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Lyra writes me: 'I think I would rather go to prison than be forced to go to synagogue'
Lyra composed a speech in her own defense. Her attorney told her, "Good thing they don't judge on spelling." Here's her spelling-corrected speech:
Video Footage of Chicago's 2005 Puerto Rican Day Parade (Big Booty Boricuas)
A Friend Calls Friend: "What's going on with you?" Duke: "Did a good interview with Donovan Phillips yesterday." Friend: "Yeah. Sometimes I wonder what makes these interviews so good. A lot of the people you interview are so obscure. It's interesting to me. I read the whole Hustler thing. I still don't know what I was reading about and why I needed to read about it. I still don't get it." Duke: "Everyone at LFP has been reading it." Friend: "I'm sure they're thrilled with you." Duke: "They want to hold a lynching party for Bruce." Friend: "I don't know what's funnier -- you ordering a Mediterranean vegetable salad or you writing about Donovan Phillips." Duke: "The first time he masturbated? Tell me that's not compelling." Friend: "I can't even remember the first time I masturbated." Duke: "No way. It's such a seminal event." Your First Time Alone A friend writes (but not in a gay way):
Lyra Sentenced To Eleven Months She faced five years in prison for drug dealing. She got an additional six months in a halfway house. She saw a psychic who told her she'd get six months. Lyra believed it. It's such a shame when a beautiful young woman is locked up in prison with other women. Why didn't the judge just assign her to me as an intern? That would've been punishment enough. I asked her via email about a rumor on Pornohs.com: "Kat Slater steps down as Hustler Creative Director, now performing similar job exclusively for VCA." Kat replies:
Ilsa, She-Wolf of AVN = Sue Procko Here's a picture of her (RJ on the left and Claudio on the right?). I met her at the Internext show in Las Vegas in January and she was perfectly nice. A source writes: "Sue Procko is the She-Wolf of AVN? She doesn't work for AVN; Sue Procko PR is a fully independent, fully-staffed entity of it's own. AVN is simply one of her clients." My polite email to Sue Prock about this has gone unreturned. James DiGiorgio wrote on www.simplyjimmyd.com (but he has since removed the post):
Make A Wish Foundation, Club Jenna, and Porn Star Karaoke host charity event Mildly retarded adults are given one special night to make their dreams of becoming singers and XXX stars a reality. Donovan Phillips - The Gentile Pornographer Who Studied Kabbalah He uses the Zohar as a backdrop for some of his photo sets. GFY thread. I interviewed him by phone Sunday starting at 9:19pm. I've long read his posts on GFY because they are usually coherent and correctly spelled and punctuated (a rarity on industry forums). Donny's father was an Assembly of God (fast-growing strict fundamentalist form of evangelical Christianity) pastor. Donny, born in 1973 (he has a younger brother who used to work for Donny's porn operation): "I went to all the church services and I tried to go along with it but something didn't seem right. "I went to a summer camp where boys and girls had to swim separately [it's the same for most parts of Orthodox Judaism]. The boys would have to swim in jeans and a full shirt. Girls would have to swim in full dresses." Luke: "Were you allowed to watch television?" Donny: "No. I didn't have a TV [until her moved in with his aunt at age 17]. "My parents became Christians when I was five [to try to save their marriage, they eventually divorced when Donny was 26]. My dad studied to become a pastor [that began when Donny was seven]. They kept getting deeper into it. "I grew up all over California because my dad was a pastor, he was moved from church to church. "I don't have bad feelings towards my parents. They did the best they could. I have bad feelings towards church people who caused problems when I was growing up. They would cause petty problems because they wanted to run things and my dad wouldn't let them run the church how they wanted. They'd say my dad wasn't Pentecostal enough. "Pastors get paid from tithing. One family controlled the church's books. They tried to underreport how much tithing came in and tried to starve him out. Some people would claim we were having teenage girls over to our house. None of it was true. Nobody ever came over to our house." Luke: "Did you form any close childhood friendships with Christians that persist to this day?" Donovan: "No. My parents were so mistrusting of other people that they wouldn't let us go spend the night with people in the church. They thought the people would let us watch TV or listen to music. Most of our acquaintances were family members." Luke: "Did your parents get into religion because they were hurting or screwed up?" Donovan: "Yes. They were about to get divorced. They said, we've tried everything else. Now let's try God. Then they just got deeper and deeper. We went to holy roller churches where people shake on the ground." Luke: "Did your parents have a good marriage?" Donovan: "No. They were fighting all the time." Luke: "Even after they turned to God?" Donovan: "Yes." Luke: "What was the main bone of contention?" Donovan: "My mother is really stubborn and she would like to be more hard-nosed than my dad was. She thought he needed to be stricter with people. That he let certain congregation members get away with too much. My dad was more laid-back. "They'd be fighting over whether or not my brother and I respected her enough and all that kind of crap. He would stick up for us. She'd throw fits over him not sticking up for his wife. Every so often, she'd leave for a couple of days and make him beg for to come back." Luke: "Were you glad when they divorced?" Donovan: "I was happy for my dad even though he was really sad about it. My mom's hard to live with." Luke: "What did your parents and your religion teach you about masturbation?" Donovan: "They mentioned some verse in the Bible that you're not supposed to spill your seed on the ground. Masturbation was wrong. They didn't say that sex was only for procreation." Luke: "How old were you when you first masturbated?" Donovan: "Thirteen. I felt guilty afterwards. "I was at my aunt's house. I had climbed under her house to fix some pipes that were leaking. At the end of the night, I was on the floor in the living room and I just by accident brushed my hand across myself. Wow. I finished it from there." Luke: "Did it make a mess?" Donovan: "Oh yeah." Luke: "Did it go shooting across the room?" Donovan: "It went shooting all over my stomach." Luke: "What were your earliest experiences with pornography?" Donovan: "There was this one person I was allowed to hang with from time to time. His parents had been counselors for my parents. Their son and I were walking in the park and we found a girlie magazine in the garbage. I was 13. I remember it was calling a woman's pussy a 'lotus.' "After that, I'd start sneaking off to the liquor store and check out their stash. The store owners would never say anything. At the beginning, I'd like Oriental women who were shaved bald. "When I was 17, I moved in with my aunt near Chico so I could take calculus and have a better chance at a scholarship. I met the woman who became my wife. We started dating after a couple of weeks. There was no sex. I didn't even kiss her for five weeks. "After I got out of college, I came back here." Luke: "Did you go to college?" Donovan: "I majored in computer science at the Devry Institute of Technology in Phoenix." Luke: "When did you lose your virginity?" Donovan: "Not until I was 20, and it wasn't even to her. It was to a girl I'd met in Orlando. She found out I was a virgin, so she kept trying and trying until I finally gave in. "My future wife and I were still dating at the time. I called her and got to the part about kissing the other girl and that's all she wanted to hear. We were broken up for a while. "I got married when I was 22. We got divorced in 2000 after six years of marriage." Though married to a good Christian Assembly of God wife, Donovan got into pornography in 1996, while he was still going to church regularly. He kept it from his wife for four years until the Phoenix Forum in early 2000 when he called her and told her the truth. She promptly divorced him. It was either God's way or the highway. "I got my first computer in 1996. I started surfing the newsgroups. I started seeing brands on there like ATK, Teenflood.com, etc. I started emailing some of those sites and asked them where they purchased their photos. "Before that, I started part-time taking pictures of whoever I could get to pose. I'd pay 'em for it. I had a few private collectors who would buy them. My first commercial job was for ATK." Luke: "How did your wife feel about you working in the pornography industry?" Donovan: "She didn't know. We thought we were deeply in debt at this time. We had about $8,000 in debt. One day I said to her, 'I know a way to get us out of debt. What do you think if I photograph some girls for some adult websites?' She freaked out at even the thought of me considering that. Little did she know that I was already starting to do it. I just kept it from her. I started up a computing consulting business as a front. "She was just as religious as my parents had been. We fought over stupid things. If I wanted to watch a movie that was rated R, she would get mad at me for not being the spiritual leader of the house. That I wanted to watch such a movie showed that my head wasn't there. We fought about the spiritual stuff." Luke: "Where were you religiously [Assembly of God] then?" Donovan: "Off and on, I'd try really hard. It would fluctuate. I'd go from shooting porn to going to church on Sundays and raising my hands and trying to get into to going to Bible study Wednesday 6am with the men's group." Luke: "Did you have many friends in the church?" Donovan: "They claim to be your friends but they're quick to backstab you if they don't think it's right." Luke: "In retrospect, you don't think they were good friends?" Donovan: "No. They probably thought they were. They're the kind of people who will turn their back on you if you're failing and you're not willing to come in and cry and beg forgiveness. They don't think your heart is in the right place. They believe in that verse in the Bible -- 'Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.'" Luke: "Do you believe in God?" Donovan: "I believe that what everybody refers to as God is actually energy that holds everything together." Luke: "God's not done with you yet." Donovan: "I think that's a bunch of bulls---. It's just people trying to create some hope for themselves that their lives are going to get better because God hasn't finished with them yet. "There's no way I'll ever go back to [Christianity]. It's all bulls---. There's no supreme being watching out over everybody." Luke: "How does it work being a parent and a pornographer?" Donovan: "It's been ok. On my days with my son, I don't do any business. I don't even take phone calls. On the days when my ex has him, I do all my business. "At first she didn't want to take money from me. But she had no choice because she wasn't working. She was a stay-at-home mom. Finally, I convinced her, in her terms, that while I may make the money in a way she thinks is evil, she can do good with it by staying home with her son and raising him. "I have a fiancee now who helps me with the business. On days that I'm going over to get him, she checks to make sure that everything is clean." Luke: "How does your ex-wife feel about your profession?" Donovan: "She still hates it." Luke: "How did she find out?" Donovan: "When I went to my first Desert Forum (CCBill throws it), I called her and told her. She thought I was doing computer consulting with Gary Kremen on pinpointgolfing.com. 'But that's not the area he focuses on. He also owns sex.com. I shoot naked girls.' "She just blew up and that was it." Luke: "Pornography ended your marriage." Donovan: "Yes, it did. For sure. It was a relief, though, to tell her." Luke: "If you had not worked in pornography, would you guys still be together?" Donovan: "If I had been a good Christian boy, we would've. Not fought my feelings that there was something wrong with Christianity. "Porn has allowed me to do a lot of traveling and meet a lot of different people. I was a hardcore Republican for several years while doing porn. At the last election, I voted for Kerry." Luke: "Have you found that pornography isolates you from others?" Donovan: "At first I let it get me down. Now I'm proud. Every where I go, when people ask me what I do, I tell them. "It blows most people away when you are so outfront with it. Some people want to discuss the issue. I always ask them if they want to discuss it logically or emotionally. They always say logically. Usually women don't want to talk about it. Usually they want their man to do the talking for them. "I'll ask the man if he's ever watched pornography. Of course he'll say yes. I'll say, then we don't have anything to discuss. You're in this as much as me. You're the demand and I'm the supply. If they're logical as they've agreed to be, then there's no argument to that. "I was walking around with AaronM (industry photographer) today. He was shocked how many people walked up to me. In the camera store, they know what I do. He said, I couldn't deal with everybody knowing what I do." Luke: "Do you shoot a lot of Chico State girls?" Donovan: "That's the majority of what we do." Luke: "Why don't you use your real name?" Donovan: "For the sake of my son." Donovan is in a monogamous relationship. "It isn't difficult because she's the perfect girlfriend." Luke: "Are you in porn for life?" Donovan: "Definitely." Luke: "How does being a pastor's son continue to affect you?" Donovan: "It opens up a lot of conversations. It puts at ease at a lot of the new models I get. I'm the only guy in town doing what I do. Most of the girls I photograph have never done any work before. When I bring that I'm a preacher's son, they say, whoa, how did that happen? It works to my advantage. The first thought in a new model's mind is that someone is going to find out and tell mom and dad. I can tell them that I've had to face all the things they're worried about." Luke: "Do you shoot much hardcore?" Donovan: "No." Luke: "It'd be hard to get male talent." Donovan: "The males usually can't perform." Luke: "What do you love and hate about GFY?" Donovan: "I hate almost everything about GFY but I'm addicted to it. I get a handful of sign-ups off GFY. I've had a thousand affiliates come from GFY." Luke: "Have you found yourself caught in flame wars where your emotions were getting out of control?" Donovan: "Yes. Several times. KRL and I got into a flame war with Rick Latona over the [burning] cat video [on ConsumptionJunction.com]. It showed a guy locking a cat into a birdcage, dousing it with accelerant, and then lighting it on fire. The title was, 'The hottest pussy you'll ever see,' as though it was funny." Luke: "What does your mother say to you?" Donovan: "She doesn't like it. She doesn't want me to tell her boyfriend. My dad is a retired pastor. When people from his congregation email him about how he can let me do what I do for a living, he usually replies that they should keep their mouths shut. As a pastor, he had to counsel people like them who were addicted to porn. Such people have no place to talk. "He's not happy with the choice I made for a profession but he's proud of me as a person." Luke: "Has he asked you for a free log-in?" Donovan: "No. He did ask me to see photos I photographed who he knew. "My brother thinks it is the coolest thing in the world. He's a laborer. He tried working for me for a while but I wouldn't let him around the girls because he wasn't professional. He was trying to f--- 'em all. He got bored with the office work I had him doing. "Male friends think it's cool [Donny is in porn]. Female friends start to roll their eyes until I have a conversation with them and ask them questions that make them think. Then they come to accept it. "My best friend John runs amateurmarket.net for me. He feels like a bigshot pornographer even though he's never been to a show. His friends think he's a bigshot pornographer too." Luke: "What's the outlook for your business?" Donovan: "There's nowhere for it to go but up. The reason that my business doesn't explode as some of these new programs is that I have never spammed and never used a pop-up (unless they get to a setup page and don't join)." Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Donovan: "An airline pilot. I accomplished almost every goal I set growing up. They usually had to do with academics. "One thing that annoys me about the adult industry is that people don't think they have to be professional. I've slipped numerous times but there's also a professional way to make up for that." Luke: "How would you feel if your son grew up to want to work in pornography?" Donovan: "If he wanted to work with me or run my business, I'd first make him aware of the reactions he would get from the rest of his religious family. And if he still wanted to do it, I'd definitely guide him. I wouldn't want him to be talent. "I welcome when someone comes after me. I think of it as a challenge. I have yet to have someone convince me that what I'm doing is wrong." Luke: "Did you know what you were getting yourself in for?" Donovan: "When I started, I didn't have a clue. If I had, I would've never started. Given what I know now, I would've started. At the beginning, I was blown away because I had lived a sheltered life. The first time I went to Internext, the stuff that was going on there, I felt sick to my stomach. Some of the sites that were out there such as hogtied.com. I'd never been exposed to that. I just felt that it was disgusting. "Over time, that view changed. Now some of that stuff interests me and I also have respect for other people and what interests them. As long as they are not causing harm, there's nothing wrong in what they're doing. I've become less judgmental." Luke: "Have you become jaded?" Donovan: "Yes, I've become jaded. There has to be a lot more to interest me." Luke: "Is there anything good in Christianity?" Donovan: "To be honest, I hate Christians because of their hypocrisy and how they shun people who aren't doing what they think is right." Luke: "Yet, much of what you are is a product of Christianity." Donovan: "I don't know if when you were a kid, you were told that Santa Claus existed. Then you found out he didn't. That's how I felt about Christianity. All the stuff I was taught was bulls---. There's a keen sense of disappointment. "I have to be honest with you. I have been studying Kabbalah." He places the emphasis on the first syllable. Donovan: "Stuff from the Kabbalah Centre in LA. I've also asked rabbis what they think of it. Of course they think that most of it is bulls---. "You eat the meat and you spit out the boons. You take what you want from it." Luke: "Would one of the attractive parts of the Kabbalah Centre be that it doesn't make any demands on you?" Donovan: "Definitely." Luke: "How much money have you spent on the Kabbalah Centre?" Donovan: "About a thousand dollars. I don't buy their water and I don't wear their red strings. I have one but I don't wear it. I don't swallow what they say hook, line and sinker." Luke: "What have you gained from it?" Donovan: "A reassurance from another major group that what I'm doing isn't wrong. They agree with that. It would take too long to tell you what I get from it." Luke: "Give it a go." Donovan: "They have a CD series about what they believe - The Power Of Kabbalah. A lot of what they taught made perfect sense to me. They teach that God is nothing that people can ever comprehend. It's more of an energy and a light that holds everything together. When they talk about Satan, they're not talking about a physical being either. It's negativity. There's positivity and negativity and it's all part of yourself. "I love to ask Christians to explain Hosea 13:16." It reads: "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." Donovan: "I say to them, how can you justify killing babies? Why would I want to serve a God who wants to go in there and rip up kids?" Luke: "You've never gotten a good answer to that?" Donovan: "No. That's not a verse they teach in the churches." Luke: "Do you think it would've been good if someone would've done that to Adolf Hitler's mother?" Donovan: "No. Adolf Hitler's mother couldn't be responsible for what he did." Luke: "By killing her and Adolf, we would've saved 50 million lives." Donovan: "But how could you know in advance? I don't even believe in the death penalty." Donovan writes on GFY January 4, 2005:
ADL_JD writes:
Donovan Phillips writes:
ADL_JD posts:
brand0n writes: "Selling porn on the net = sure fire way to avoid heaven. We are all damned. No reason to study anything." Jayeff writes:
Donovan Phillips writes:
Donovan tells me June 19: "Kabbalah is older than the written Bible. The literal Kabbalah was the spoken Torah. There was a reason why the rabbis had to be 40 years old and married to study it. Most people at that time were uneducated and the literal Kabbalah was trying to tell us how things work. "In the Bible, there's a story about the prophet Elijah going into a village. The woman and her husband hadn't had any kids. They made a room for him in their home so when he came into town, he had a place to stay. "He told them you are going to have a son. He was blessing them for their kindness. The son ends up dying and the lady ran to Elijah and said, how come my son died? It would've been better if I had never had him to begin with. Elijah sent his servant and said don't talk to anybody along the way. "Elijah has to come back and lie on the kid and brings him back to life. "The Kabbalah teaches that it's not that there's some God up there who wants things done a certain way to entertain him, but every person has an energy inside of them, and God is part of everything. "The reason that the servant shouldn't have talked to anybody on the way home was so that their negativity doesn't affect his energy. "He's saying that you have the ability to channel within yourself a healing into this person's body. "That's what I like about Kabbalah -- we're all joined together by this life force, energy, light or whatever you want to call it that allows us to do things that we normally couldn't do. Look at some of the weird things that have happened over the course of history. They're like miracles but they're not." Donny bought the Kabbalah Centre's expensive Zohar set in Hebrew and English. He says that was "a waste of money. It sits on my shelf and collects dust. We use it as a photo backdrop. "It's a little deeper than I want to get. "I've bought a lot of other books about Judaism. Judaism For Dummies. "When I first discovered Kabbalah, I had a ton of questions and I'd shoot them off to any rabbi who would answer me. I had a few who talked to me on the telephone. JewsForJudaism.com. The founder's son talked to me for a while. Once he found out that I didn't have a background in Judaism, he was still helpful, but not as much as at first. When I first contacted him, he thought I was a fallen Jew." Luke: "How do you feel about Jews not seeking converts?" Donny: "I think that's a good thing." Here are some of Donovan Phillips's blog entries: "Interview Request" & What I Like and Hate About this Industry. Why Donny Doesn't Like Shooting Hardcore. PICS OF MY FIANCEE IN THIS ENTRY.
MY COUSIN POSES NAKED TOO (SHE'S A LIGHTSPEED GIRL). DOES PORNOGRAPHY EXPLOIT WOMEN? SHOOTING NUDES IS NOT ALL FUN AND GAMES. Child Porn Takes Down LAT's Wikitorial Experiment Michael Kinsley shaking things up. Kurt Lockwood, Not The Ramones Hand Over $1,000 Check To Adult Industry Medicine Kurt Lockwood phones Monday morning. "Thursday, Not The Ramones will be giving Sharon Mitchell a $1,000 check for the AIM detox program from the show (June 11) we just played to raise money." Duke: "You must've been pleased with how the night went?" Kurt: "You can't be disappointed when you have a sold-out Whiskey. It's an amazing feeling. We're thinking of doing another show in July. I hope that this can inspire other people to do similar things. If other people raised money for AIM's detox program, I don't think we'd have as a big a drug problem in this industry." Duke: "So what else is new with you?" Kurt: "That's all you're getting out of me. I'll see you on Thursday." Hustler's Former Features Editor Speaks Out I had lunch with journalist Mark Cromer at The Continental (Gale and Wilshire Blvd, a block east of Larry Flynt Publications) Friday, June 17, at noon. Mark runs his tape recorder along with mine. Mark: "The reason I wanted to talk to you is this: Over the past seven months, on several occasions, I've had to deal with people asking me questions about my departure from LFP and Hustler magazine [where Mark served as features editor for five months under Editor Bruce David] based on the information that Bruce David and some of his associates on the tenth floor [LFP corporate headquarters, the editorial staff works on the third floor] have put out. Specifically on your site and Mike Albo's site. A couple of week's ago, I was at a media party..." Waiter: "Do you want to order?" Mark: "Sure." Luke: "I'll get the Mediterranean Vegetable Salad." Mark: "Being the carnivore that I am, I'll have the French Dip." Waiter: "Fries or salad?" Mark: "Nothing. Just fries." Waiter: "Do you want Swiss cheese on it?" Mark: "Cheddar." "So I was at this media party in Hollywood a few weeks ago. And several people in the course of the evening, a couple of whom I didn't even know, came up to me and basically said, "Yeah, I heard you heard resigned after allegations of sexual misconduct." It is very frustrating, to say the least, to have to weather that sort of thing for seven months, you know, because it is not true. None of it is. And I've remained silent about it since last fall, as my lawyer has been trying to work it out with Flynt's lawyers. During this time, they have put out false and demeaning allegations which have resulted in moments like what happened the other night, so I am just not going to sit here and take it any longer. I did not resign, I was forced out by Bruce David. There was never any instance and not a single incident of "sexual misconduct"-whatever that means-on my part with another LFP employee or anyone else for that matter. "To the contrary, as my employee file reflects, I had received nothing but glowing evaluations. "What did happen is simply this: Bruce David, along with another editor named Tom Farewell, spread a rumor around the staff that I was intimately involved with Alaina F-orante, who worked down the hall on Flynt's websites. The rumor wasn't true at all. I was a work-friend of Alaina and we talked a lot, but that's all it was. But the fact is that Bruce despised Alaina because she had previously filed a formal complaint with Human Resources against Bruce after he told her he wouldn't hire a woman (and specifically her) for an editing job that was open. That got him into major hot water with Human Resources. So when I became friends with Alaina, against Bruce's dire warnings that I had better not associate with her, he ended-up spreading a lie about us. "I confronted Bruce and Tom about it and Alaina and I filed a complaint with Human Resources. Bruce warned me if I went to HR he would, in his words, 'destroy' me in the company. I think he was terrified that if we complained to HR he might be fired himself for spreading such rumors. But Bruce still carries the cache of being Larry Flynt's close friend, so he is rather untouchable in that building, clearly operating above the guidelines that LFP states in its 'Employee Handbook,' which does not apply to Bruce David. He operates with impunity. Anyway, he was true to his word, as he coerced, threatened, browbeat and ultimately fired me. It all went down rather quickly." On October 31, 2004, I got a phone call from someone close to LFP saying that Mark Cromer had been fired for reasons of "sexual misconduct." I emailed Bruce David about Mark Cromer: "Why was he fired?" Bruce replied November 2, 2004: "He resigned. I would like to tell you the whole story but company policy prohibits that. You can talk to Cromer if you like but his version of events is likely to be inaccurate. I don't really think he knows what happened even though he, no doubt, believes he does. It was with deep regret that I felt compelled to accept his resignation. For me, it's not just the end of a professional relationship but the end of a friendship as well." Mark tells me over lunch June 17, 2005: "I realized that I had been patient trying to let the process work itself out with my lawyer dealing with their lawyers... I hope that process proves conclusive. It's been seven months. I can't continue to be in a situation where I'm asked these questions. I think it's unfair that [the sexual misconduct charge has been put out] and I've never answered it." Mark: "My association with Larry Flynt goes back to 1992. I was a daily news reporter a chain of newspapers [Whittier Daily News, Pasadena Star News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune] covering crime in South-East Los Angeles County. I was also freelancing for The Los Angeles Times. I started freelancing for Hustler Erotic Video Guide. Scott Mallory was my editor. I worked under the pen name Elliott Heathcoat. I wasn't doing porn reviews. I did essays on the politics of porn. "In 1997, I was doing an LA Weekly piece on Larry Flynt's magazine Rage, which had just folded. That's how I met Bruce David. We bonded quickly as friends. We stayed in touch. We corresponded about politics and journalism. I showed Bruce some copies of Low. a college magazine I had been publishing for almost ten years that had grown to eight universities with a circulation of about 20,000. "One day, Bruce said this magazine would be a great thing for Larry to buy. At that time, LFP was aggressively acquiring titles. We pitched it to them. We went through a couple of months of negotiations. At the end, Jim [Kohls, then LFP president] took a pass, and they acquired instead Backswing, a golf magazine brought in by Lonn Friend and Dweezle Zappa. That ended up as a stillbirth. "As a result of that, I got to know the executives in the LFP corporate structure. "In 1998, I did a piece for Wired magazine about a guy who ran a website called Jail Babes. We pitched that to Jim Kohls. He bought it on the spot. He made me editor. That became Jail Babes magazine, website and video line. It was the first cross-platform product LFP owned entirely. "At that time, Jim and Larry had licensed out the Hustler name to Vivid. That's why it couldn't be called Hustler Video. It was called "Larry Flynt Presents..." I went to work in the tower [located on Wilshire and La Cienega Blvds] until the Fall of 1999, when they folded the magazine. We continued to produce the video series through 2002. "I had continued my journalism career throughout, freelancing for various publications like the LA Weekly and in 2003 I was the Orange County news bureau reporter in Santa Ana for the Los Angeles Daily Journal [a legal daily]. "At the end of 2003, I sold my house and moved to Flagstaff, where I was working on a book, following a stint working with Danni Ashe on her aborted auto-biography. "In the summer of 2004, Bruce David asked me (with Jim Kohls' blessing) to become features editor of Hustler. I started on July 6. "The back story of what happened to me in late October is this: "Bruce and I were essentially best-friends and had been for years. Bruce's star at Hustler has shined to varying degrees of luminescence depending on the currents on the tenth floor. For instance, his magazine Brown Sugar was folded the day before Jail Babes. Within two weeks, they brought Bruce back into the company doing Hustler Comix, I think. Then they folded that. Then he was an editor at Hustler under Allan MacDonnell. Larry has always found a job for Bruce. If Bruce had a friend closer than me, it was probably Larry, though it was more of a historical friendship. It wasn't like Bruce was hanging out with Larry on a regular basis, but they certainly had a tight historical bond. "Bruce is sworn enemies with Allan MacDonnell, the editor who took Bruce's place at Hustler. You can't overstate the animosity that flows between those two guys." Luke: "Why do Bruce and Allan hate each other? " Mark: "Professional jealousy. "Before Allan MacDonnell was fired, Bruce was actively working to get him fired, verbally shanking him at every opportunity. It was really death by a thousand cuts. Ultimately Bruce succeeded. I participated in drafting several memos with Bruce, proofing them and offering suggestions. These memos went directly to Larry." Our food arrives. We keep talking as we eat. Mark: "The memos were essentially critiques of what's wrong with Hustler. "When Bruce became Editor, he still had to work with Allan's crew -- Tim Kenneally, Dan Kapelovitz, Kevin Wright and some others. From the get-go, Bruce wanted them out. He wanted to whack out all of them because he was certain they would conspire against him-just as he had with Allan when he was under him. It's a little bit like Ceasar's court, isn't it? Intrigue, subterfuge, betrayal. Anyway, Bruce wanted to fire them all but he knew he had to be careful how he did it. It came about in early 2004. Bruce was becoming the subject of discussion on these blogs [Mike Albo's and mine]. Bruce saw it as his opportunity to act and get these people [purportedly loyal to Allan] out. Kenneally was the first to go. I'm not sure they ever gave specific reasons when they started firing these guys. But the absolute reason was Bruce wanted them out. He felt that he couldn't trust them. Politics trumped ethical and editorial considerations." Luke: "What do you mean by political? Internal politics or geopolitical politics?" Mark: "That as well. I'd argue that a person could not be an open Republican on the third floor under Bruce [where the editorial staff resides], for whatever that's worth. Boiler plate Leftist politics prevail, which I suppose is his druthers and I am a Democrat, so whatever, but it can get a little tinny in an echo-chamber. After Kenneally (Hustler Managing Editor) and Kamila Kowalczyk (Hustler Art Director), Bruce fired a few more staffers like Dan Kapelovitz [Features Editor, were fired by Bruce], the Erotic Entertainment editor whose name escapes me and finally Mike Allen (Bits & Pieces Editor). It was surreal. I knew they were going to be fired weeks and, in some instances, months before they were. Bruce felt they had to be fired so they would not gossip about him online and so he could cement his control. "I was freelancing for Hustler at the time as well as for other publications such as LA Weekly. "They brought me in as features editor with a base salary of $50,000 annually and another $20,000 guaranteed freelance. At the time, Bruce was making $85,000 which was a little more than half of what Allan was making when he left. But Bruce gets built-in freelance as well, so he's probably over $100,000 by now." Cromer's predecessor was Dan Kapelovitz who made $35,000 annually (with bumps for freelance work). "They were paying more to get me. Bruce had to do some dancing to get that. He scrambled the numbers and found a way to make it work. "I had recommended Keith Valcourt. He's a sitcom bit-player. He was brought in at a lower salary to replace Mike Allen. Also, Tom Farrell, the erotic entertainment editor. "Prior to me getting there, Bruce had fired [four editorial staffers including Tim Kenneally, Randy, Camilla, the art director]. "I moved to this block in Beverly Hills [down the street from LFP]. Almost immediately, we [Bruce and Mark] started getting hammered online [on my site (but not by me but by those emailing me) and Mike Albo's]. It was on Albo's site every day. This sent Bruce into the stratosphere. He'd just fired these people but someone still in the organization was leaking information that was getting online. Bruce's paranoia increased exponentially. I can't begin to tell you how freaked out he was, how enraged he became. "My first two months on the job, half of my workday was spent in meetings regarding these issues. It was surreal. Bruce had particular animosity for Barely Legal editor Lisa Jenio. He hates her with a passion he usually reserves for hard-line Feminists. Bruce described mockingly how she was crying in the hallway the day Allan was let go. She apparently had told Jim Kohls or LFP Vice President Donna Hahner that she could not work with Bruce David, which was ballsy for Lisa to do, considering they could've fired her. But she was successful. She essentially had autonomy. Bruce's classification is LFP Editorial Director. He's not just Editor of Hustler. Technically, he has control over all the publications. But not really Barely Legal. That was Lisa's magazine. "Consequently, Bruce resented her extremely. A. She was a friend of Allan's. B. She remained loyal to Allan. C. He felt he couldn't trust her as a result of that. D. She would not work with him, which galled him to no end. "He had every intent to fire her. But he had to take his time as to who he was going to fire and when. When the s--- started to hit the fan on these various websites, Lisa Jenio was immediately suspected of being a conduit of this information as was Alaina F-orante (editorial assistant). When a position came open, Alaina applied for it. Bruce David made the mistake of openly telling her, 'I don't want a woman in that position. I want a man. This is Hustler and that's a man's job.' "Well, Alaina went immediately to Human Resources and reported this. That's illegal. Consequently, Alaina was taken out of Bruce David's bailiwick and given another job (at Flynt Digital). Alaina is persona non grata in Bruce's world and a suspect for leaking information. "The level of paranoia pervading that third floor office when I walked in last year was enormous. It was oppressive. It starts to take on the hue of Absurdist Theater, like a Beckett play, very surreal. And it's very, very L.A., in that everyone loves you until the moment they don't. "As the online posts escalated, Bruce demands and gets a company-wide investigation into who's leaking this information." Luke: "Why didn't you guys squash Albo earlier [so that he couldn't write derogatory things about Bruce David and LFP]?" Mark: "I'm the one who figured out that Dennis Hof owned that site [AdultStarsNews]. When I gave that information to Bruce, he was on the phone to Dennis in a heartbeat. That's how that was resolved. Some of it was harmless. A lot of it was distracting. "Albo's site was just a conduit for information that enraged Bruce. I was certainly pissed off. It didn't consume me to the extent it consumed Bruce. "I was brought in specifically, along with Tom Farrell, and my recommendation to hire Keith, to form a firewall around Bruce to allow Bruce to pursue his editorial vision without the fear of being conspired against. The mistake I made was that his paranoia never ended. I don't know it ever will. I don't know how many people will be fired before they figure that out. "Sean Carney had been Bruce's research director. He became Hustler Video's head of promotions. Carney was also on Bruce's firing squad. He wanted Lisa Jenio's editorial assistant Matt Brand fired. And Kevin Wright, another holdover from MacDonnell. All of them, he wanted them gone. In some instances, like Matt Brand, it was strictly a matter of his association with Lisa. I mean, that's all it was. Matt's a good guy, he was always at his desk early, he put in the hours and he was sharp. But Bruce wanted to fire him because he worked for Lisa. That's how Nixonian it got. Paranoid, petty and power-driven. "Lynn Heller (LFP VP of Human Resources) held a meeting in the ninth floor conference room attended essentially by the LFP editorial staff, Bruce, yours truly, the whole crew, in which Lynn read from the Human Resources policy book about gossip. The policy states that if you gossip, you can be disciplined up to being fired. "Something popped up in a blog right after the meeting. This is the email Bruce sent (7/26/04) Lynn Heller. He copied it over to me:"
Mark: "Nothing came of the investigation. But as a result of this hoopla, Bruce was more determined than ever to finish clearing the decks. "In the meantime, I had become friends with Alaina F-orante and was friendly with Lisa Jenio, you know, would casually chat with her in the hallway sometimes. This was very disturbing to Bruce. One time Bruce saw the three of us, me, Alaina and Lisa walking back from the Coffee Bean together, he was outside having a cigarette, and later on, in his office, he went off about how I was "cavorting with those snakes." If it wasn't so pathetic it would be funny. "I'd go out and have lunch with Alaina. It was strictly professional. [No sexual contact.] We'd talk about life. Bruce warned me about this on several occasions. 'You will not hang out with this snake.'" He made these horrible remarks about her looks, her appearance. I told him I thought she was a cool hippie chick and he just mocked me. His vitriol was intense. Luke: "Where is Scott Fayner in all this?" Mark: "He was just a cool dude. He was drifting around. He seemed amicably out of it. We gave him a couple of assignments. One he botched. One he came in with -- taking a porn star home to mom. Bruce didn't trust Fayner but he harbored no animosity towards Fayner. "Bruce and I were very good friends. We trusted each other. I don't regret the friendship. You know, I spent the better part of a decade figuratively at the guy's side, and whatever happens now doesn't erase that fact. I'm not much one for revisionism, you know, the whole "Well I never really did like the guy." kind of thing. I really loved Bruce as a friend. He was a mentor of sorts. A colleague. I suppose this is a sad end to that friendship, but it doesn't negate what was. "After six weeks [as Hustler Features editor], I was tired of trying to find out who was saying what online, tired of who was trying to figure out who was conspiring with who. We had a magazine to put out. While Bruce was the figurehead, I was in the trenches with everyone else. I was working twelve-hour days. It was immense and intense. That's why what was going out on the web was a distraction, particularly for me, because I had work to do. Bruce could spend time on manipulating this and doing working out a judo flip so he could turn it around on his remaining "enemies" in the editorial structure. "Ultimately, Bruce sees his opening to fire Lisa Jenio. Bruce managed to get Larry's permission to fire Lisa. It was related to me by Bruce that Larry said he was impressed with what we were doing with Hustler and he wanted Bruce to take a more active role on Barely Legal (magazine). Perhaps the numbers were slipping. I know Jim Kohls and Larry claimed they were slipping on the video. Clive McLean and I had many a conversation about that. Anyway, Bruce used that opportunity to remind Larry that he had not been allowed to work directly on Barely Legal the magazine because Lisa did not want to work with him. Larry gave the green light to Bruce to replace her. "Bruce told me he intended to promote Hustler editorial assistant Hans Feuersinger to editor of Barely Legal. Hans was on 'our team.'" Luke: "Is it coincidental that all the people on Bruce's team were men?" Mark: Mark: "No. Nor is it coincidental that they are almost exclusively white. "I thought it was a good idea to promote Hans. He's young, vibrant, likes his work, and believes in the product. Early on after my arrival I had advocated that Bruce give Hans an office, a raise, and business cards. It was all about 'building our team,' and my view was that's how you do it. You reward. You include. "I later heard that after Hans got some of these perks that Lisa Jenio went to Bruce, or maybe it was Donna Hahner who then asked Bruce, and requested the same thing for Lisa's assistant Matt Brand. Bruce said 'no.' Of course, he was also hoping to fire Matt as well, as a result of the online gossip debacle. "I had no problem with Lisa but there was nothing I could do for Lisa. Bruce was deadset on firing her. "So, I took Hans out on a Friday (October 8, 2004) here to the Continental. We had a couple of drinks. Bruce had asked me not to say anything about his plans to Hans. I decided it would be good to sound Hans out on if he was ready to go from Editorial Assistant to Editor of the second biggest title in porn title at LFP (Barely Legal). Hans was ready to move on if he wasn't bumped up. "I told Hans that good news was around the corner. My advice to you is to take it. I told him I couldn't tell him what it was. I was cagey. I honored Bruce's request." My water glass is empty. I look around for the waitress. I don't want to say anything. Mark says, "I'll grab her when she comes back." He does. Mark: "I worked almost every weekend. I sent Bruce an email and told him about my drinks with Hans and that I had asked him if he was ready to jump up to the big leagues, if given the opportunity. "Bruce hit the roof because Bruce decided over the weekend to give [the Editor of Barely Legal position] to Monique Raphael High (a Hustler contributor). She's a great writer. She's published best-selling books. She has her own writing company. Hands down, as a writer, Hans is not even in the same galaxy as Monique. By the way, her husband Ben Pesta is Bruce David's lawyer. "But Monique was a bad fit for Barely Legal, even if she wanted it, which she ultimately didn't. "Most magazines award editorship based on resume, experience, talent, persona, etc. At LFP, you enter a netherwold. It's completely political. It seemed that way under Allan, though I never worked under him, but it certainly was under Bruce. That's not to say there aren't very talented people there, because there are, but under Bruce office politics trumps all other considerations. Period." On Sunday, October 10, 2004, Mark Cromer emailed Bruce David:
Mark: "Wednesday (October 14), Hans and I come over here for a quick one. Hans says, I heard you're having sex with 'Miss X' [a female staffer at LFP]. I said, it's not true. "Hans said that Tom Farrell had told this rumor over lunch in front of six other LFP staffers. I was just shellshocked. "I went home that night and explained the situation over the phone to Bruce David. Bruce was silent. Then he said, well, that's disturbing. I'll take care of it in the morning. "But I knew right then that Bruce David had a hand in this because Bruce David gives Tom Farrell a ride home every night. Tom doesn't own a car. "The next day, I came in to work around 8:45 a.m.[starting time is 9 a.m. at Hustler], Bruce usually arrives between 10 and 10:30 a.m. But on this day he was in before me. Tom was in his office with the door shut. I believe they were getting their story straight. "Bruce talks to me later and says it was taken care of. That Tom was 'chastened.' "To cover my bases, I wrote a memo to Bruce that if that wasn't taken care of, I'd go to Human Resources. "That comment laid the beginning of my end. "Then in short order, I see Tom go back into Bruce's office. Tom leaves Bruce's office. Then Morgan Hagen comes into the office. Then Morgan leaves. Then Hans Feuersinger goes into Bruce's office. Then Hans leaves. Then Keith Valcourt goes into Bruce's office. Then Keith leaves. All at ten-minute intervals, Bruce had called them all in, one at a time. I knew something was up. "That night, Morgan and I, who were traditionally the last staffers out of the building, came over here for a quick drink. Morgan drinks iced tea. We had a pizza. "I said, 'I hope this is over. There was a rumor going on that I was involved with Miss X. I hope Bruce put an end to it.' Morgan said, 'Yeah, I never imagined you were sleeping with Alaina F-orante.' "I said, 'What?' Morgan said, Bruce told me that he heard you were having an affair with Alaina F-orante. "I said 'I heard that Tom Farrell was saying I was having an affair with Miss X [another LFP staffer, not Alaina].' "Morgan said, no, Bruce asked us about Alaina. "The next day, I went to Keith and Hans and they [confirmed] that Bruce felt you were having an affair with Alaina. "I go into Bruce's office and say, I can't believe you're doing this. I'm going to HR. It's stressful enough working here. I can't go on every other day being falsely accused of carrying on sexual affairs with various women in the office. "Bruce said 'I'll destroy you. Alaina is a snake. I brought you back into the fold. You betrayed me by associating with her and being friendly with Lisa Jenio. You cannot go to HR. He was adamant and visceral. "It was around this time that Monique had met with Lynn Heller. They were discussing salary [if Monique was to become Editor of Barely Legal]. Everyone on the executive branch had signed off on firing Lisa. I was in Bruce's office during conference calls with Lynn Heller and Donna Hahner in which it was discussed. They just wanted the replacement ready to go. They planned to fire Lisa on a Friday. The usual: call her up to the 9th Floor at around 3 p.m., to Lynn Heller's office. The LFP death march. "It was weird because Lisa was going about her business not knowing. The same thing had happened to Tim Kenneally and Dan Kapelovitz. We freelancers had worked with editors we knew had been fired, before they even knew it. "Monday (October 19) rolls around. Bruce David took the day off. I told Alaina what was happening. She had been in the dark until this time. I felt I had to tell her, as it involved her. Alaina hit the roof. She said, we have to go to HR. I was very blunt with her that doing so would cost me my job, I explained what Bruce had been threatening me with. Alaina, rather naively I feel, remarked 'He can't touch you, you haven't done anything wrong.' Well, famous last words. "Alaina said she wanted to go to HR. So we went up to HR and met with Lynn Heller. We laid it out for her. Outside of Alaina's presence I also explained Tom Farrell's earlier smear that I was involved with 'Miss X' in the building. I did so to protect 'Miss X.' "This comes months after Bruce said, if you violate the gossip policy, you should be terminated. "Lynn promised an investigation. "The next morning, I told Bruce [about going to HR]. He just looked at me and said, 'You're dead.' I took that metaphorically, not literally. "He went upstairs to see Lynn. When he came back down, his face was cherry tomato red. "I walked into his office. He looked at me and said, 'I warned you. I have nothing to say to you. Get out of my office.' "Half an hour later, he went downstairs to have a cigarette. I tried to talk to him. The same thing."That night, Morgan Hagen and Dave Cogan, a great journalist and dear friend I brought into Hustler, and I met over here. I'd fallen into a very deep funk. I'd come into this pressure cooker in July. Online we're getting attacked every day. I didn't sign up for this. The venom was directed at Bruce and I was catching flak because of my association with Bruce, the bad lieutenant. I was putting in twelve hours while Bruce kept less than banker hours. After weeks of threats and coercion, I'd had it. "After a few drinks here, I went home, got online, and wrote Bruce a letter of resignation (about 3:30am). It was entirely a product of too many drinks and deep depression. I gave two weeks notice. "I saw the friendship crumbling. I couldn't believe I had left the snowy paradise of Flagstaff just to run my ass off for Bruce and, in the end, be smeared by the guy. It was like a bad dream that had taken on a life of its own. It seemed the more I tried to placate him, the worse it got. But, it was clear I had signed my own death warrant at Hustler when I went to HR with Alaina. "Suffice to say, I woke up at 9am, jumped in the shower and went to work. I was mad as hell. I was much more clear. Bruce comes into my office. He says, I got your email. Why don't we go downstairs and talk about it? "I said sure. So I told him ' I want you to know I'm not resigning. You know where that letter came from. It was product of the last three weeks.' "He was much calmer at first. He said, 'I didn't take it as a letter of resignation.' "I proceeded to say, 'Look, you've been yelling and screaming at me, jabbing your finger at me. Every time I try to talk to you, it gets worse. I've done nothing wrong. The rumors aren't true. You've taken part in spreading them. Loyalty is a two-way street.' "And then he just freaked. He yelled, 'You betrayed me by being involved with Alaina. I accept your resignation! I accept your resignation! I accept your resignation! You're outta here.' "We go back inside the building and take the same elevator up. He said, I'm going to Donna Hunter's office and you're going to have a tough time explaining you didn't resign. I said, that's not all I'm going to explain, Bruce. "He stepped out of the elevator and screamed, 'You're threatening me. Quit threatening me.' He was clearly trying to make a scene. It was a freak show. "I ask you to imagine what it is like to work under these conditions. People are coming into my office and asking what is going on. Try editing under those circumstances. Try writing. It's like Kryptonite tied around your neck. You can't focus. "I sent Bruce an email at work reaffirming that I had not resigned. "When I got home that night, Bruce sent me an email to my home account saying that he had formally accepted my resignation. "The next day, I get an email from Bruce asking for all outstanding writing assignments. Where they are at... At that point, I realized that was it. "I called colleagues at the Daily Journal and asked for whoever they thought was one of the best employment lawyers in town. They suggested Nancy Gray, over in Century City. I called her up and ran down what was happening. She dictated a memo for me to write. I took it up to Donna Hunter and Lynn Heller and asked for permission to leave my desk. [Note: Dates are approximate. I believe Cromer's last day at work was October 20. He was paid through November 5.] "Shortly before I left, Bruce had been calling the staff in one by one. He'd told them that I was leaving and that they weren't to talk to me. I became Dead Man Walking on the third floor. "Over the weekend, I went in and cleared out my office of everything I'd need in the event I wasn't allowed back in. I took memos and files. I have a significant amount of material pertinent to my situation. "I came back in on Monday (October 25) with Lynn. Donna Hunter is sitting there. It was a 15-minute meeting. I thought we were there to talk about what had been happening and work out a resolution. I was wrong. Donna is sitting there stone-faced. She doesn't say one word. "Lynn asked me to briefly recapitulate what had happened with Bruce. I did. She said, you know we have an open-door policy here. You can come to Human Resources any time, no matter what your supervisor says. I explained that may be a nice line in the employee handbook, but that has no bearing on the reality of Bruce David's position and actions on the third floor. None whatsoever. And they know this. Lynn then said 'Well, it doesn't matter, because you quit.' I said, 'No, I didn't. That letter was the result of too many drinks after being browbeaten and coerced continuously for the last two-and-a-half weeks. I retracted it before it was accepted. I never resigned. "She said, 'It doesn't matter. We're going to have to ask you to leave now. Don't be alarmed. But we do have security waiting for you in the hallway.' I said, 'Is this standard procedure to have security waiting for people who have quit?' She said, 'I have nothing else to say to you.' "Security walked me to the elevator and made sure I left the building." The news broke on my website Sunday, October 31st, that a source close to LFP said Mark Cromer was fired for sexual misconduct. Mark: "I filed for unemployment. They fought it. They've lost three times now. I only received a few months of unemployment benefits, which have long since ended. But they fought it tooth and nail because their entire position is that I just suddenly resigned. That dog don't hunt. Lynn Heller testified under oath that she wasn't sure of Bruce David's title in the company, or how long Bruce David had worked for LFP, and couldn't describe his relationship with Larry Flynt. "It's beyond the pale that a VP of Human Resources would not be aware of the above. The fact is, she is fully aware that there is an employee handbook for most employees, and a completely different set of unwritten rules for Bruce David and a couple other higher-ups. That's the reality of it. "The bottom line is that Bruce David is untouchable in that company. I never resigned. I was forced out." Cromer hasn't yet sued LFP for wrongful termination. "Bruce and I had a licensing agreement for a video we shot -- Real College Girls Out Of Control. I haven't received a penny. If we can't resolve this very soon, then I will have to proceed. The funny thing about lawyers is they like to end letters with a line about "amicable resolution." I understand the niceties of it I suppose, but let's be real: there is nothing amicable about any of this. There was nothing amicable about being forced out of my job, which cost me tens of thousands of dollars. There was nothing amicable about smearing me with rumors about something I never did. It was a ruthless experience and a very damaging one to me. There was nothing amicable about any of what Bruce David did, and there is nothing amicable about it now. So, we can close it up and move on with our respective lives, yes, and I suspect that's what's best for all concerned. But I am no longer going to sit back and get dumped on for seven months and remain silent about it. 'Amicable' or not. "Look, after I was fired, Bruce stripped my name from the masthead even though I had stories for three more issues of Hustler I had edited in the can. I had freelance work that they only paid partially for. Bruce took my name off interviews I did with him that ran in the book. After he fired me, he ran a parody ad that I developed but was never paid for and never credited with. No, he has set the tone and it is not amicable. "My lawyer fired off a letter to their lawyer and my name popped back in for one issue. "It's just despicable, petty, vindictive actions on his part to, as he put it, 'destroy' me. "Carolyn S-nclair, a young [24?] and talented contributor to Hustler, became the new Features Editor. She shows promise as a writer, but she was named to that position for one reason: because Bruce feels he can control her. That's the quintessential requirement for being on the third floor today. "Carolyn, I have been told, has participated in some of what's come out of Bruce's office since I was forced out. Hustler contributors have told me that she has told them: 'I can't really say why he is gone, but you know I'll be easier to work with than Mark was. We just couldn't work with him anymore.' I am sure at Bruce's instruction she has intimated that I had done something wrong. "I have also been told by contributors that Bruce has told them personally that he couldn't 'help me anymore, that he couldn't protect me anymore,' that's why I left. Intimating that I had a problem. That's a smear by a vague insinuation. It's calculated and damaging and it's meant as such. It's like when he rushed out to comment on this very blog, after he forced me out, to say he couldn't comment about it, yet he then proceeds to comment about it. "The irony is that because Bruce fired me, he couldn't fire Lisa Jenio as he had planned. I was forced out and the very next week Monique took a pass because of the money they offered her. Hans apparently never got a bump up, as I think he is still an editorial assistant. "I'm not going to remain quiet about it anymore. I want to set the record straight. If it gets even less amicable than it already has been, so be it. I certainly don't desire that, but I am not going to take it anymore. "If LFP wants to conclude this, that's great. And if they don't, that's fine too." I emailed Bruce David for comment. He replied: "I'm passing the interview on to my attorney for possible legal action." A Current Affair Profiles Porn Star Chloe Jones Airs Wednesday. In Los Angeles, it will be on at 11pm on Channel 11. FSC's Tom Hymes On .XXX Domains Tom, the PR rep for the Free Speech Coalition, replies to my inquiry:
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