Not only has she had to struggle with Hepatitus C for the last few weeks, but also with a bad cold. Her nose looked raw and sore. She's feeling better after enduring a long fast of juices only. Jackie heads out on the road for a six week stripping gig that begins in Las Vegas this weekend.

Luke and Jackie discuss their various health problems and treatments. Jackie reminds me to correct a couple of minor mistakes on my web site.

I then talk with Bill about the latest AVN which supposedly features a one-page story about me. Also look for a forthcoming story on "Luke F-rd - Matt Drudge of Porno" at http://www.ojr.org.

Jasmine St. Clair and her boyfriend Earl Slate enter the PAW office and take a PCR/DNA HIV test. Bad publicity about Earl (Tony Stearns) has killed his performing career. He says he has not worked for anyone in four months.

Earl turned to me, Bill Margold, Donna Stanton, and AVN for help with combating negative talk about him. My reporting on the matter has only made his problems worse.

Bill is not sympathetic today to Earl's complaints. "How can anybody defame the defamed [porno people]. This is a litter box kid. You can't be kicked out."

Earl: "I've been blackballed by the industry. If there was no such thing as bad publicity, I would be doing five to seven scenes a week as I did all last year. I haven't worked for four months."

Bill: "Are you starving?"

Earl: "Yeah, I'm borrowing money to survive right now."

Bill: "It will all blow over. Take your latest test to Las Vegas to the VSDA, and you'll get work."

Jasmine: "That's such a lame show."

Earl: "Charley Frey [Jasmine's former manager] sent a goon squad of four torpedoes into her club last week to collect money. I had to stand between them."

Jasmine: "I had my attorney send him a letter today."

Luke: "Thug collectors?"

Jasmine: "Right. And it was for money that was only due at the end of June. Then he wanted to charge me for the thug expenses on top of that. For their plane fare.

"Charley sent me to four clubs where I didn't get paid. He knew I wasn't going to get paid. He told the club owners to send him the check instead of me."

Earl tells me he does not mind my publishing his real name - Tony Stearns. I tell Earl that several women in the industry fear that he may become physically violent.

Earl vehemently denies these charges. He does admit that he did jail time for aggravated assault. He says that he was in a bar fight. A man broke a beer bottle over Earl's head. Earl went crazy and beat the man into a coma.

Earl/Tony: "I have never hit a woman in my life. If I was physically violent, Jackie Lick [who Earl blames for talking bad about him] would have two black eyes."

Luke asks Bill about nudist photographer Ed Leja (spelling?). Bill goes ballistic. "Oh no. You are not going to dig into that 20-year old story.

"Nudism was the beginning of our business. It was a way to show nudity. People playing volleyball. They didn't show genitalia in the first nudist magazines. And yes, in the early '70s, Ed and his wife Tina published these nudists magazines called Moppets which featured children. They were not salacious in any way. But a zealot, LAPD vice cop Lloyd Martin, thought he had found the devil in these magazines. He was a large part of the reason that I took over Reb's talent agency, because Martin just harassed Reb. They thought they had found in these magazines the supreme form of adult industry corruption. While they were so busy looking under the bed, the X-rated industry exploded on the bed, above the bed and all over America."

I talk with a tattooed short young male performer named JD Ram. A three year veteran, he complains to me about his ex-girlfriend, ex-porn star Raven McCall. He says that she made up a charge that he beat her, which resulted in Ram spending 60 days in jail (released 1/15/98). Ram copped a plea, rather than fighting the charge. He has an extensive criminal record from his days as a drug addict.

Bill Margold complains about the feminization of society. "Power of the pussy. In this feminist structured society, a woman's word has far more credibility than a man's word. We men live under this fear of not getting laid, so we don't say anything… I remember people coming out of the movie WAITING TO EXHALE. A bunch of black men following black women out of the movie, which was absolute crap. The Klu Klux Klan would've been proud of the way it portrayed blacks. The women however loved the movie, because it showed them emasculating an army of black men. The women walking out told their husbands, "You liked that, didn't you honey?" The men said [submissively], 'yes, we did like it.' Then they looked down at their feet ashamed. We've become a nation of androgyny. We're afraid that we have to behave to get laid."

JD: "We broke up in Thanksgiving, 1997. We were together a month."

The young man obviously has strong feelings for her. He usually speaks softly and slowly, but at times becomes angry and defiant.

Bill displays a derisive attitude towards Ram. "You fell in love with her at the bowling tournament. You were with her a week."

JD: "It was longer than that. Raven was taking a drug called Ambian. We planned to spend Thanksgiving Day at Reb's house. That didn't work out. So we decided to spend the day together. We were going to the Rainbow for dinner and then see Boogie Nights…"

Jim South walks in to talk to Bill.

JD: "That fell through because she got a call from a john. She runs ads on the internet. It was a $5000 deal. I booked it. The guy wanted cocaine. I used to have a very bad drug problem. I'm not ashamed to admit it because I am in recovery. [Sharon Mitchell vouches that JD has been sober for weeks.] I don't do drugs anymore.

"I was trying to stay sober when I was with Raven, but she didn't care. She sent me on this journey to a madam's house to pick up an eight ball of cocaine for a client. Like a moron, I do it. I ended up doing half of the guy's stuff. I cut it with baking soda. When I got to the hotel, she told me to wait in the lobby for an hour [while Raven f---ed the john]. Then we'll spend the night together. Well, she came down. Her client had decided that he wanted to explore the world of bondage, S&M and B&D. We went to a dungeon to a well-known dominatrix within the industry."

Jim South comes in and pulls JD aside. I thought Jim was going to tell JD to not talk to me but instead Jim only told JD about his next shoot.

JD returns. "The client becomes scared. He realizes that I am her boyfriend and that I was also a porno star. He was so coked out he couldn't get it up anyway. He decided that he wanted to pay me to f--- Raven. We did that. The client then invited back to his motel in Bel Aire. He wanted another girl involved. He wanted to watch Raven and I f---, and he wanted to f--- Raven with me.

"We brought in Whitney Wonders, the big breasted porn star. We had a fairly erotic night. We were supposed to be on location at 9AM. We left the motel at 5AM. Raven is a selfish vindictive bitch. She only cares about what she wants. She only cared about her being ready for the set. But f--- me. While I was rushing to get ready, and load up the car with all her gear, and all her toys… She throws these candy bars in my pocket. I got pissed and threw them in the gutter. Now I've destroyed the marine life. She wanted to break the cement around the gutter and dig these candy bars out. Which is completely f---ing ridiculous. I got pissed and punched the tire of her car. She got bent out of shape and left me stranded. She stiffed me for the job [last night]. I was pissed.

"Finally, I got a hold of her. I did like her. Feelings were developing. I started to care about her. She started to get jealous of me… We talked about the business a lot. We were going to work together [in porno]. And we were going to work with others. But, it became cheating if I stated that I wanted to work with someone, then I couldn't work with that person. That was cheating.

"Raven was still doing videos last year. Half the time she was loaded [on drugs]. Her biggest client was Stevie Jones of the Sex Pistols and Charlie Sheen, who offered her $10,000 to get a boob job with the surgeon of his choice. She turned him down. I booked many of her [prostitution] jobs. Charlie Sheen paid her about $10,000 every two weeks.

"Raven McCall is a slimy piece of s---. She has a restraining order against me. Her real name is Lorie Duran.

"What brought the police in… Thanksgiving night she was loaded on Ambian, an anti-depressant. She was in therapy and her therapist prescribed the medication. I came home to find her unconscious. I did not know what to do. I called 9-1-1. The Fire Department shows up. She wakes up. She was furious. The Fire Department came in. She was mad at me for letting them in. At the time, a fan of hers was stalking her. The Fire Department asked her three questions. What was her name? Date of birth and who the president of the United States was. She couldn't answer the questions. Instead she yelled at them. "f--- you, get the f--- out of the house." She came running out of her room naked. They called the police. The police advised me to leave the night.

"I lived there. I had paid her rent. My attitude was, 'f--- you. I'm not going anywhere.' I should've listened to the cops. She called the cops five minutes after they left, and said, 'my boyfriend grabbed me. Threw me to the ground and massaged my breasts and slapped me.' I never touched her.

"I do have a dark past. I'm an ex-addict, in recovery. No record for violent crime. But I used to steal stuff from stores and sell it to support my drug habit. Or I'd do films when I could… This industry never made me a drug addict. I was a drug addict when I came into it. It was this industry that helped me get sober.

"Because Raven had me arrested, and all my prior arrests, I ended up taking a plea bargain on 90 days.

"Bill, how long have I been in the industry?"

Bill's trying to connect to the internet. "You've been a thorn in my side for at least two years…

"Look at this guy," Bill says to Luke. "Doesn't he look like a typical prison inmate?"

Luke has no comment.

JD: "Bill loves me. He's a good guy."

Bill: "I know JD was around at the end of 1996, because I missed a day of playing touch football taking care of you at that strange house in the Valley, lending you $300, to keep you in the home for the wayward dullards."

JD: I went to PAW for help because the guy said he'd throw me out if I didn't pay the rent.

Bill to Luke: You screwed up one of my quotes… It should be "boulders and bird baths." You wrote, 'boulders and bird bats.' These people on the internet are wondering, 'what is a bird bat?' These internet people are so pathetic. Let me show you on of the vilest things [Voyager7's post about the FSC switching blood].

JD: I did care about Raven. I did like her. She doesn't give a guy space. She smothers him. I needed to go to meetings. I needed to do things by myself. All she cared about was the relationship. She went through this with another addict. She likes to rescue people, but by smothering the person, she makes things 100x worse. She went through this stuff with Free Speech and PAW, trying to help her with this other addict. They ended up losing him. He's getting loaded now because Raven would not leave him alone.

I never did IV drugs. I used powder drugs like cocaine, crack… I was a toxic waste dump.

I came into this business thinking it was a big f---ing party. I did not realize it was job. I've met a lot of people in this business who don't do drugs and will never do drugs.

Bill Margold dials on to the internet to show me some posts on RAME that he finds outrageous. In particular, Voyager7's post about the FSC switching my blood with Marc Wallice to mess with my mind. As Bill deplores the internet, I laugh.

Bill yells at me about Tim Evanson's post blasting the World Pornography Conference for not having enough homosexuals. Bill points out that the Conference is full of lesbians like Sharon Mitchell, Nina Hartley etc…

Bill derides a Michael Ross post. "Michael, go home. You've squandered a career [with the FSC]."

Luke: Voyager7 is a joker. He's hilarious.

Bill is incensed with Voyager7. "These people have nothing else to do. They are so pathetic…. The net is their Linus blanket which will wind up becoming a noose."

Luke cackles as Bill derides the internet.

Bill: Listen to that. That laugh. I hope you put that in your story. 'Luke laughs fiendishly as he continues to weave the net he's hanging his followers in.' You're an unusually malicious in this whole situation. You have more contempt for the people who follow you than the people you interview."

Luke laughs fiendishly.

Bill: "The people who worship you are the ones you spit upon, using the net as your spittoon. It's unbelievable."

Bill tries to find Tim's post. "How come no one responded to Evanson?"

Luke tries to help. Bill stumbles on a post by Will Jarvis.

Luke: "Bill is becoming swift on the internet, manipulating threads, opening up posts… "

Bill: "Mitchell, Ashton, Del Rio have all done lesbian scenes."

Luke: "Tim means male-to-male."

Bill: "I've been in three gay movies."

Luke: Did you take it up the ass?

Bill: I've taken it up the ass from the Free Speech Coalition… From people who can't measure up. I have never taken it up the ass literally. Extrusion only. I even resented getting enemas from my mommy.

Luke: Have you ever given it to a guy up the ass, perhaps thinking he was a girl?

Bill: I've never been that blind or drunk. Ron Jeremy did work with Sulka.

Luke: Who is Sulka?

Bill: Do research. Before Sulka was Sulka. She used to reside in the San Diego Zoo as a rhinocerous.

Shawn Ricks comes in.

Bill: The Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Shawn: What's with the haircut, Bill? You've walked into the '90s.

Bill: I get my hair cut twice a year. So I don't get asked to do gay films. Like your films, Shawn. Though I've never seen one of your movies. Show me the one you think is the best and I will rip it apart.

Shawn: Like you, I'm a child of this business.

Bill is shocked by an article from Tim Evanson which comes up on Bill's tiny MacIntosh computer as "Too Long… Download."

Bill: "Why would he put an article that is too long? He's babbling again."

Shawn boasts that the 7/98 AVN cover of Temptress comes from one of his movies.

Bill: Don't you realize that AVN's VSDA issue winds up in the trash more than any other?

Bill laughs at Shawn. Shawn replies F.U.

JD:" I have no use for her or anyone like her. I have no desire to see her. [Raven]

"On a happier note, I starred in this Sin City movie called THE MODELS - The Truth Behinds The Scenes. AVN has been raving about it. Mark Logan loves it. I haven't got a nomination from them yet, but I got a pre-nom from them for best-supporting actor. Kris Kramski directed. He's one of the best directors I've ever worked with.

Sharon Mitchell and Bill Margold indulge in a passionate discussion about AIM, PAW and the Free Speech Coalition. Sharon feels that some members of the FSC board are sniping at her, "stressing her."

Sharon and Loretta reside in one room and Bill Margold and Stephanie, the blood taker, in another. Sharon's room smells better. It's more feminine and frequently has incense burning.

Bill's small office now contains Sharon, Bill, Luke and JD, an intense combination of three dominating personalities.

JD: "The adult film industry has helped me by allowing me to let out my inhibitions, drop my shyness and build my self esteem. It's a homey environment to work in. It's safe, legitimate… For the first time in my life, I feel that I have people in my life who care about me. I was a throw-away kid. My parents wanted nothing to do with me. I got into trouble at school. I got into drugs… My mother told me that doing porn was the worst thing I ever did. It made me the slimiest, scummiest person on the planet. She is religious. She wanted to know what I would do if God came to one of my porno sets. My only response: 'I would tell him to get him out of my way because he's interfering with me getting wood.' The people in this business are the only ones who've been there when I've needed them. There have been people in AA who weren't there for me. My family never has been there for me. I love people in this business.

"If I meet a new performer, and I see a way to help the person, to get close, I will do so… And I don't mean that in a sexual manner.

"America is a controversial place. Thirty million of the mother f---ers jerk off to us every day. I have no problem with the porno fan. But those who get up on Jerry Springer or Geraldo Rivera, and say that we are prostitutes, a piece of s---, then they go home and jerk off to us… They are hypocrites. They are jealous that I get paid to get laid. They probably couldn't get laid in a crack house full of crack."

Bill Margold and Sharon Mitchell go back and forth in a passionate discussion about the FSC.

Sharon says she a couple of years to go before she gets her Bachelors degree. She says she completed in two years a graduate course (and certification) in addiction studies and HIV at Mission Hills college.

JD introduces me to his girlfriend of the past two months, Jolene, who is not in porn. "It's one strange trip [dating someone in the porn business]," she laughs. "The porno industry is its own little world. They welcome you in but you know that you are different if you are not in the business. You just have to get used to that."

To loud applause in the background, Bill jokes about having sex with FSC director Jeffrey Douglas.

Joanne: "It's good to be with a professional."

JD: Do I ever get wood problems?

Jo: No.

Selena, a black volunteer on the couch with us, says: "He gets every other kind of problem."

Jolene confirms that JD has been sober for about 90 days.

I learn that Bill earns $1000 a month for his PAW work. Jeffrey Douglas earns about $50,000 a year from the FSC, most of it paid by Russ Hampshire at VCA, says Bill Margold.

Bill met Douglas in 1993. "He had a compendium of all legal cases [regarding pornography] in each state. Jeffrey had done his homework. He's a lonely person. Jeffrey Douglas is like an adult version of me. He's interested in money.

"I remember in December of 1993, the Free Speech Coalition got tired of being the Free Speech Coalition. When the heads of states [leading company owners] fell on their swords [wanted off the FSC board]. I called Jeffrey and asked him to be a board member. At the same time, I brought in Ray Pistol, Flip Phil Berman, Mara Epstein… I wanted a cross-section of the industry. They replaced Braverman, Charlie Brickman (Cinderella), Lenny Friedlander, Bob Tremont, David Kastens, Al Bloom, Ron Sullivan…Hal Freeman's daughter Sherrie Freeman.

"I was not elected in the rubber doll election of December 1992. Worried that some of their people would lose the election, X number of votes were bought by people like Chuck Zane, who gleefully admits it. And Brickman, so they could remain elected. I was not elected. Though I was invited to every single board meeting in 1993 and eventually offered a seat on the board. Then, in January of 1994, I recreated the board.

"I remember in April of 1993, when there was an attempt to absorb the Adult Video Association into the Free Speech Coalition, I said, 'That's [the title Free Speech Coalition] amorphous. What does it mean?' Where upon Lenny Friedlander scratched his empty head and said, 'Now I know two things. One, you don't like me and two, I don't know what amorphous means.' I said, 'You're right about one, and two, you're a product of a college education.'

"I designed the logo for them. They wanted to use the scales of justice and that s---. I said no. And so I designed the American Flag on the logo."

Bill shows me a stained glass Free Speech Coalition logo of the American flag in Sharon Mitchell's incense filled office.

Sharon: "Bill's good at logos and acronyms…"

Bill: "It's all based on journalism, kid. Writing headlines.

"Jefftrey Douglas has worked hard. He found his universe through the FSC. I brought him out of obscurity and gave him a chance to open up a pot of gold and fall face down into it. It's not my fault that he doesn't know the keys to the pot of gold. Perhaps he was too big a man at first, or his heart blinded his common sense, he did too much for too little in the beginning, working himself into financial disarray. By the time he got out of that, I had long lost my enchantment with him because of statement said to me in November of 1995. Lenny Friendlander said he owned Jeffrey, and that if he snapped his fingers, Jeffrey would quit the board. Which was like saying that Shoeless Joe Jackson had thrown the 1919 World Series. I was devastated. It ruined my weekend. I went to lunch with Jeffrey Monday at a smorgasboard, and I was so upset I could eat only one little plateful. I simply asked him if it was true, 'say it ain't so Joe?' And he said that he could not comment. Then I lost all faith. So, in effect, by not answering, he admitted that he was a side of beef branded LF - Lenny Friedlander. From then on, our relationship has been adversarial. Though we are aimed in the same direction - the preservation of the letter X in the entertainment alphabet.

"There's a term that Paul Fishbein uses - 'a sniffer.' A sniffer is a person who sniffs around the X-rated industry hoping to get a scent of the sexuality of the business, hoping that the odor will drive them to heights of erogenous zones. Jeffrey is a sniffer."

Luke: Am I a sniffer?

Bill: Well, umm, no… I don't think you have sexual delusions about this business. Lee Carrol would emasculate you in five minutes. You are a warped version of those who follow you. A strange version of fan, but you're just bright enough to be above the fans, and you scorn them… You can't deny that you scorn the people on the net because you cackle when I ridicule them. You revel in my ridicule. Many of them are fans in my FOXE…like Peter Van Aarle. N. Smith. Brandy whom you replaced as the eye of the hurricane.

"The FSC board is bored. Four people out of the 13 do all the work - Bill, Sharon, Jeffrey… And that's fine. They were all put their to play roles in the master scheme."

Luke: The FSC is a good PR platform for Jeffrey.

Bill: He has never had a sandbox all to himself. He's always had to share his pails, shovels and sand with bullies. He once referred to me as a bully so I know that he's been bullied a lot. I am a survivor. If I have to be ruthless to survive, I will do whatever I have to do.

"He came to his Judaism late in life. I remember he told me that his parents didn't tell him until he was grown up that he was Jewish.

"Yes, this is a platform for Jeffrey. But if all you know how to do is straight dives into the pool, and you don't know how to do the flips, jackknifes and the reverses as I can do off the platform, after a while, people can get tired of seeing you dive the same old dive. You might only get an 8 while I can get a 9.95.

"I now write for AVN. I go through phases where I consider some people to be enemies. I'm not sure Paul Fishbein ever was an enemy. He probably has no use for me. I'm amused that he allows me to write for the magazine. I like my column. It gives me a platform I didn't have before. Because he controls the bible of the industry [AVN], he ranks among the most powerful persons in the industry. The tragedy of Paul is that I don't think he knows what his people are doing underneath him. He is supposed to be the publisher. He is responsible for his staff. I sign my columns, 'take care and care take.' He needs to take care of all the souls and emotions… And he is not aware."

Bill, Luke and ten others received their "not detected" HIV results.

7-3-98

12:35 PM: Luke F-rd talks to Raven by telephone. She remembers her time with JD Ram as a disaster. It's not a subject that she likes to talk about. She tells me about JD's past criminal record, including the time he supposedly stole the credit card number of photographer Ron Vogel and ran up the bill.

Raven retired from the video industry in December of last year, out of fear of AIDS. After a relationship went sour last year, she turned to escort work as a way to make money. She also has a pet sitting business. She plans to set up a fan club.