Tuesday, October 12th, 1999

From today's :

The Big El Squash-O?

Paul Fishbein writes: "Gene- Further explanation on the 'quashing' of the Chris English story. Luke is clueless. It has nothing to do with Chuck Zane. As you know, I got tired of the anonymous source stories - the disgruntled employees, so to speak. Zane hasn't advertised in several issues. It's not to please an advertiser. It's because the internet rumor mill can get nasty and I'm tired of you (and him) printing the ramblings of people with axes to grind.

"As far as I'm concerned, John Bowen extorted you. You handed me the Chris English comments, and said that Bowen sent it to you, insinuating that if we don't run it he was giving it to Luke F-rd.
Everyone knows, Bowen has a bone to pick with Zane and will do anything to get at him. So he uses you as his hatchet man.

"So, if we run it, you're John Bowen's guy again and under his thumb and he gets to use you to get at Chuck. If we don't run it, we've quashed the story for an advertiser who happens not to be an
advertiser (but why would Luke check those facts anyway). Either way, you lose, or rather, we lose.

"Is it that big of a story? Maybe I'm wrong. maybe it's bigger than Tony Montana getting H.I.V. or anything else you write. It's still a disgruntled eomployee who would have never brought up the
condom issue if he wasn't an incompetant who lost his job.

"And I hate being held up by Bowen or anyone else, so frankly, I'm happy Luke ran the story instead of you. We know where Luke loyalty runs. And Bowen's supposed to be your friend but he extorted
you."

This is John Bowen's reply to Fishbein's reply.

Bowen: "I think the credibility of the story is in Luke F-rd's opening sentence that he called Chris Mann and confirmed that this was true and not the ramblings of a disgruntled employee. I was
contacted by Chris English because he was looking for work. He's been dumped by Chuck. He needs work, and it was my intention to get his name and his telephone number out into the industry so he can get an honest opportunity to ply his trade. In the process of doing that, it came out that Chuck Zane is the hypocrite I've always known. and has been shooting no-condom movies in Europe. I gave the story to Gene with the comment, 'I'm sure Paul won't have the balls to publish this because he's in Zane's pocket.'

"My observations were obviously true as, one more time, Paul tried to disguise the truth with a barrage of rhetoric. Nevertheless, the accusation is that Zane is a hypocrite who ran a bulls--- editorial in AVN and doesn't back it up by his actions. Paul is a hypocrite who doesn't have the courage to go against an advertiser. One more time I've proved to myself that I'm right. Whatever happened to the adage publish and be damned? It would seem that the adage here is let journalism be damned, let's protect our friends."

Paul Fishbein replies to Bowen's reply about his reply: "I'm in no one's pocket. Chuck's not advertising, and Gene's running your comments. And, remember, it could be said that I'm in your pocket, too. Except that I treat everybody equally."

Gene replies on the replies about the replies to the replies: "Christian Mann in a Tuesday afternoon interview sheds some light on this Chris English issue. Hate to do this to ya, folks, but Tony
Montana's in the lobby, and boy, does he have some s--- to tell. Chris' and Tony's stories appear on the Wednesday postings."

Porner calls Luke: "Remember Chuck Zane's editorial last year in AVN. How he could never associate with anybody who endangered the lives of the talent? That he would never get involved in any project that does not use condoms.

"Chuck Zane has been working with a guy out of Sweden, Chris English. Chris shot four movies for Zane, the last two without condoms. Chuck had no problem financing these movies and shooting them in Europe without condoms. Had no problem distributing them through his German company, but so he won't appear like a hypocrite in America, he sold the American rights to Chris Mann at Video Team. The story was given to Gene Ross, but Paul Fishbein won't let him print it.

"When Chuck did this whole switch to condoms, it was rumored at the time that his company was not doing well [Chuck had already taken it twice into bankruptcy], and Chuck was trying to curry favor with Paul, Wicked, VCA and Vivid, who were all-condom. Chuck denied that, it was because of his concern for the talent.

"This story is a simple situation of a man getting caught in his own lies."

Chris English writes about Chuck Zane: "When he [Zane] was suggesting and to some degree boasting to me how cool it was be to con and deceive the talent and others in this business when we were in Cannes..., I told him there and then what I thought about that and that "I" was never going down that road to do business. Chuck's response was an E-mail to Dick Miller - "Chris is coming to America to learn how to be a Prick"... To bad I didn't learn that lesson. "MY" soul is not for sale... I did not turn in to a whore...If that is ..professional behaviour, you can keep it."

Ha Rav Ha Gaon HAHAHA AMALEK writes: Luke, do pornmediamoguls ever offer you bribes to kill/slant/plant stories? If so, what is the going rate? And assuming that, so far, they have not, all of your readers will want to know the following: How much cold, hard cash must Luke F-rd be paid in order to kill a story? [LF: Depends on the story, a few thousand dollars would kill a lot and enable me to concentrate on Torah.]

I think you could do a far better job of leveraging your web site. You need to set up that 900 number, be more aggressive in selling link space, offer porn queen trading cards and the like. Bribes too. You seem not to realize that there now is a Luke F-rd brand of web site; it should be both trademarked and pushed into the e-world. Think of the chotchkes you could sell! Not just the usual stuff like underwear, but the esoteric, too. How about air that has been expelled from the lungs of porn stars? Door knobs and other household hardware that they have touched? (Cross brand with Home-Depot?) Are you musically inclined? What's the difference - record a song, and have porn concerts! Or what about Luke as the emprassario (too lazy to look it up) of porn conventions? These would be just like star trek conventions (with many of the same people showing up), only for the porn world. The Luke F-rd brand could make you MILLIONS!

If you are willing to split the take, I will manage it all for you so that you would be free to spend all of your time on your rabbinical studies, away from the temptations of the flesh. Hell, if the split is favorable, I will even go so far as to write all the stories and manage all the bribes. And don't worry that I might cheat you out of your share. I am honest - honest!

Zane, a longtime producer of the filthiest porno around, suddenly converted to the Fishbein led condom cause in the Spring of 1998.

But secretly Chuck Zane aka Richard Zicari, uncle of Rob Black, has been producing and distributing non-condom porno through such shooters as Chris English in Sweden. Chuck Zane has distributed this product through his company in Germany. For American distribution, however, Zane sold his bareback product to condom stalwart Chris Mann at Video Team.

Christian Mann told Luke by phone at 11AM Tuesday.

Luke: "I heard that Chuck Zane sold you a non-condom series to distribute?"

Chris: "Yes."

Luke: "Does this symbolize that you're moving away from all-condom?"

Chris: "No. Anything I produce remains condom positive. This was a series precreated that I decided to distribute. But anything I produce is condom positive. I only produce videos in the United States but I do buy European product for U.S. distribution. But it does not symbolize a change in policy or a change in my opinions..."

Luke: "Does condom positive mean all condom?"

Chris: "All condom for all vaginal and anal penetration."

AVN publisher Paul Fishbein replied to Luke via email Thursday morning: "It is the ramblings of a disgruntled employee. That's your department. That's the stuff you should be running. We actually are enjoying running actual news. We'll leave the bulls--- to you. See, there's room for both.This way you can run his ramblings and never call any of the other parties involved, never find out the truth or both sides of the story and try to hurt some reputations without ever knowing the truth. Unlike you, we called about five of the people involved and to us it's a non-story. So have fun."

Chris English writes Luke: "I've just read your site. How did you get my E-mail concerning this topic? Of those five people Gene Ross/AVN called one of them was NOT me... Further more I am or was not an employee but a private contractor."

Chuck Zane was contacted by Luke for comment but he has a longstanding policy of not talking to Luke F-rd and not allowing his employees to talk to Luke as well.

In the November 1998 issue of Adult Video News, grandpa Chuck Zane, who's declared bankruptcy three times, makes a passionate case for condoms:

This is an issue that is dividing the adult industry like none before. On one side of the debate are approximately 20 adult producers who are now mandating the use of condoms during sex scenes. On the other side, unfortunately, there are three times as many who say they will not make it mandatory, but will leave it up to the individual actor or actress to decide. Then there are the not-so-few-as-you'd-like-to-think who actually use endangering the lives of the talent as a marketing tool.

That's right folks; they say, "Step right up and see death-defying acts performed before your very eyes"; "AIDS? What AIDS?"; and "AIDS is just a myth perpetrated to deny me my First Amendment rights." Freedom of speech, freedom of the press - and wait, don't forget the latest protection that these producers feel comes under the First Amendment - the freedom to kill.

Maybe I'm just getting old; or it could be that while I am sitting here writing this, my son's wife is in labor, maybe minutes away from giving birth to my first grandchild. How do I reconcile the happiness of being part of bringing a new life into the world with belonging to an industry that uses the lives of other people's children and grandchildren so recklessly... I don't think I can.

Can you? If the answer is "No," then this is what you do. If you're a distributor or owner of an adult video store, contact the offices of the Free Speech Coalition at (818) 348-9373, or the offices of Zane, Wicked, Vivid, VCA or Metro, and ask for a list of companies that are "mandating condom use." The list will also be posted at zanevideo.com. Then write, call or fax any company that you do business with that is not on the list, and tell them, "Enough is enough. We will not support any company that puts the lives of hundreds of young people at risk for infection and death."

Be warned. We sellers and buyers of adult videos must do something about this life-threatening problem before it's too late. We have to clean up our act ourselves, or someone is going to do it for us. You decide.

From the August 13, 1999 edition of www.geneross.com:

ZANE ENTERTAINMENT GROUP RESTRUCTURES FOR COMPETITIVE EDGE!

In an effort to meet the competitive demands placed on adult video manufacturers, Zane Entertainment Group has sold their in house duplicating facilities. "We were able to strike a deal with a great dupe lab, which has enabled us to lower our prices and increase our sales. Our sales have been incredible lately. It's turned Zane into a lean, mean porno machine," says owner, Chuck Zane.

Currently operating under three 5,700 square foot buildings, Zane's recent consolidation has left an empty space. One of the buildings is now available for sublease or direct lease from the owner. The available building has previously been used by Video Central /Tight Ends. If you are interested in the space, please call the Zane offices at (818) 772-9510.

Kid Venom writes: That was an interesting item you posted yesterday about Zane selling their duplicating operation. You put a generous spin on it, to put it kindly. "Let's recap the recent symptoms of Zane's financial situation. 1) Zane pulled out of the VSDA show at the last second. 2) Zane didn't take ANY ads in the current issue of AVN. 3) Now Zane sells off their duplicating operation and offers the space for lease to raise cash.

"Does it sound like Zane is in a little trouble? My VENOMous sources tell me that the vaunted Zane racing car and Matt's struggling record label have sucked the company's bank account dry. Rumors are rampant that some of their customers have quit paying them on the assumption that they're ready to go bankrupt for the (third?) time. Zane & Co. are desperately hoping that this doesn't turn into a stampede, and that their vendors don't make a run for what's left of their assets.

"But then, what's another bankruptcy? Matt got in Rolling Stone and Guitar Magazine, man! Isn't that all that really matters...?"

When read the Kid Venom comments, Chuck Zane said he was going to lock the company gates to stave off the stampede. "What racing car?" Zane asked. "What idiots! I got a racing car! This is stupid and ridiculous. Prices are way too low. If Kid Venom wants to come up with about $3 million, he's welcome to come on down."

Gene adds: "Matt seems to be struggling so much he's got all these club bookings around the country."

From the August 16, 1999 edition of www.geneross.com:

RETRACTION

   Paul Fishbein has this to say: "We apologize for for the anonymous posting [an infrequent poster who identifies himself as Kid Venom] Friday from a source concerning Zane Entertainment Group's selling of their duplication lab and their decision not to currently advertise in AVN.

   Paul Fishbein had a meeting with Chuck Zane on these issues earlier last week, however did not share the information with Gene Ross. Had Fishbein given the information to Ross, the anonymous posting would have been moot. He would have noted that the decision to sell the lab was a sound business decision and that Zane asked Fishbein advice on this matter and that Fishbein agreed it was a smart maneuver. In addition, Zane explained his reasons for not advertising in the current issues of AVN after talking about his current marketing strategeies, but that was not communcated to Gene prior to that posting.

   As far as AVN is concerned, Zane is in optimum financial shape and continuing to put out quality product on a regular basis, as will be evidenced by a series of reviews in the upcoming September AVN issue.

Paul Fishbein Also Responds to AVN Awards-Fixing

   Paul Fishbein writes: "Gene, I've seen transcripts of the latest bulls--- on the LF site. He tries to draw me in, with the bulls--- anonymous sources, but I refuse. He figures he can draw me in and he has content for his site. For those who read both sites, you Gene can run my response.

    "First off, about Fetish. Within a few weeks, Fetish Magazine will be launching a new, very hot website, which has drawn great interest around the industry. Everyone has told us that a website based on Fetish (which is a very high quality book) will be a big money maker.

    "Yes, it is still being published. But because it's such an expensive book to produce, we have to charge a lot and many retailers won't buy high priced books like that. We have mediocre distribution, and we basically break even. So we're rethinking our strategy and #10 will be out soon. Of course, the book helps drive the website, so we will continue to publish. It may be distributed differently. We're just being fiscally responsible.

    "The other old news. While Luke finally admitted, or at least in a response told the truth for once, that he has seen the electronic balloting system, he didn't mention that I also showed him the old ballot system and never mentioned that the balloting is open for inspection for one year.

    "Of course, he has another anonymous source that sat in on meetings where we fixed the awards (Savannah and other, I suppose) but of course, since you and I have been in on every awards meeting ever, we know "fixing" meetings never happened. In fact, we both know the truth. And one truth is this source will never come forward because he's lying.

    "And finally, the presumption by the unknowing people who talk about us giving awards only to people who line our pockets with advertising dollars, there's no point in pointing out all the awards that go to people who don't advertise in AVN and that most of the companies are regular AVN advertisers anyway. But the Vivid and VCA comments are particularly interesting. Do any of these people watch adult movies? Don't they realize that VCA and Vivid actually make some real good stuff and perhaps, just perhaps, that they sometimes actually deserve to win."

   Randy Kaplan writes: "I don't want to give any credence to Luke F-rd, so I react to blatant falsehoods on his website by replying to you, knowing that his penchant for plagiarizing you means that he will read them. Given recent events, it wouldn't surprise me if you don't wish to accommodate this roundabout method of reacting to Ford any more, but I just can't fail to react to yet another absurdity regarding AVN on his site.

    "Replying to some pathetic loser who rips the integrity of the AVN Awards, Luke clearly states that he has been shown the ballot records from when you and I and the rest of the reviewers and editors served as the judges, and that he has also seen the new electronic system for counting votes, and that he is satisfied the awards process is on the up-and-up. But facts aren't good enough for Ford. Evidence isn't good enough for Ford. He has to turn around in the very next sentence, and cite [uninformed, incorrect] rumor, and the infamous [unnamed] source, stating the exact opposite.

    "Ford may think he is just being "fair," but equating verifiable fact with unsubstantiated rumor is anything but fair. It is not just factually wrong, it is morally wrong. It is one of those things that hurts people, something Ford continually whines that he does not want to do, but seems to have a sick compulsion to do anyway. I was one of many people who worked very hard to make the AVN Awards maintain an impeccable level of integrity, and to make the AVN Awards a worthwhile occasion to honor that rarity: excellence in adult entertainment. I think that the recognition of excellence in any human endeavor is worthwhile. Like any other person who participated in voting for the AVN Awards, and any other person who was ever nominated or aspired to earn a nomination, the results often did not meet my own expectations. But even an ego my size can recognize that all that means is that the collective opinion of the judges did not match my own.

    "It sure as hell doesn't mean that any corruption of the process distorted the result. I think that there have been some rather absurd anomalies in the Awards; for instance, if the judges thought enough of Asia Carrera to vote her Female Performer of the Year in her rookie season, how come they preferred someone else, Kylie Ireland, to be the Best New Starlet, over Asia, in the same year? But check the ballots and you will see that apparently, enough voting judges ranked Asia high enough in balloting for the big award that they evidently thought it was enough, and ranked her at the same level or lower for the lesser newcomers' award. Of course, if the first place votes are scattered, but one of the front-runners sweeps the second spots on everyone's ballots, their total points can put them over the top. Check the ballots, and that's what happened to produce this anomaly. Wrong? In my opinion, sure! I didn't vote for either winner.

    " Dishonest? Absolutely not! There are any number of such examples in the history of the Awards. As for the endlessly-repeated rumor about Savannah, let me remind Ford that the first criterion for Best New Starlet is impact on the industry. I personally thought that Savannah was a despicable human being and a poor porn performer. I also think that it might have occurred to someone who was practically addicted to plastic surgery that a broken nose was not likely to be a career-ending event, and not sufficient reason to blow one's brains out. Nevertheless, anyone who doesn't think she deserved that award at that time understands very little about the adult video business.

    "I understand why AVN changed the voting format for the Awards. Basically, it has always been a can't-win situation. You can't make everyone happy; you can't stop the ridiculous rumors; you might as well make the whining great unwashed porn crowd collectively potentially responsible for their unhappiness by inviting them to vote for the Awards themselves. I personally think that opening up the voting in this way will devalue the Awards; as a result, I don't vote any more, after being one of the panel of voting judges for six years. During those years, I spent literally hundreds of hours watching, taking notes, and comparing the fourteenth-best Anal Scene Shot On Video to the fifteenth-best.

    "I doubt many of the current voters take similar pains. But, as I say, I understand and appreciate the reasons for the changes. But here's the point: if the Awards are corrupt or corruptible, and there is no risk of being thrown out as a judge, why won't the anonymous source who claims the Savannah award was fixed identify themselves? Surely they don't believe that in the feud-loving, soap-opera world of porn that they would risk future employment. (Well, I guess Leisure Time might not offer you the chance to edit the five-zillionth Savannah compilation we've all been waiting for with bated breath.) Come forth, the Deep Throat of Deep Throating! The Luke F-rds, the whining losers, the mainstream always-get-the-porn-world-wrong media will lionize you. The 'revelation' would easily be worth thousands in interview fees, free lunches, media junkets, and the like. Mike Albo would take you to lunch, and not in East LA! Could the real answer be that the award wasn't fixed, and that the nameless source is another tiresome manifestation of the fetid, pusillanimous, morally corrupt imagination of Luke F-rd?"

   Gene sez: "One added note, if someone is trying to make some sinister connection between the fact that Savannah was both Best New Starlet and a Vivid contract girl, bear one thing in mind. The bulk of Savannah's work and subsequent exposure which justified her award as having profound influence upon the industry, came during the period when she was working for Leisure Time."

......

(czane1@ix.netcom.com) Chuck Zane wrote a few days ago to Chris English, a porner in Sweden: "My good friend Chris Mann owner of Video Team called me several days ago wanting to know why a Chris English called him wanting to know how much he paid for the Sperma Diat videos. He also said this same Chris English went on to give him his phone and email info expressing a wish to make him some videos in the future. He called me immediately after his conversation with you to assure me he would never make a deal with anyone behind my back and the only reason he is buying the Sperma Diat videos is because they are from me. I am asking you now to stop calling my customers and interfering with my business. What you have done is highly unprofessional and considered extremely unethical. I have in the past, considered your lack of experience in the adult business, when you have conducted yourself in an unprofessional manner but after this recent incident I can no longer write your actions off to naiveté. In the future please refrain from using me as a reference to potential clients."

Chris English responded:

(chrisenglish1@yahoo.com) (czane1@ix.netcom.com) Chris Mann (xtian@flash.net) Dick Miller, (califilm@applet.cz)
Subject: In Response to: Severance of business relationship
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 1999 03:34:07 -0700 (PDT)
From: Chris English
To: Chuck Zane CC: Chris Mann, Dick Miller

Looks like it is really all over. I've just been on the phone to Chuck...I'm dismayed and deeply saddend by Chucks last E-mail to me...Deeply saddend. But this E-mail can not go unchalenged and all parties to which it was addressed or concerns should have an explanation.... Despite rubbing shoulders with Americans whom I love dearly for so long I still have my indomitable British Character chaps. And I will stand up in the face of adversity and for what is right no matter what.

Bottom line, I'm not working, nobody is paying my rent not Chuck not anybody, so nobodys hand is feeding me, so I have to find work where I can. Who in the world can not understand that?...

Chris is not the only person I have contacted. I have quite OPENLY asked people to call Chuck if they needed a reference with regards to me and I fully expected Chris Mann to call Chuck as he told me he would, and the only reason I did not call Chuck regarding this is because he E-mailed me telling me he was going to be out of town until Tuesday. Which has turned out not to be true.

Anyway regarding the 4 "Sperma Diat" titles I shot for Chuck, Chuck told me on the phone only a few weeks ago that he was not interested in the scenario anymore ( which I have plans on improving and adapting further as well as many equally good not yet disclosed Ideas ) which is contrary in a "big" way to what he said shortly before that, being over the moon with them and saying nobody was capable of shooting or had the guts to shoot them that but me... and that he didn't mind if I took it to an other company...So I'm confused, how am I being un ethical? Brinkmanship, stringing me along!?! He didn't want to give me work but he didn't want anyone else to get me ??? Keeping me hanging in the wind ??? Dependent on him so hoping when I do work I will work for less money??? Come on, tell me who's being un ethical?...Somebody please tell me...Who is being naive???... I don't know for sure!

Long ago he also told me "I'm never going to tell you don't make a buck"... Right now I'm not making a cent. What am I to do?... Just put what talent I sense I might have on the shelf and forget about it until "maybe" the phone rings one day. I'm a go getta! And I don't see why I should waste what talent I and others might think I have waiting around until my hair falls out, what's left of it, for the mountain to come to "Chris English". "Chris English" must go to the mountain.

Chuck and I have or had "no" deal exclusive or otherwise. Things have been talked about which have been instigated by Chuck but they were very short on substance... As far as I am aware both Europe and USA's commerce operate in a free market system not an old boys club. But then again maybe I'm been naive here... And to talk of ethics...when he was suggesting and to some degree boasting to me how cool it was be to con and deceive the talent and others in this business when we were in Cannes..., I told him there and then what I thought about that and that "I" was never going down that road to do business. Chuck's response was an E-mail to Dick Miller - "Chris is coming to America to learn how to be a Prick"... To bad I didn't learn that lesson. "MY" soul is not for sale... I did not turn in to a whore...If that is ..professional behaviour, you can keep it.

In e-mails to Chuck long ago I said I was going to start giving a few people in the States a call and that it would be nice to have the references that he promised he would give me. An offer which "he" solicited, and without my prompting said he would actively help in. Nobody's perfect not me, not anybody, but here I see "nothing" but inconsistency and because it is from somebody in a position of power, I just gotta take that ? All of it? Just because everybody knows Chuck Zane and nobody knows me. Is that right?...Is that "ethical"?...

I held off in making such calls out of some strange sense of loyalty until now. I have not sought to profit from this loyalty it really was out of genuine affection which though now strained... I still have for Chuck... If I was the heal I am being made out to be I would have easily found work whilst on my last shoot in LA by contacting all 'n' sundry...Every body, the crew the talent was crazy about what I was doing and took to my unassuming manner. It clearly would have profited me but that would not have been right. Infact the thought never even entered my head at that time...

I have called Chuck twice no three times today in an earnest and respectful attempt to resolve this but on all occasions he hung up on me...Telling me to "have a nice life". Even when I asked him who I should "NOT" contact, as a "courtesy" not an obligation, so as NOT to interfere with his potential business, the answer was "that is not for me to say" and he hung up again!?!?...Now what should I do? Call nobody? Uh ah!

It is to my surprise but clear that he now regards me as a threat and as competition to his ventures with Dick Miller in Prague and the daggers are out for me. Oddly flattering.

Whilst this could now be true as I have "ALL" the resources available to me that Dick has in the Czech Republic ( some of which he found through me ) New 3Chip camera purchased Saturday, lights, stills equipment the works, in addition "I" have "NOT" made the mistake of making a bitter enemy out of by far the largest and most important talent agent in the Country, this agency is bigger than all the rest put together and has the best girls exclusively assigned, which means Dick has to go scratching around in the dirt to find talent and what he does find is NOT the best quality available! This in addition to the limitless talent and shooting resources also available to me in Budapest and elsewhere in Europe, the fact that because profits made from their shoots for clients have to be split between Chuck and Dick plus their higher overheads meaning that they would have to charge "more" than I would in order make a decent living. Further in addition; my relative youth, energy, ambitiousness, FRESHNESS, courage and as Chuck VERY, VERY WELL KNOWS... My good faith and conscience...

In the light of this I can very well understand how he might now be motivated, that this might colour his judgement and I fear now that there may be temptation to slander me... I dearly hope I am wrong.

I have nothing and I just want something... I came into this business because I believe in what I can do in it with every ounce of my being...I have vision and know where I want to go and because I want equally to have fun AND "make money". Neither of which I've had much of up until now. If you do not believe in what you are doing and have a detachment to it, I believe it will show in your product and it will NEVER be as good as it can be. I am beggining to relise that maybe no one cares about the consumer and there lies the reason that the industry is in such a state...I never believed I would have to become a Politician walk on eggshells everywhere I go and deal with so much paranoia and sensitive insecurities. In this respect I WAS naive.

I will always be greatful to Chuck for giving me my first break in the busness even if I do feel he reminded me of that fact a little to often. It's strange how he can't hold on to talent...He has not produced a good "erotic" movie since his split with John T Bone... although I think his Son Mark, whom I like very much and cares about what he is doing, has a lot of potential if only he were to stop being smothered and was given the creative freedom he deserves. Then Zane might begin to get away from it's Ugly girl reputation...I'm very very sorry Chuck, that had to be said and you know what I am talking about. If it had not been Chuck it would surely have been someone else, he got a GREAT Idea VERY VERY cheaply and I do not feel, although I was not looking for the earth, I have been well renumerated for it. A mistake I will not be repeating in a hurry. I have now learned that everyone with out exception is very impressed with my Ideas even if I do say it myself both Chuck and I know that IS a fact. The only problem is despite having shot 4 full features, each and every one sucessivly improving in quality, I have no material to show them... Chuck is keeping me unemployed ... I noticed that on the first Edition of the series I DON'T EVEN HAVE A CREDIT...IS THAT RIGHT??? IS THAT ETHICAL ??? IS THAT PROFESSIONAL??? IS IT?... Nonetheless I am still suposed to be grateful...

All this being said I am not interested in bearing grudges and from this point on I bear Chuck no malice. That is not productive. I once felt that Chuck could and would become one of my dearest friends... Anyway pride is one of the seven deadly sins both in life AND in business. It gets in the way of EVERYTHING. My e-mail and phone and, yes my hand is sincerely open in friendship and respect for Chuck as it has always been if he should decide to take it...

Christoph Kelly writes: Luke, First off, love your site and read it everyday. You need even more rumors!!! Regarding the condom issue...it is getting totally ridiculous. NO CONDOMS! NO CONDOMS! NO CONDOMS! Let me put it to you this way; which captures your attention more, the trapeeze act with the net or the one without? If there's a net, it is not as exciting...but without the net, there is that ultimate risk of life, giving the audience the ultimate thrill. Porn is a risk...that is what is exciting. Scenes loss a great deal of excitement when they whip out the jimmy. That is a bottom line fact. In addition, remember when Robbie Knievel, the motorcycle daredevil jumped the Snake River Canyon...no parachute! He risked death, thus making it that much more thrilling and exciting...he could die. That is a big part of the appeal of porn...the risk, the fantasy. Stop with the CONDOM ENFORCERS! Last time I checked, this was the United States of America...land of freedom, home of the condomless!

Sex and Drugs Leads Organized Crime

THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC July 6, 1999

The world's organized criminals have a greater economic output than all but three of the world's national economies, according to a United Nations report, and the biggest growth area is drugs. The U.N.'s 1999 Human Development Report estimates organized crime syndicates gross around $1.6 trillion a year. By comparison, the United Kingdom's economic output is just over $1.28 trillion.

The biggest growth area is drugs, which are now a bigger global industry than motor manufacturing. Over the past 10 years, the production of opium has more than tripled and the production of coca leaves has doubled. The illegal drug trade - supplying 200 million customers - is worth around $400 billion, or 8 percent of world trade. Another growth industry is trafficking in women and girls for the sex industry - a business worth $8 billion a year.

Most of the main criminal groups have extended beyond their home territories. The Chinese triads are in the restaurant trade in London, the Sicilian Mafia is selling heroin in New York, and the Japanese yakuza are financing pornography in the Netherlands.

GQ Journalist Directs Porn Film

Lattara writes on RAME: In November's issue of GQ (the UK version) noted British critic and journalist AA Gill details how he directed his first porn film starring Houston, Temptress and Claudia Chase for Metro Video. Apparently the English journalist, a contributing editor to GQ, a (former?) TV critic for (IIRC) The Independent, and a frequent 'talking head' in UK arts broadcasting, sent Metro his script for the movie 'Hothouse Tales' and they said they had a free slot in a month as long as he would take out all the talking and acting from his script. "All my adult life I've wanted to have apneumatic woman buggered on a wedding cake by a cartoonishly hung black man. Who hasn't?" writes the respected British writer. Quite an interesting article. Also rather long so I will make no attempt to reproduce it all here.

Obviously as Gill was prepared to get his hands dirty (so to speak) the article is broadly 'pro-porn'. Some interesting facts appear in the article. Metro demanded the following scenes in the vid, one of each:- M/F, F/F, M/FF, MM/F, an anal scene and a solo scene Gill wouldn't do a solo scene as he's not interested in that - by porn standards the man is already an artist :-).

Gill's original draft featured a wife coaxing her husband to do another guy. Unsurprisingly he was told to drop this. More amusingly he had to take out a bit where a girl 'smokes' a joint with her pussy as "they're real stricty about that." The half-Mexican ingenue - Clarissa - who gets to f--- Ron Jeremy apparently gets a 200 dollar bonus for this perverse act, although as it turns out the Hedgehog appears to be losing it. He can scarcely maintain wood and the new director has to settle for a quick facial jerk-off scene. After her encounter with Jeremy, Clarissa is not sure if a career in porn is for her.

In the above-mentioned interracial wedding cake scene the unnamed stud refuses to go down on Houston claiming an allergy to sugar (he's a light-skinned black guy in the photos, but I'm lousy at naming male performers). The producer suggests that it's more likely that he "doesn't want to put his mouth where 619 men and Ron Jeremy have been." Gill comments that since he became (very) involved in writing this article it has elicited the curiosity of acquaintances more than anything else he's ever written. He notes that it's striking that all those who've asked him about the experience want there prejudices that all those involved in making porn are "dysfunctional, unhappy and exploited." He did not find this in the least.

Ian Gittler's Pornstar Book

Publisher's Weekly reviews Ian Gittler's book Pornstar: In 1991, Gittler, a photographer whose work has appeared in such magazines as Vogue and Vanity Fair, set out to produce a cheery coffee-table book chronicling the lives of members of the adult-film business. "Instead of beloved icons, I would glorify reviled (or at least only secretly admired) ones," Gittler writes of his initial intentions. Five years later, however, after meeting many of America's most-prominent Triple-X stars and hearing about their often sordid and depressing personal lives, Gittler changed his tune: his "one-man crusade to vindicate American sexuality" left him brimming with pity and moralizing disdain. Many of the stories Gittler has amassed in this episodic account of the lives, politics and everyday preoccupations of porn professionals are indeed depressing. Savannah, a porn actress, is injured in a car accident and then commits suicide. Director John Stagliano learns that he is HIV-positive. The photographs Gittler takes--in studios, apartments, hotel rooms and on the sets of porn shoots--are often highly sexually explicit, although most depict porn stars merely hamming for the camera. Still, one feels that Gittler is a little quick to infer that all sex workers are tragic, lost souls. Though this book purports to be a journalistic portrait of the porn demimonde, there is little rigor or emotional depth to it. Gittler in the end comes off as being both leering and judgmental, blurring the line he attempts to draw between pornography and journalism about pornography.

More porners have cleared the Tony Montana quarantine - Chandra Vega, Jim Legman and Jade Marcella.

A.J. Benza: The Hole Story?

Luke F-rd Wire Services, Ltd.:

“When I see a girl I know I really want to f---, my asshole tightens for a second,” revealed flamboyant smartass A.J. Benza--who currently hosts E! Channel’s “Mysteries & Scandals---in New York Magazine, dated 3-18-96.
    Concurrent with Content magazine’s observation in the October ‘99 issue that Benza’s “Mysteries & Scandals” offered “a seedier view of Hollywood,” the Village Voice, dated 9-28-99 , reported that “ A.J. Benza was finishing up his cautionary tale memoir.”    
    Benza’s work-in-progress, allegedly entitled “The Half of It,” is reportedly being published by the Disney/Mirimax/ Hyperion org.
    The following items offer a cautionary glimpse into the mysteries and scandals of A.J. Benza’s momentous life and times:
    “Right now, we’re the s---,” observed Benza in New York magazine, dated 8-1-94.
    An accompanying photo of “the clog-footed, jewelry-wearing, dude-about-town”--his thinning coif moussed and ponytailed, his extremities wound with at least four weighty metal bracelets plus rings and earlobe accessories-- bore distinct clinical signs of phase-three Saturday Night Fever. Not visible were Benza’s three tattoos: The word “Pope” on his right shoulder; a wolf’s-paw print on his right forearm, and a Gypsy flag on his left shoulder.
    “I’ve met more beautiful women in the last two years than I met when I was married and lived on long island....Every girlfiend I’ve had in the last two years has been a person in that scene, y’know? When you go out in that scene, you end up dating bartenders, hostesses, models,actresses, publicists. I would never go back to dating a girl who works in a bank in Levittown, not with this kind of lifestyle....The problem is you do tend to meet the girls you dated last month and they see you with someone else, and so you gotta be really cool. There are worse things in this world! My friends who are married with two kids and a white picket fence all call me to hear about the stories, y’know?
    “..More recently, Benza got into a fight with one of the club’s [defunct Times Square nitery USA] doormen...Vindictive items about the club’s owner, Peter Gatien, started appearing [in the Benza co-written Daily News column]....
    [New York, 3-18-96; accompanying the profile are photos of Benza, attired in head-to-toe leather, grasping his crotch and grimacing suggestively for the camera:] “.....Hot Copy” isn’t neccessarily considered the best column in the city, but A.J. and Michael [Lewittes, a former publicist and Dr. Ruth Westheimer assistant]--”the Fonz and Richie”, as one colleague described them--have made it a contender... The “Hot Copy” office is strewn with Playboy and Penthouse magazines,
and as any viewer of [E! Channel’s] The Gossip Show [canceled for low ratings] can tell you, the wall behind A.J’s desk is littered with photos of women with large breasts....’...You got the publicists who’ll sell out their clients, and you’re set,’ chuckles A.J.. ‘It’s all a trade-off: I run some bulls--- thing, then they give me something hot....’
    ...A.J. leans back. He’s wearing silky black pants and a gray untucked shirt hanging to his knees. “My flowing look,” he says of the outfit, delivered to his office via messenger from Donna Karan at, A.J. smiles, [the following in italics] a greatly reduced price. “
    “A.J. has confided to his readers a ‘“concern over male-pattern baldness’...’but it’s funny,’ he says. ‘ If I want to know if I think a girl’s really pretty, I try to imagine what she’d look like bald.’
    ....Then there was the time a few weeks ago when A.J. threatened Nick Paumgarten, a writer who’d made the mistake of going a ahead with a profile of him for The New York Observer after A.J had told him he’d already pledged his loyalty to a New York Magazine profile. ‘I said that
if he went that low on that story, he was going to have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. New York Magazine...
    “A.J. has stories: backyard weenie roasts with Warren Beatty, party-hopping with Mickey Rourke and Abel Ferrara, naked swimming in the grotto at Hef’s mansion...breakfasts at the Carlyle with Dan Rather.     ‘Dan knows I have a f---ing edge.’
    Daily News 3-25-97: In Hot Copy, A.J. Benza and Michael Lewittes announce sighting of Robert Downey Jr at the L.A. Mondrian Hotel’s Sky Bar back from rehab with a beer in hand.
    New York Times, March, 28, 1997: “Pete Hamill, the new editor of The Daily News...accepted the resignation of A.J. Benza and Michael Lewittes, who have written the ‘Hot Copy’ gossip column for four years [plus A.J. Benza’s] Sunday column on the city’s youthful night-life scene, ‘Downtown’...[Benza reported said] Mr. Hamill was unhappy with the sometimes smart-alecky
tone of both columns, and in particular with the Sunday column’s narrower, youth-oriented definition of celebrities worthy of mention..
    New York Post, 4 - 1-97: “... this week comes Michael Fleming’s story in Variety that has actor Robert Downey Jr. threatening a lawsuit against Benza and the News for the columnist’s report that he saw Downey drinking beer in the Sky Bar in the Hotel Mondrian in L.A. recently. (Benza retracted the story after Downey said he wasn’t even in L.A. he said he was in Savannah, Ga...)...”
    “Had Downey been drinking a beer, he’d have been in vbiolation of parole and wwould face jail. So this was no small matter...
    “...the gossip industry has been polluted with too many people who think they have a hook into every rumor out there,” wrote Benza in his farewell to journalism in the Daily News, dated March 30, 1997. “ And they don’t. And it makes those of us who do--those of us who’ve worked hard at making contacts and honing our intuition--seem like vicious hacks.....
    Daily News, 5-16-97 : “...A.J. Benza was charged with punching and slamming a car door on a cabby in midtown yesterday after the driver apparently refused to pick him up.... Benza was arrested after witnesses flagged down a beat cop...”
    The former Daily News gossip columnist, appears on the E! network's [now canceled] ‘Gossip Show.’
    “The cabby, Collin Osei Tutu, 45, of the Bronx, was treated for a bruised face and a leg injury at St. Clare's Hospital, police said.”
    “The dispute flared about 4:30 p.m. after Benza tried to flag down the cab at 41st St. and Fifth Ave... The cabby told police that because he was off duty, he kept driving, stopping for a red light at 40th St. Benza ran after the cab and allegedly punched the driver in the face through the open car window...
    When Tutu got out, Benza slammed the car door on him... Benza was booked last night on a charge of third-degree assault...
    “...I had penetrated a group most gossip columnists cannot, “ noted Benza in his Daily News swan-song. “ I got beyond the velvet ropes... I did the things. I became the item.”
    According to Los Angeles New Times, dated 8-13-98, A.J. Benza “plays a drug dealer in the next Steven Seagal film, a psychopath in a new digital indie project called Bug Night and a slimy Hollywood agent in an upcoming comedy called Chump Change...along with [the] U.S. President’s
brother, recovering coke addict and ex-con Roger Clinton...
    “Benza admits his lifestyle in L.A. is something of a fish-out-of-water tale, although he’s moved on from Vinnies’s couch to a $750 -per-month one-bedroom in West Hollywood’s Normadny Towers.
Because he hasn’t paid his cable bill for months, he goes over to Vinnie’s to watch baseball...”
    Fame: Ain’t it a bitch?

Brandy Alexandre says to Luke: No "competing" book for you. Aren't you glad? My big system crashed with everything in it. Unless I have some benefactor out there who can send me $3000 for the data recovery company, it's gone. I spent all day with a computer technician trying to restore the drive and every time we thought we had one thing something else failed. The master boot table crashed.

Mike South: Luke this sounds like so much horses--- to me. She never had a book or even anything more than a rough idea of one, I deduced that a long time ago. She would have us believe that she never printed what she wrote? or backed it up? or sent it to her editor she is supposed to have had....come on even Brandy aint that stupid.