Thursday, February 24, 2005
Email Luke Archives Photos Stars Essays Search Luke Is Back.comHeadline News Advertise Dirty Danza Feb 20
Lara Roxx Interview
She calls me from Montreal Wednesday, February 23, 2005.
Last April, Lara (lararoxx at yahoo dot com) caught HIV from Darren James on a T.T. Boy set. T.T. was subsequently fined by CAL-OHSA for unsafe health practices. Darren refused to talk about what happened. Lara returned home to Montreal. For a few weeks, she was a media celebrity, featured in newspapers and newscasts around the world.
Lara, speaking with a French Canadian accent: "I hear that you are a journalist who specializes in covering scandals in the porn industry?"
Luke: "Yes."
Lara: "Did you cover my story when it happened?"
Luke: "Yeah. Did they release the scene where you caught the deadly disease?"
Lara: "I don't know."
Luke: "What did you think about the questions Kristian Gravenor was asking you?"
Lara: "He was asking me about rumors me trying to escort? First, I was insulted by him asking him that question. I heard this one rumor about a girl who bought a picture of me to advertise herself. Apparently that started the rumors."
Luke: "You are saying that there is absolutely no truth to those rumors?"
Lara assents. "I went to this organization that works with sex workers. They say that in India, ten years ago, that out of 60,000 sex workers, 70% of them have AIDS. People here went over there and started an organization for the prostitutes and everything and now in ten years, it went down in ten years from 70% to 7%.
"There are a lot of sex workers that have HIV, like all over the world."
Luke: "How would you feel about someone selling the tape [Split That Booty 2 which stars HIV-positive porn stars Darren James, Jessica Dee and Bianca Biaggi.] where you caught that deadly disease?"
Lara: "Not really good. I think it would be kind of perverted. If people knew about it and were still buying it, it would be kinda creepy."
Luke: "But as you well know, many of the people who work in this industry, and buy the products of this industry, are creepy."
Lara: "Yeah. For sure."
Luke: "It would be no surprise that they would do something creepy?"
Lara: "Right. If I were to be in court for any reason, and the judge finds out that they released that movie, I don't think he's going to sympathize with them."
Luke: "Did you file suit against T.T. Boy yet?"
Lara: "Not yet."
Luke: "Have you filed any lawsuit as yet?"
Lara: "Not yet."
Luke: "But you have a lawyer?"
Lara: "Right. Right now I'm concentrating on finding out what I can do about cybersquatting."
Luke: "People taking your name?"
Lara: "And image on the internet to make money. My lawyer is going to call me when she feels that she has enough information to do something."
Luke: "Do you own lararoxx.com?"
Lara: "No. I own lararoxxx.com. It's not online.
"[According to Dugmor, lararoxx.com] is owned by the Porn Mafia Familia. And they want to silence me for $5,000. I could bring them to court for profit, but when I asked them to redirect my name to a website that would answer questions about HIV and AIDS, they did, so I can't really do anything about it."
Dugmor writes: "As her request months ago her site [lararoxx.com] is directed to: www.aids.org."
Lara: "Dugmore bought lauraroxx.com. There's a picture of me saying, thanks for supporting me."
"It's a picture of me with no make-up. I look like s---. I'm waiting for my results. That picture sucks too, eh?"
Luke: "Yeah. It's really sad."
Lara: "I don't even get 50%. I get zero percent."
"He's using it like he's hosting all these girls..."
Luke: "I thought he was raising money for you?"
Lara: "I thought so too. He called me and asked me if I wanted to go 50/50 with him on the website. When I said, ok, sure, but I don't want to do anything nude anymore. He said, uh, let me call you back. And he never did.
"A couple of weeks later, I go on the Internet and find out that he did it without me."
Luke: "What about all these times on there to chat with you?"
Lara: "I don't know what they do about that. Is it him telling people that he's me?
"I found a site that says, 'Give $20 for Lara Roxx.'"
Luke: "Who legitimately has raised money to help you?"
Lara: "No one."
Luke: "So anyone out there who says they're helping is lying?"
Lara: "Exactly. The only way you can give me money is if you write me an email.
"Last year, I tried to start a foundation and found out it was way more complicated... Those people [with a sex worker foundation] say there are foundations that are already existed...that are looking for a fresh image and they would be willing to associate themselves with me. I would get a salary for being the image of the company."
Luke: "Did anyone in the industry help you?"
Lara: "This porn star Savannah sent me $500. And this guy who is not in the porn industry sent me $20."
Luke: "What about T.T. Boy?"
Lara: "T.T. Boy didn't give me s---."
Luke: "Darren James?"
Lara: "No. I went through a lot of phases with Darren James. I was really pissed at him. Then I gave him the benefit of the doubt and said, maybe he didn't know. So I kinda feel sorry for him. He's in the same situation as me. Hopefully T.T. Boy helped him out.
"I left [Darren] a bunch of messages. The first message was like, I'm going to kill you. The second message was ok, I won't kill you, but I really need to talk to you. The next message was like, I'm really sorry for saying I was going to kill you. Don't worry. Nothing's going to happen. I know we weren't really friends, but if there's a time when we should become friends it's now.
"He never called me back.
"I called two days ago and his line is disconnected.
"I think that when he disappeared, he was in a sanitarium."
Lara doesn't stay in touch with anyone from the LA porn industry. "I spoke to Tim [Connelly], the guy who runs AVN, a couple of times.
"I used to speak with Rayvenness but she said to me, are you going to bring T.T. Boy to justice? I said, I might. She said, well, call me back when it's over. Like, I don't want to have anything to do with less because I might get less jobs.
"I'm like, yes, sure, I'm going to call you back when it's over. Expect my call."
Luke: "What do you think of the job AIM (Adult Industry Medicine) did for you?"
Lara: "I don't think they are trained to deal with a person who just had the news that they are HIV-positive. She [Sharon Mitchell] was trying to rush me to medication without me knowing anything about it. She promising me all kinds of stuff that she found out she couldn't get me."
Luke: "Was that the first time you had done double anal?"
Lara: "Yeah. First and last."
Luke: "You were in a financially desperate position at the time?"
Lara: "I wasn't really financially desperate. My computer just got stolen [in Montreal] and so did my camcorder. I was living in my mom's place and I really wanted to move out.I was trying to get the cash down on a condo and cash down on a car. I was looking to make $50,000 in three months as opposed to $10,000 in three months in Quebec [the province containing Montreal]."
Luke: "That's why you came to Los Angeles?"
Lara: "Yeah. I wasn't desperate."
Luke: "Didn't you catch some STD prior to your scene with Darren James?"
Lara: "No. One time when I was 16 and I had just started having sex, I had chlamydia.
"I had all kinds of symptoms for HIV the day after Darren. That rash. Then a couple of days later, I woke up and I had a rash in my face. After that, I was feverish. I had sweats. I wasn't hungry. After reading pamphlets, I found out they were all symptoms. I thought I had mono[nucleosis].
"Most people when they catch HIV and they have symptoms, they all think they catched mono.
"I trusted the testing so much I thought it had to be mono."
Luke: "How did you handle all the media attention?"
Lara: "At first, I didn't want to have anything to do with the media. Then I figured that if I weren't going to say anything, they were just going to say the information they had. It might not be the right information. Then I started recording interviews. I wasn't prepared. I should've read a media survival guide."
Luke: "So you are back living with your mother?"
Lara: "Yes, unfortunately. She was telling me that in two years she's kicking me out. I'll have enough time in two years to get cash down on a condo for a job that's $11 an hour. Customer service over the telephone. In French and English."
Luke: "I read that you were writing rap music?"
Lara: "I was writing a lot of rap music at the time. I let it go. I had a lot of rage. I had to put it all down on paper to take it out of my brain. This music manager wanted to produce my CD. I was interested. Then she started talking about percentages. She wanted 60%. I said, forget it.
"Most of my songs were in English. She wanted to translate them all to French and put only two English songs on the CD. I wanted it twelve English songs and two French songs.
"I don't want to do that anymore.
"One person who owns the clothes company Karves does a fashion show every year for HIV organizations. He asked me last year if I wanted to be part of the fashion show. I wasn't ready then but if they ask me again, I would do it.
"I think I'll advertise myself on the Internet as a model. I'm willing to do nude pictures now. Nothing sexual. There are ladies over 50 who pose nude for this calendar every year for cancer."
Luke: "How's your health?"
Lara: "Fine."
Luke: "Do you feel as good as you did a year ago?"
Lara: "Better. I'm going to start medication soon. You have to check all the pros and cons because there are a lot of side-effects. Someone who is external to the situation can know you have AIDS from the side-effects."
Luke: "What are dating and relationships like?"
Lara: "For a year, I didn't have any libido.
"I grabbed a one-night stand in a club two months after it happened just to prove myself that it wasn't on my forehead. That I was still attractive and that I could still get any guy I want.
"Now it's going back to normal. This weekend I met three guys. Before it happened, I used to meet three different guys a week."
Luke: "When you had the one-night stand, did the guy use a condom?"
Lara: "For sure. I wouldn't have let him have sex with me if he didn't want to wear a condom."
I can tell Lara's smoking while we talk.
Lara: "This other guy I met after. I told him I wasn't ready to have sex with him. I told him I was HIV-positive. He said I don't care. When you're ready, I don't want to wear a condom with you. I'm like, you're crazy man. If you want to kill yourself, it's not my problem. I'm not going to help you kill yourself.
"In the States, different states have different laws. But in Canada, you don't have to tell people you are HIV-positive, but you've got to make sure they're protected."
Luke: "The guy you slept with in the one night stand, did you tell him you were HIV-positive before you had sex?"
Lara: "I don't want to answer that. But no, I didn't. This guy who has been working with people who are HIV-positive since 1989 told me that I didn't have to tell people I was HIV-positive. I just had to make sure that they were protected, whether it was high risk or low. Even if I do a blowjob, I should put a condom on the guy. If he knows, then I don't really have to.
"I tried to have sex with my ex-boyfriend. I did a blowjob, whatever. The next day he called this info for sexually transmitted diseases, and he said what happened, and he said, should I go to the hospital and get therapy? And the lady was like, shut up. OK, I'm not going to laugh at you but I feel like it.
"It's better for me too to put a condom on the guy because if he has herpes or anything and I catch it, it's going to accelerate the processes of the disease in my body."
Luke: "How do you decide when you are going to tell a guy?"
Lara: "If I meet a guy that I really like, I won't sleep with him for a while. When I am sure that he likes me too for who I am, then I'll tell him and it will be his choice whether to continue the relationship with me or not."
Luke: "Do you get recognized much from your media appearances?"
Lara: "No. People that saw me on TV or in the newspapers say, I know I saw you somewhere. I don't know where. I know I've never met those people but I'm like, yeah, I remember you from somewhere too."
Luke: "You weren't able to use all the fame you received to make money?"
Lara: "No, but people are approaching me now... These guys are starting a [porn] website and they want me to be the host. 'Hey, this is Jenna and she'll be having sex with Lem. I met them at a library. They said they'd be willing to do it in front of a camera.'"
Luke: "Are you staying in good shape? Are you exercising?"
Lara: "I was never really exercising. I'm lucky. I'm in normal shape. I have a bigger stomach. I got fatter."
The Word, The Flesh And The Devil
Chaim Amalek writes: "Why don't you write a book about Jews in porn and their relationship with God? Something more than ten people might want to read. People like both porn and religion, so a book of interviews of the iconic porno-Juden of the seventies and eighties (Annie Sprinkle/Steinberg, Harry Reems, all the rest) would garner lots of readers. And you could include Christians, too."
Anthony Lane Rips Inside Deep Throat
We have to settle for a predictable roster of guest preachers: Camille Paglia, Norman Mailer, Erica Jong, Gore Vidal, Larry Flynt, Alan Dershowitz, and a bundle of simpers and tics with the words "Helen Gurley Brown" written underneath. Far more enjoyable are the crew from the original picture, who are, without exception, on loan from the pages of a Carl Hiaasen novel. Connoisseurs of fruitcake will treasure Ron Wertheim, the production manager, whose vivid gray locks burst outward like solar flares, and who is plainly looking forward to being reunited, in the near future, with his own mind. Moving on, we come to Lenny Camp, the location manager, who cups one ear at the interviewer and describes "Deep Throat" as "a piece-of-s--- film." Plus, "the actors are all s---." I would second Lenny in his thoughtful analysis, adding merely that, if you think the actors are s---, you should try the editing. And the lighting. And the sound recording. And the sex.
The sleaziest aspect of "Inside Deep Throat" is its desperation to make a big noise out of a pip-squeak. From the opening credits, in the course of which Camille Paglia recalls "an epochal moment in the history of modern sexuality," to the closing homage, in which our narrator, Dennis Hopper, tells us that "'Deep Throat' was less about the joys of oral sex than it was about the freedom to speak out against shame and hypocrisy," we are dragged through a glossily packaged exercise in cultural aggrandizement, as immovable in its prejudice as the forces of religious reaction which it yearns to provoke. There is even a hilarious attempt, near the end, to argue that the good old days of pornography used to brim with Ambrosian innocence, after which, Erica Jong says, "a very cynical pornographic industry came in on the heels of the First Amendment, and began coining money, hand over fist." Leaving aside her interesting choice of image, I take it that she is referring to the "bad" money made in our corrupt post-Reagan age, as opposed to the "good" money made by all the Mafia goons thirty years ago or more.
Tod Hunter writes:
Back in the '70s people made porn films for the hands-on filmmaking experience or for the sheer daredevil exhibitionistic thrill of it because THERE WAS NO MONEY IN IT, the Mob guys made all the money.
And yeah, it was an Ambrosian innocence. Ambrose Bierce.
Q&A For The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry
First question yelled from the audience for Sharon Mitchell. "Did you f--- Warren Beatty?" That was alleged in the book.
Sharon says no.
A writer asks Legs: "You had all these long conversations. How did you bring it down to?"
Legs: "You just cut and paste and throw it in. It took eight f------ years."
Brett Hudson, Kate Hudson's uncle, asks a self-serving question (Brett produced with Legs and Burt Kearns the Court TV documentary on the history of porn): "There's a new documentary out called Inside Deep Throat. Didn't you do a special on MTV that told that same story?"
Legs: "I did a great special on Court TV. I was blessed with two executive producers sitting right here -- Brett Hudson and Burt [Kearns], who has a very small penis he doesn't want anyone to know about.
"They [Inside Deep Throat filmmakers] were assholes. They made this campy movie making fun of Deep Throat. What's great about Deep Throat, the movie is not that great, but the amazing story of Deep Throat is the whole invention of the modern pornography industry. Also the invention of the Mob's control of it."
The Mob controlled the porn industry long before Deep Throat.
Legs: "The story behind Deep Throat is a much more amazing story than the actual film. And they didn't get that. And they're a bunch of assholes. We had done this three-hour Court TV special which is the highest-rated original program in their history. They buried that so this stupid campy movie...
"In the New York Post, they tried to make me anti-gay by saying, well, these two gay guys made it. I said that because if Legs McNeil and crew had done the uncensored oral history of the gay film industry, they would have crucified me. I am not anti-gay."
Can anyone understand what Legs's critique of Inside Deep Throat? Underneath his hyperbole, I don't understand his complaint other than that he feels they stomped on his turf. And for Legs McNeil to think that Deep Throat is exclusively his turf is pure delusion. Neither Legs, in his book or his Court TV special, nor Inside Deep Throat, break any new ground on the history and significance of Deep Throat. Legs and Inside Deep Throat simply retill the soil that has been broken by others. Please correct me if I am wrong by showing me the scoops in these projects.
Sharon Mitchell is asked if she had any favorite costumes.
"I did this one striptease. It would be my last show of the week. Many times, when I was on the road, I'd do 25 shows in a week.
"I'd have my valet pack my suitcases and have them at the end of the runway. I'd come out completely naked and do a reverse striptease. Nobody understood it. All the guys in the front row thought they were getting the real deal. That I was going to stay naked the whole time.
"I'd put the g-string on, the bra on... I'd pick up my bags, walk offstage and right into the taxicab.
"My second favorite: I learned how to do the fan dance from Sally Rand [born April 3, 1904]."
Old man yells out: "What kind of shape was Sally Rand in?"
Sharon: "Very good.
"I was one of the first porn girls introduced into entry-level striptease and feature dancing. The first gig that I had was co-featuring for Tempest Storm. It wasn't really about how they looked. It was about what they portrayed and the sexual energy they exuded. I was trying so hard to do the bump-and-grind and my body wasn't right for it.
"Tempest Storm told me I could have my own style provided I went with the formula of the tease. I was doing my ballet and stripping to Rhapsody in Blue. And the other girls would come out and pour water on their shirts and do these dollar-a-lick things. I felt out of place. I never compromised.
"I'd say Tempest Storm was the best dancer of that era. She brought her own band."
Question: "Was Sally Rand proud of what she'd done?"
Sharon: "Absolutely. Enthusiastic and proud to pass it on."
Legs talks about the start of his porn book: "Sharon Mitchell was one of the first persons I interviewed. She lived in the Valley. I pulled into her street and said, 'This looks like the witness protection program. I want to live here.' I got a house around the corner from her with a pool and a dog that Tim Connelly stole from me.
"I sent crews out to buy the John Holmes trial transcripts for $10,000 apiece. The transcriber owns the copy unless you're in appeals court, then you can Xerox them.
"I read [Hunter S. Thompson's] Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It changed my life. With the exception of Last Exit to Brooklyn, Fear and Loathing made writing like machine gun fire. It was like rock n'roll."
Luke: "Sharon, some people think you've become more negative towards the porn industry in the last six years seeing all the AIDS and problems that have swept through it?"
Sharon takes a long pause and reflects: "A little bit, Luke. Sitting where I sit with AIM (Adult Industry Medicine), I see all the occupational hazards and the malevolence and it's made me a little bit realistic. I know there are a lot of wonderful things out there, but seeing what I've been seeing, it's almost like porno's version of Fear Factor. How many dicks can you put in a pussy and how goldfish can you make people vomit and what does this have to do with sex? Part of me wonders what this has to do with the wonderful business I stepped into in 1975 where I could show my pussy 15-feet high on the silver screen..."
A guy in the audience: "In your professional opinion, how many dicks can you fit in one pussy?"
Sharon: "I know how many chopsticks you can."
Legs: "That's very humble of Sharon. Sharon is the reason why most of the country has switched over from BNR DNA research from the Eliza test."
I think Legs means "PCR DNA" and I find it hard to believe that Sharon Mitchell changed America's testing procedures for HIV.
Legs: "Sharon pioneered BNR DNA testing and that has seved hundreds of thousands of lives. Sharon Mitchell deserves to be sainted.
"And she got a Ph.D."
Tim Connelly says Hunter Thompson "changed our lives, much like the Ramones did, much like any great artist did... It earmarks a time of passing for our industry. It becomes a time to move on to something else. [Thompson's work] will live on longer than something George Bush says.
"Hunter spent some time at the Michell Brothers theatre and was great friends with Jeff Armstrong and the two Mitchell brothers. He hung out with R. Crumb and was a cashier. He even hung out for a while with Gail Palmer in his hot tub before she filed charges on him. She should've learned that it is ok for Hunter to bring a handgun into the hot tub when he's on mescaline."
Q: Is it true that Hunter fell in love with a whore?
Tim: "I think we all did.
"Hunter called Jeff [Armstrong] after I was at AVN for six months and said, can I get a subscription? I'm starting to enjoy reading it. It pained me to cancel his subscription."
There are a lot of suck-up questions from audience plants such as producer Brett Hudson who asks Sharon: How did video change the industry?
As she answers him, Brett starts talking to somebody else.
Sharon: "Who asked this question?"
Brett snaps back and devotes his attention to Sharon's answer.
Q for Legs: What was the biggest surprise that you found out about the industry?
Legs: "One, that girls had not been abused. I had known that girls got sexually abused and went into pornography. But I've talked to a few girls who only slept with one or two guys. And that to me was shocking."
Book Reading For The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry
Book Soup at 8818 Sunset Blvd. 6:45pm. Tuesday. I leaf through the book and see over 20 paragraphs from my Marc Wallice interviews. I turn to the back and note that I'm properly credited.
7pm. Legs McNeil and co-author Jennifer Osborne walk in. A dozen people await them.
Sharon Mitchell, Tim Connelly, Jennifer Osborne, Peter Pavia Sharon, Legs McNeil Sharon Sharon, Peter Legs, Tim Jennifer, Peter Sharon Legs Sharon, Peter Jennnifer, Peter Ron Jeremy in new PETA ad
Legs radiates hostility. Or is just a New York attitude? Or is it just being an asshole?
He berates somebody for owing him money. I overhear say $2,000. Later it's $240. He complains that all his stuff got stolen. He complains about his bad press. He complains about the meager turnout. He says the dozen people who came through the rain to see him count for nothing.
I decide to stand back and just observe before I introduce myself.
Legs' co-writer Jennifer Osborne seems amiable.
McNeil fidgets. He says he hasn't eaten since New York. He wants a smoke. He wants a drink. He's grateful for candy.
He picks on the audience. Who is the woman upfront taking notes? Are there any journalists present? Where are Sharon Mitchell, Tim Connelly, and Veronica Hart who are supposed to read with him?
Legs bags on Inside Deep Throat. He calls it campy crap. He says he'll wait until 7:30 or 7:45 to start. In my head, I curse his delay.
A documentary filmmaker wants to videotape the book reading. Legs seems to have a problem with that. He turns the guy over to Jennifer. A long discussion ensues. Apparently Legs doesn't want to be videotaped but Jenn and Peter Pavia are ok with it.
After 20 minutes, I introduce myself to Legs. I ask him if all this is changing him.
"I'm still an asshole," he says.
Legs is glad to be with Judith Regan he knows how to sell books.
Sharon Mitchell arrives at 7:40pm. Legs yells into the microphone, "It was f----- Sharon Mitchell's fault [that the reading began late]."
Mitch accidentally knocks over Jenn's Coke. AVN publisher/editor Tim Connelly joins the crew up front. Veronica Hart doesn't show.
The reading begins. At its conclusion, the first question comes from a writer asking how Legs assembled the book. Legs calls the guy an idiot for asking him a question about writing when one of the sexiest porn stars of all time is present (Sharon Mitchell).
After a rant, Legs answers the question by saying: "It took me eight years."
If I was the guy who asked that question, I'd hate Legs. McNeil must glory in rubbing people of good will the wrong way.
Sharon Mitchell says she started in porn in 1975 at age 17 (she was legally emancipated after a marriage and divorce). That makes her about 46yo today.
"Nobody cared back then [about age]," said Mitch. "We worked directly for the Mob. Who was going to ask us [for ID]?"
I raise my hand and ask one question (to Sharon Mitchell): "Some people in the industry say that you have become more critical of the industry over the past seven years because of your experiences with AIM (Adult Industry Medicine)?"
Sharon seems to tear up as she answers it after a long pause: "Sitting where I sit, it's made me more realistic."
An old man in the back asks Tim Connelly to reflect on the death of Hunter S. Thompson. The man says Hunter wanted to do a book on the porn industry. That Hunter worked as a bartender at the Mitchell Brothers theatre in San Francisco as research. Then Hunter fell in love with a hooker and lost his mind and his desire to write on porn.
Hunter also tangled with Gail Palmer.
A question for Tim Connelly: Do porn stars ever use lawyers to negotiate their contracts?
Tim: "Obviously not successfully."
I've not heard of a porn star in the past 20 years using a lawyer to negotiate a contract. Probably the highest paid porn star of all time per movie was Seka (around $40,000 tops for one of them).
The authors are asked for their favorite section of the book. Jennifer says the Times Square material. "When it was a yes place, not a no place."
Four years ago, Jenn was working on a fem porn documentary. She interviewed Legs. He asked her to come aboard his book. Her documentary was never finished.
Legs says his friend since 1975, Mary Harron, is directing a movie of his oral history of punk, Please Kill Me, for Jersey Films.
Legs says they want to do it like Almost Famous (2000), an idea he hates.
Ron Jeremy walks up. He says he has a scene as a bail jumper in Tony Scott's new film Domino (out in May).
Ron says he does about a sex scene a month.
He's spoken before about 20 colleges debating pornography.
I met today with 35yo Russian Daria Aslamova. She's published four books, written popular newspaper columns, and appeared in Russian Penthouse. There are naked photos of her all over the Web.
She ran for the Russian parliament:
Known as a "naughty girl" after the memoirs she wrote about her erotic encounters with the powerful and the wealthy, Aslamova, 30, decided to go into politics just a month before the race. The former Komsomolskaya Pravda war correspondent is running against Arbatova and eight others in Moscow's Universitetsky district.
She wants to go on a set with me this week. If you are shooting, Email Luke.
Writing in Komsomolskaya Pravda, Darya Aslamova reveals: ''I dream of Putin at night. Black-and-white and handsome like the intelligence agent in the old Soviet cinema.''
''To be honest,'' Ms Aslamova goes on, ''I thought it was only me who was licensed for the nocturnal rendezvous with Putin... So I was a bit jealous when I asked my friends - all over 30 - and found out that they all had had sex with the president in their dreams.''
Aslamova was at the center of the first post-Soviet Russian sex scandal in 1992 when, at the age of 23, she published her first book. It was about her sexual affairs with the speaker of the Russian parliament, as well as affairs with another famous Russian politician and a famous Russian actor, who subsequently divorced.
She's one month into her second marriage. Her first marriage lasted nine years. Both marriages were to journalists. She has a nine year old daughter and lives in Moscow. Her husband lives in Croatia.
She's covered many wars, including Iraq in 2003, Afghanistan in 2002 (where she shacked up with a couple of Australian documentarians), Sierra Leone in Africa and the Balkan war in Europe in the 1990s.
She spent four hours at my hovel Wednesday afternoon. After she interviewed me, I Googled her name and found a bunch of nudie pics. I leered at them and then at her until I had her creeped out.
She said I made lousy tea and coffee and that I was too lazy to be a good womanizer.
She's published four books and writes a column in Moscow's largest newspaper called 'Adventures Of The Naughty Girl.'
On the front page of her prestigious newspaper is an article about the porn industry. She looked embarrassed when I pointed this out to her.
Aslamova predicted I would never settle down and marry and have kids. She pointed out that I had never outgrown my youthful rebellion.
Kirill writes about the book Shutterbabe on Amazon.com:
I've recently read a better work of reporting and memoirs involving love, sex, adventure and war, by a Russian journalist Daria Aslamova (some excerpts available at www.aslamova.df.ru) in her "Adventures of a bad girl" series. She describes her experience from countless flings in the university dormitory to liaisons with celebrities and politicians and to wars in Caucasus, Nagorny Karabakh and the former Yugoslavia. Once she was captured and raped at a gunpoint by a militant of one warring side - a condition for sparing the lives of her companions, captured together. From love and lust to danger and death, she covered it with far more warmth, wit, and vigor than the author of the "Shutterbabe". Interestingly, judging by the descriptions in both books of the coup in Moscow, she and D. Copaken Kogan could be within a few feet from each other during the decisive night of August 20, 1991. Game of chance can produce interesting patterns, indeed.
Make up your own mind about Daria Aslamova by looking at these pictures: Aslamova as a drunk 18yo college student protesting the final days of Communism Aslamova in Russian Penthouse Aslamova reflects on Perestroika Aslamova Aslamova Aslamova Aslamova
What would comrade Lenin say?
Relentless Porn Propagandists
Nina Hartley writes on Nina.com:
I am a "relentless propagandist for the sex-positive viewpoint." Whether one is celeibate or "promiscuous," coming to terms with one's sexual nature, accepting it wholly, and deciding soberly how, or if, one will express it, is essential to being happy and centered in the world. Many, if not most, people are unsure of themselves sexually, or worried in some way about it, or actively unhappy about it. My job is to help them find their way through their issues to a more peaceful place.
Miss Nude Pageants - Are They Fixed?
I've heard shocking allegations that the prestigious Miss Nude USA, Miss Nude World, and Miss Nude Universe titles are fixed.
According to the website MissNudePageants.com, "Corruption of monumental proportion has tainted these pageants and those who bare the titles."
MissNudePageants.com publishes bad things about Brazilian model Rio Rivers, who is supposedly behind these nude beauty pageants:
Rio [Rivers] has guaranteed several pageant contestants 'titles' despite what the judges indicated. Many contestants have been told to enter certain categories in order to get a guaranteed title. Please keep in mind, contestants are charged hundreds of dollars in entry fees to participate. These pageants usually take the better part of an entire week.
Rio's vital stats are: Height: 5' 4" Measurements: 34DD-24-36 Weight: 120lbs Birthday: January 28th 1973 Born: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
MissNudePageants.com publishes:
Most contestant hopefuls are directed to one, Ken Shinkle. It is Mr. Shinkle's job to direct, inform, represent, and guide these ladies in their search for pageant glory.
Ken Shinkle is married to the recently crowned Miss Nude USA/Miss Nude Universe Jada Deville.
Miss Nude 2005 is Serena Starr, the duo partner of Jada Deville.
Something's rotten in Denmark!
I got an email from a person representing MissNudePageants.com: "I am afraid that due to the nature of this website, we are only able to communicate through email. This website is funded by over 11 entertainers in the adult entertainment business. Obviously, They wish to remain anonymous due also to the nature of this website. They have careers to think about. That number is growing as I am writing this."
Iowa Awaiting Miss Nude World Pageant
Updated: Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2003 - 6:26 AM
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - No thanks to the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city will be host to the Miss Nude World pageant this year.
The event on Oct. 20-25 at the Lumber Yard, a strip club just north of the Des Moines city limits, is expected to draw up to 75 professional exotic dancers from around the United States and several foreign countries, the organizer said.
"In our industry, this is the biggest event in the world," said Mike Kent, the Lumber Yard's manager.
Most of the estimated 10,000 customers who are expected for the pageant will come from Iowa, Kent said. But he said many will travel from other states, which will provide an economic shot in the arm for Des Moines hotels and restaurants.
Rio Rivers of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., who owns the pageant, and Kent, the Lumber Yard manager, disagreed. The dancers are businesswomen, said Rivers.
"They're beautiful, intelligent, hardworking women supporting themselves and their families," she said.
Rivers said Des Moines was chosen for the contest because the Lumber Yard is a topflight club and because the city's location in Middle America should help attract contestants and spectators.
The winner of the pageant will receive $10,000. Contestants who win preliminary events will get $5,000.
Trying To Interview Mainstream Companies Who Profit From Porn
When I was Business Editor of AVN, I tried, repeatedly, to interview people from On Command and other hotel porn providers, and also the parent companies, the hotel companies, the cable and satellite broadcasters, etc. They all dodged me. I even went to people like VCA Cable and the people at Vivid in charge of selling to cable and satellite and hotel pay-per-view. (Those in the know may recall that AVN publisher Paul Fishbein was living with the head of VCA Cable at that time.) I wanted them to put me in a room with their customers at the F500 companies, off the record. Not one PORN company would help me.
I wanted to do the kind of straightforward business reporting that has since been done, by me and by others, that would let the public see that this is and should be part of the fabric of American life. Is there a better way to say to people who believe - sincerely, and with the belief that they are trying to better society - that they can legislate morality for everyone on the basis of their religion - that they are not acting like Americans? That ordinary Americans WANT this kind of entertainment, and that they don't want government resources wasted on prosecuting something that not only most people want, but even if only a small fraction wanted it, that there is NO authority in our Constitution that allows the government to stop its production and dissemination?
Wouldn't it be nice to put a finish to this endless fight - which even an obviously intelligent guy like Maurice sees as a cycle of history for Chrissake coming around again - with the help of honest companies making a buck off it,a nd honest politicians willing to stand up for the First Amendment rights of porn fans? Wouldn't it be nice to create an atmosphere where it's RESPECTABLE to defend porn, where it would be a vote-winner? Wouldn't it be nice to shift the ground of the argument for a change?
20. What's the meanest prank you've ever played on anyone in this biz?
I have pulled many pranks. A recent one sticks out in my mind. Meat from Netpond has a hard on for me, always has for some reason. Jealous hater. I see him in Vegas this Jan. I already knew that JBM won the XBiz award for chat board of the year by then. So I tell him, I heard that Netpond won the award, congrats. And asked him if he is going to be there to accept. He about s--- his pants and started telling everyone standing around him. He bought it. So when I won the award, I hear some guy yelling out "wanker" with an accent, sounded like Meat.
21. What is your biggest regret business related.
For the first few years of my biz I made a few mistakes.
-I stopped generating my own traffic, and went 100% into buying traffic
-I worried about other peoples business practices, when I should have taken that energy to be making $
-I was too conservative, and did not take enough chances pushing the limits smartly. The guys who got mega rich in the biz, pushed, pushed, pushed. And I do not see any of them in jail.25. What's the deal with you and [Steve] Lightspeed?
I had the pleasure, or should I say displeasure of sitting next to Steve on a flght from PHX to Miami several years ago. I had many preconceived notions about him, and it turned out, they were all correct. I had heard crazy stories about him and drugs, women, etc etc at shows. He told me why he got in the biz, and his biz philosophies, he would not shut up. He then went on to tell me that I do not know how to manage my sales staff, that I do not let them have fun, blah blah blah.
From that point on, I put him on my idiot list. I threw a few jabs at him on the boards, and he ran off like a little sissy girl to our mutual friends begging them to ask me to stop picking on him. From that point on, it was open season. Lightspeed has done well, the concept and the sites are very good. But, Steve is an idiot businessman. For instance, he overpays his girls to the point it is an industry joke. But I guess he pays extra so he can bang em. I can only imagine how many millions he has blown, and left on the table. Or snorted up his nose...
Bottom line is that he put himself up on a pedestal, and I am just a reality check for him. One day, he will thank me.
I think VOD is overhyped. There is no magic revenue producing stream. Times are tough. My suggestion is to put many eggs in many basket. Do not get caught with all your eggs in one basket.
JoeE- I miss JoeE. Best story of JoeE was when I was in NO for a show at the casino. I see JoeE crying, walk over and ask him whats up. He has about $500k in winnings in his hands, and he is crying about his gf. I gave him a hug, we bonded. Shame what went down with him and CEN, but JoeE also made some poor decisions along the way.
If I was an employee, I would be concerned with outsourcing. Everyone is moving staff overseas with smaller and smaller profit margins.
Visa/MC are always my #1 concern. As well as the lack of more than two viable third party processors.
Misguided Pornographers
Jack writes:
Thursday, March 10 at 10:30 p.m on Comedy Central. "In the tradition of "Monty Python" and "The Kids In The Hall," "The Hollow Men" take sketch comedy to absurd new places that can only be seen on COMEDY CENTRAL. Tune-in each Thursday for musical numbers about dirty animals who live in shoe stores, chronic Marlon Brando impersonators, nudist-powered car engines and much, much more."
They do a big regular routine that is about porn...the bit is titled "Misguided Pornographers." Comedy Central is pumping that segment in their promos for their new show.
Players Ball Pimp D-Money's Ambush Interview
4. Do women throw themselves at you cause of the players ball?
Yes. Perception is a funny thing. There are women who look at this event and the players that attend, both industry and mainstream celebs. They get too caught in that stuff. I used to get a kick out of it and before meeting Jennifer, I had my fun. Most of the night I'm running around trying run this event, so I don't notice the ones checking me out or hitting on me. Believe me, I used to love that stuff when I was a single guy. But a true player has the confidence inside himself and doesn't need the ego strokes of hotties hitting on them. The only ego stroke I need is from my beautiful wife who attends every Players Ball with me.
28. How come the players ball isn't listed on internet expo's website anymore?
You wouldn't know that by looking at their pictures on their party page. You'd think by looking at that page that you're going to see a Players Ball at their convention. They still use the Players Ball photo to sell their convention, which is like false advertising. I pulled out after they fired my wife to show my support for her. Most people in my situation wouldn't have the balls to do that, but when something isn't right, I stand up for what I believe in. What they did isn't right. One door shuts as another opens. I fully support Webmaster Access shows and Cybernet Expo's. Conventions are important to the growth of the webmaster.
I really don't like what AVN did to my wife. I look down on people who don't respect those that make them what they are. AVN was like family to us and it's hard to believe they terminated Jen's agreement. We'll let the attorneys handle that though. But I'm deeply hurt and upset with them. I'm also upset with Farley from AVN, a friend I got the job over there. Now he's sitting in her position, which isn't right. How can AVN make Farley a Publisher while denying Jennifer that position for years? What does Farley do that Jennifer didn't do? Did Farley have any magazine experience before becoming Pubisher? Why deny a women like my wife of that title for 8 years, while she did most of what a Publisher does. They wouldn't even give her Associate Publisher. So I look down on AVN and Farley for conspiring against my wife, kicking her to the curb and seeing Farley sit in her seat.
Ripoff Alert - CBM Media
Jim writes:
Maybe you should do an article on CBM Media out of Pompano Beach, Florida. They keep calling me up wanting to invest $10,000.00 or more on an adult website and promise returns of 20% or more per month. Their "biggest adult sites" on the internet include highballgirls.com, hopegirls.com and regalgirls.com which all take in "millions" each month. Weird thing seeing that none of the websites work.
CBM Media, according to CBM Media are the largest producers of adult websites in the world!
CBM MediaCorp. is located at 2700 West Atlantic Boulevard, Suite 101, Pompano Beach, FL 33069. Their website (which also does not work) is webcbm.com. Corporate toll free 1-877-215-6108 Office (954) 975-6108 and fax (954) 975-6138.
Ripoffreport.com has nice words to say about them: http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff53515.htm "Gordon Manby, Signature Global Publications Inc. ripoff, take invested dollars and give nothing back, they have no product."
Company known as Signature Global Publications Inc. was started by Gordon Manby (3520 NW 21ST Street, Coconut Creek, FL 33066) and William Miles.
William Miles is running his own scam under the Name CBM Media Corporation, 2700 West Atlantic Blvd. Ste 101, Pompano Beach, FL 33069; 954-975-6108).
They sell investments in adult websites by advertising that the partners will make up to 20% per month return from credit card transactions on the adult website. They do not give the investors a return on the website and take most for themselves. They put a fraudulent track record on their website www.followthedollars.com.
When you want to contact them, they use caller ID so that they will not take telephone calls from dissatisfied investors. They do not respond to telephone messages from investors. They do not respond to letters. They will not give out the name and address of their Agent of Record nor of their attorney. They have lied about the history of the company and how long they have had producing websites in business.
Christina Noir, Johnny Keyes Alicia Rio Ami Charm Ami Charm Johnny Keyes, Lori Wagner Lori Wagner Lori Wagner, Alicia Rio Lori, Alicia Cumisha Amado, Lori Wagner, Alicia Rio Celestia Star, Johnny Cobalt Cara Lott Violet Blue Alicia Rio, girlfriend Rhonda Jo Petty, Alicia Rio Jezebelle Bond Jezebelle Bond Keisha Teagan Presley Bill Margold, Teagan Presley Bill, Teagan Teagan Teagan Ron Jeremy Ron Jeremy Sunny Lane Sunny Lane Sunny Lane Sunny Lane Eva Angelina Eva Angelina Eva Eva Angelina, Sunny Lane Eva, Christina Gianna Misty (L-R) Gianna, Alley Cat, Trixie, Misty (L-R), Nick East, Tony Montana, Dave Marilyn Chambers Marilyn Chambers Marilyn Chambers Marilyn, Bill Marilyn, Johnny Keyes Lori Wagner, Ron Jeremy Alicia Rio (photo by James) Alicia Rio (photo by James)
I meet Christina Noir from the San Francisco Bay Area. She's self-produced and sold over the web three DVDs of herself engaged in various forms of carnal activity.
She and her husband have been swinging for six years. They decided to take things a step further and put some of their exploits on the web.
Christina has slept with about 500 men in her life.
I meet Celestia Star and her man Johnny Cobalt. They're from England but now live in Sherman Oaks. She's done about 30 movies and he's done half a dozen. Celestia was called at the last minute to dance at tonight's show.
Cara Lott says the AEE (Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas in January) renewed her enthusiasm for making MILF (Mom I'd Like to F---) movies because she can be in-and-out in two hours. She's done six lately.
Cara gets hit on by an assortment of scary looking guys and she's non-plussed.
I sit and chat with Violet Blue and her boyfriend Johnny Rock (as opposed to her boyfriend, a porn production manager). Johnny recently had a cast made of his penis. Violet put it in her purse. When she got home, her husband took it out of her purse and said, 'Is this Johnny's cock?'
Violet and Johnny cohost a show on KSEXradio.com.
I interview Alicia Rio. She takes my tape recorder and says: "Hi, this is Alicia Rio, legendary XXX adult hall of famer. Thanks for asking. I'll be doing my comeback movie soon for Video Team. They're my favorite. A boy-girl with Mr. Marcus. Back to my horniness. I need to express it."
Duke: "So what have you been doing the past four years?"
Alicia: "Getting sober. Going to my NA (Narcotics Anonymous) and AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) meetings and sharing my experience. You can be a porn star but be sober. I've been dancing at the Blue Zebra in Los Angeles.
"You can catch me on AliciaRio.com."
Duke: "How's your health?"
Alicia: "Most excellent. Thank you for asking.
"I just had a birthday. I'm going to look better at 40 than I did at 20."
Duke: "What's it like growing older?"
Alicia: "I find I have to sleep a lot more, but other than that, I'm as horny as ever."
Duke: "What do you like and not like about growing older?"
Alicia: "I love the wisdom that I'm gaining and the conscious sober decisions I'm making on a daily basis and the power to say no.
"I'm early in my sobriety. I'm only five months on the 25th of this month."
Every time I've talked to Alicia over the past six years, she's been getting sober.
Duke: "Did you have to make new friends or lose friends?"
Alicia: "I had to drop old friends. They were still smoking marijuana. Even though I was still sober from alcohol, I was still smoking marijuana. I found marijuana hard to stop. I stopped everything. Even Tylenol PM. Even Excedrin. All I do is take my vitamin C. I juice every day. Carrot, celery and apple. I use my juicer three times a day.
"I ran a marathon in Hawaii and raised $3,000 for the AIDS foundation. It was 26.2 miles and the .2 was the hardest, because you're almost there but you're not there. It took me eight hours, 32 minutes and 26 seconds. I play those numbers on the lottery, along with my birthday 2/16.
"Unfortunately, I was not here [at the FOXE Awards] last year but I've been here every year since. I love FOXE. I love my fans. I wouldn't be the superstar I am without the fans. I love everybody.
"I am in a stable relationship of four years with my girlfriend Lisa."
I look at Alicia's Hispanic friend.
"It's going on four years. We're sober together."
Lisa aka Lacy Lee seems to act as Alicia's caretaker. Lisa seems maternal about Alicia.
"We have sex three times a day," says Alicia. "She's the best husband I've ever had. But I still love men. That's why I do my private shows and my couch dances. You don't even have to wear a condom. I'll ground you right there."
The hottest girls here are not in the industry such as John Douglas's friend Jamie Starr.
John warns Jamie not to talk to me. He says I'm the biggest scumbag in the industry.
Jamie's a 36yo wife and mother of two. Her husband is twice her age and rich. She has pumped up breasts. She has a purple tinge to her hair but it looks good. She's dressed elegantly with a low-cut top. She looks vaguely like Sandra Bullock but is more curvy.
Brian Sebastien, a black guy who used to host a cable TV movie review show with Bill Margold, walks up and tells Jamie, "Oh, I thought you were my friend Sandy Bullock."
"Brian Sebastien is the biggest name dropper," says John Douglas afterwards.
Jamie thought she would be under-dressed but rather she is over-dressed. The FOXE Awards are nothing like what she expected. This is her first porn event.
She thought people would be dressed more elegantly and that they'd be younger and hotter and hipper.
Jamie doesn't see any porn girls she'd like to have sex with.
I've gone up to several hot girls tonight and asked them if they were in the industry. They said no.
The Colonel (Robert Schaffner) from Mondo Video says his business partner Terry knocked some broad up and they considered trying to induce her into labor by showing her their video Camp Erotica.
Camp Erotica, the actual place at Rainbow (in Temecula), is up for sale. A tornado struck it over the weekend.
Colonel: "I've been working with Kahn Tusion. We've been doing these things at the store, which we've moved to the low end of Melrose (4328 Melrose Ave). We've been doing Midnight Prowls there. It's a new series that JM is putting out. They bring the chick to the store, and we've been bringing in some big names like Riley Brooks, and they blow my customers."
Duke: "Is it safe sex?"
Colonel: "Yeah. Are you trying to insinuate that Mondo customers would have some kind of disease?"
Duke: "Do the customers get HIV-testing?"
Colonel: "No. The guys who come in my store are losers who haven't had sex in eight years. If they have any [non-oral] sex, it is with condoms."
Duke: "Is there an element of degradation to this?"
Colonel: "That's why we're inviting you to come see."
Sunny Lane says she was the Deja Vu Showgirl of the Year 2004.
(L-R) Gianna, Alley Cat, Trixie, Misty are repped by XTC-Models.com. Lee Bang runs it.
Brandi May carries around a bucket to collect donations for American Fred Salaff who's jailed in Panama City for shooting porn.
Selling Lara Roxx's Video Where She Caught HIV
In the Spring of 2004, Montreal's Lara Roxx caught HIV while doing a double anal scene in a Los Angeles porn video. One of her scene partners was HIV-positive Darren James.
I don't consider selling such a video any more heinous than selling any other porn video.
One, there is the sanctity of contracts. Lara Roxx signed a contract selling her performance of double anal no matter what the consequences to her.
When a football player breaks a leg or a spine, or is killed, while playing his sport, those highlights are played over and over. If a boxer is hurt or killed in the ring, those highlights are replayed.
We keep listening to the music of those who've killed themselves under the stress of stardom. We keep reading the works of those who've killed themselves even if the stress of writing hastened the demise of those writers.
Acting in porn is a risky activity like boxing or football or the arts. It is risky not just for one's physical health, but for one's spiritual, psychic, social, familial and economic health.
I don't see much of a difference between selling a video wherein somebody contracts a deadly disease to selling a video wherein you see someone's soul die, or a video that will forever prevent its participants from having normal relations with family, friends or society, or a video that will forever prevent the participants from marrying the person they love.
Lara Roxx's careless behavior with drugs and sex left her wide open to catching deadly diseases.
I'm sure she's tried to use the publicity she's received from this to launch her career as a songwriter (or whatever other fantasies she's spun) and the makers will use the publicity to sell their video.
I don't know any pornographer who has declined to sell a video wherein an actor caught a deadly disease such as HIV. Any porner who did decline would strike me as a moral poser.
Any actor who would protest the sale of a video wherein he/she caught HIV, is just lashing out, not thinking through. The actor made a contract to sell his performance in a particular video no matter what the consequences. Porn actors who catch HIV on a porn set tend to blame everyone but themselves.
'Celia's An Artful Little Slut'
A poem from the teenage Alexander Hamilton, the 18th Century founder of American capitalism:
So, stroking puss's velvet paws,
How well the jade conceals her claws
And purrs' but if at last
You hap to squeeze her somewhat hard
She spits - her back up - prenez garde;
Good faith she has you fast.
Hamilton was attracted to two types of women -- "the pure and angelic versus the earthy and flirtatious."
FOXE Awards
Sunday's rain gave me another chance to be mediocre. I could lie in bed, read other people's work, and rewrite for another self-published book.
I wondered who would brave the rain in Los Angeles to fight their way to the Mayflower Ballroom in Inglewood. This was no place for a white man, particularly not one driving a serial killer van that even an illegal Mexican gardner would refuse to drive.
Then I remembered my mother's dying words to me when I was four years old: "Son, if you get the chance, see Marilyn Chambers honored at the FOXE Awards."
Sp, in search of compelling material, I made the 15-minute to 234 S. Hindry Ave, arriving at 6:25pm. My mood immediately lightened as I ran into Bill Margold at the front door. He welcomed me inside.
I flashed back to nine years earlier. It was not only my first time at the FOXE Awards, it was my first time at a porn industry event.
The place was the Mayan theater in Hollywood, which eventually filled up with over 1000 fans.
Margold gave me a free pass but I didn't get the badge to mix backstage with the porn elite. Instead I had to settle for running my hands over Veronica Brazil in front of Porno Dave and John Douglas (formerly of TalkingBlue.com). They'll never let me forget my shame, the utter depths of my depravity at my first chance to touch a porn star without paying her.
For the next eight FOXE Awards, I was banned. Tonight is my first time back. And I get the green tape to go backstage and meet the girls.
Eventually about 350 fans arrive and about 50 industry people.
Author Hunter S. Thompson Kills Himself
ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- Hunter S. Thompson, the acerbic counterculture writer who popularized a new form of fictional journalism in books like ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,'' fatally shot himself Sunday night at his home, his son said. He was 67.
Hunter Thompson Vs. Gail Palmer
Gail Palmer is bad news. She brings trouble to whomever she's around.
Born Gail Parmentier in 1959, the Catholic daughter of the St. Clair County superintendent of Schools in Detroit, she served on the student council at Marine High. A cheerleader and beauty queen in high school, she won two Detroit News Scholastic Writing Awards and made the National Honors Society all four years.
At Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, she became a Bronchette cheerleader. She met a rich married guy - Harry Mohney - who owned 350 porn theaters and a chain of adult book stores. Gail moved in with him, became his mistress, and transferred to Michigan State. She appeared in a 1977 Playboy spread called Girls of the Big 10.
On a trip to Los Angeles, Gail posed nude for photographer Johnny Castano (who ran an 8000 square foot photography studio on Hollywood Blvd). They spent the night together. Johnny at the time did not know she was Mohney's mistress.
Johnny submitted her photos to Penthouse and publisher Bob Guccione wanted to use her. Then Palmer phoned Castano back and said her boyfriend Harry Mohney would not permit the publication of the photos. Gail had not signed a model release.
Palmer claims she prompted Mohney to begin making his own films. She says she adapted a college term paper to produce the script for her first film Hot Summer in the City. For her next movie, she stole from Voltaire's Candide and developed The Erotic Adventures of Candy, the story of an innocent girl's sexual adventures. Detroit's Carol Connors starred.
In all, Gail received credit for writing and directing eleven films for Mohney, most of them in California. Gail loved her fame while Harry kept a low profile. "Officially he was a nonperson," says Palmer. "He never wanted his name on anything. No credit cards, no bank accounts. He paid for everything in cash, even the actors in the movie."
"Gail Palmer is a breath of fresh air," gushes Adam Film World. "As the producer, writer and director of Hot Summer in the City and The Erotic Adventures of Candy, two of the highest grossing erotic films, she demonstrates a remarkable feel for people and what makes them get off. Not only has she brought some of the highest production values the erotic film industry has ever had, but she has also been one of the prime movers in the movement to have erotic films understood - even if not totally accepted - by the mass of American adults.
"That she wields a big
stick - despite being a woman in a man's industry - and has an entrepreneurs
knack for good business at the age of 23, makes her a phenomenon. She
is a tall, statuesque country girl whose raw beauty and sensuousness is
matched by her warm personality." (AFW V.23 N.12)
"A lot of the directors are men," notes Gail, "and I don't think they use their heads or listen to the public because they always portray women as either hookers or nymphomaniac housewives. And that may be a turn on to them, but the public is sick of it.
"The majority of women like love stories. I thought we had gotten away from it with liberation, but I'll tell you how I know. I got thousands of letters from women that said Manuel (Candy's first lover) was so handsome, put him in all your movies, etc..
"Now, Manuel is not the handsomest. He's short. But it was the way I portrayed him and the way I directed him. The whole love scene was shot in soft focus. You built up to the point that Candy kept looking at him. You knew she wanted him. She dreamt about him as Fernando Lamas, the hot Latin lover. You felt her get ready to go to bed with him. And that's what women need. Women need to feel they were talked into it or at least they thought about it a while before they jumped." (AFW)
The Erotic Adventures of Candy appeared in 1978, a comedy based upon Voltaire's Candide. Carol Connors plays Candy, a bubbly 20-year old virgin, with a heart of gold and the desire to cheerfully pursue whatever lies ahead. Once she loses her cherry to Mexican gardener Don Fernando, it's off to the races for a cross country sexual odyssey.
Her naivete allows jogger John Holmes to show her 'his deformity' and what follows is classic. The pairing of big tits and a big dicks have long appealed to American's fantasies. Gynecologist John Leslie and researcher Turk Lyon also take full advantage of poor Candy. Finally, she winds up with the Balde Kishkas, a love cult that practices all day long. Under the tutoring of guru Paul Thomas, she learns to appreciate the various positions of the sex act. The orgy scene, usually a major problem with most films that have one, is superb. (Holliday)
Gail served as Executive Producer for 1983's The Young Like It Hot. Jim Holliday worked on the film but says it's director's Bob Chinn's picture - an '80s attempt to recapture the fun of Candy Stripers. The setting moves from the hospital to the Ocean Valley phone company.
The script was the end result of separate collaborations by Gail Palmer and Hyapatia and Bud Lee, with final doctoring by Holliday. "Some stuff was ruled untouchable, and most of the bits the critics appreciated best were my additions. No brag, just fact."
The Young Like It Hot marked Hyapatia's starring debut and was the first major role for newcomer Callie Aimes. The late Colleen Applegate had not yet become Shauna Grant. The favorite of many fans was the six foot version of Serena, long-haired blonde Rose-Linda Kimball, who made a handful of films and disappeared. Bill Margold plays Big Dick, the obscene caller.
Director Bob Chinn shot The Young Like It Hot in October, 1982, rounding out the young beauties in the cast with veteran superstars Kay Parker and Eric Edwards.
Chinn directed many of the films credited to Gail Palmer. Despite the hype, Gail was little more than a pretty face who happened to be the mistress of mob pornographer Harry Mohney. She showed up on the set of movies credited to her, but her input was minimal.
Harry threatened to break the legs of porn journalists who considered revealing the truth about Gail. Palmer was "bad luck". Nasty things such as broken legs and worse happened to persons who displeased her. Journalists Hunter S. Thompsen and Peter Wolfe (broken leg) number among her victims.
Palmer split from Mohney in 1984 and she claims that Harry "shut the doors to her" in the X-rated industry. In truth, all she ever had was Harry's influence and money. Gail says that her porn background was "the kiss of death" in Hollywood. She lived on welfare for a while before making a soft porn exercise video for Playboy. Two Playboy Playmates later sued Gail and Playboy, claiming they were deceived and manipulated.
Gail used her sharp eye and good looks to latch on to another rich man in the late '80s, St. Clair eye surgeon and opthalmologist for the Detroit Red Wings, Charles Slater.
Palmer became the star witness in the government's prosecution of Mohney for tax fraud which sent him to prison for four years. She also sued her ex for half of the $30 million she says she earned for Harry with "her" films.
"My husband makes $600,000 a year," Palmer told the 10/20/91 Detroit News, "and we don't live as well as Harry and I did when he and I were together and he was declaring $120,000 in income on his tax return."
In February 1990, Gail and her husband attended an opthalmology convention in Aspen. A friend suggested she introduce herself to writer Hunter Thompsen who lived there. Seeking movie rights to one of Hunter's books, Gail sent a note on a personalized card that read "sex is a dirty business, but somebody's got to do it." Inside the card she wrote that she wanted to get together and "have a really good time."
Palmer-Slater claims Thompsen said naughty words to her, and when she turned down his proposition, he twisted her left breast and threw Cranberry juice at her.
Gail had Hunter charged with third degree sexual assault. The famous gonzo writer for Rolling Stone fought back with numerous interviews saying she got drunk and tried to seduce him.
When the case went to trial, Gail's main witness began flirting with Hunter from the stand. The prosecutor dropped the charges.
Gail published a book in 1995 about her life entitled Candy Goes To Hollywood.
Inside Deep Throat Provides Many Laughs But Few Insights
Inside Deep Throat is a fun film. I enjoyed the documentary film footage and the interviews with such players as Gerard Damiano, Ron Wertheim (Deep Throat, production manager), Lenny Camp (Deep Throat location scout adn convicted child pornographer), Andrea True (ex-porn star), Terry Sommer (Miami theater manager), Bill Kelly (anti-porn crusader), Larry Parrish (Memphis Deep Throat prosecutor). The look and sound of the film is gorgeous.
The celebrity soundbytes from Larry Flynt, Norman Mailer, Camille Paglia and company don't add much.
The movie doesn't break any ground. I wish it would've investigated Linda's claims of abuse and where the $600 million the movie supposedly earned went. I wish it would've mentioned the approximately 60-100 people in the porn trade who got murdered in the 1970s and '80s including Joseph Peraino.
The message is resolutely pro-porn, like The People vs Larry Flynt. The pornographers are the good guys and the anti-porn folks are not just the bad guys but are idiots.
Everyone interested in porn or in 1970s American pop culture should enjoy this movie.
The book The Other Hollywood and the film Inside Deep Throat are different enterprises, of course, but it's informing to experience them so close together. McNeil and Osborne's porn historians are criminals and egotists; one starlet after another tells a similar life story about being lonely, abused, looking for love. The film tiptoes around these shadows, presenting most of its sources as quirky, funny even. Bailey and Barbato bill one subject, Lenny Camp, as a "location scout" for Deep Throat. This wrinkly bag of a curmudgeon disses everyone involved through a chest of phlegm. In McNeil and Osborne's book, he's billed as Lenny Camp, "photographer/convicted child pornographer." The absence of that icky major detail from Inside Deep Throat underscores the filmmakers' quiet romanticism towards their subject.
Another missing, but notorious factoid: Lovelace, according to witnesses in The Other Hollywood, performed bestiality on film before becoming a star with Deep Throat. She describes being coerced at gunpoint to be mounted from behind by an unidentifiable breed of dog. Afterwards, she says: "I was in the deepest valley I'd ever been in, devastated, wanting only to die." Of course, another bystander says: "Linda didn't seem upset. . Linda just seemed to me like a hippie, free-love chick, you know?" Even if the latter were true, and Lovelace was expressing some kind of personal urge the rest of us are too uptight to tap into - call me repressed - such expression seems a wee bit unhealthy.