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Email Luke Archives Photos Stars Essays Search Luke Is Back.comHeadline News Advertise Feb 6 My years of observing the plight of workers in the p**n industry have given me a keen eye for all things viral. More than once, I watched in horror as a pathogen or mode of behavior not sanctioned by the Torah spread, causing much grief hither and yon. It's happening again. This time, we are confronted with a compound plague of four elements: 1. the ipod; Each of these, in its own way, is keeping women from the one true source of happiness in life, which is the love of a man. That the ipod and the vibrator are each weapons of social isolation and atomization has been well established by myself and other kindred researchers at the Luke F-rd Institute for Social Theory. And of course the role of cats in keeping women from mating needs no further comment here. Yoga is something new, and it may be cross-mutating with the ipod to create a "perfect storm" of failed matings for our people. I am particularly concerned with the Bikram, or "hot" style of yoga, as it is typically conducted in boiling hot rooms full of young women who should be at home lighting shabbas candles (if they are Jewish) or caring for their kids. Instead, they spend their energies sweating out liters of water, sweat that renders them so foul smelling that they naturally repel men whom they might otherwise attract. But nobody tells these women that they are stinking up the place in a way that mere showering cannot correct. No voice sounds on their ipods to warn them of this or to tell them to turn the damn things off to meet men. No cat can urge them to get out of the house in search of a man's love. And what man can compete with a vibrator for constancy of mechanical stimulation? A perfect storm that presages the doom of our people is upon us. You will not see many Muslim women engaged in such folly. I sometimes feel that I ought to be the Frank Capra of Jewish journalism, and make films explaining to others why I soldier on exposing sin and depravity when the easier course of action would be to take grants, write sniveling suck-up pieces and otherwise keep my mouth shut. But speaking of sucking up and keeping ones mouth shut, just consider the following stories... The Journalist And The Attorney A while ago, I emailed the attorney ("Jack") from a former hosting company of mine to find out which threat caused my hosting to be pulled. Jack: "I am not calling to pass along which of different people's complaint had moved this along. It's not a big deal to get a new host. I would hope that you would find more constructive use of your time and talent. I've talked to you before. You seem like a bright guy. There just might be something better to do with your time than getting enough people to the point where they might want to sue you and you don't even know who it is. There are a bunch of idiots out there. People are hypocrites. Wheels turn and you can grind them all under and you'll probably outlive a lot of them." Luke: "I appreciate you calling me because you didn't have to." Jack: "I don't dislike you. You've got energy, sometimes. What to do? It would be cool to hook up with [some news organization]. If you find something good to do with some of that time instead of banging away at people. It's easy to not give a crap what people think. You're good at stirring them up. It's too easy. "Frankly, what's going to happen? They're going to sue you? Yeah, they might. It's the luck of the draw with the people you're choosing to f--- around with. If you had f---ed around with some of my clients, granted they might've been fat hypocritical targets, you would never have been heard from again. You know what I mean? Like, death. You push some of these people to the point where... Life would've gotten them anyhow, but they see you as a convenient target for their frustration and rage. "With us, it's one strike. The billing rate vs your value to my client is completely out of whack... (Laughter) We got a few nibbles. I was going to go look but I don't have the time. I can certainly understand your desire to do it. Does that make any sense?" Luke: "I've been doing this since the summer of 1997. I've had a lot of death threats. I've been [knocked around]. I've been sued." Jack: "Why are you doing this? What's the deal?" Luke: "It's what I've done since high school when I got on my high school newspaper. I've always been interested in going after what I thought were important stories, stories that other people were afraid to touch." Jack: "Are you doing stuff that is true?" Luke: "Yeah, unless it is clearly satire." Jack: "Part of your site seems to indicate that you are willing to make s--- up." Luke: "Only when I am clearly doing satire." Jack: "Ok. I might've misunderstood. It sounds like you have a good handle on where you're at. There are important stories and there is stuff that is... It doesn't surprise me that you've been beaten up. Depending on the realms, you would never have been heard from. "OK, the porn industry. What amazing revelations are you going to find in the porn industry? That somebody married a child molestor? Big f---ing deal. That somebody in the porn industry has a connection to organized crime? Big deal. "You're going to do what you're going to do. I wish you a more productive life. If this stuff is true, does it matter?" Luke: "For me, it matters. For me, it is vital. It gives me the energy to go through the day." Jack: "I wish you could find something else to get you through the day." Luke: "A lot of people do." Jack: "Are you pissed when you're doing this stuff and writing it?" Luke: "Almost none of it is personal. It is not people who've done me any harm." Jack: "I don't mean that." Luke: "For me, it's just about a good story. I am not a social crusader or an activist. I get a good story and I say, wow..." Jack: "Off you go." Luke: "Damn the consequences." Jack: "I get wind of when you get your teeth into something and drag it around the track." Luke: "Most of the time, it comes to me out of the blue. I had never thought about this person. I put something out there and the story takes on a life of its own." Jack: "I've got a lot of inventors as clients and it is a similar creative process. They're bipolar or whatever... When the highs are rolling in, these people are more productive than any group..." Luke: "I am prone to those manic highs where I think that nobody can touch me. Then the crashing lows... But I'm on medication." Jack: "When you're up there on the highs, that's probably when you are most likely to start teeing off on people... When you are down in the dumps, you are not doing anything. "Keep in mind where you are and why f--- with the ants. Give 'em a break. "I'm not doing this for my client. It's my minor contribution to world peace. "Why don't you do something on local politics? Someone who's had their funding cut off. Do something that will help people out. Live well. Your faith provides you with the values to make life work." Dennis Prager watched a documentary on the children of hookers in India (Born Into Brothels). He found it riveting. He says that these kids were happier and less cynical than ordinary American kids. Dennis found the Super Bowl game boring. He had guests over. He didn't learn anything from the announcers. Instead, they confused him. For the second half, Prager turned the sound down. Prager got tears in his eyes watching the salute to the military prior to kick-off. The salute to our troops in Iraq and the cheering that went up. It was as loud as for the support for our troops in Afghanistan. "This is a turning point in America. I didn't know I would live to see a day when the American military would be so honored." Felicia Fox Posts To Escorting Group Felicia posts to funwithpses@yahoogroups.com: "Hello, everyone -- I'm just getting ready to head south, and wanted to let you guys know I'll be the headliner this week at a club called SECRET'S CABARET in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I'll be doing ten topless feature shows, 2 each on Wednesday and Thursday, and 3 each on Friday and Saturday night." Ava Devine Clears The Air On TER
The Novelist, The Wife And The Porn Star Matt writes:
I called author Josh Alan Friedman, 48, Sunday, January 30, 2005 to talk about his new book. My only chat with Josh was in July of 2001. We also exchanged email about the whereabouts of Nancy Suiter. Josh: "I've had other [articles and books} I've tried to publish and they won't even look at it unless it is on sex. That, they'll look at it. I hate the whole process of trying to sell a book. I have a music book that I think is much better. It's a collection of music pieces I've done for many years. "Then I had this novel called Black Cracker. I think it is going to be a big hardcover in the next year or two. I've been working on it all my life. It's my own childhood story. "Some of it is related in this new movie called Blacks and Jews, which is a documentary about my life by Dallas filmmaker Kevin Page. He showed me that I have a life story. We all do. I learned a lot about myself. I opened up the archives. He made a story out of my life, like an insect under the microscope. Not the least of it was a half hour of Times Square footage. Me at Show World 25-years ago when I was on Midnight Blue (Al Goldstein's public access TV show). Raven de la Croix is in it. Me hanging out at the Melody Burlesque when I was young and handsome. "Then there's a half hour on my brother Drew, 45, and I. We were the most feared cartoonists in New York (from the late '70s to 1987). "My father Bruce Jay [Friedman], 74, speaks a lot about how Drew and I came to become whatever we are [cult figures]. "The last part of the film is about the colored schools. Drew and I were the only white kids in an all-black school [from 1962-66, grade one through four]. Thus the title Black Cracker. The end of the film is trying to find out why I was sent there. "Not that there are any complaints. I wouldn't have it any other way. But it was the Civil Rights era, when things were at their craziest. "I lived in an upper-middle-class neighborhood [Glen Cove] with a successful father, a writer, surrounded by movie stars and writers, and yet I went to a poor ghetto school, the only one of its kind in Long Island. "They did teach me to read and say the alphabet. "The film is playing film festivals this year until we hope it goes into general release or cable television. It's named after the title cut of my third album." Luke: "How did you come to put together this book?" Josh: "You had a lot to do with it. Do you remember you reprinted The Stud, which was originally in Hustler? I digitized it into the computer, brushed it up, and it went on your website [l-keford.com]. I was talking to you right before you left about the next chapter, The Strikeout King [about Jeff Goodman aka Sammy Grubman]. I was going to use you as my impetus to go forward. I started it and would've given it to you to debut it on there. "After I did that, I just kept going. Feral House made me change everything into first-person non-fiction. I would've preferred to keep some of it as a short story, but if you don't present something as non-fiction, you don't get published. Since Woodward & Bernstein, non-fiction reigns. I've not been able to get things published my way. It's a thin line between fiction and non-fiction. We call it non-fiction here. "Some of the pieces are straight-journalism, like the Rise and Fall of Al Goldstein. Just the facts, mam. Other pieces read like short stories." Luke: "Are there any other composite characters aside from Stephanie Mason [a composite of Dian Hanson's good side, says Josh, and Tracy Quan]?" Josh: "Probably not. Just poor Dian. They left a whole chapter out. "I agree with you about all the typos. "I got the galleys to When Sex Was Dirty, which I had been begging for for months, the same afternoon (by Fed-Ex) that that morning I had received a full box of finished books. "In one caption under Al Goldstein it says, 'Pride of the Yankees.' It's 'Pride of the Yankers.' There's a lot of things like that that killed me. "Feral House has assured me that the second printing will be able to correct everything. "The chapter that disappeared was about Ronnie Spector (a famous rock n'roll singer of the early '60s). Again, something I would've much preferred to have called a short story, but as it happens, it is all true. I changed it back to the real names. It's the first kiss-and-tell I've ever written. She's Phil Spector's first wife. When I was young and handsome, I went out with her. It was a horrible relationship. "Feral House assures me they never saw it and it will be in the second printing." Luke: "You wrote Meg Calendar lost a nostril?" Josh: "I changed that. I think it was a finger that was cut off. Again, I'm trying to disguise that." Luke: "But a finger and a nostril would make a dramatic difference in looks?" Josh: "Yes. Originally I wanted to present it as a short story, but I couldn't. "Tales of Times Square [Josh's 1986 book] is being made into an independent film by Paul Stone of Firebrand Films in New York." Luke: "Who was the porn star 'Elsa Kay'?" Josh: "She was based on Lisa Be, a porn star in the early '80s." In the chapter "Write & Fight," Josh tells the story of ornery writer "Pete LeSand" who supposedly hooked up with Lisa Be and fled to Alaska to get away from the Mob. Josh and "Pete" worked together on Soho News, which Josh calls "New York Dirt" in this chapter. Pete and Lisa (Elsa Kay) went their separate ways quickly but both are alive and well. Luke: "I loved the chapter 'The Man Who Loved Slut Dancing.' It's about Josh and his friend confessing which stars launched their loads. Josh: "I'd be in trouble if I revealed him. His younger sister became a movie star and started appearing in all of her films, and all of a sudden, what tortured him came back to him full in the face, and he had to learn to sit there with his parents and see each of her films. "Before she became a star, his sister was in a [1982] play off-Broadway with Farrah Fawcett. And Farrah was the lead. Jeff would go to see the play every week because Farrah played a rape victim and she strutted about the stage without wearing panties. By sitting in the first row, Jeff could look right up her snatch. When the lights were right, she would open up her dress, and he had the perfect seat where he could see. And he was cumming in his pants. Yet, there was his sister on stage. "I should leave his name out because he's already humiliated that I would do such a thing. He won't talk to me. "His sister hadn't done her nude scenes yet and he was very protective of his little sister. Next thing he knows, the whole world is beating off to her nude scenes. It was a karmic payback." Luke: "Now they've got MrSkin.com, which is pure cocaine to those who are vulnerable to [celebrity nudity]." Josh: "Do actresses know that every split-second scene of nudity is going to be immortalized for masturbators. Mr Skin has an encyclopedic book. He has freeze-frame and blow-up. We didn't have any clue that this stuff would come out." Luke: "They make it too easy now." Josh: "You really had to work towards it when you were a kid. You had to know exactly when the moment was coming up. You had to be ready. Many a time it would just be ruined by a commercial." Luke: "Did Jeff go on to a happy marriage with Judy [the anthropologist daughter of Holocaust survivors]?" Josh: "They divorced. Jeff was hilarious but he was never able to translate that as a writer/comedian." Luke: "What's he doing now?" Josh: "I don't know. He's pissed off at me. Rightfully so. There are two people I've burned bridges with -- Dian Hanson (I think she's best men's magazine editor ever) and Jeff." Luke: "I remember what a thrill it was to get a little tit on television in the late '70s, early '80s. PBS. Independent stations showing movies or Benny Hill." Josh: "If I would've seen a tit in the '60s when I was in my young teens, I would've fainted. It was unthinkable. The first tits seen on stage in theater was in my father's play Scuba Duba, which ran nearly four years starting 1967. It was first play on New York stage to have four-letter words and tits, months before Hair. Big shock value back then. Starred Jerry Orbach, Conrad Bain, Judd Hirsch, Cleavon Little. "The first [white] tits officially unveiled on [public] TV were a few years later [in 1973] on Steambath. It had Valerie Perrine naked." Bruce Jay Friedman wrote Steambath. Josh: "Right after that was a version of Caligula that had some nudity in it." Luke: "Public TV was great. They'd show Masterpiece Theatre with some BBC show and that would have some tits." Josh: "My family has a history of breaking barriers like that. Dirty words on stage and nudity." Luke: "What did your father say to you about your [writing about porn]?" Josh: "He couldn't say very much. Both he and my mother would've preferred that I was at The New Yorker. But he had his own experience being an editor at some hush-hush unmentionable magazines back in the '50s. For twelve years, he was the editor of Male, Man, True Action, Man's World, as well as the original Swank. You weren't allowed to mention that at parties. When he was asked, what do you do? He would say, I'm in publishing. What kind of publishing? Magazines. Magazines? What kind? Mens magazines. "It would be like the noose closing around the neck. What kind of mens magazines? You mean adventure? Well, yeah. You mean True, Odyssey? Well, no. They're called, Man. Oh, hahahaha. Do you get to screw those broads? "It was the bottom of the totem pole in publishing compared to Time/Life/Knopf. He went through his own version of that and he certainly was in no position to tell me, Josh, I wish you weren't there. "We all thought Al Goldstein was the funniest guy in the world. Back then. Nobody could put you on the floor like Al Goldstein. Nobody since Jerry Lewis made me laugh so hard than Goldstein in the original years at Screw. You can see that if you ever see his 'F--- you' editorial in Midnight Blue. He's a walking caricature of anti-Semitism. Fat, with a cigar out of his mouth, talking about how at the moment of orgasm he starts thinking about Pastrami King on 47th Street. "For me, Screw was the heir apparent to Mad magazine. It was truly outrageous and cutting edge. The interviews in Screw in those years every week were people such as John Lennon, Jack Nicholson, Sammy Davis Jr. "Every week in the editorial meetings, Al would have different guests such as Melvin van Peebles, Abbie Hoffman, Bill Cosby, Philip Roth. There would always be surprising guests in our editorial meetings just quietly observing. They knew you were something special even though the rest of the world would look at you as the lowest of the low. We thought [Screw] was a magical place." Luke: "What did you think of the documentary Screwed (1996)?" Josh: "It was terrible. It gave you no semblance of what Screw was about or what Goldstein was really like. I didn't recognize anything in that as being Screw or Al Goldstein." Luke: "Maybe they had both changed [since Josh left New York in 1987]?" Josh: "It wasn't done too long after I knew them. Goldstein is a multi-faceted man. He's not merely just a gross pig. They emphasized the masturbation porn-obsessive side of Screw in the grungiest way when Screw had many other sides. "Any time Al took me out to dinner, it was always to exquisite restaurants with beautiful women. He was well-dressed and a mannered cultured guy who just happens to be the clown prince of pornography on the side." Luke: "The magazine certainly went to hell [some time in the 1980s]." Josh: "It went to hell while I was there. When Manny Neuhaus became editor, it completely fell apart." Luke: "How so?" Josh: "He was an administrator. He came right after Richard Jaccoma [previous editor]. We had a blowup in the office where Richard quit. Then I felt an obligation to quit because my best friend Richard quit. I quit for a few days. By the time I came back, all of a sudden, Manny Neuhaus was installed as managing editor." Luke: "Manny quit in 1999." Josh: "He was fired. Al fires everybody. Manny didn't give a s--- about writing or ideas or taking chances. I saw Screw as a place where you could write about stuff nobody else in the world was writing about. You could send guys out on assignment to do the toilets of New York. You could do a fake interview with Albert Speer. Gil Revel did a great one that everyone believed. Hitler's architect was still alive then. "With Manny coming in, it became rehashed cliches. Films being written about like in crayon. The type of articles he'd assign became moronic. Goldstein began to see it as a weekly budgetary thing. Let's keep those hooker ads coming. He made lots of money because he invented the market for hooker ads. He took the busts and went to jail for it and he earned it. "You had $50,000-80,000 worth of hooker ads in there every week. "I stayed in touch with Al once a year after I left. There'd be a letter or phone call and one or two dinners. "I wanted to find Al for my December 3rd party for my book and film. I get into New York and get a call from Shark. He says, 'Josh, you know I can't make it to your party. I'm thrilled about the book.' Someone read him some paragraphs from it. He's tickled. He loves me. He says, 'Josh, I want to fix you up with a date.' I said, I'm happily married. I don't do that. "He says no, it means a lot to me. Jeff Goodman had told me over the phone, you've got to let him fix you up. He lives to do something like this. You'll keep him alive another year or two. "I said all right. What's her name? He said, 25 Russian models. I said, can you cut it down to 12? "He sent me 25 Russian models to be my date. I had to be writing down all these names for the guest list upfront. About half of them showed up. "Shark told me, during the party, you will be their shepherd. After the party, you will be their wolf. "Instead of being a wolf, I decided at the end of the night, I've got a whole team here. Let's go out and canvas all the homeless shelters to find Al Goldstein. We all had cell phones. We went in squadrons to different shelters. I ended up on Wards Island at 3am. It's a scary place. It's like Night of the Living Dead. It's under the Triborough Bridge. "We couldn't find Al Goldstein anywhere. They don't tell you at the entrance. Guards aren't allowed to reveal names. But we had people go upstairs and look around for an old fat bearded Jew pornographer. "I got home from New York. Ratso Sloman told me he had just found Goldstein a home on Staten Island in a flophouse and a job at a bagel factory. "I can see Al's life story going up $100,000 a week. Now he's putting holes in bagels. Al is writing his downfall in this Shakespearian tragedy of his life as if it is being bid on by Warner Brothers and Paramount. It makes for a great story but a terrible life." Luke: "I think he'd rather have the attention and be in the gutter." Josh: "Of course." In 1987, Josh followed the love of his life, Peggy Bennett, to Dallas, Texas. "I put my guitar career into full-blast once I got down here. I've had four albums out. I've toured the South West many times. I played for Kinky Friedman many times. He's no relation. "I have a four-year-old daughter. Once Chloe was born, I stopped traveling. "I wrote about 25 features (music pieces) for the Dallas Observer." Luke: "Was that the right decision [to put music first]?" Josh: "Yes. Music has always come first for me. It's 51% guitar and 49% writing. I didn't plan on being a writer. As I became fascinated with Times Square, I stopped playing. But I always felt a great sadness that I had let the guitar slip out of my hands in New York. "I did not come to Texas to play music but I quickly became booked all around. "I'm having a helluva time with this book When Sex Was Dirty. No bookstores are carrying it. Part of the Feral House curse. At least here in Dallas, stores prefer not to have that title looking at people. It was supposed to be hardcover. You take it for granted that they are not going to allow typos in there." Luke: "Has your time writing on the sex industry come back to haunt you?" Josh: "It hasn't hurt me because I'm not trying to get in somewhere. I wrote a piece for Texas Monthly, which is conservative. I'm not seeking work at places that might look down at me for my past. I'm proud of everything that I did that is sex-related. I always felt forced into that ghetto of mens magazines. I couldn't publish anywhere else. "It would be nice to be a New Yorker writer or to have a monthly column in Esquire in the 1980s. You mention the immorality that coincides with the typos. To write about immorality does not mean you are immoral. You are uncovering something. The world of Jeff Goodman is a two-sided sword. Here's this guy attempting to 'exploit' thousands of women. Yet he goes to bed alone every night and has to bomb himself out with codeine pills. Lots of the women he's chasing after have lots of guys chasing after them too and can have their pick of the litter. Who's the victim and who's the shark? Who's got the power? The rich guys chasing after the models or the models who can fling them off like so much flotsam and jetsam? "Jeff Goodman is the worst example of a men's magazine slave driver, getting women naked [and trying to sleep with them]. Yet he's getting the raw end of the deal. He's the one who suffers the most. "Jeff has a really good thing going now. He's remodeled his face. He's got lots of asian girlfriends." Luke: "He's been married for two years." Josh: "Yep. He's married to one plus he's still... It was a bad stretch for him. His whole youth was a bad stretch." Luke: "He denies that he's in mail fraud. He says he's a copywriter." Josh: "Well, then he's a copywriter. We're not trying to bust him on whatever he's doing. Sure, he's a copywriter now." Luke: "He denies he's ever been sued for an underage [issue]." Josh: "Well, I'm sure he's right about that too. We can't lay out everyone's dirty laundry completely. That's why we changed names here [to Sammy Grubman]. What are we going to do? Get him arrested? Open up an old lawsuit? I stick by whatever he says." I laugh. Josh: "We're talking about a short story here where things are changed. It's based on someone but we change all kinds of details like that." Luke: "What sort of toll did porn take [on its models]?" Josh: "Everybody pays a different toll. You get a sense with the best porn actresses, the reason that they are so popular when they first begin, is that they exude an image of being violated. Ginger Lynn, Veronica Hart, Christy Canyon, Jenna Jameson in their first scenes, you get the sense that here is a young lady who wasn't quite sure what she was getting into. She was in a little over her head and now her eyes are bugging out and she's choking on somebody's cock onscreen and she looks like she has a sense of being violated. She's not used to this yet. The so-called fans, I call them masturbators, get a great sense of the violation of a young girl. Then the girls get hardened and it becomes their daily job." Luke: "Do you suffer from professional jealousy?" Josh: "In music, but not in writing." Luke: "Who most influenced your writing style?" Josh: "Terry Southern and Bruce Jay Friedman and Nelson Algren. "I'm not in my father's category, by any means. Not by a hundredth. But I suppose that some tradition continues with me and my brother Drew." Drew and Josh haven't collaborated in 15 years. "I don't talk to him much. A couple of times a year. Sometimes people will call me for his number. For months I didn't have his phone number. I had some angry art directors who assumed I was eight-balling them." Luke: "Why would your dad be in an obituary of Mario Puzo?" Josh: "They were best friends. My dad hired him at Magazine Management in 1959. They worked together for about nine years there." Luke: "Have you always been a happy person?" Josh: "No. I've suffered from major depression most of my life. Suicidal depression. I've battled it. I wanted to be happy and I was almost happy. I had both a fantastic and a terrible childhood. I realized years later, now that there's a name for it and that there are medications for it, that the terrible part of my childhood resulted from fighting against depression. Not even knowing what it was. Just this overwhelming sadness for no particular reason, which we now know is bio-chemical. "When I was a young teenager, I was heavily involved in drugs. I was smoking hash every morning in the boys' room at school and tripping and going through the whole whatever-there-is-to-take-I-took it with the crowd I hung with. Between the ages of 13 and 16, I was stoned every day. I dropped out of highschool. "I got busted right before my 16th birthday. In 1971, if you got busted for hash in Nassau County, that was a felony worth 7-15 years in prison. I went from having longhair to getting a crewcut for my trial. My parents got me a psychiatrist. I had a great lawyer. I got lucky. I got three years probation. I was scared straight by the police. They busted me three times, even when I was clean. They broke into the house and took me out in handcuffs in front of my mother. "My depression is now under control due to the wonders of the Prozac generation. It's like getting your life back." Luke: "Did medication have any effect on you writing?" Josh: "No. It doesn't make you happy. It keeps you up to C-level. It prevents you from drowning." Peggy and Josh have been together 23 years. "I like to credit the years for time served. We officially got married in 1989." Luke: "How has being a husband and a father affected you?" Josh: "I love it. Being a husband has been a grounding thing. Having an upbeat happy vivacious wife helps to lift me up. I'll get into Heaven on her goodness. She's so good down to the core. Then having Chloe... I'm totally involved in the world of little girls. I know about Madam Alexander Dolls and Barbies and 150 children's books and nursery rhyme songs that I sing at her nursery school. The world of little girls is fascinating. I know it sounds devious to say that coming from an ex-pornographer but as we know people who are pornographers with adults have no [sexual] interest in children. "Since my wife works fulltime (graphic designer), I take Chloe skating and to ballet. I'm the only guy when we have daytime get-togethers. I do carpool at the nursery school. At little gym, I'll be the only father. There'll be 19 young mothers going around with their children. It's kinda hot! I'm that much older than the mothers. "Going to PTA meetings and pie-baking contests and all these middle class clean wholesome American activities is really sexy to me. And to think I'm allowed in when I saw myself as practically like [author and drug addict] Charles Bukowski, living on the edge, but always getting to come back to a safe clean cocoon. We have a beautiful house. "For a number of years in Dallas, I still went out late at night and hung out with pimps and hookers and drug addicts. But I got to come home to a nice world while they stay living in the dope house. I wonder if I'm slumming? I'm not slumming. I live in both worlds. "We go to New York four or five times a year. We stay at great hotels under my wife's business account. I feel like we are Nick and Nora Charles. The Thin Man series. ["Comedy-mystery featuring Nick and Nora Charles: a former detective and his rich, playful wife.'] "She's got fashionistas coming up to visit and I've got Uncle Lou coming up. Burned-out porn actors and ex-criminals. We mix and match well." Luke: "How do you like being Jewish?" Josh: "I never considered being Jewish until the Pete LeSand character used to shame me for not going to JDL (Jewish Defense League) meetings and warning me that the second Holocaust was right around the corner unless I got out there and raised my fists. For a moment there, without knowing anything about my own Jewish background religionwise, I'm more showbiz Jewish, I went to some JDL meetings and thought this is how I am going to be introduced to the Jewish religion and become an active member. I've got to go out and protect graveyards at Halloween and beat up Puerto Ricans. "Then I figured, nah, it's just not for me. I suppose I'm glad they're there. I remained friends with a few of those guys. "Pete LeSand was in the JDL. "I was not bar mitzvahed." Luke: "Have you suffered anti-Semitism?" Josh: "No. Certainly not in Texas. They caught a couple of skinheads in Dallas defacing a synagogue and they were given ten years [in prison]. The skinheads put bullet holes in the synagogues and swastikas over everything. They just won't tolerate it in Texas. "I have one Jewish friend in Texas -- Bernie the Mohel (circumsizer). Dallas is only a one-mohel-town as Bernie found out as he became the second mohel. He didn't get enough gigs so he went into the container business. He's a big blues fan and he comes to all my gigs. He's Orthodox. I saw a Tyson fight at his home. There were twelve rabbis and me sitting around eating Hebrew National hotdogs. It was interesting to get the rabbinical take on Tyson. "One night at the Winedale, there was something you could call anti-Semitism. One drunk cowboy stood up and said, this is what I think of the Jews. 'Every one of them should have their throats cut. F--- the Jews.' "It happened to be a night when Bernie the Mohel was there. He happens to be an ex-member of the Israeli Defense Force and is a superb fighter. "After I played my song, 'Blacks and Jews,' the guy stood up and screamed, 'Kill the Jews.' Bernie looked at me and I looked at him and we both froze. We decided to give the guy one more chance. "The cowboy's friends immediately picked him up by each elbow and hustled him right out of there. They said to him, 'You just can't say things like that.' "Bernie and I let out a sigh. That was the only incident that could be considered anti-Semitic that I've encountered in 17 years in Texas." Luke: "Did your parents give you a hard time about marrying someone who is not Jewish?" Josh: "Not at all. They just loved her." Luke: "Why are there so many Jews in porn?" Josh: "You know that answer better than me. You can't say it was because they were not allowed to become the Rockefellers of banking, so they got into pornography. "That's my answer. Because they were not allowed into banking and the oil industry and were forced to work in porn. Money lending and porn were all that were available. "You're doing a helluva job with your new site. It reads like a Talmud scroll. I went over to your Jewish site. God is suddenly G-d." We chat about former Screw journalist Mark Kramer who first introduced me to Josh in 2001. "He came [to New York] from Dallas," says Josh, "about the same time I left New York. Jew for Jew. "I love it here. Kramer never felt like this was his home. "The first month [in Dallas] I had a nervous breakdown. After that, it was great. "I didn't want to come down here at all. I had to come. Peggy moved first. She stopped taking my calls. I bottomed out. I didn't have any money. Whatever it took, by any means necessary, I moved to Dallas." Homegrown Video's 20/20 Vision
Couple Convicted of Running Prostitution Ring Out of Home Not KSEX's Chris And Alana Various members of the industry were buzzing about this from Thursday night and they were all wrong. They saw a television report on Channel Four and the guy Chris in the TV report looked like the boyfriend of Alana. An Internet report said: "KSEX peejays Alana Evans and Chris Evans under their real names, Jill McGrath and Christopher Davis, got nailed on prostititution charges this week." Alana writes: "Hey Luke....ok...thanks so much for posting these rebuttals...the story is completely bull---t and not us." Jacko writes: "Chris and Alana don't live in the South Bay. They're not married. They don't have a 21-month old kid." Another source says: "I sat in the courtroom every day during the trial. I got to know Jill McGrath and Chris Davis and their lawyers. I even had to testify in the case because Jill sent me an e-mail and the prosecutor wanted to use it against her." A fourth source tells me that Alana and Chris are not the people in the following LA Times article (and that their real names are different):
Gram Ponante Interview We speak Friday morning, February 4, 2005. Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Gram: "President of Warner Communications, after starting out as a reporter. I never thought I'd be writing DVDA (double vaginal, double anal) or ATMs (ass-to-mouth) or fisting. "I went to most colleges on the East Coast. I'd go for a while. I'd run out of money. Then I'd go again. I went to Emerson, Williams, Harvard. I graduated from Emerson with a degree in journalism. Then I did a masters at Columbia Journalism School. I did interships at the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald. "I got out of journalism because it didn't pay well. I was making $5 an hour as an intern. I wasn't interested in being a beat reporter. I fooled around with web pages and I got into IT (Information Technology) consulting. "When I finally, against my own wishes, moved to California, I wanted to upend my own sensibilities. I didn't have a marketable skill. I was a writer, but so was everybody. "I got a job with MTV. I was their IT director. I worked on reality shows like Real World and Road Rules. Speaking of having your sensibilities upended, I found that the reality shows are scripted. "I had an option of hanging out a freelance IT shingle or a freelance writer shingle. "The [San Fernando] Valley was unlike anywhere I'd lived before. In 2001, there was a big movement for the Valley to secede from Los Angeles and call itself Avalon or Camelot. "I pitched a story to various publications about what would the Valley be apart from Los Angeles. I assumed that the Valley got most of its money from the airline industry, Rocketdyne, the Budweiser plant... I spent a lot of time at Boeing and Budweiser. More and more people would say, well, you know the big business in the Valley is porn. "I'd say, hahaha. I had no idea. Regardless of what inflated numbers you hear from industry sources, it is such a big business. "On a whim, and with the promise of an article on Salon.com, I called a couple of people [porn publicity folks], tittering like a little girl, asking to come in on a porn set. "But there I was. The first set (Sin City's Whoriental Sex Academy) I went to was a revelation. It was fun. "I wrote a big article. I cut it into different pieces and had it published in various forms in various places. "Then I found myself submitting things to setgo.com. "I had met Stephen Ochs at AVN. He let me know the managing editor job [at AVN.com] was available. I sent a couple of things in and got hired [working for AVN from November of 2002 until April 2003]." Gram has written freelance pieces for AVN, mainly for AVN Online magazine over the past 20 months. His wife of two years, Rebecca Gray, an actress, has worked for AVN for years. "I loved the people I met there. There were a lot of youngsters there who were good at what they did. They didn't a stigma about them that they were slumming by writing for porn. They had broad insights. "The thing I hated about AVN is true for the industry in general -- the lack of commitment to excellence. You get press releases with names spelled wrong. There are people advertised on the boxcover who aren't in the film. You can't be sure that the press contact one week is going to be the press contact another week. It became representative for porn. "When I was a kid, people would say, 'Good enough for government work.' In porn, people say, 'Good enough for porn work.'" Luke: "Why did you get fired?" Gram: "That's a good question. I think it was a personality issue but nobody ever told me why. Any number of people might've hated me there." Luke: "What have you been doing since then?" Gram: "Commercial acting. Web design. I write plays." Luke: "How do you balance having friendships with people in the industry and having to write on them things they might not like?" Gram: "I haven't gotten to the point where I'm writing things I know have offended anyone. I don't think that's going to be the focus of GramPonante.com. Other people do that better. I like the humorous aspect of porn. I think it is a fun industry. That there is so much misery in the business side of it has always surprised me. "Porn reminds me of a microcosm of Hollywood in the '20 and '30s when people really felt they were pioneers. They might be wrong in every aspect. They might be deluding themselves on a massive scale, but they still feel they are pioneers. They feel they are an exclusive rip-roaring community. "Things I hate about porn? Not enough people can get rich in it." Luke: "What do you say to strangers about what you do for a living?" Gram: "If you say you are a writer in Hollywood, that pretty much shuts people up. "I don't apologize for writing on porn. You should only apologize for it if your writing is s---." Luke: "Which of your articles has gotten you in the most trouble?" Gram: "I wrote one on the Tera Patrick show still being called the Tera Patrick show, even after she left it (when Digital Playground was still attempting some spin control that got me in trouble). That was around the week I got fired. It might've been that." I asked a source at Digital Playground if they had anything to do with Gram's firing from AVN. The person said no. The person said he/she had no memory of Gram's article. Jill Kelly Productions Analysis A porn insider writes:
Whenever I hear the comment "stick to porn," I know that I am listening to somebody delivering a cheap shot designed to end discussion. It's like calling somebody a racist or homophobe instead of engaging their ideas. Catalina Interview Thursday, February 3. Duke: "When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Catalina, from Ventura County, she's spent her life in Southern California: "I wanted to be one hundred million things. I never had any clue what I wanted to do." Duke: "What sort of things?" Catalina: "I wanted to be a doctor, a lawyer, a pilot, a chef. I wanted to do everything. I went to college but I didn't know what I wanted to do." Duke: "What kind of crowd did you hang out with in highschool?" Catalina: "Quiet people." Duke: "Were you a good student?" Catalina: "Until I got to my sophomore year. It was 4.0 and then I decided to get tired of school. I got lazy." Duke: "Did you have a good home life?" Catalina: "Yes. If you want to know anything negative, there's nothing negative in my life, so don't even bother asking." Duke: "There's nothing negative in your whole life?" Catalina: "Right." Duke: "At what age did you love your virginity?" Catalina: "I like to keep my privacy on my virginity. It's on my bio on my website www.catalinaxxx.com." Duke: "What did you study at college?" Catalina: "I wanted to be an English teacher." Duke: "How much college did you do?" Catalina: "Four years." Duke: "Did you get your degree?" Catalina: "No." Duke: "Were you a good student?" Catalina: "Yes. Well enough for my standards. I don't care what anyone else thinks of me. What I think is good for me is good for me. Nobody can tell me anything." Duke: "What is your ethnicity?" Catalina: "Mexican." Duke: "Did you have much experience with pornography when you were a kid?" Catalina: "No." Duke: "You didn't watch it?" Catalina: "No. Of course not. I was too busy thinking about what I wanted to be. My philosophy is that I don't think about how I am supposed to act in society. I just am a person. I'm just a plain person. I have nothing extremely like significant for anyone to judge me. I don't think you understand when I say I am just a plain person because plain people are never understood." Duke: "You feel that people misunderstand you?" Catalina: "No. People want to create a person from a plain person but a plain person can never be created because they are always going to be the same and you are just going to frustrate yourself. So don't even try." Duke: "Why did you drop out of college?" Catalina: "Because I was going fulltime for four years and I wanted to take a break for a semester and I never went back." Duke: "How did you get into porn?" Catalina: "Just an ad in the paper through World Modeling four years ago." Duke: "What were you thinking when you answered the ad?" Catalina: "I was thinking that I was going to be a model. I'm only 5'3". I knew I was never going to be runway. I knew my only chance to be a model was to do nude and I have no problem showing off my body. "I don't like anybody to tell me that it is wrong, because I am a plain person and I am not going to see what you see. Plain people are hard to understand. They just don't see anything but what they see." Duke: "So what was your first shoot?" Catalina: "I don't really remember. I don't want to say who I shot for first for anybody else's benefit. I don't want to be involved in that shady aspect of the pornography industry." Duke: "What kind of experience was your first time shot?" Catalina: "I don't even remember. I told you I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to be involved in that shady aspect. I was assuming that you weren't going to ask me again but you did. The people who have shot me are not going to be able to say anything to me because only mature people who I got along with are my true people who really shot me. The other people -- they shot me because they wanted to. They wanted to get an edge on the porno career. But I have more respect for myself and I am not going to put myself in that situation." Duke: "What situation?" Catalina: "Oh, that I shot this person or that person first. If they want to put me in that situation... Porno is supposed to be fun. It's not supposed to be who shot who first. Who's this and that. I want to shoot with respectable nice people who treat me good. I don't want to shoot with people who are selfish about a body that is mine. Nobody can tell me who I can and can not shoot for." Duke: "It sounds like you had some bad experiences." Catalina: "No. I didn't have any bad experiences. You're putting negative thoughts into the conversation." Duke: "What do you love and not love about the industry?" Catalina: "I love all the people who've shot me and are my friends. And I hate bad interviews." Duke: "How many bad interviews have you had?" Catalina: "I haven't had any, I hope." Duke: "You've never had a bad interview?" Catalina: "Yes." Duke: "What about industry gossip?" Catalina: "If I get a bad interview, and I know I won't, because you will do your best to be the nicest person, because I know you're nice, then it's all good." Duke: "How do you deal with industry gossip?" Catalina: "I don't deal with it." Duke: "It doesn't bother you." Catalina: "I come from a neighborhood that was really close. There were lots of Mexicans at my school. I learned that things shouldn't bother you. And if they do, then you have to ask yourself why you are letting it bother you. And I don't allow anything to bother me." Duke: "And this industry allows you fulfill certain fantasies?" Catalina: "I'm not sure if I've fulfilled any fantasies because I'm out there to have a good time. I'm not there to fulfill what's on my list." Duke: "Is it like what you thought it would be like?" Catalina: "It's been more funner that I thought it would be. It is more better than I thought it would be." Duke: "Why did you decide to get breast implants [two years ago]?" Catalina: "Because I wanted to. I have no reason to explain. What kind of answer are you expecting?" Duke: "I'm not expecting any answer. I'm just curious." Catalina: "I don't have any response to that. Why do you want to get a car? Because you want to drive. Why do you want to get boobs? Because you want to take more pictures. Plain and simple." Duke: "Did it affect the kind of people who wanted to shoot you?" Catalina: "No." Duke: "How did it affect your self image?" Catalina: "Are you talking positively or negatively? Because I've already told you there's nothing negative." Duke: "Neither." Catalina: "I don't see myself as an image. I see myself as a human being with real feelings." Duke: "How did it affect how you feel about yourself?" Catalina: "I don't have any answer for that. Whatever I feel as a woman is private. I don't think that should be asked. "I'd like to say thank you for the interview. If there's any women who feel inferior to questions asked about you, I definitely can relate to the emotions you might go through, because I just had the same kind of experience. I don't think people mean to say what they want to say, it's just a woman's feeling that we cannot control. Just hang in there and stay happy and don't let any kinds of questions bring you down. Don't let anybody try to make you. You make yourself." Black On White Thursday Rob Spallone produced a black-on-white all-girls gonzo Thursday 2/3/05 at Str8-Up Studios. Catalina, Trinity James, Beauty, Creamy starred. Bambi Brown Trinity James Trinity, Bambi Bambi Catalina Catalina Catalina Catalina Tricia Oaks Tricia Oaks Tricia Oaks Tricia Oaks Tricia Oaks Beauty Beauty Beauty Beauty Catalina, Ron Sullivan Catalina, Ron Sullivan Catalina, Ron Catalina, Ron Tricia Oaks Catalina, Ron Catalina, Beauty girls, Ron Catalina, Beauty Catalina, Beauty Candy Cream Candy Cream Candy Cream Candy Cream Candy Cream Erica Kole, Candy Cream Candy Candy Candy Candy Erika Kole Erika Kole Candy Cream Candy Cream As I walk on the set, Trinity James flags me down. "First off," she says, "All that Mike Davis crap. One, he needs to stop sending me and everybody all that crap. "Second. I was in the office when Mike was trying to get him to borrow the money. Rob didn't want to borrow it. Mike was the one who said, borrow it, borrow it, borrow it. "I was also there when Rob paid him back the $22,000. "Mike is just bad that he couldn't make it in the adult world." Trinity's boyfriend stands silently. "Also, I'm back in the biz. I took a small vacation over the holidays." Duke: "Were you in prison?" Trinity: "No. I'm ready to work as soon as AIM can get their goddamn tests ready." I wonder if she has been coached by Rob Spallone on what to say. Bambi Brown sits beside Trinity, her scene partner. It was Bambi's first ever. We're outside. Ron Sullivan walks over and says with a smile: "Hold the back page of the Jewish Forward. I have not smoked in 15 days." Born and raised in Los Angeles, Bambi has worked as a hooker in Nevada for six years (after putting in 18-months as a stripper). "I've been at the Kit Kat ranch [in Reno] for three years." Now she wants to appear "in some major magazines -- Penthouse, Playboy, Hustler. I've been in Spectator magazine but that's crap." Duke: "Has anyone forced you to do anything you didn't want to do?" Bambi: "No. I'm open-minded about things. I've been a freak all my life." "What do you do with your money?" "I've been saving it so I can open up my own cosmetology business. The only thing I've been spending my money on is necessary things - rent, bills, clothes, shoes, make-up, everything that goes with the business I spend my money on." Duke: "Do you have a boyfriend?" Bambi: "No." Duke: "Why are you smiling guiltily?" Bambi: "I have a boyfriend. No husband." Duke: "Does he know you are here today?" Bambi: "Yes. My family knows where I'm at too. I hide nothing." Duke: "How do they feel about your career?" Bambi: "They're happy. They say, whatever you do, be the best. "I was a wild child. They figured out I'd be going into the wild life." As Trinity, boyfriend and Bambi walk off, I ask Trinity if she is going to take Bambi to Max Hardcore. Trinity: "No. I wouldn't even take me to Max Hardcore. Why would I take her?" Bambi: "She knows what's best for me." Trinity, the protective mother figure. Trinity: "Duke, I'm going to kill you. What are you doing?" Duke: "How do your long legs fit in that little car? Are you hiding drugs in there?" Trinity: "Yeah. All kinds." A few minutes later, Max's girlfriend Catalina drives up. She walks in and asks if there is a make-up artist. Ron Sullivan: "Yes, there is a make-up artist, but not for us. For Hustler." Ron is the head of production for Venus Girls and he goes into the office every day he's not shooting. I hear Clive McLean is residing in a hospice. He had his brain cancer cut out first (before the liver cancer) but he's dying. For months before he was diagnosed with brain and liver cancer, he had melanomas cut out of his body. The cancer must've gotten into his bloodstream. Shooters variously categorize Catalina as black or white. Today she's white. Her ethnicity is Mexican. Rob Spallone drives up. He boasts he has no warrants out for his arrest and no probation. He was pulled over Wednesday for a ticket. He talks about his fight with Mike Davis for 20-minutes. He claims that Mike was kicked out of the sheriff's department and that he never graduated with a law degree. "He's a smart kid," says Rob. "He wanted to grow pot in the warehouse. I wouldn't allow that. He wanted to take movies from people and f--- them. I wouldn't allow that. "Pebbles says he threw a glass at his housekeeper. When she came back to get her check, he was real nasty to her. He doesn't have any friends. He talks bad behind their back, all his own friends. "If you go to his house, he has all these pictures of himself. He got stoned for four years. He never left his house. "This kid doesn't know how to earn. "He's into stars. Ellen DeGeneres lives next door. Big deal. She came over once to borrow the dog. I said, are you a retard, lady? You want to take the guy's dog? "He's a kid who never grew up. He had everything and he started to lose it. "He helped me out but now he thinks I owe him money. "I stayed at his house and I never robbed him. I took care of his place. "He told a detective that I was a loan shark and a bookmaker. If I was a loan shark and a bookmaker, why would I have gone bankrupt? "Ask Mike how he's getting along with his partner Guenther." Rob calls Jim South looking for his talent. "If I don't get this movie shot today," Rob tells Jim, "I'm going to lose this account." Black girl named Beauty walks on set. A few minutes later, a crew member yells out: "Black girl. Where you at?" Ron tells Tricia Oaks, "Give me all your candy and nobody gets hurt." Katie Morgan has been busy since the airing of the HBO series Pornucopia, working most every day. Dick Nasty has made her a minority partner in his company Nasty Models. Katie's looking for a contract. Jill Kelly Productions made her an offer. The wind blows through the pine trees outside Str8-Up Studios. It's sunny and about 65 degrees. I hear Bobby Gallagher has moved from his set on Chandler, leaving much of his stuff behind, and for a stage in Sunland, next to a Steven Spielberg production War of the Worlds. Spielberg's crew hasn't been porn-friendly, making business difficult. Skye Blue has shut down her stage to concentrate on producing. Nicki Hunter has a stage on Independance and Nordhoff. A mainstream editor funds it. Erika Kole walks in with her husband Mark Fuzz. They're from New York. He wears a black t-shirt with the white letters: "Jesus is coming." In a small pop-up come the words: "Hide the porn." Mark says they're going to a Craven Morehead party tonight but they can't hang out too late because Erika has to do anal at 10am Friday. Candy Cream, 18yo Rubenesque black girl: "That's a good time to do anal. I'll do it at 4:30am." Candy became a stripper the day after her 18th birthday on April 16th. She didn't like sharing her money with the club, so she got into porn and escorting. She moved from a B-cup to a DD-cup November 30th through plastic surgery. She's done about ten porn movies. Duke: "What kind of student were you in highschool?" Candy: "I had a 3.0. I was supposed to go to college but I was tired of school. A lot of pressure. I like to party a lot." Candy says she was a loner in highschool. She lost her virginity at 15. She says she slept with another ten guys before turning 18. She liked guys over 21 because they could buy her beer. Candy says she like sex five times a day. I remember another woman who told me that. I didn't believe her. Then I dated her and found out she wasn't kidding. Candy wants to stay in porn for as long as she can. Candy's from Fresno, where "there's nothing but corn and cows and chickens." Duke: "How does your family feel about this?" Candy: "We don't want to go there. My mom knows I dance but she hasn't seen a movie yet... When she does... "I only have one brother. He's small. He plays that game with the prostitutes getting in the car. Grand Theft Auto. So I think he knows everything that is going on around him." Duke: "Do you prefer to date guys inside or outside the industry?" Candy: "I don't care. As long as they have a dick." Candy says she smokes a lot of marijuana. Duke: "Which book has most influenced your life?" After tossing out various books for 30 seconds, Candy settles on Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. "It was touching. It made me feel sad. These people were ignorant and wanted to act anyway they wanted as though it didn't hurt other people's feelings and it did." Candy tears up. "This is making me emotional. We're on 20/20 or Dateline. I saw the movie afterward. It was sad." Ivor Biggun writes on XPT: "The director, Dick Dundee, only shot this one movie before moving on to other things. He now describes it as "abysmal". I'm just curious if anyone here has seen it, what did you think of it? Anyone know where I can get a copy?" James writes: "I've often wondered if that effort just blew up in sales and every company wanted him, whether porn gossip would have ever happened? Would he have started the site or would he be driving a Porsche?" Ivor writes:
Jeff Goodman Photos He writes:
Jeff Goodman aka Sammy Grubman (about 50yo, Josh says he looks 38) calls me Sunday January 30. Luke: "How old is your wife?" Jeff: "Twenty seven. A Japanese girl. A very nice girl. Married for about three years. She doesn't have any idea about any of this stuff. As far as she knows, and it is true, I am a very nice loving husband who would never do anything strange." Luke: "Josh portrays you as the strike-out king." Jeff: "That was true. We were hanging out at Studio 54 and I was organizing all these photo shoots. We would sit there and look at the merchandise. Once in a while, we'd try to talk to these girls. We gave off this aura of futility. "You've got to look at Josh's book as a cartoon caricature of these people. But it is all based on fact. He would turn everybody into arch-enemies and super-heroes. "Are you serious about this religion stuff?" Luke: "Yeah." Jeff: "So you really believe in faith in God and everything and it is immoral to be involved in pornography?" Luke: "Yeah." Jeff: "You really feel it is a terrible immoral thing?" Luke: "Yeah." Jeff: "Do you view people like me as evildoers?" Luke: "I wouldn't go that strong." Jeff: "You feel that we're immoral and not acting spiritually?" Luke: "I don't think that working in porn is an honorable profession. I think that sex should be saved for marriage and commercializing it is destructive." Jeff: "I don't know why. Hasids are some of the biggest johns in New York." Luke: "I know that people have weaknesses. I have weaknesses." Jeff: "I don't view myself as an immoral person. I don't view myself as cruel or dangerous. I would say that I am, and a lot of people I know who have worked in pornography, are highly moral people. I think they have their own internal moral compass. I would not terribly take advantage of somebody. I would not kill anybody. I have very traditional Judeo-ethics. "It's hard to understand what I'm saying but I don't view... You view things from more of a Judeo-Christian viewpoint. "Kaballah is popular now. I think if you took more of a kabbalistic view, you would find it is not an immoral thing. It's promoting life essence. I'm not sure monogamy is a Biblical concept." Luke: "They had multiple wives then. You've worked in the sex industry. You've seen it destroy a lot of lives." Jeff: "I don't think it destroyed a lot of people, not anybody who wasn't on a self-destructive bent. You could say that 50% of people who sell used cars destroy themselves. That people are making a living selling sex is not a destructive thing. That's a western concept, that sex is a destructive dirty thing. "I think Josh [Alan Friedman] went astray. He was a major talent. With circumstances a tiny bit different, he would've been one of these wealthy, enormously successful, writers." Luke: "Where did he go astray?" Jeff: "He moved to Texas and got involved with this music, which is not bad, but he laid off writing for years. I think he could've ended up a successful screenwriter. "I almost had the deal with Guccione and Penthouse [in 1996]. I was going to revamp their 900-number operation and Internet operation. I would've made them a fortune. I had this whole crazy conversation with his wife who was sick [and eventually died of cancer]. She said, 'Look at me now. I'm dying. I'll be dead in a few months.' There were so many nuts in that Penthouse and they were so threatened and became so crazy that an outsider came in..." Luke: "How many women have you slept with in your life?" Jeff: "Five hundred." Luke: "How do you think that has affected you?" Jeff: "I wish I was doing it more. I had a wonderful time. The vast majority of them were nice. I'm friendly with quite a number of them. I love women. I wish I was 20 years old again so I could sleep with 500 more. I wish I had at age 20 the money I have now and the knowledge I have now and the taste for asian women I have now. I'm unhappy to be aging and not having the same sexual stamina I used to have."
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