Louis Butchie Peraino, 58, the producer of Deep Throat, has lung cancer and has moved back to New York. Louis has eight children and about 20 children, as well as dozen of persons in the porn world and elsewhere who love him. His father Tony died two years ago.
I saw Reb Sawitz at his talent agency Pretty Girl International. Reb and a few other porners have the cold. He and his photographer Kenji look pale. Here is Reb's bulletin board. And his chihuaha Reba. His new star Tasha. Danielle Rogers. Lauren Montgomery. And two photos of Annabel Chong. All taken at PGI this afternoon.
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ADVANCE/WASHINGTON, Sept. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The Free Speech Coalition, the adult entertainment industry's trade association, today told the U.S. Congress that sexually explicit websites, as well as households, should work to bar minors from accessing pornography on the Internet.
Jeffrey J. Douglas, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, testifying before the House of Representatives' Commerce Committee and the Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade and Consumer Protection, said that "No matter what system is employed, materials will reach those persons inappropriate for the materials when irresponsible persons are in charge of the household." Douglas said that the position of the Free Speech Coalition is that the mechanism required under the Communications Decency Act to screen for minors is effective and appropriate.
He added: "Prior to the viewer seeing sexually explicit images, the Website should require that a credit card be provided. No charge need be put on the account. By requiring the credit card, the only mechanism by which minors could gain access to sexually explicit imagery is through the consent or negligence of the parents." That is the case now with the other media for sexually explicit material. "This mechanism also reduces the exposure of persons who do not wish to view the materials. If the patron must take the conscious, affirmative step of entering a credit card number to enter a site, the likelihood of inadvertent exposure is insignificantly small. By virtue of this method, the burden is on the provider of sexually explicit materials to screen for minors, and not exclusively on the household," Douglas said.
The Coalition's executive director said that the organization had been successful in overcoming many of the popular misconceptions regarding sexually-oriented entertainment. Douglas said, "Typically people and groups hostile to sexuality deliberately interchange terms such as 'pornography,' 'hard core pornography,' 'violent pornography,' 'child pornography' and 'obscenity.' These terms are legally and otherwise distinct. Through our efforts, the terms of the debate seem to be changing."
Douglas told the Congressmen: "'Violent pornography' refers to either non-commercially produced material or the non-sexual material turned out in large quantities by 'mainstream' Hollywood. Rape scenes, mutilations and non-consensual sex scenes are virtually the province of the non-X-rated genre," he said.
"If you want to see a rape scene you must go to a regular video store like Blockbuster, or watch television. If you patronize an 'adult' video store for such material, you will leave disappointed," Douglas said. He added, "It must be emphasized that the adult entertainment industry is not at all harmed in any way by restrictions on minors gaining access to 'adult only' material. The providers of commercial pornography on the Web want to make money. Even apart from deeply held moral concerns involved in inappropriate exposure of minors to sexual materials, fourteen-year-olds do not provide an income stream for adult websites. The goal for websites is clear rules and simple compliance ..." Douglas said, adding: "By clear, straightforward provisions, websites can prevent minors from entering, but still have available material suitable for those adults who wish to consume the product."
The Free Speech Coalition has a two-fold mission. First, to improve the quality of life for the people who create, manufacture, distribute and sell sexually oriented products and services. The second part is to improve the external environment for the industry's products and services through education, advocacy, and media and public relations. The Coalition offers a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved in the production or distribution of child pornography.
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Mr. Mxyzptlk writes on RAME:
In the early days of my porn watching career one of my favourite actresses was Bunny Blue. Nikki Charm, who will be the subject of a future post, was the undisputed champ. Bunny tied for second with Stacy Donovan, edging out Ginger Lynn and one or two European beauties whose names I still don’t know.
Bunny was blonde, petite and just a bit goofy. She did the Little Girl Thing almost as well as Nikki and always smiled as she got splattered.
I don’t know how old she was when she started, but in the earliest film that I am aware of, “Puss’n’Boobs” (aka “Hanky Panky” or “Hanky Panky Island”) she looks to be barely 18, and dresses and acts much younger. This film was shot in Hawaii in c.1983 and features BB as some sort of Girl Scout, in a particularly alluring little skirt.
She made a large number of films through the mid 80s, always cute, enthusiastic and boner-inducing. In "Goldiggers" she “posed” as a 16 year old girl, entrapping a neighbour into an illegal encounter. In “Experience of a Virgin”, a loop from the German “Sweet Little 16” series (was this released under this title in the US?) she did the only anal scene I saw her do in this phase of her career. Dressed in a tiny little nightdress she took it right up the ass and looked suitably awed by it all.
She even did at least one bondage film, getting suspended upside down from the ceiling and being whipped by Jamie Gillis. That must have been fun.
Then, she kind of disappeared, as porn stars so often do. And as, if the truth be known, they should.
Imagine my horror to see “The New Bunny Blue” pictured on a box cover in the mid 90s. The same face, unmistakably, but with red hair and a bigger pair of bolt-ons than Pamela Lee. I hate big tits and artificial ones are the worst of all, especially on someone who had great little ones to start with.
And what was she doing in these films? Well, I only saw one or two, but gangbangs and anal were the order of the day. The one where she gets done over by a pack of bikies who all end up coming in her face should have been good (I really do like that kind of thing), but it was just sad. It was clear that this pretty little girl had started to get old and was attempting to stretch (no pun intended) her career just a bit more through chemical enhancement and desperation sex.
(Spot the inconsistency: When tight young Stephanie Swift does this sort of scene, even getting slapped and spat on, I love it. When it’s old Bunny, I think it’s sad. Go figure.)
She popped up again recently, as a fluffer in the appalling World’s Biggest Anal Gang Bang. More sadness.
Girls! Don’t do it. Stay natural and get out when the writing is on the wall. Leave the old guy stuff to Ron Jeremy and Randy West. They don't do it any better, but at least they've got no pride.
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Frederick Buccolini wrote to the LA Weekly, following Mark Cromer's article on porn HIV:
To Condom or not to condom : that is the question. Whether it is nobler in the pocket book of adult manufactures to suit-up their male performers with protective gear or to let them ride bare-back and risk HIV infection, only the tape sales will tell.
But in the media-savvy 90s, there is no need for non-condom tapes. Any loss in tape sales and rentals can be made up with product placement.
I can see it now, as two adult performers gyrate and sweat on the screen, the female whispers "Cuming Soon," and, as the camera pans down to that piece of latex wrapped in a flurry of motion, we see an advertisement: Lewinsky vs Clinton: The Bedroom Tapes. Only $39.95.
Letters to the Editor 9/11/98
Re: Mark Cromer's "The Last Ride?" [August 21-27]. The porn industry produces approximately 600 videos per month. Each video contains approximately five sex scenes. Do the math: That's 3,000 sexual encounters per month, every month. May I go out on a limb and suggest that five HIV cases among that many sexual encounters do not an epidemic make? This sounds to me like the same scare rhetoric trumpeted each year by the Centers for Disease Control to tell the general public that AIDS is an uncontrollable epidemic, so that HIV scientists can continue to receive huge government research dollars.
The fact that cancer kills more people in one year than AIDS has killed since the "epidemic" began appears to be a fact that's been lost on all concerned.
-Mike Johnson
North Hollywood
DEAR EDITOR:
If my reading of this HIV crisis in the industry we all know and admire is correct, then porn just ain't what it used to be. The problem seems largely to boil down to the irresponsible behavior of a bunch of dog-brained "directors" with camcorders. The millions of us who saw Boogie Nights were reminded how, in the Golden Age of Porn - and I don't mean movies featuring urination - nobody got sodomized, nobody swallowed semen, nobody f---ed children or animals or got gang-raped or got hurt or died or, in general, had a bad time. In fact, porn stardom was a pleasant career option.
Enter the camcorder, and every Tom, Dick and Hairy starting to make filthy, perverted videos of the girl next door in their garages.
We stop sneaking down to those crusty old semen-stained porn palaces to jack off in the dark, and instead start watching porn and jacking off in the comfort of our own homes. Before you know it, the whole thing burgeons into a bloated whore of an industry with an annual turnover estimated anywhere in the region of $3 billion to $8 billion. Next thing you know, there's an HIV outbreak.
The link among camcorders, HIV and life imitating Boogie Nights is simply too delicious to resist: Video killed the porn star.
-Steve Aldred
Venice
DEAR EDITOR:
The best advice for porn-industry talent who are worried about AIDS is just quit the biz altogether. As for the porn fans, they needn't worry: There will always be others hungry and stupid enough to have sex in front of a camera, and producers greedy enough to point one at them.
-Jon R. McKenzie
Bellflower
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"As Screw's 30th Anniversary Party draws nigh," writes an observer in New York, "Al Goldstein embarks upon a rampage not unlike Screw's 20th Anniversary debacle as described in SPY, Oct. 97." Manny Neuhaus was fired a few weeks ago. Eric Danville plans to leave 9/15. Ivan Lerner will take over.
"Yesterday’s penetrating portrait of the paunchy porn potentate in The New York Times failed to mention that Screw has taken ads in Manhattan’s weeklies that read: “...For $75, you can enter the party, eat, visit the vendor’s tables, watch the strippers, laugh at the comedians, take part in the Transvestite Beauty Contest, see hours of raunchy entertainment--and more.”
"And for those for whom "more" is not enough: “For $200, you and a guest can get a VIP pass to the notorious SCREW lounge, where you can party with Al Goldstein himself.” Ron Jeremy MCs; Al “Grampa Munster” Lewis will be Guest of Honor."
Mark Kramer wrote in the 9/97 edition of Spy magazine:
“....perhaps the most quintessentially Goldsteinian publicity debacle was that surrounding Screw’s 20th Anniversary party. Al’s idea had been to stage an anti-smut protest by phony feminists. Neuahus was instructed to leak this syntho-event to the gossip pages, and to send someone up to the offices of Women Against Pornography for a bundle of leaflets. Unfortunately, the staffer selected for the pick-up--not privy to the gag--was wearing an “Al Goldstein for President” T-shirt.
"The equally publicity-starved Women Against Pornograpy huckstreses retaliated with an item in a New York Post gossip page exposing Al’s ploy--printed just days before the anniversary party under the jeering headline “Nice Try”.
"Perpetuated in a schlockadelic nightclub known for catering to Bud-guzzling suburbanites in acid-wash denims, the fall, 1988 fete featured Al, clad in smartly tailored sweatpants and tented with a puffy chemise smothered in Disney cartoon characters, playing host to some of the world’s ugliest men...Robin Leach, Morton Downey Jr., Bob Guccione, the late Tiny Tim, Michael Musto, Robin Leach again, and Danny the Wonder Pony. Al’s gun-loving teenage spawn Jordan Ari Goldstein--clearly a chip off the old blob--made a rare Planet Goldstein appearance performing magic tricks amid a co-dependent cavalcade of Al’s ex-wives, elderly parents, and many others to whom Al has been joined at the heart, mind, groin, or pocketbook on his long descent to these heights. Screw subscribers and other gawking members of the general public were charged $150. admission to offset the cost of hiring fake feminists. Screw staffers, on the other hand, were each issued a chit good for a drink and a knish---an apt reminder of the priceless freedoms, mainly Al’s, which we had gathered to commemorate...”
The 9/98 New York Times on Al Goldstein:
In the course of an afternoon, Al Goldstein has his secretary book a prostitute as his dinner companion at Nobu, a chic downtown restaurant, and, for his cable television show, "Midnight Blue," he tapes a vicious attack on New York magazine for leaving him out of its 30th-anniversary issue.
But at the moment, as a father, Al has got to brag.
"My son, Jordan, I'm so proud, he starts Harvard Law School today," the publisher of Screw magazine is saying. "What's the Jewish word? I'm kvelling. He graduated No. 1 in his class in Georgetown out of 781 students. When I met the president of Georgetown he couldn't believe he was standing next to America's No. 1 pornographer, that I was the father. My son is embarrassed by me on occasion, but he loves me. He came to me a year ago and said, 'Dad, I can go to N.Y.U. free or I can go to Harvard.' I said, 'Jordan, I live for you to go to Harvard. The money isn't a problem.' But I was so moved he asked."
Screw celebrates its 30th year this fall. It may, as Al likes to point out, be fighting for freedom of the press for everyone, but they have not been pretty fights. When a Federal judge, Kimba M. Wood, ruled against Screw in a libel suit some years ago, Al ran composite photos purporting to depict the judge in sex acts.
The magazine, based in New York, is mostly escort service ads and pornography.
If you think you've seen the pictures before, you have.
"I paid $1 a picture back in the 60's," says Al, who has a $3 million home in Florida but loves a bargain. "They've been in the paper hundreds of times. Those women are so old they're in nursing homes."