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Spent Day With Platinum X Pictures, DP Tonight
2003-07-08 20:53:26

I arrive at the Encino mansion of Ben (between Ventura Blvd and Mulholland Drive) at 11:30AM, 7/8/03.

Steve, who I met briefly at the XRCO Awards, opens the gate for me.

Michael is fired up for the scene. He's like a drill sergeant, in a good way. He asks me: "Are you ready for the destruction?"

The new girl, Sophia (represented by Derek at www.ladirectmodels.com) comes out in a pink see-through lacy outfit.

Michael: "Wait until you see her in action? It will be the best scene of the year."

She giggles.

Luke: "You've got the heavy hitters."

Michael: "She does DP, double vag. It's over."

In the industry a month, the new girl from Scottsdale, Arizona has appeared in about 20 porn movies.

Luke: "Were you a dancer?"

Sophia, 21-years old: "No. I tried it. I like this way better. It's easier. I like dancing. I don't like being a tease."

Michael calls me and every guy "paison," which I think is Italian for "important man."

Michael to Steve: "Let's head outside, paison. Let's do the pretty girl pictures."

It's about 80 degrees outside and sunny. There's a big pool and lush landscaping. Michael goes through the pretty girl photos in about ten minutes.

Holmes has been in the industry seven years. He still lives in Europe with apartments in Hungary and Germany.

Steve shoots 4-5 sex scenes a week for Platinum X at this mansion.

Michael forgot to rewind the film before opening the camera, forcing him to redo all the pretty girl shots.

Stefano shoots gonzo. He's a vivid contrast to Tom Zupko, who shoots features.

Zupko is like the Tom Wolfe (Look Homeward Angel) of the first half of the 20th Century. He's a putter-inner. He loves to jam his movies filled with messages and themes. He pays attention to details that most pornographers would consider minor, and pays little attention to things like sex, that most pornographers would consider major.

A great thing about Zupko shoots is that they are never boring. Tom constantly invokes Greg Dark, who had an Masters degree in Fine Arts from Stanford. Greg Dark usually got hot sex from his actors. Some of Zupko's critics fault him on this score, claiming he spends too much time on story. I have not seen any of Tom's films, so I can not judge.

I've heard it said that Zupko lacks empathy for his sex performers and makes them do the deed in uncomfortable places after midnight. Some say Zupko over-reached with Opera, and is supposedly over-budget and needs to shoot another sex scene.

I hear Zupko and company have been running around like crazy shooting pick-up scenes.

Erik Everhard started in Canadian porn on April 17, 1998. He came to Los Angeles in February of 1999. For 18-months, he directed for Anabolic, but in February 2003 he took on a gig at Redlight District.

Photographer Alan Rich does all the boxcovers for Platinum X.

I feel strange sitting on the couch considering the number of sex scenes shot on it. I'm assured it's always covered.

12:35PM: Scene begins in earnest (without covering the couch) with the three guys on Sophia. She appears to enjoy herself until Lex's long black penis enters her anus. She cries out in pain.

Michael asks me how I like the scene. I say the guys are tearing her up. He agrees. It's all good.

After Lex pumps her ass for a while, she bleeds all over Erik Everhard's penis in her vagina. Everybody wipes off.

This is common with rough anal scenes.

Sophia goes off to douche. A trooper, she returns to do double penetration and double vaginal. She bleeds again from the ass. She says, "I have a love/hate relationship" with Lex's tool.

Everybody wipes off the blood and resume working.

Sophia tells Lex: "Be nice."

Lex always seems like a perfect gentleman, but he has such a big dangerous tool, it can wreak havoc on a woman.

Gaffer: "You guys are bulls in a china shop. You've got to be gentle with her. She's a fragile piece of porcelain."

I remember watching Lexington Steele doing French porn star Dolly Golden up the ass, making the blood flow down her leg.

Erik Everhard lifts Sophia up, and holding her by the buttocks in the air, penetrates her. Holmes joins in.

Steve says this is an easier position for him because he doesn't have to use all his strength to hold her up. Erik is stronger than Steve.

Sophia says she doesn't mind two dicks in her pussy, as long as Lex doesn't go in her ass again.

Nobody is forcing Sophia to do anything. She's consenting to her complete degradation. When she signals she's in extreme pain, the guys back off.

The three guys pop on her face, and that's the end.

Steve Holmes grabs her ass and asks if he can take her home. She says no.

Steve talks about doing a triple anal with Uri, Lex and Maria.

It's 1:30PM. Stefano has halved the time it usually takes to shoot a scene of this intensity.

I see a framed page on the wall from a magazine like Better Homes and Gardens on this mansion.

I call Brandon Irons. I was going to see him this afternoon at the Platinum X office but his car has been towed and he's in a world of hassle. I've still got to interview him, Manuel Ferrara and Jewel DeNyle.

I walk out of the mansion, leaving piles of used, sticky, bloody tissues on the floor from today's scene.

I spend the afternoon in the shopping center at Hayvenhurst and Ventura Blvds. I eat lunch at Risto, the Italian restaurant. A 12" margharita pizza. I get a slice of chocolate chunk cake. I go for a walk. I wander through Barnes and Noble book store. I get a power-sized peach smoothie from the friendliest Jamba Juice I've ever stepped foot in. I go for a walk. I try to get a haircut at Supercuts but the line is too long.

I buy a book on writing autobiography from B&N and drive over to Digital Playground, arriving at 5:30PM. I'm 90-minutes early for their show DP Tonight, but I'm at home here and I can do this sort of thing.

I'm the kitchen preparing myself an icy lemon-lime soda when Valentino, DP employee, walks in talking loudly on his cell phone. "I'm not going to pay John Gotti Jr the extortion money," he announces.

He's kidding. It's all to bait me.

I'm seeing someone who keeps a blog and just spent the July 4th weekend by the beach. I read on her blog about how Sex on the beach can be challenging. I freak. I discuss my concerns with Adella and Donna. They inform me that "Sex on the Beach" is a drink. It was written within a discussion of other drinks.

I'm wearing black shorts, black socks, black boots and a dark shirt. I'm kidded that I look like DP director Nic Andrews.

Frankie and Cherry Poppins arrive at 6:30PM with Steve Nelson of AINews.com.

Mike Quasarman hosts tonight's show with Jesse Jane. Devon left town this morning to dance in Rhode Island.

I suggest that Mike invite me on the set of one of his movies for Zero Tolerance Entertainment. He says that won't happen because the owner of ZTE, Greg Alves, does not have fond memories of me from his days running Metro Home Video.

Mike and I conclude that Alves is the most powerful hispanic in the industry. He owns ZTE.

Mike says he keeps up a high overhead, paying off a mortgage on his house and driving foreign luxury cars.

Flower takes about 10 minutes to put on her make-up before going on the show. Frankie takes 15-20 minutes.

Flower says she's "anally exclusive" with Seymore Butts. She entered the industry in August of 2002. She appears in an episode on the Family Business show on Showtime where she rides in the limousine with Seymore and shows him her special abilities.

She stands 5'6", and measures 36B-28-36. She sits with her low-key boyfriend with bleached hair.

Flower and her boyfriend Mike started watching porn 18-months ago. She became a big fan of Seymore Butts. "I emailed some pictures of me squirting. His assistant Mari Possa showed him the pictures."

Luke: "Did your boyfriend push you into this?"

Flower: "No, we got into it together. We've done a couple of scenes together."

Luke: "Has it brought you closer together?"

Flower: "Yeah, we enjoy it."

Flower has 14 credits in XXX. Her first scene ever was with long Lexington Steele, every which way.

Luke: "Did you get hurt?"

Flower: "It was painful. I wouldn't want to do it again."

Mike the boyfriend: "He's a nice guy though."

Luke: "Have you had any bad experiences in the industry?"

Flower: "Yeah, when I first came out. Live and learn."

She's received a couple of bounced checks, including one from Extreme. She was eventually paid two weeks later. "I had to drive to their bank in Camarillo."

Luke: "How did it affect you being on Family Business?"

Flower: "Good. I have a big fan base on the East Coast where it's colder and they were locked in [during the showing of Family Business episode featuring Flower]. In California, everybody has a party to go to."

Mike: "A lot of people recognized us from that who have not seen our movies. A lot more couples. A lot more international people."

Flower: "I have a lot of Canadian fans though they cut most of me squirting in Canada."

Mike: "It just started in England last week."

Flower's website is www.clubflowerxxx.com. "I have somebody who runs it with me - Rob Adams. April Storm is my publicist."

Luke: "Are you a contract girl with Seymore Butts?"

Flower: "Only the anal exclusive. I run things by him to see what he thinks."

Jesse and Mike McCormick begin the show five minutes late. No matter, for the first 20-minutes, the show has no audio feed because DP Internet supervisor Persian Donna Kitty is sitting in the audience enjoying the show instead of doing her job.

Editor: "It's not Donna's job."

DUC says: I troll through the trash cans at DP trying to find scoop. I wonder how much money everyone makes.

Adella says the salary info is not in the Internet department, where I've been searching, but in accounting.

I bet that Adella and Donna make over $100k annually. I bait Adella telling her I think she makes $75 annually.

She writes on my notepad: "Adella is very well paid or she would take another offer, it's not like she doesn't get any! What would setgo.com pay her?"

I say - $50k. She's not impressed.

It's tempting to think of publicists as idiots. That's my first instinct. Paid liars. They send me stupid insipid press releases. I hate 'em all.

Now I've come to know and like a small number of them (Adella, Jason Sechrest). Publicists are actually smart and know more about how the news media and trade media work than most industry people. They're the first to know the gossip (though often the last to share it with me). They know what journalists like to drink, and what type of movies they like, and whether they'd like to have dinner with the girls, and how to massage their egos, and what questions to ask them to make them feel good, and what food to give them, and whether or not to touch them on the shoulder or stroke their hair.

Jesse begins the show by asking what the strange man is doing beside her. Mike says he just got off the Metrolink light rail on his way downtown to purchase methamphetamine.

Mike says he's happy to do the show, that he's stalked Jesse in the past, changed vehicle several times, tried to be discrete about it.

Jesse: "Can I call you Mikey?"

Mike: "You can call me whatever you want. You can call me later on if you want.

"I hear you were running late because something horrible happened to your hair today."

Jesse: "On my July 4th weekend, I went to the beach. This guy that I didn't even know to put black conditioner in the conditioner bottle. I'm sitting here washing my hair, and I'm drying my hair, and all of a sudden I have black splotches all over my platinum hair. It took me two hours to fix."

Mike: "How did the man acquire the conditioner in the first place?"

Jesse: "Because it was his house and it was his shower."

Six months in the industry, and Jesse is still unspoiled by her fame. She's in numerous magazines, sometimes on the cover. She remains a spunky chick, a real Hooters girl.

Jesse: "We all love you Devon."

Mike: "I've never met you but I miss you too."

Jesse: "She's dancing."

Mike: "So what she's doing really is selling Polaroids at a 180% markup. A beautiful girl like you, nice cans, you could get married horny guys throwing their wallets on stage.

"I've spent a lot of time in strip clubs [getting drunk] and parted with a lot of my money... Strippers have this way of convincing you that you are the one guy they are going home with that night. When your Amex card is maxed out, they move on to somebody else."

Flower comes on the couch.

Mike: "Have you ever had to have sex with some hideous?"

Flower: "No. I try to things I enjoy. That way I'm never upset when I walk away. I'm proud of what I've done."

Mike: "Part of the reason that I am here today is that I first met Adam (Seymore Butts) in 1993 and I shot a movie at his house. I couldn't believe it was his house. It was massive. It had a guest house. He showed me the videogames. A pool. A grand garage. I thought, 'You can make some money doing this [porn]."

Jesse: "Mikey used to date Pam Anderson."

No, they're from the same country.

Mike: "I once met Scott Baio who did date Pam Anderson."

Jesse: "Whatever."

Jesse said she had her picture taken last night with actress Carmen Electra.

7:22PM Sound finally comes on the feed.

Scott Fayner of l-keford.com stops by at 7:30. He drags a big black bag. He tells me not to look in it because he keeps his drugs in there. He pulls out what he says are drugs. I wouldn't know.

I don't look in his bag when he goes to the bathroom.

We chat. He wonders what I'm writing down. I say I'm taking notes on the show. He says he never does that.

7:48PM I check the chatroom on Cody's computer. There are two people in it. One is Amanda, who says she won Date a Lesbian with Tabitha Stevens on the Howard Stern Show.

Quasarman does not once mention his KSEXradio.com show Friday afternoons with Gauge though he tells Fayner to put it on l-keford.com. Digital Playground would never tell a guest to not plug their own radio show, company or website on DP Tonight.

After the show, Jesse announces she's going on a long road trip with her beautiful brunette friend from Texas who accompanies her almost everywhere.

Quasarman rushes off to the Santa Monica club 14 Below, where his wife is singing with her all-girls band Doll.

DUC emails Adella at DP: You want to make any comments or corrections etc to the article on Tera Patrick at the current top of Gene Ross's site?

Adella replies: "I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW GENE HAD A WEBSITE - I AM TOO BUSY READING MIKE AND YOU."