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Monday, January 17, 2005 Email Luke Archives Photos Stars Essays Search Luke Is Back.comHeadline News Advertise Jan 16 Cindi Loftus's Las Vegas Diary
Desert Entertainment re-launches as DanzaBucks Max Johan replies on GFY: "Looks like the girls don't like the way you threat them. Heather started to cry, man you are Dirty." Zombie Girl works on the program Danzabucks.com: "More psycho than you think dude. Careful when you're walking in the woods alone at nights... zombiegirl can call up her undead friends before you can say DAWN OF THE DEAD!" Max replies: "I'm not afraid. I'm pure like water. I never show fear and never show love." DWreck sums up the view of many webmasters: "Zombie and Dirty DS what a killer combo. I hate the hardcore [and] love the way it sells." Overdose Girl Marcelle Le Blanc Jack writes: "I find it utterly fascinating that someone who almost got picked up for felony posession and ODing, that nothing happened to her, there were no ramifications. Could it be that she has an in-and-out with one of the owners? Because most people don't strut around the office like the cat who ate the canary." Pete writes: "Interesting that Carly Milne got fired from Pure Play for red carpet problems at a party, while Marcelle wasn't fired for OD'ing during the most important trade show of the year. That being said, I know both Carly and Marcelle, and both are decent upstanding God-fearing patriotic American (though Carly is Canadian) just like yourself." If we were to ban a porner for overdosing, our industry would miss many of its most colorful and exciting members. According to the January AVN, Richard Arnold is the [Canadian] owner of Pure Play though I think he is just a part-owner (along with Sieg Badke, and Michael Ninn). Phil Harvey Interview I spoke to Phil Harvey (owner of Adam & Eve) Friday, January 7, 2005 at the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo) in Las Vegas. Luke: "I overheard one of your sales reps say last year that business had been down 20% in 2003 because of the Internet and increased competition. I suspect that fewer people are ordering through mail-order." Phil: "You're certainly right about that. The first adjustment is to be on the Internet. Our website is active. It now accounts for about 25% of our sales. It is also true that sales through traditional mail-order have dropped by about 25%, which means that our sales volume for the past four or five years has been approximately flat." Luke: "Were you guys slow to get going with the Internet?" Phil: "I don't think we were. We weren't out front. We were about average. We made some major investments about three years ago. I think we've caught up. That we have an establishment fulfilmment and customer help system has been a big help in competing with others on the Internet." About the only time that I bought porn through mail-order (aside from a minor rip-off in high school) was with Adam & Eve in the fall of 1995. Though the service was excellent, my work enabled me to get more porn for free than I ever wanted to watch (and by the Spring of 1996, I never wanted to watch porn again). In the ten years I've been around the business, Adam & Eve has always been a pleasure to work with. They are the nice guys in the industry. It might have something to do with being based in North Carolina. They have that Southern sense of courtesy and don't traffic in the particularly degrading stuff. Phil: "It is hard and it takes many years to be good at fulfillment and customer service, but it is simple if you have a good catalogue fulfillment program to transfer those skills over to Internet fulfillment." Luke: "I also heard last year one of your people say that you shouldn't be in production because various shooters have taken advantage of your niceness." Phil: "I think our road to producing movies has been about as rocky as it would be for any one. As you learn your way into a new aspect of the business, you have to expect that not all relationship are going to work out perfectly. I'm not really familiar with this side of the business. Bob Christian is. I'd say we've had normal growing pains. We're certainly committed. However content is delivered three, four, or five years from now, the content will still be required." Luke: "I understand that Digital Playground will have worldwide distribution rights to the new movie they are making with you because their distribution contacts are better than yours?" Phil: "I'm out of my depth. I don't know." Luke: "You guys are distributing a harder material than five years. Nastier." Phil: "I think you are mostly wrong. Our review standards haven't changed. We still rely on the same outside reviewers, sex therapists and counselors. They apply the same standards they did five years ago. I'd say our standards haven't changed in almost 20 years. "It may be that the nature of the market is changing and there are some edgier plots but it hasn't affected our standards as to explicit sexual depictions." Luke: "Would you be uncomfortable selling product that features urination?" Phil: "It would depend on whether the urination was part of sexual activity and a necessary part of sexual satisfaction. If it were those things, no, we would not be comfortable. If it was a shot of some guy taking a leak in the woods and turning around having a screw ten minutes later, no, it wouldn't bother us." Luke: "There are movies now focused on female urination." Phil: "If it is a movie focused on female urination as a method of sexual satisfaction, we wouldn't handle it." Luke: "What about the sexual practice known as ATM [ass-to-mouth]? Do you know what I am talking about?" Phil: "I know what you're talking about. We're very careful with that. We prefer at least a scene break where washing would be possible. It is a touchy area. There does seem to be a demand for it. I don't know why. But we are careful with it." Luke: "Are you concerned about the increasingly nasty edge of the business?" Phil: "There's clearly a market for very nasty stuff. We don't sell it. We would probably make more money if we did, but our policies on this are clear. We leave that part of the market to others. I don't think the existence of the market for nasty material is doing anything to diminish the demand for mainstream material." Luke: "Does it make you cringe to be a part of an industry that distributes things like Piss Mops and hardcore movies with rape scenes?" Phil: "What other people do doesn't bother me. We're also part of the movie industry and the toy industry." Luke: "I got from your speech yesterday that no honorable person could oppose the sale of pornography and sex toys. It seemed that anyone who opposed that was bad." Phil: "No. I think that people who are profoundly anti-sex are not necessarily bad. I have some sympathy for them because I think it arises from a fear of sexuality. It is a mysterious phenomenon." Luke thinks to himself: "There's nothing mysterious about it. Every society has sexual taboos and every traditional form of morality and religion has frowned on masturbation (the purpose of porn). Civilization to flourish must make men stick around to raise their kids, and that will only happen if every form of sexual expression outside of heterosexual marital sex is stigmatized." Phil: "The people who are the most adamently opposed to pornography and other evidence of sexuality, such as a nude beach, or an adult bookstore in their community, tend to be people frightened of their own sexuality and of sex in general. I don't consider that to make them evil or bad, but rather sad." Luke: "Why do you conflate opposition to pornography, nude beaches, masturbation, and adult bookstores with opposition to sex?" Phil: "The people who are uncomfortable with any outward display of sexuality don't become enthusiastic and sexual people within their own marriage. The people who are uncomfortable with sex are uncomfortable with sex inside marriage or out." Luke: "About half the country despises the porn industry." Phil: "I don't think that's true. I think about half the country would be uncomfortable to be associated with pornography but I don't think half the country despises it or even opposes it. I don't think it is any more than 5-10% of the population who despise the industry." Luke: "Do you think it is possible for any of these girls who star in these productions to go on to lead normal lives?" Phil: "What's normal? They're leading normal lives now, many of them. Talk to someone like Nina Hartley. What's normal for her involves a high degree of sexuality. I have no doubt that there are performers in this industry who are not happy people but most of the ones I know are quite happy. They enjoy sex. I don't see it as destroying their futures." Luke: "I don't know any porn stars who've been able to sustain a relationship. And if you can't sustain a relationship, it's hard to lead a fulfilling happy life." Phil: "The length of marriage among porn stars isn't that different from the length of marriage among movie stars generally. The entertainment industry by its very nature has a hard time matching up with long marriages." Luke: "Has organized crime tried to muscle into your business?" Phil: "We've been in business 33-years and I've never heard one whisper from organized crime. They're in the construction business in New Jersey and the garbage business in New York but I don't think they are in this business much at all." Luke: "What have you learned from your dealings with the mainstream media that would be useful for the rest of the industry?" Phil: "Don't ever have anything to hide. The media love uncovering ugly secrets. So don't have any. Second. The media instinctively respects the First Amendment. We've generally had good treatment, largely for that reason. The media don't like censorship." Luke: "What do you love and hate about your work?" Phil: "I love being in a controversial business. I don't know why. But making waves has always been part of my nature. Even my non-profit work involves the marketing of contraceptives in developing countries where that is controversial, as it is in the United States, particularly these days. I am as prone to occasional bouts of embarassment as to the nature of Adam & Eve's work as anyone else but they don't last long and I don't worry about them. I love being in the management of a company of 300 people who are tremendously diverse racially, gender, age, background, religion but all sharing a tolerance for each other. A sense of humor is essential to a happy life and a lot of people at Adam & Eve really are funny. I don't find anything to hate." Luke: "How about the rampant dishonesty in this business?" Phil: "That's part of life. In the performance of any work, you are going to run into cheaters and liars. I don't think there are any more in this industry." Luke: "Is organized religion your enemy?" Phil: "Organized religion represents some aspect of humanity that is important. It tends to be more divisive than harmonious. The amount of killing and slaughter that has been performed in the name of God is staggering. Pushed to the wall, I would say that organized religion has caused more mischief than good." Luke: "Do you believe in it?" Phil: "No. I see no reason to believe in it." Luke: "You don't believe that you have a soul that will continue after your body dies." Phil: "No. I see no proof of that. I have no reason to believe that whatsoever." Luke: "Are you an atheist?" Phil: "Yes." Luke: "Are you happy?" Phil: "Yes." Luke: "How can you be happy if life is essentially meaningless?" Phil: "It's not meaningless. It just ends when it ends. Seventy years is a long time. I believe we have an obligation to live those years by certain principles that make it possible for us to interact with other human beings in a productive way." Luke: "How do you know what is right and wrong? Where do you get these principles from?" Phil: "From the Golden Rule, which I realize comes from a religious text. I believe human beings have an obligation to make civilization function harmoniously." Luke: "How do you get other people to subscribe to that if they are not in fear of an all-powerful deity?" Phil: "There is no correlation between religious belief and moral behavior. People who believe in God devoutly are no better than people who are atheists. This is a tricky area of research and people are afraid to take it too far, but what work has been done suggests there isn't any difference. Morality doesn't depend on a belief in God. So I think the question misses the point." Luke: "So if you were walking down a dark city street in a bad part of town, and you saw ten young men walking towards you, would or would you not be relieved to know that they were returning from a Bible study (question by Dennis Prager)?" Phil: "I might be under those circumstances but it would reassure me just as much if they just returned from a workshop on the role of atheism in modern philosophy." In 2001, Prometheus published Harvey's book The Government Vs. Erotica: The Siege of Adam & Eve: Publishers Weekly wrote:
Martin Luther King Day CRT78 writes Mike Albo: "Today is the holiday that celebrates the life of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King. He was an American hero, for sure. But how many people realize his vast contribution to porn? If it weren't for Dr. King's pioneering efforts in the area of civil rights, would any of us be able to watch movies like Anal Cannibals, Big Black Dicks and Little White Chicks, and all the other wonderful interracial titles offered today? I don't think so." A Chat With Lensman Of Adult.com I call Lensman Friday, January 14, 2005: "We had a big booth at the AVN show. That was our focus. We're going to be distributing the Spice line of videos. Our Internet thing is not going too bad either." Lensman has over 40 employees. I sent him a rumor this week that I had heard at Internext. Lensman: "The first thing I did was ICQ it over to MikeB. He responded by starting that thread on GFY. "My books are open. I don't know anybody else who makes that offer. If any credible programmer wants to come in here and look for a shaving [not counting and paying webmasters for sending signups] feature, you are welcome. I've made that offer for years. We're using NATS for our number one program -- Reality Cash. If I was a shaver, I would never use a program like that. No one can shave with NATS." Luke: "Why can't you shave with NATS?" Lensman: "NATS credits a webmaster for a join. It manages the members area. It integrates with data dumps from Epoch and other processors. Some people say, anyone can go in and put shaving into it? I wouldn't know how. A webmaster who was savvy would be able to tell that his Join page was being redirected. There is no shave mechanism in our software. "We've had many programmers who've worked here with varying levels of satisfaction. None of them are bound to a non-disclosure agreement. If any of them thought we were dishonest, they could speak up about it. That's why I never tried. I knew I could never get away with it. Everybody who works for me posts on GFY. It's not like some of the other companies. None of the other technology people [at major webmaster programs] post or go to webmaster shows. They're all locked away in a room somewhere." Luke: "I always hear that 90% of webmaster affiliate programs shave." Lensman: "I tend to believe a lot of that. We went from Amateur Pages to Adult Platinum and I lost my ass on Adult Platinum. We didn't shave. I was paying out more money than I bought in. Reality Cash, we make money, but it is a lot of work. We pay $35 on a trial. We have high retention rates." Luke: "What else is going on?" Lensman: "We have a new contract girl -- Destiny St. Claire on the left, Aidan on right). She's going to be appearing in our feature films and we'll be doing a site around her. We plan on hiring three more contract girls. We'll do sites for them. Unlike the video studios, who can't really run a site and make any money off of it, we have a lot of traffic and webmasters. We can not only make feature films with these girls but we can help them make money working on their own sites." I spent my childhood looking up skirts, and learned that there is much to see by looking up. Simply put, my current socio-economic position in life gives me the perfect vantage point for looking up. What cats are to older spinsters, the Ipod has become to her niece; the one non-male thing they can do without, the substitute for contact with other human beings. Each is the object of fierce and misplaced devotion, and each separates women from the prospect of landing a man who is good enough for her (like Luke) and who might make her life complete. But rather than be with such a man and have his children, they are in love with their Ipods and their cats. Is it any wonder then, that the West is sinking beneath the purposeful fecundity of the Third Worlder? Fatima and Maria don't worship Ipods or cats. Devon Available Through Exotica-2000.com Digital Playground contract girl Devon is listed on the escorting site www.exotica-2000.com. They include a biography:
Plazaman writes on TER: "I called for her rate. They said $2000/hr cash or $2200/hr credit card." Most porn girls (at one time or another) escort. Many, perhaps most, lie and say they don't. Over the past five years, it has become more acceptable within the porn industry for girls to escort. Sunset Thomas and Teri Weigel led the way by working at the Bunny Ranch and reaping enormous publicity. Is Mason Still With Platinum X Pictures? Jewel DeNyle posts on ADT: "Riot Slut's 2 is comming out and Mason comes and go's one minute she want's to shoot every month the next she doesn't turn in a movie for six months it's very hard on me to rely on her. But I love her work and as of now she's not shooting in fact I don't know what she plans to do." Who Owns Private?
Scott Fayner Says He Didn't Give Drugs To Gia Paloma
Tommy Lee Runs Into Jesse Jane Scott Fayner writes on l-keford.com:
January 6, 2005 * I see Cynara Fox for the first time in a couple of years. She'd left the industrfor over a year. Now she's back. Her hair is blue. She's been at the show for a couple of hours and says she's received seven offers of work. "She's more beautiful than ever," says her friend Toby Dammit. I ask Cynara why she left porn. She says: "I am woman enough and mature enough to understand that I had a mental illness, manic depression, that was causing a lot of stress for me and the people around me. I felt that it was time for me to go home where I had family to support me and get it taken care of. I had a couple of chances to come back prior to this but I knew that I was not ready. "If you're stable, there's nothing wrong with this industry." * Porn stars tell me with a flat voice how "excited" they are to be working with a new company, new talent, etc. * Digital Playground co-owner Joone anticipates about 25 long days of shooting for the forthcoming joint project pirate-themed movie starring Jesse Jane and Carmen Luvana. DP will distribute as it has more ties to international distributors. * Jenna Jameson has a couple of security guards escorting her everywhere. Their black jackets read across the back: "Touch her and die." Other jackets have similarly inspiring messages. * Bill Margold says "Jerry Butler was the James Dean of porn. He ached with emotion." Jerry is pondering a porn comeback. He's chiselled. If Herschel Savage (about 50 years old) can do it, why not Jerry? * Bill Day follows James DiGiorgio around for his start-up modeling agency BadGirlModeling.com. * I meet Angela Stone, 23, with Joey Silvera. She's been a dancer for four years but has natural breasts. She got into porn about a year ago and done 20 movies. She's repped by LA Direct Models. Angela threw discuss in high school. * Joey Silvera says he loves reading the gossip but he doesn't have any. He says he lost his mother last year. * Promoter Renaud West asked producer Jon Finberg about his trip to Thailand. Jon put a pen to Renaud's neck and told him to get out of there or he would put the pen through his neck. * KSEXradio is set up on top of the Adam & Eve booth and broadcast at the top of each hour right across from the Digital Playground booth. The two businesses have had their differences (Wankus vs Adella). * I tell Bud Lee he looks great. He says he's taking care of himself. He doesn't drink or smoke (not cigarettes, not marijuana) anymore. * Leo met his girlfriend Aspen Stevens in Jim South's office 15-months ago. * I chat with Ayana Angel at the Evil Angel booth. She was with Video Team for a long time. She says they're not shooting anymore. A veteran of 60 movies, she's a free agent. Video Team operator Christian Mann responds:
* Michael Sullivan (in porn seven years) says the Meatholes DVDs are distributed by JM Productions. I ask him if any girls are getting punched. He says not with a closed fist. "We're not knocking anyone down or breaking any bones. It's more like a rollercoaster ride where the girls like to get on it and they get scared for a little bit. They like it. It's for girls who like to push their limits. Experience a whole range of emotion, like going through a horror movie." What's your role? Michael: "I count the money. I produce some other lines -- Midnight Prowl, Frank Wank." Does Kahn Tusion direct? Michael: "There's no real directing. We turn it on and the camera directs. It decides what it wants to pick up. We just cut to the action. We just let the camera roll and see what happens." How has your time in the industry affected you? "It's answered all my prayers. My hopes and dreams have all come through. I'm not lonely anymore." Do you date a lot of these girls? "No." Just a few? "When I get lucky once a year, they throw me a bone." Who are the best porn girls you've been with? "All of them. They're all tied for first." * I spot Lucy Lee at Mitchell Spinelli's Acid Rain booth. She scowls when she sees me. She's had breast implants since getting out of jail. She doesn't want to talk to me. The love has drained out of our relationship. "Don't tell him anything," Lucy tells Mitchell. * I meet Shy Love at the Madness Pictures booth. "I'm still in wake-up mode," she says. It's past noon. "Within a couple of hours, I'll be in party mode." * Tony Montana: "I wanted to do the Honolulu Marathon but the only person who sponsored me was Steve Orenstein [owner of Wicked Pictures]. I wanted to raise a million dollars. I went to AVN and they wouldn't help. They wouldn't help me with a page. All I wanted was a cover to help Tony Montana raise a million dollars for AIDS research but nobody did anything. Fine. All I wanted to do was make the industry look good. Like we care. Look at the money they print at this show. "Then, when those people got sick in Brazil, they called me. What did they want me to do? Counsel them? I told T.T. Boy a thousand times that if you keep going around there, something's going to happen. Just because it looks good doesn't mean it is healthy. Think how many people in this room could have HIV and don't know it? I feel like a vampire. A lot of these new girls don't even know I have HIV. They don't even know who Tony Montana is. People say, how come you tell everybody that you have HIV? Because I want them to know. I want them to know that just because you look good doesn't mean you are healthy. I want to send a message. Girls, pay attention!" Tony says he's had enough pussy to last a lifetime. * Buck Adams says he's directing for Antigua Pictures. He says in a good shape. He was in a coma a few months ago for eight weeks (from January 17 to March 21, 2004). He says he was on the wrong medication [at LA County hospital, they didn't know he had health insurance]. Now I've got a $200,000 bill. Now the insurance company doesn't want to pay. Now the lawyers want to sue. "My sister [Amber Lynn] had the bright idea that when I went in, I was normal. Now I'm in a coma. Take him off whatever drugs you've put him on. "She was dating some high falutin lawyer. If he dies, we'll blame it on you. They took me off the drugs and three days later, I came out of the coma. "I was 80-pounds. I took some time off and went to the gym. "It's been nice to show up here. I probably won't remember I met you here today." * Stacy Thorn's stepmom is a producer for Playboy TV and that's how Stacy got into porn a year ago. She's done a hundred movies. * Sandra Romain from Romania has been in the industry five years. * Katin, 20, signs at the Red Light District booth. She's been in porn over a year and did about 100 movies. She says she is no longer in porn and doesn't want to be here. I ask her why she got out. She says she wants to have a future. "I planned on quitting. This isn't a career. It was just for fun. "I want to go to school. Right now I am more focused on the fun things you can do while you're young -- snowboarding, surfing, working at a normal job (secretarial work in an office), living it up like a normal kid. Finally, I am living life like a normal person." Has your porn background come back to hurt you? "No. I figure it will but I have good ways of dealing with it. I don't let it bother me." Do your coworkers know you were a porn star? "Yeah. They don't have a problem with it." Is it an office in the adult world? "Yes," she laughs. Katin says she only performed in porn five or six times a month. Luke: "What did you love and what did you hate about the industry?" Katin: "This is a bad time to ask me these questions because I'd rather not be here." She did her last movie ten weeks ago. She says she won't be coming back because of "health issues. I have [ovarian] cancer. But it's ok. Everything's been taken care of. I don't like talking about it." * Keri Sable says she was out drinking last night at the Circle Bar at the Venetian, even though she is only 18. She lives to party. Keri complains that she isn't allowed to use much make-up today. Normally she likes to look like a drag queen. Jasmine Byrne signs next to her. * I run into Mike Barbella, John Bone's former salesman. He noticed that we've both put on weight. He mans the Robert Hill Releasing booth. Mike: "John Bone released a line called Choke The Bitch about eight years ago. It was ahead of its time. I sold it for him. John and I separated. There was a discrepancy. Maybe there was some money owed. I feel no qualms about reusing that title. Recently, John and I have begn conversing and doing some business ventures together. "This was before anybody was doing Gag Factor and Suck This and all that stuff." Do you choke them to the point that they vomit? "No. I have a different twist on it. I'm going to let the girls do it to themselves. The guys won't touch the girls. The girls will take everything upon herself. I need a girl who enjoys fellatio so much that she gags and she pukes but I want her to do it on her own. "My other line is Rag Dolls. Hardcore submissive girls on dominant men. "John just shot a mother-and-a-daughter for us. We just did two hermaphrodite movies with him. He has good contacts in Brazil. He's bringing us back some good footage. John's come a long way. He's made a conscious decision to change his style of shooting. "The porn industry has changed phenomenally in the past two years. If they're not beating the bitch up, or choking the bitch, it seems that nobody wants it. It's boring. John used to make great porn and did a bunch of way-out things. But he was missing this whole new genre. The last four movies he submitted to me were top-of-the-line, as hardcore as anything you see out there today, with the gagging, puking and fisting." Is he based in South America? "No, he's based in Brazil. "John and I had a lot of wounds to heal. There were a lot of personal aspects to it. He was in a bind. I helped him out. And he helped me out of a bind. "I've been doing this 16 years. It's in my blood. If men stop jerking off, I'll go back to school. Here's some talent I think I will be shooting tonight. Lady Armani." * I see Jewel DeNyle and her fiance Adrian. She lives in NY. Her parents live in LA and run Platinum X. * I ask David Crawford, head of DVD production at Evil Angel, why he doesn't have painted fingernails. "I've got an image to uphold," he says. "Actually, I've got two or three images to uphold." Rob Spallone mistook David for Kris Kramsky, who owes Rob money. * I chat with Nadia. "You look 15," I say. "That's what I'm trying to do," she says. "I can't believe the change." "Just the pigtails do that?" she asks. "And the lolipop." * Axel Braun wants to get married "but I just can't find the time. It's like setting up a production. I've got relatives in Italy..." He shoots about five movies a month in High-Def for New Sensations and one feature a year. * Axel's father Lasse (Alberto Ferro) lives in Italy and writes books. * At the ClubJenna booth, I overheard Jenna Jameson telling Skye Blue that she's feeling much better. * I meet Brittaney Starr. Her contract girl is Sofia. Brittany picked her up at a strip club. Davia Ardell (L), Sofia, and Brittany Starr (R) Who Is Marcelle At Pure Play?
Anon writes: "Marcelle worked at New Sensations [and Red Light District] for a short period of time. Word is that she is willing to use her....to get what ever she wants. Hmmm. "There is a mother hen in the [New Sensations] coop keeping track of his [Scott Taylor's] little chickadee [Belle] as well." Has Seymore Butts Implemented His Mandatory-Condom Policy? During the last HIV crisis (April, May 2004), Adam Glasser aka Seymore Butts (TeamTushy.com) said his company would go all-condom. Has this been implemented yet?
I sent Adam this comment and he responds to me:
I guess Seymore has not implemented his condom-only policy, waiting to go with Safe-Glide. Las Vegas Roundup I run into a porn girl from Brazil who now lives in LA. "I started out as a fitness model. I decided to do lingerie for more sex appeal and to discover more about myself. I crossed over to hardcore in July of 2004. I've done four feature movies and a few for the Internet." AVN President Paul Fishbein On KSEX Thursday, Jan 13. 5-6PM. I was hoping that Gene would transcribe all this so I wouldn't have to but he hasn't yet. Paul on the AVN Awards: "I'd like to open up [the voting] to more freelance reviewers who don't even write for us, but you have to get to know their work and that they are actually watching this stuff. "It doesn't get easier because all the people who advertise get angry when they don't get enough press, or they don't get good reviews. Certainly when they don't win awards. This has been a bad week. "One in particular I ran into at the Venetian Mall on Sunday, and I knew her. She was with her boyfriend and I was with my fiance. I felt awful. My heart sank." Paul on what his staff likes in porn: "The staff is divided. You have your Mike Ramones...who, the dirtier the better. Heidi Pike-Johnson likes everything. Jared Rutter likes everything. I go towards the features. I like beautiful women. I like that movie Loaded. The story works. Tim Connelly likes everything. Mark Kernes likes the features. I can watch a dirty scene but I don't want to watch girls drinking cum out of bowls. I don't want to see girls' faces stuffed in toilets. I like girls being treated like women. For Mike Ramone, the more the girls sucks cum out of the toilet, the more he likes it." Harry: "Mike Ramone looks like the kind of guy that would like that. He [looks] like a scary [guy]." Paul: "Mike's a gentle guy." Paul: "We [Philadelphia Eagles] are going to the Super Bowl." Brian, Cytherea's boyfriend: "Mike South wants to understand why he doesn't win every year." Paul: "No. Mike South understands. Mike South is a good guy." Harry: "There's a lot of harping about the fans being let in. There's [a suggestion] that booth space should be free if we are going to play to the fans." Paul: "Mike and I were discussing that earlier today. The exhibitors at the show want the fans. They ask for the fans. They may have gotten more than they expected... People don't understand the costs of putting on a show like that. "We're in business to make money. We couldn't give out free space. We'd lose money. We do make money off the fans. Some of the money goes to the Free Speech Coalition. "I think we're going to have to go with more business hours. I think the exhibitors need more time to do business. "We listen to our customers. What our customers want, we want. "When we started the show, everybody left CES to come with us. All the big companies said, we want the fans." Harry: "Slightly wider aisles." Paul: "Next year we're going to have two halls. We're going to have plenty of room. "We're also getting complaints that the music is too loud. We're going to have put some severe limits on the individual booths." Harry: "I heard there was more than one exhibitors upset with KSEX [broadcasting live from the show]." Paul: "You'll have your space to do your thing. Relax. We're not going to get rid of you. It's that loud thumping Sex in the Studio 2 music. I liked the music but across the hall, nobody could do business. That's why we all lost our voice. Nobody had a voice come Sunday." Harry: "Do you think there was a reluctance to vote for some of the extreme sex this year given that we had three HIV-positives?" Paul: "Interesting question. And during the nominations process, it came up. Everybody was very sensitive towards the creampie movies, the internal cum shots. Everybody was queasy about it. Should we reward movies... "We said, we have to review the movies as the movies. It is not the only dangerous behavior in the business. There are plenty of movies that are nominated where what happened on the set wasn't exactly the best working conditions. You wouldn't know by the nominations that we decided not to nominate a creampie movie because Darren James [HIV-positive] was in it. "However, the issue comes up about the working conditions. It is something we need to do more about. To write about more. To push for better working conditions. We have that whole HIV-situation, and then everything went back to normal. People will forget again. People will be sloppy. People won't do the proper testing and sure enough, it is going to happen again. You're going to have the Health Department... It is important that we stress to the talent to be vigilant to protect themselves. "In the nominations, everybody was queasy about it and not much of that stuff got nominated. "It is always safer not to cum inside." Paul says about AVN: "We're trying to be an objective voice. Give everybody an avenue to report the information. We're not hard-hitting. I think we were somewhat hard-hitting, at least in our coverage of the HIV. At least we got the information out. We're not an investigative magazine. We're a trade publication. We don't get a lot of protest. They're not out in front of our office. "We have information going up ten times a day on AVN.com." Paul says about AVN's profitability: "There were a lot of lean years where I lived on $50 a week, was in debt, went to my parents for dinner because I couldn't afford..." Harry: "But you're doing all right now." Paul: "It didn't happen overnight. It was a long slow build. The early editors of the magazine did a great job helping take it to the next level." Harry: "Did you reach a crucial crossover point?" Paul: "I can pinpoint the moment -- Bill Clinton getting elected. We moved here in 1991 -- myself, Mark Kernes and Gene Ross. Everything seemed to start to build from there. When we moved to LA, we were in the mix much more... We had just moved through the horrifying time when most of our customers were on trial." Harry: "Was there a time when Paul Fishbein said, I'm going to give back..." Paul: "Give back income? I'm Jewish. I don't give back income. "I don't think I am as public as other people do... I know I do TV appearances...but I live a private life. I don't aspire to be in the limelight. I'd rather let my staff take the limelight. But I somehow became this de facto spokesperson. I'm probably better at talking to the media than some of the people in the business. I probably do it so that somebody else doesn't. I don't aspire to be known and I don't think I am except within this industry." Harry: "Who was the bigger star? Jenna now or Ginger then?" The questioners on the show (except for Cytherea) seem to do more talking than the guest, Paul Fishbein. Paul: "Jenna now. She is really a mainstream star. Ginger was the biggest star of her era. A Cytherea walks down the street and she's accepted whereas a Ginger Lynn in 1984 was a porn chick. "I'm marrying a girl [Cherry Rain] who was in the business. Fifteen or twenty years ago, I would never have thought of it." Harry: "Because of social stigma?" Paul: "I just didn't think that I would ever hook-up with a girl in the business and fall in love. She's the most normal girl I've ever been with, and this is my third marriage. She's amazing. She's 25. She's a child of the video era. To her, sex is very natural. Sex isn't an issue. That's a generational thing. It isn't a big deal. She was very safe. She did mostly girls."
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