Rob Spallone got into several huge fights during his vacation to New York.

On Saturday, 8/15/98, I received this email. "Luke, Rob is a friend of mine....I ran into him in Manhattan [Thursday, 8/13] outside a night club smashing some huge bouncers head with a pool que... The guy was a bloody mess.... Rob spent two days in the can.... When he got out, he paid a visit to an old partner in the topless bar business. They got into a disagreement. Rob dragged a parking attendant out of a car he was about to park an drove it through the front of the establishment...I haven't seen him since."

I talked to Rob Friday morning, 8/21/98. He confirmed the above. He said the bouncer had said something to a girl he [Rob] knew. Rob said he spent two days in jail on Ryker's Island, "a s--- hole." Spallone has evidently recovered from his recent surgery.

Rob then visited his ex-partner in the strip club business… Rob got into a fight and knocked the guy through a window. As he was being arrested, Rob yelled to his friend. "l-keford.com. It's on the computer. Tell him what's happening."

Rob says that the North Hollywood clinic now receives twice as many porn stars as before, given the recent controversies with AIM/PAW/FSC setup at Jim South's building.

11:30AM: I arrive at Star World. Rob rubs his knuckles. They hurt from his fighting in NY. He says that the DA is not filing charges over his scuffle with the cripple pimp Duke.

We visit our friend Dr. Bonura, who owns and operates several clinics including the North Hollywood clinic. We pass by Rob's new star, a blonde Jennifer who wears a gold cross around her neck. She's getting an HIV test.

Dr. Bonura confirms the increase in numbers of porners who visit the clinic. "Four production companies (including Zane Productions) have set up an account here to pay every month for their people to get PCR DNA tests," said Dr. Bonura.

Luke: "Do you think it's ok for them to draw blood in Jim South's building so long as they keep changing the name on door 200. First PAW, then AIM, now Dr. York's office?"

Dr. Bonura: "It's still the same operation… A bunch of non-professionals. I resent it when Sharon Mitchell keeps saying that the North Hollywood clinic is not cooperating. We are the only in compliance… We will cooperate 100%[sharing HIV test results]… We just won't do anything illegal. Talent must sign a release. Then we will send the results to PAW. But the talent increasingly don't want to send their results to PAW. The talent don't trust them. We give everyone a sheet where they can sign so that PAW can receive the results. Initially they all signed it. Since the HIV false positive, fewer than 10% want to send their results to PAW."

Rob to Luke: "You just have to write that nobody wants to deal with Sharon Mitchell… They know she's a phoney…"

1:15PM: Rob takes me to a barbacue of industry leaders. He introduces me as Donnie Brasco. Two hours later, when they find out that I am Luke F-rd, they throw me out.

4:15PM: I stop by Jim South's building. I run into a Hungarian couple (Zoltan and Livia) who I met earlier in the day at Rob's. They're hustling for work. Married, they've done about six videos in their three months in the US.

"America is very nice," says Zoltan. "But I can't speak English well so I can't tell all that I feel."

Max Hardcore walks around with copies of the latest LA Weekly under his arm. Max features on the cover with Candy Hill.

A long-haired man named Tex and his blonde friend stop by. I introduce myself. Bill Margold's assistant Jay Molnar tries to break up our conversation. "I would advise you not to talk to this man," says Jay to the couple, "unless you want to be lied about and misquoted."

The couple ascend the stairs to Jim South's. Wearing a bright pink outfit, XXX walks in with a male friend. A few minutes later, I walk up. Bill Margold, who's chatting with Fiero, spots me. "You're not allowed in this building," he thunders. "Leave now."

I look around and then leave.

I chat on the street with Paul Little who's grown a goatee like numerous males in the biz. He's discontinuing the use of speculums.

Jay comes out. He warns me that someone is going to physically hurt me if I don't quit. He won't hurt me because he recently found Jesus. A year ago, he might've. He says that they [Jim South, PAW-AIM, FSC?] are going to get a restraining order against me [presumably to stop me from hanging around on the street in front of World Modeling]. Jay says he hasn't read enough of what I've written to fully understand what is going on.

Paul hands out copies of the LA Weekly. He carries a big pile upstairs. Returns, and chats with me about dealing with the media. He says everyone's talking about me.

Fiero gives me a hug. Jay pops out of the building to warn her, "His recorder is always on." Not true.

Porners held a love-in on Ed Powers radio show on KLSX, FM 97.1, Los Angeles, Sunday morning from midnight to three AM. First up, two women [Katina and Violet] who started the Zine "Homewreckers" about fem porn and S-M (bytch007@aol.com).

Without his annoying co-host Elizabeth aka Bonita, Ed's show moved more smoothly.

Max Hardcore appeared about 12:20 AM, crowing about all his recent media coverage. Max said that the Premiere article mentioned him 46? times. That it was mainly about him [though overwhelmingly negative]. The article called him a "psychopath." Max said he was one, though he did not know what the word meant.

Max and Ed said they enjoyed the mainstream movie Boogie Nights. "I enjoyed the opportunity to look back," said Max. "I'm a historian. I appreciate this business's past…"

Max asks callers if they have girlfriends "who might be interested in getting into the wide world of modeling." They decline.

Max repeatedly plugs his videos, talent calls and web site throughout the show.

Caller Dan asks Max for his opinion of Penthouse magazine showing photos of women urinating.

"I think it's fantastic," says Max. "The peeing, the fisting… Hustler has that… It means that I won't be able to go to jail. Eventually we'll be able to put all that stuff into the tapes. I'm eventually going to re-release all my [US] movies with the European version [urination, vomiting, etc]."

Ed Powers then introduces Mark Cromer, a former AVN contributor who wrote an essay on the HIV outbreak in the latest LA Weekly.

Mark: "It's a great story. The mainstream media has generally ignored it."

Ed loved his article. "You showed how some people want it [the HIV outbreak and attendant controversy] to go away…"

Mark: "You're talking about Jim South?"

Ed tries to extricate himself from Mark's comment: "That time when he was standing there. [Mark's article reports on Jim South upraiding Margold for talking about the outbreak to a journalist]… When you get a media blitz, and so many people coming at you, you get tired…"

Mark: "Most of the people that I wanted to talk to, were very cooperative. It took me a long time to get to Mark Wallice… Max was very congenial and well spoken. Karl Sovino from Midnight Video… His real name is Kevin Beech…"

From Mark's article: "Yeah, I heard she's [Brooke Ashley] got AIDS or something, or HIV, whatever," says Midnight Video general manager Karl Sorvino, pointing out that his company did not shoot the video, but merely acquired it for sale. "It doesn't mean anything that she has AIDS. Look, this chick took 50 guys in the ass in one video! This is a surprise? If anyone was going to get it, it was Brooke. Now she's raising a big stink, but no one cares. The video was shot - of course it's going to be released."

Max, referring probably to the above: "Some people said some really stupid things in this article and need to be taken to the woodshed…"

Ed asked Mark Cromer if he agreed that Mark Wallice was a victim like all the other victims. Mark Cromer would not agree even though Ed kept pressing him to agree that Wallice was a victim.

Ed: "I think that what people in the industry do is noble. I think that entertaining and risking their lives like they do, is noble. We're really mainstream. That started with Deep Throat. We should not fight to say that we're mainstream, we are."

Mark Cromer keeps saying "right," reflecting his AVN-like bent.

Powers reads a two-minute statement, saying he'd be more careful to use condoms in the future.

Mark: "The general public perceives… 'Come on, these are porn stars. What do you expect? This is a surprise?' I think this [attitude] is unfortunate. You [Ed] said that what porn performers do is noble. I might phrase it differently but I understand your sentiments and where you are coming from. They are certainly performing an art which has high value in American culture as demonstrated by the demand for it. They are putting their lives on the line. The media coverage of this, including the LA Weekly, is going to push the issue of condom use higher… That can only be good."

Ed: "Don't you seem some hypocrisy in the condom use? Like, they don't use the condom in the oral scene?"

Mark: "Right. They'll pull the condom off and ejaculate into the woman's mouth, or into a cup and have her drink it. That's not safe sex.

"I think the policy on porn sets should be that the female performer should have the discretion to determine whether or not her male performer wears a condom."

Max: "That's pretty much the policy now. If a woman wants one, they wrap it up."

Mark: "I just saw the new AVN where Van Damage [from Extreme Associates] calls himself "the Bareback Vigilante." I guess that bareback would mean no condoms."

Max: "Well then, he's [Van Damage] an idiot."

Mark: "I guess that Van Damage is using that he's not going to use condoms, as a marketing strategy.

[In the ad, Van Damage sports a tattoo with a condom-like creature flipping the bird overlain by a red circle with a slash through it (the universal symbol of stop).]

Max: "RJ Reynolds had Joe Camel."

This Ed Powers show was the height of industry correctness with porners falling over themselves to agree with each other, to promote the use of condoms and to even take a whack at the cigarette companies.

Max: "I would like to say hi to Brooke Ashley, a great gal. Some people are saying this girl is a whore, she uses drugs… I don't know what's right. I just know that it is a tragedy for someone that nice…"

Mark: "My story was much longer. It was trimmed down. I wanted to note about the insidious things being said about Brooke Ashley and Mark Wallice, particularly Mark Wallice. I interviewed Laurie Holmes… She pointed out the vindictive rhetoric and finger-pointing and name-calling after it became known that Holmes was HIV positive."

[Mark writes in the LA Weekly: "Holmes' widow Laurie…says she saw the writing on the wall a long time ago, as her husband lay dying in his Sepulveda hospital bed. "I tried to warn everyone and they wouldn't listen," she says. "They were trying to say AIDS wasn't in the industry, and I'm like, "No, no, no!' They kept saying John contracted the virus outside of the industry, that he was a junkie and he was gay and all this stuff that simply wasn't true. They were just lies to protect the industry."]

Mark Cromer: "Fast forward ten years later and what happens. Mark Wallice is announced as HIV positive. Suddenly Wallice is a junkie, he does gay outcall, he does gay films… There's a striking parallel. As Laurie Holmes says, these are lies to protect the industry. Whether it is a coordinated approach or smear campaign, who's to say. The same thing about Brooke Ashley. This girl had a dope problem. This girl did alcohol. This girl used needles. You hear all this crap."

Candy Hill: "We want to hear that. To make us feel safer. We're ok. They were doing this and that but we can keep going."

Mark: "It's denial. Some of the things said about Holmes were true, but that doesn't mean that the person did not get it in the industry. Clearly, there is ample room for the virus to spread within the industry. And to some extent, it has, whether or not Mark Wallice was the index case. It came into the talent pool."

Max: "People have crazy conceptions about how porn stars live. We're serious people. We get up most days before noon. We drive nice shiny big cars and we only crash them occasionally. Excuse me, I need to take a hit off my crack pipe.

"I've stirred up a lot of stuff in the last two years but unless you know the real Max Hardcore [Paul Little]…"

Ed: "I never heard of anything."

Max: "Occasionally we'd have a crash and burn on a set. I've always tried to make the most intense things. I pour myself into a scene. I tell the girls that I know how to make great movies but I can't read minds. They have to speak up if something is not right. Some girls come on the set and are just shell-shocked by the experience. I've been in this business nine years and I'm constantly amazed at what the girls are willing to put up with… We're athletes. We slug it out in the heat of battle. We try to put on a good show for the people. Sometimes you get self-absorbed… I've made some mistakes with girls…

"In pro-football, if a player gets called off the field with a broken leg, they don't call the police. In the porn business, sometimes people get hurt. If you do anal sex, it's delicate… You've got to appreciate that the butt is not designed for the day after day abuse that you're likely to be subjected to in this business."

"Particularly in a Max Hardcore video," says a Brazilian porner friend of Max.

Max: "Seven years ago a scene consisted of seven minutes, a couple of positions and the pop shot. Nowadays, the scenes are longer and people expect more intense work. I'm compared to Rocco Siffredi… Intensity is what the public demands of us.

"We've made some serious missteps in how we approach this stuff. We've always tried to be fresh, dynamic and intense… I thought speculums was a cool idea because it shows the inside of a woman, but it was too much for normal public viewing. But I'm not normal. I'm a psycho."

Mark: "Porn today is not about turning you on. It's about showing you something that you haven't seen before and you may not want to see again. You have people like Mila, who's a great girl, but I saw this thing where she was squirting blue acrylic paint out of her ass."

Max: "That was the stupidest thing I have ever seen."

Mark: "You've got these gangbangs… What kind of guy wants to watch a film where there's one chick and 200 guys? He's got some issues he needs to resolve."

Ed Powers then claimed that he started modern gonzo porn with his 1988 series Bus Stop Tales. His competitors saw what he was doing, realized that Ed Powers had the nice guy niche sewn up, and decided to distinguish themselves through nastiness.

Mark: "Porn is making more money than ever but it's crappier than ever."

Ed and Max disagreed.

Mark: "You guys are within the realm of true artistic genre. Did you catch the tape Century Sex with the 100-year old woman?"

Max: "I want to see good piston-pumping action with guys with hard dicks doing it with good looking girls having a good time."

A caller named Greg [claimed he was a male performer] said that porn star Militia was willing to have sex with him without a condom until Greg insisted on using a condom. "She doesn't know me from Adam. I could be Joe Blow off the street, infected or not…"

Greg, Ed, Max and Mark all agreed that condom use takes no heat away from a sex scene. [Luke thinks this is a ludicrous claim, the sort of tripe that arises when members of any insular group want to close ranks and agree with each other about controversial questions. Condoms clearly detract from sexual heat in hardcore films.]

Ed Powers said that it did not matter if condom use hurt sales of porn videos.

Caller Sam: "Max, you're my hero. I loved this one scene you did in Europe. This girl lies on the table. After you have your way with her, you spit in her mouth. It was great, amazing…"

Max: "I would never do anything like that. It's disgusting."

Mark: "Sam, would you spit in your girlfriend's mouth?"

Sam: "No. How do I get into porno?"

Max: "Get a girl to perform with you… Call Jim South…"

Sam: "You do a service to society. You keep a lot of guys off the street. We get rid of our seed and we're cool."

Mark: "It's unfortunate that people, even in a joking manner, say that these tapes keep guys off the streets. There's the insinuation that people who watch this material are closet pedophiles or rapists. It echoes the arguments by the Christian right, that people who enjoy erotica are closet rapists."

Ed and Mark agree that rape is a power trip, a crime of violence rather than sex.

Mark: "I think that Max putting out tapes will have nothing to do with whether we are going to have more rapists or less rapists. We're just going more men and women who enjoy looking at that material."

Ed: "So Mark, what's your next article going to be about, Ed Powers and the radio show?"

Mark: "I'm doing a story on cults."

Ed: "I get a regular drug test and I challenge anybody to get one."

Max: "I wouldn't want to get one. I'd fail. [True]"

Felecia and her husband Matt appeared on the show to promote Felecia's sex career, particularly her pro-am line. "Directors in the bigger films start and stop," complained Felecia. "He has things that he wants to see in the video, a certain number of positions, etc... Lots of stop and start. You lose the heat and intensity."

Ed said how much he wants the camera on the face when a girls supposedly orgasms.

Ed Powers, Max Hardcore and Candy Hill said that everyone in the industry has to take HIV tests every month. This is a big myth. It is against the law for producers to require HIV tests. Nobody can be required to take an HIV test to get a job. Many performers work without current tests. Many performers take Elisa tests instead of the supposed standard PCR DNA.

If Jeffrey Douglas and the FSC were competent, they would know that it is against the law to require HIV tests, and they would adjust their policies and rhetoric accordingly.

Felecia: "I was on a set a few weeks ago, and three of us saw somebody who had changed a test. We threw him off and called Jim [South].

"Many of the bigger companies are notarizing the tests."

Ed and Max gave kudos to Jim South and World Modeling. "They make everybody submit IDs, then go get a test. Bring it back to the [World Modeling] office and put a stamp on it."

[Luke thought that Jim South had given up his seal?]

A new porn "director," Tyrone phoned to say that many performers on the condom-only list performed without condoms.

Mark Cromer tried to bring up Chessie Moore's bestiality video but Ed cut him off.

A caller complained about the porn boxcovers that use ebonics and racial terms in their videos. Max said that porners are imitating music companies. Mark pointed out that blacks like Mr. Markus are leading the way in producing such derogatory material.

Caller said that if the industry wants to become legitimate, they should pay performers residuals.

Felecia: "A lot of the women in our business are very well educated."

Caller: "You've got to be kidding. If you got 100 women…99% are back home [after retirement from porn] with their parents."

Felecia: "A lot of them earn six figures. A lot of them have invested their money and bought houses…"

Caller: "I know some of the black performers… You can't say that…"

Mark: "Felecia is correct. Many of the women make good money. The men are a whole other issue. But, there are women like Brooke Ashley…who pissed it all away. Like many performers in mainstream…"

FSC's insurance rep Greg Zeboray posted to RAME: "Largely as a result of the internet, infighting amongst us in the adult industry in clearly on the increase…

"I have never met or spoken with Mr. Ford. I don't know that he even has an interest in talking to me, but I do know I have no interest in talking to him. It is my opinion that Mr. Ford has the legal right to operate his web site in the manner of which he is currently pursuing.

Further, it is my opinion that Mr. Ford has the ethical and moral obligation to make some changes, including: A) deletion of performers real names. There is nothing positive that comes out of that action, so why do it? B) make a clear distinction between rumor, absolute fact, and opinions. Regularly, Mr. Ford makes mistakes, and ever so often, is called on it. When he is, he loves to print something to the effect "Luke apologizes. Luke Retracts". Unfortunately, the damage is already done, and C) an apparent fascination with physical violence. He loves to report On Rob Spallones altercations (and glorifies the result of them).

Industry friendly, Mr. Ford is not. For reasons that I am not aware of, Mr. Ford has chosen to leave the gay side of the industry alone. Boy are they fortunate! Perhaps he is not aware of their existence. In regards to FSC / Ford, I want to make it perfectly clear that no one within FSC ever asked me to not speak to Mr. Ford, and I have had no reason to believe anyone else was asked..

"In regards to the Mark Wallice matter, I can only say that nobody but Mark knows the facts. I believe he was not aware of his infection, and many of you believe he was aware. Fair enough, as long as all of us recognize that our opinions are just that - opinions. None of us have the facts to elevate our opinions to knowledge. Mr. Ford has led us to believe he has knowledge of the facts. I just wish he would end all of this by providing the proof he apparently maintains."

Torris@mindspring.com replies to bushmiller@aol.com on RAME (rec.arts.movies.erotica):

>The Luke F-rd debate will rage on ad nauseam but since his appearance on RAME, >I've found myself doing some soul searching.

>The first question I ask myself is: >Why is my knee jerk reaction to defend Ford (not everything he says or does >but...)?

Probably b/c Ford represents the outsider peeking into that world. We see the end result but at times most of us has wondered what it might be like to be on the sets or be a performer. Not that any of us have the time, inclination or requisite penal experience for the job. But we can live vicariously through Ford. Whenever these guys get worked up over Ford, they're basically exhibiting contempt for "us". How dare you outsiders try to look over the fence. Keep out and just pay up.

>2nd:

>Why I am immediately skeptical of anything that I hear from 90% of the porn >"industry?" This would include performers, AVN, etc...

Because they're in the market to promote what they're doing in a sanitized fashion. What have we learned here in the past few months that we never would have reading AVN: 1. These people stiff each other in payment all the time, bounc checks and refuse to pay starlets for their work. 2. they are haphazard in enforcing or checking HIV tests; even their forced condom issue appears to have a backdoor policy along the lines of don't ask don't tell - "encouraging" starlets to work without condoms as "their" choice 3. AVN's consistent obsession with RAME in the likes of anti-RAME editorials these past several months. That's basically a f--- YOU to the fans who buy and rent porn.

4. Interviews with people that I consider extremely sleazy like Regan Senter, Randy Detroit, Bill Margold etc. Who seem almost proud that they go door to door in black neighborhoods looking for women desperate enough to have to f--- on film to pay their bills etc.

>I'm not claiming these reactions are fair or proper or whatever, but I am>acknowledging them. Most on RAME are more in the know and more opinionated than>me, but it seems many, it appears, have the same reaction. I'll leave this with >one last (rhetorical) question (a two-parter):

Actually Hart Williams explained the feeling in a nutshell to me recently: We hate the industry but we enjoy porn.

>How precariously balanced is an industry (read: Gene Ross, et al) that can be>this threatened by one man, and...

Right. He's just the first guy to poke under that rock looking for snakes. And since he doesn't do it for anyone other than himself, or his web page or for us to read - free of charge they can't threaten whoever he works for. And the fact that Ford appears to stay neutral on his subjects most of the time (mafia stuff excepted) they can't stand the fact that his supposed neutrality gets people to open up to him. for them they're so used to being defensive and keeping the law out of their business that if you're not pro-porn you automatically must be anti-porn. And they keep waiting for Luke to show his true colors.

>How deluded are the many folks in this industry to think that they're immune >to journalistic coverage (or attacks) depending on their POV.

Until now all porn journalism was done by people from inside the industry. That's not the case anymore. RAME has become a clearinghouse for a lot of insiders - not talking Luke here - to share their experiences on some of the lesser lights that run the show. In a way at least confirming that Ford isn't too far off.