Over two weeks ago, general manager Hank Weinstein was fired from Elegant Angel. He recently replaced Nicky Starks. I hear the company is having financial trouble.
A leading porner told me Friday afternoon that the industry's talent pool has declined dramaticly since the HIV crisis. "Girls now vying for contracts would've been considered C girls five years ago. Back then we wouldn't even use a girl if she had a tattoo because we had a choice of hundreds of good girls. Jim South had a talent registry of 300 active girls."
John Bone's sick, in part because of the talent (Jennifer, Brandon Irons) that don't show up as scheduled to shoots. The other cause for his flu is Luke not checking his facts.
My interview with Rob Black disturbed Russ Hampshire's Hawaiin vacation. Rob gave Luke the Scoop on VCA's Brazilian operation conducted, says Rob, by Walter Gernert. Rob was too busy Friday morning to take Russ's call. Black says Hampshire has told distributors not to carry Rob's product.
Rob believes that John Bone spoke ill of him on the Collins Sleazy Friends cable TV show, and so Black has decided not to set up a Kendra Jade vs. Jasmin St. Claire spectacle. "Every time I come close to working with John Bowen he sticks his foot in his mouth," says Rob. For his part, John vehemently denies being the source of rumors that Black's Extreme Associates are in financial trouble.
Black does agree with Bowen's assessment that the HIV crisis has thinned porn's talent pool.
John "Don King" Bone dictated to Kendra Jade Saturday: "Oh Whoopsie. So Rob (the Pussy) Black's feelings have been hurt.What a sensitive little fellow he is. And here I was thinking he was a big gangsta type carving himself a new career in professional wrestling. I ponder who is the bigger coward, his loudmouthed, lying whore Jasmin St.Douchebag OR big bad Robbie himself. It matters not that Jasmin hides behind robbie,or robbie hides behind his sensitive gentle persona~ the confrontation WILL take place...most likely on the floor of the C.E.S show."
I interviewed the sober and carefully spoken Steve Hirsch (Vivid co-owner) Friday morning. He provides a vivid contrast to the rambunctious Rob Black. For one thing, Steve never used words like "motherf---er" or "cunt," not even when talking about Black.
Luke's email box overflowed with hard questions to ask Steve, such as "Does Loni Sanders still give good head?" Loni (ex-porn star) and Steve lived together for 15-years until separating recently.
Hirsch pointed out half a dozen outright mistakes in my writing on Vivid, and about ten paragraphs that need to be deleted because they are out of date.
While on hold, Vivid's phone system played me Arrow FM 93 (classic driving rock) while I thought about Nancy Vee getting out of drug rehab.
"I'm not about to personalize this interview," Steve began (much to Luke's disappointment). "I'll discuss why it is we do what we do... I'm not prepared to take personal shots.
"Before we became all-condom, we were condom-optional. We had condoms on the set. We encouraged people to use condoms and the majority of the Vivid girls used condoms. We don't believe that the condom affects the heat of the scene. We do believe it increases the safety of the performer. When Vivid and other companies made this decision [4/98], there was only a downside for us. That we could lose sales, that scenes would take longer to shoot and we'd have to pay overtime, and the problem that other companies would feel we were trying to dictate to them. There was no upside. We did it because we thought it was right. I am not going to be responsible for someone contracting a disease on my set if I can stop that from happening, and if that means that it costs us more money ultimately, I'm ok with that.
"We felt that it was important that as these people started testing [HIV] positive, that we took a stand as a company. We are not going to allow this to happen on our sets. Good movies are not about one little piece of rubber. It is about imagination, the director... setting up your scenes properly..."
Luke: "How much have you tried to influence your peers to also go all-condom?"
Steve: "We have never told people that there would be a price to pay if they didn't go all-condom. I feel that it is the best long-term interest of the industry to have a condom policy, just as the gay industry went condom-mandatory. We've never tried to bully anybody into using condoms. We don't have that kind of power.
"We've seen no affect on our sales [from going condom] but we haven't been doing it long enough to see if there will be an erosion in sales."
Luke: "How much difference does it make in sales if you make a good movie as opposed to a mediocre movie?"
Steve: "It depends on what market you're looking at. There are retailers out there who are not as educated as they should be about the difference between well-shot movies and cheap movies. The industry needs to educate all retailers and distributors that it is not always about price.
"Quality is very important to the cable market. They want good quality, well-scripted high budget movies."
Luke: "Do you notice much difference in sales if you spend $100,000 to make a good movie vs. spending $100,000 to make a mediocre movie?"
Steve: "You won't immediately see a difference in the domestic [hardcore] video market though longterm you'll see it. Long term good movies have legs. In the cable markets, you'll definitely see a difference [quickly] because people won't buy movies that aren't good."
Luke: "What difference does it make in sales if you get awards?"
Steve: "Yes, distributors can use awards as a marketing tool. This business is about marketing a product. It's so competitive than anything you can use as an edge, be it an award or a quote..."
Hirsch says Vivid employs over 100 persons and grosses over $20 million annually. Most income still comes from domestic hardcore sales. Vivid leads the industry in cable TV sales. Vivid sells its features for $13-14 each to distributors. "And we do not (and have not for eight years) catalogue anything for 12-18 months.
"We're similar to the mainstream business. You go from a rental price [selling videos to distributors who sell them to stores who primarily rent them out for a few months] to a sell-through price. To maximize your income per movie, you adjust price to maximize sales. You have to be careful not to do that too early or you'll denigrate the value of your movie.
"Vivid releases four features (two shot on film) a month and three from Vivid Raw. And about 46 comps (two hour and four hour versions which sell wholesale for $2:50-$3:50 each and retail for $10) a month. We want to offer a diverse product line. We understand there are different markets. Some people want to buy features and others want to buy compilations at a cheaper price. We own over 2000 movies."
Luke: "What do you think about the industry's trend towards the nasty?"
Steve: "You risk giving ammunition to those groups who don't agree with the adult industry. By spurring them on you run the risks of prosecutions and convictions. And once you get a conviction, you mobilize a group of people who want to put you out of business. I think you can accomplish the same thing [turn-on] through creative means. I don't think the end game is to see how extreme you can be."
Luke: "Those are strategic concerns. Do you have any moral concerns about nasty porn?"
Steve: "I believe in the First Amendment [to free expression] but I am also a realist and that is not the type of product that this company chooses to produce. We produce movies for the widest audience possible.
"We service a large [video] chain and we sell them 100% of their [adult] product. We do go out to other manufacturers, purchase product from them and resell it. We're in the business of making profit. We buy at one price and sell at a slightly higher price to this large chain. This large chain buys by going through AVN. They decide what titles they want. If there are some titles that I feel may be problematic in the area their store exists, say the South, then it is my obligation to make them aware of that. Then they make the decision to purchase that product or not.
"I saw what it was like to be prosecuted [in early '90s in Mississippi] and I did not enjoy it... If you look at the the history of the industry, [busts] go in cycles.
Luke: "How much do you think about VCA?"
Steve: "I'm friendly with Russ Hampshire. I respect him. For years he's supported this industry in every way, giving money to the Free Speech Coalition and many groups around the country having trouble in their areas..."
Luke: "You've also donated extensively."
Steve: "We support many groups but I don't want to blow our own horn."
Luke: "Was interracial a problem for Vivid features? Has Vivid ever had restrictions on black-white couplings in its feature films?"
Steve: "No. We do movies that make sense. What the scripts call for, we shoot. People have called us racist but that is not the case.
"We believe strongly in allowing our directors to make the creative decisions. My strength is marketing and business."
Luke: "Does Paul Thomas fund his own productions and then sell them to you?"
Steve: "I don't wish to comment on that business relationship."
Luke: "Do you guys have something against natural breasts?"
Steve: "Absolutely not. Jenteal had natural breasts when she started with us but as most of the girls in this industry do have enhanced breasts... We've never asked a girl to enhance themself for us. We're always out there looking for the most beautiful girls who will best represent this company."
Luke: "What kind of job do you think the FSC has done over the past few years?"
Steve: "I think it is hard to get a consensus when you have a lot of people on a board. I certainly believe wholeheartedly that they are trying to do the right thing. They are people giving their time [regularly] to do something good for this industry."
Luke: "What are some of the best and worst decisions you've made?"
Steve: "It was a good decision to sign girls to exclusive contracts. That's what initially separated us from every other company out there. The decision to go outside the industry for mainstream packaging separated us and that some of the relationships we've nurtured have paid dividends. In every business there are mistakes...
"We have nine Vivid girls. We recently signed Kira [asian]. The two Vivid guys are Bobby Vitale and Julian (under a joint contract with VCA)."
Luke: "I hear that the darker skinned Vivid girls earn half as much as their lighter skinned counterparts?"
Steve: "Not true. The amount of money the girls make depends on how many movies they sell, how their stuff does, how many movies they make for us and how long they've been with us. There is no pay difference for different girls."
Luke: "How could you let Loni Sanders get away?"
Steve: "I don't wish to comment on my personal life.
"...We produce between six to eight big budget films a year and each of the Vivid girls has the opportunity to star in one.
"We started Vivid Raw years ago to do gonzo movies... We were going to release bisexual and she-male movies out of the Vivid Extreme label. We have done movies with the word "Extreme" in them for a long time... When we got the [legal] letter from Rob, although we do feel that we would provide in a legal suit, we decided it wasn't that important to us to call the company Vivid Extreme. So we release that product under Vivid Raw...
"We're very pleased with Vivid Raw. It's a new company so we're constantly tinkering with it...
"About us making ten cents on a movie... I learned a long time ago not to project profits from other people's sales..."
Luke: "Are the AVN awards fixed?"
Steve: "I absolutely disagree with that. I think that Paul Fishbein has a lot of integrity and he understands that his business is worth nothing if he loses that integrity."
Luke: "AVN seems to reflect a Vivid/VCA perspective?"
Steve: "Go through the magazine and count the number of pages that talk about Vivid/VCA... I'm not sure that is the case."
Luke: "The reviewers like the nastier stuff but Paul is more mainstream."
Steve: "To Paul's credit he hires people with different views than himself.
"I think that the adult industry is more accepted today than ever before and I am constantly amazed how many people recognize the Vivid name."
Mike South was not impressed
with my interview: "Come on Luke, why didn't you just give the guy a
blowjob? You let us down man... You threw nothing but easy pitches and
you let him blow his own
horn... Now THAT is poor journalism."
Real2Reel@webtv.net watched Traci Lords interview on Roseanne's TV show: "Very sad in parts, and it brought tears to Roseanne's eyes. She talked about being fully developed at age 10, and being called a whore before she even knew what it meant. She was sexually abused by a family friend at age 10, and she said that every single girl she met in the sex industry has been abused. The reason why she came on Roseanne is because she is a good friend, and Traci did not like the unauthorized biographies done about her lately. She said that she is not a statistic and says she was high on coke most of the time she was in the industry."
Brad Williams writes
on rec.arts.movies.erotica: "Traci is quite good at self-promotion,
though it sort of suprises me that Roseanne, another master of that
craft, would fall for such BS.
If her porn experience was soo horrifying and all that, she wouldn't
be running around using the name "Traci Lords." Here is one example
of where I have zero sympathy for the perfomer and support the industry
itself. She's the one who obtained the bogus birth certificate that
lead to the bogus driver's license. This "coked-up" bit is a lot of
bulls--- and trying to convince the public of how "she didn't know what
she was doing due to drugs." Hey, if she was hooked on coke, who was
the f---ing dumbass that got hooked? She didn't claim that she being
force-fed coke did she? There were porn producers looking at long jail
terms over this when they did nothing wrong except trust that one Nora
Kuzma's driver's license was accurate. Where's her sympathy for the
people who got hounded by the Feds due to her duplicity?
"I met "Traci Lords" once here in Atlanta was she was touring the radiowaves and making public appearances about the time she was on Melrose Place. She was in a very crowded bar where she was hardly recognized, except by me. She'll talk porn when it's not "on the record" so to speak, and I didn't get an impression she was so loathful of her past as she publicly proclaims. She wears some pretty garish and harsh makeup these days, so a lot of porn fans who saw her movies and might not have seen her since wouldn't probably recognize her. She's fairly nice in person once you sort of let her know that you aren't some mark for bulls---.
"She's just out to make a buck, which in and of itself is fine by me. To try and capitalize on being a porn star and yet dismiss at the same time as some drug-induced haze she barely remembers is a lot of s--- though. Porn made her....she can't act her way out of a bag, doesn't look so good any more, and can't sing any better than Lassie barking. Without her porn past, she's just another face in the crowd and unmarketable. Obviously she needs some bucks and exposure now since she's touring the talk-circuit for exposure. That part is kind of amusing."