I hear that Taren Steele has left porn and her husband Mark. She still strips in clubs.
Johnny Denim says: "Chasey Lain is out of the porn biz because she is pregnant. I'm not sure who the baby's dad is but I know it's due early in 1999. Also Asia Carrera is back after her current relationship recently went sour. In other news Dyanna Lauren will be launching her own film company on October 1st but won't be leaving Vivid completely. She has even credited Vivid with helping her get it off the ground."
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Real2reel@webtv.com says: "The number 1 video on this weeks BET Rap City Top 10 for the second week in a row is "What U See Is What U Get" by Xzibit. The video is directed by Gregory Dark, but unfortunately just like his other Hip Hop Rap video that was number 1 for a couple of weeks ("Black Ice" by The Goodie Mob featuring Outkast) there are no worth watching females in either video. It's amazing that the "It's Alright" video by Jay-Z and Memphis Bleek, and the "Horse and Carriage" video by Cam'Ron and Mase have lots of high quality black and Latina girls in them, but the 2 videos directed by a porno movie director have only a few unattractive girls in them. What the f---??? Ron Hightower had lots of sexy girls (like Heather Hunter) in the Rap video he directed. The "It's Alright" video is directed by a guy named Little X. I wonder if he has anything to do with the porno industry?"
As we reported four days ago, Show World in New York will cease operation as a sex business. The NY Times Sunday edition is preparing its own version of Show World's demise. Sunday's Newsday reported:
By Dan Morrison. STAFF WRITER
For decades it towered over the competition, a magnet for the sleazy, the lonesome, the curious. Its four floors shimmying 24 hours a day to ersatz groans, plunking coins and sodden catcalls, Show World epitomized the filthy glory that was Times Square.
But executives from New York City's preeminent porn palace have announced they are throwing in the towel, that if they can't beat Mickey Mouse, they may as well join him.
Show World's Appomattox came in a presentation Wednesday night before the stunned land use committee of Manhattan Community Board 4. There, Show World controller Scott Wexler, site manager Tom Simmons and attorney Fred Becker presented plans to convert the porn palace to a family-oriented video arcade.
"They are throwing in the towel," said Joe Restuccia, 41, a member of the local land use committee and the unofficial mayor of the Clinton-Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. "People were just trying to take it in. They were pretty clear that they were leaving the adult entertainment business."
And so, if the city approves the permits, Show World's peep show stalls, coin-operated video machines and "private fantasy booths" will be replaced by a far more benign flavor of interactive entertainment.
"The fact that Show World went into there to abdicate their carnal crown, it's major," said Mark Kramer, a writer who has made his name covering New York's adult-pleasure underworld for the last decade.
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Gloria Leonard, head of sales for Private USA and president of the Free Speech Coalition, phoned me late last week to complain about this article in the 10/7/97 New York Post:
TRAGEDY OF THE XXX FILES
By FAYE PENN
THE upcoming film "Boogie Nights" puts a somewhat shiny gleam on the adult film industry of the 1970s.
But many of its biggest stars were irreparably tarnished by the so-called "golden era of porn" - dozens died from drug overdoses or alcohol poisoning, and countless more from AIDS.
"Many of them are addicted to either drugs or alcohol," says Los Angeles-based porn historian Luke F-rd, "particularly those still in touch with the industry."
***
Gloria: "Where do you
[Luke] get this from? Who have you met that is still in touch with the
industry who is either a drug addict or an alcoholic?"
Luke coughs up a couple of names.
Gloria: "It's yet another slam. I take this personally. You painted us with a broad brush and I really f---ing resent that. I don't know what your agenda is, to bring the industry down... I don't know if the Christian Right is paying you... But you are bad news. Do you ever have a kind word? Even your stuff on Private is so outdated...
"You shoot from the hip. You're a loose canon. I'm astonished that Prometheus is publishing your book. I hope that they know the kind of lawsuits they will face when your book comes out.
"I bet if you went to the roster of people who worked for IBM, the number of people with drug and alcohol problems is even higher. You're talking about an era when it [drug use] was prevalent in every walk of life. I had bank tellers asking me to buy them drugs.
"The idea that people
in this business come more often from dysfunctional families is ludicrous.
I think the numbers are the same across the board... People are f---ed
up in every walk of life, and somehow you always single us out."
Luke: "I cover this industry, not IBM. I look for news. If I go on a
set and find 19 people sober but one person high, that one person high
is newsworthy."
Gloria: "Why? That is preying on people's vulnerabilities and weaknesses.
"Private (headquartered in Spain though Berthe Milton still maintains a residence in Sweden) is going public. It's already on the [stock] market in Europe. We're distributed in 33 countries, soon to be more (Poland).
"The biggest Private production of the past year is a two-parter shot on film - That's Life directed by Pierre Woodman and starring Katjakean, Anastasia, Anita Blonde, Eva Roberts, and black beauty Bagheera. It was shot in Bora Bora, Paris and Las Vegas. It's about a postal worker who buys a lottery ticket every day. One day he hits it and leaves his miserable life and his boring wife behind. He goes to Bora Bora in the South Pacific and has many adventures with beautiful women, including one who steals his fortune.
"I just did my first my on-camera performance (non-sex) in over five years in a Nic Cramer film (The Phoenix) for Pleasure Productions. I play Hope, a muse... a Greek Chorus. Nic's film is loosely based on the Brandon Lee film The Crow. A post-Apocalyptic scenario.
"Jeffrey Douglas has come back from Washington D.C. where he testified about internet pornography. I found the whole thing amusing. They're trying so desperately to protect children from pornography on the internet yet they couldn't wait to put the Starr Report online which is about as pornographic as anything.
"FSC is helping AIM. Part of Eddie Wedelstedt's contribution was earmarked for their survival. Sharon's heart is in the right place...
"We have a new individual insurance policy for producers so that they can buy an individual policy for each time they shoot.
"We're [FSC] essentially
a group of volunteers... People piss and moan about us...but we're [FSC]
doing more for this industry than anyone has done before. There are
four seats available on the Board of Directors [of the FSC]."
Bob Tremont owns Odyssey and the exclusive distribution rights for Private
in the US. Odyssey and Private are housed in the same building. "We're
a franchise [Private USA]. We don't produce anything here. It all comes
from Europe.
"I have to watch everything because sometimes the content in Europe goes further than we are allowed here." S. Andrew Roberts makes the editing cuts for Gloria.
"Kat Sunlove [FSC lobbyist in Sacramento] works hard. I think she will soon give up her connection to The Spectator so that she can devote more of her energies to lobbying.
"You can't mandate the use of condoms. It has to be voluntary. If you're an actor and you come on the set of a VCA or Vivid, and you don't want to wear a condom, you don't have to work. It's a matter of choice."
Luke: "Are producers concerned that they might have some liability for someone catching HIV on their set?"
Gloria: "An attorney cited me this example. A young boy lost several fingers as a result of some caps that exploded. They couldn't determine the manufacturer. So in the Pennsylvania case, they spread the liability out among the four companies that made caps. So theoretically that example could be applied in the adult industry, so if someone said, 'I worked for Vivid, VCA and Wicked, and now I have HIV...'"
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CLEARWATER, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida topless dancer who was cleared in July for allegedly injuring a man with her breasts has been arrested for wearing a costume that revealed too much, police said Thursday.
Tawny Peaks and 12 other dancers were arrested Wednesday night at the Diamond Dolls club in Clearwater, Florida, on charges of violating a local ordinance by wearing attire considered too skimpy at a club that serves alcohol.
It was the first appearance for Peaks at Diamond Dolls since a customer sued the dancer and the club this summer, claiming he was injured when Peaks pushed her 69-inch breasts in his face during a performance two years ago.
The customer, Paul Shimkonis, and Peaks settled the case by appearing on the ``People's Court'' television show, where former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, the judge, ruled that Peaks did not injure the customer.
Shimkonis' lawsuit claimed he had been disfigured by the breasts, which he described as being ``like two cement blocks.'' Koch ruled after having a court officer take Peaks into his chambers to examine her breasts to see if they were as hard as Shimkonis claimed.
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(Butte County) - Chico State University's renown reputation as a party school has helped lure a nude dance cabaret to town, nine miles north of Chico on Highway 99.
The newly licensed club is owned by Sacramento's Three Kings Corp. and is headed by First Amendment Attorney George Mull. It is estimated that the club will house about 100 dancers who will take it all off for patrons at the alcohol free bar seven days a week.
Mull, who has helped the AEIEF lobby, won approval of his plan from the Board of Supervisors by challenging the county's existing adult business regulations, charging they are unconstitutional because they imply county officials have discretion on issuing permits for such businesses (when they actually don't have that choice).
"There should be no discretion," Mull said. "Especially if the business qualifies under constitutional provisions." If the old regulations were applied to his proposal, he indicated, the provisions would be tested in court.
The closed door meeting of the Board supported Mull's attempts while passing a new county ordinance by a unanimous 5 - 0 vote.
Mull, who has represented cabarets in the past, is "fascinated" with First Amendment rights and causes, and as such, has aptly named the club the "First Amendment."
Mull, an AEIEF supporter, used information collected from a secondary effects report being created by the AEIEF. The figures collected "provides convincing evidence" that harmful effects from the proximity of adult businesses does not really happen.
"We faced the same tired arguments other adult businesses face," Mull said. "And those are that cabarets create and attract negative secondary effects."
According to George, "We were looking for ways to disprove their statistics, and knew that the AEIEF was/is working on a report that not only disproves all of the previous reports, but also points out the positive secondary effects that this industry creates.
"And we asked if we could use their initial findings," Mull said.
"In a day and age when clubs are being barraged by governmental restrictions, its nice to see the industry win one," Mull concluded. "And we couldn't have done it without AEIEF's help ."
The report, of use to Adult Film, Bookstore and Cabaret Industries is outlined for your review at http://www.xxxadvocate.com/secondary_effects/index.html.
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www.xxxadvocate.com expands
Includes www.xxx-news.com and www.xxxpolitics.com
In an effort to capture more market share and thus attract more visitors/readers, the AEIEF today launched two new projects, www.xxx-news.com and www.xxxpolitics.com.
The sites, owned by the AEIEF, are designed to expand the PAC's operations which include educating the public and industry about governmental events that are occurring AND tracking industry news across the country.
Our website is now getting over 150,000 hits a month, which is not bad, considering the site does not feature nudity.
"The most obscene thing we have on our site is legislation that closes down many parts of our industry," Adult Entertainment Advocate Michael Ross said.
As currently planned, xxx-news.com will feature industry oriented news, ranging from gossip and corporate news to individual press releases and "hard" news stories. On the other hand, www.xxxpolitics.com will become the Industry's official legislative monitoring site, focusing on national and state political situations. The AEIEF's other website, www.xxxadvocate.com will continue in operation. That website will become an "archive" for news and information, with the focus being "consumer protection in the Adult Entertainment Industry.
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Campaign News:
Lt. Governor - Leslie or Bustamante, Does It Matter?
In a race that apparently means little to the people of California, a question arises, who should our industry support for Lt. Governor?
As we all know, the Lt. Governor's position plays a vital, yet minor role in the political process, other than to either preside over a variety of meetings and fill in for the Governor when he or she is out of the state.
What do each of these candidates have in our favor?
Bustamante (Democrat):
• Democrat who supported AB 2055 and AB 726
• Was Assembly Speaker and is termed out.
• Meets with our representatives when we lobby the capitol
Leslie (Republican):
• Meets with our representatives when we lobby the capitol.
• Has carried legislation that we supported dealing with privacy and the Internet (protects talent).
• Has publicly announced that he is proud that our industry lobbies the capitol.
• Sits on Senate Judiciary Committee
• Has two more years remaining in the Legislative Process.
The AEIEF, on behalf of the Adult Entertainment Industry, we have been taking positions on candidates of interest to you and your business. To view our choice for Lt. Governor, please visit our website at http://www.xxxadvocate.com/campaign98.html. If you don't have web access, just call and we'll tell you whom we picked and fax you the list!
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STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A 50-year-old man from western Sweden has been charged with cruelty to animals after having sex with two cows, Swedish news agency TT said Friday.
The man from Alingsas near Gothenburg, who has admitted the crimes, became excited after watching a pornographic film and set off for a nearby farm armed with a vibrator and other sex aids, as well as a camera, to abuse the cows.
A few weeks later he returned for a second visit, TT said, quoting the local Alingsas Tidningen newspaper.
But when he tried to get his films of the cows developed, the local photo company alerted the police, who arrested the man and seized his sex aids.
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From Dark Horizons - Film News & Rumours-Weekend, September 19th-20th 1998
< http://www.darkhorizons.com/news-n.htm >
8MM:
In an upcoming issue
of Premiere, its revealed the Joel Schumacher-directed/Nicolas Cage-starring
thriller "8mm" is being apparently ripped to shreds by the MPAA ratings
board. The film, which follows a detective searching for the source
of a 8mm film reel in the underground pornography world, is filled with
numerous and graphic scenes (mainly in photographs) that will apparently
shock. One of the scenes the public has been told thats being cut involves
a crucified Goth girl and an electric cattle prod (gross!!!), and that
ain't supposed to be the worst of it. This is slightly confusing, since
test screening reviews indicate that while the film is pretty shocking,
its not up there with the gross-out elements of films like "Seven".
Thanks to 'The Killer'.