Home

Back to Essays

Paul Fishbein's AVN

Part One Part Two Part Three Part Four Part Five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight

12/6/00

Gene Ross Recalls Fishbein Fixing Award

Gene Ross has dropped his bombshell which is supposed to destroy any remaining shreds of Adult Video News crediblity.

Gene recalls a January morning in 1990 when he got a frantic call from Fishbein at his hotel room at the Tropicana.

Gene Ross writes: "Fishbein said it was urgent that we meet the following morning, the day of the AVN awards. We met at the Tropicana breakfast buffet and Fishbein proceeded to tell me that our winner in the Best Video category [back in those days I knew the winners ahead of time] was "an embarrassment" judging by the feedback he was getting from his advertisers about its inclusion in the nominations' list. Fishbein said he was going to change it. Ironically, the title of the feature was "The Bitter End". It was a release from Coast to Coast Video and was subtitled Cheeks 2. It was a period piece feature co-written by Jace Rocker and Britt Morgan. It was subsequently replaced on the winners list as Best Video by another period piece feature, Beauty and the Beast 2 from VCA."

YYY says: "I thought that the Extreme video "Miscreants" had won for Best Video Feature (1998). But no. It had only won for Best Director. Miscreants had won for Best Director and Paul changed the award to go to Buddha. And Bryn Pryor dressed him down privately about it later on.

"Paul shopped around a change of vote on the convention floor. He'd tell people, 'You voted for Miscreants. This is an embarrassment. Do you want to change your vote?' People told him no. Guess what? Buddha won it anyway.

"What AVN always stood for is now being revealed as a sham."

Luke says: "I've contacted Paul Fishbein for comment on these stories but he has not responded. I've also contacted Christian Mann at Video Team for comment on the Clemenza report on Gene's site that Christian had sexually set up Paul Fishbein with porn star Lana Sands."

Tessio writes Gene: "You have struck the death knell of AVN. Let us just hope that the adult companies who spend thousands of dollars on advertising and big productions every year realize they don't stand a chance. Now the proof is in hand. These awards are bought and paid for as if that should come as a shock to anyone."

AVN Staffer Rebecca Gray Wrote Vivid Movie Seven Deadly Sins

AVN journalist Rebecca Gray, the woman behind the removal of former AVN managing editor Ken Wood, wrote the award winning Vivid movie "The Seven Deadly Sins."

The film, directed by Ren Savant, cleaned up at the January 1999 AVN Awards. Get the full scoop on this from Gene Ross.

Clemenza writes Gene Ross: "The fact that Bryn Pryor originally reviewed the movie [giving it a 10 out of 10 rating and Editor's Choice] isn't surprising, considering the fact, his little gal pal Rebecca Gray wrote the script under the name Eugenie Brown. About two years ago, Gray wrote an article for Fetish that wasn't used. She signed her name to that as Eugenie Brown. Fast forward to the 2000 AVN Awards. Seven Deadly Sins won for script and the cowriter's name was Eugenie Brown. Coincidence? I don't think so. Talk about your fixes."

Paul Fishbein has loudly proclaimed in past controversies of this nature that AVN staffers are not allowed to write porn scripts or direct porn movies to avoid a conflict of interest.

Seven Deadly Sins won about ten awards from AVN in January, including for Best Screenplay.

AVN staffer Ken Michaels gave the scoop on this, and other improprieties, to Ken Wood months ago.

Gene headlined this story: "What, You Didn't Know?....Well You Better Call Somebody!!! Seven Deadly Sins Was a Fix All Along; Fishbein Must Go"

Here are the awards "won" by Seven Deadly Sins: Best All-Girl Sex Scene, Film; Best Art Direction, Film; Best Screenplay, Film [Gray]; Best Film Editing; Best Supporting Actor, Film; Best Supporting Actress, Film; Best Director, Film and Best Film. Here are the awards "won" by Seven Deadly Sins: Best All-Girl Sex Scene, Film; Best Art Direction, Film; Best Screenplay, Film [Gray]; Best Film Editing; Best Supporting Actor, Film; Best Supporting Actress, Film; Best Director, Film and Best Film.

XXX says: "Bryn Pryor and Ren Savant are good friends. Bryn Pryor spearheaded the effort to push Seven Deadly Sins. Ren Savant edited Bryn Pryor's mainstream movie. Bryn returned the favor here."

Yawn

Publisher Alan Miles (hedonists.com) writes: "Luke: My opinion is you're about to step into some deep doo-doo, guy. You might consider having a very good attorney glued to your side while casting further accusations at Fishbein personally and Adult Video News in general.

"Why are you interviewing only ex-AVN employees [who are drowning in sour grape juice] instead of current employees? There seems to be no dissension among the troops there now. It's painfully obvious to me that Ross conspired with Extreme to go into head-to-head competition with AVN prior to his departure from the latter. Is Ross going to be a daily fixture on your Internet radio show so he can promote the new magazine, awards show and convention that -- according to word on the street -- are currently in the works at Extreme? I have nothing against anyone involved in this fiasco, but what appear to be personal vendettas are hardly newsworthy. Are you sure you're not just being used as a pawn to get more publicity for this [yawn] personal tirade by two ex-employees against their former employer?"

Rumdar writes Luke: this guy speaks the truth. what are you doing in this battle??

Alan Miles (who's wife works for AVN) writes on his website Hedonists.com: "For our many viewers who are not involved in the adult video industry, Adult Video News [AVN] magazine for 15 years has been the "bible" of that industry. Gene Ross and Ken Woods, both former AVN editors and both now employed by Extreme Associates, have launched an all-out effort to accuse the magazine's publisher, Paul Fishbein, of being guilty of everything in the world short of murder. Accusations are being posted, it seems, by the minute on the 'Net. Another Fishbein-hater and Gene Ross wannabe, Luke F-rd, continues his online tirade against the magazine and the publisher by making many, thus far, unsubstantiated claims. So far there has been no response from Fishbein as to legal action the magazine may be contemplating, if any.

"UPDATE: Word on the street says Ross and Glogow of Extreme Associates will spearhead the introduction of adult video "Geno Awards," a new magazine venture, and the establishment of an adult video tradeshow in Las Vegas in an attempt to compete head-on with the AVN Awards, Adult Video News [AVN] magazine and the AVN AdultExpo. It seems that whoever invests money in this very risky venture, born only from childish animosity toward a former employer, has way, way too much discretionary income."

Luke says: Alan, I've attempted to contact various sources at AVN for comment. These include Paul Fishbein and Bryn Pryor. They've chosen to make no comment. I've contacted porners elsewhere for comment on this but Gene is right. Porners do fear speaking out publicly, on the record, against AVN. Many porners suspect AVN's integrity but they don't want to question it on the record.

It's The Cheese

Don Barzini writes: Luke, Besides the strong urge I have to send Gene Ross a pound or two of cheddar (I'd send mozzarella, but he aint a wop), I am also graciously inclined to offer some insight into this Gene Ross/Rob Black/ Ken Wood vs. Paul Fishbein thing.

First off, let me tell you what this is NOT about. It's NOT about spilling the truth for some moral reason. It's also NOT about being unhappy over treatment received as an employee. It's mostly just about business. And what business would that be? The business that Rob Black, and his partners, plan to get involved in next: the creation of a magazine to compete with AVN.

What better way to begin this business then by getting into bed with your competition's key employees, and then to convince these (now former) employees to discredit AVN in any and every way they know how. Then, when you go to AVN's advertisers, you remind them how AVN f---ed them and f---ed them, over and over (must be true, we have the say so of former key staffers), and with a promise to never f--- them the same way, you get their business for your new rag. Then you take these same former key employees, put them into the position of running this new enterprise (that's how you baited them to begin with), maybe give them a piece of the pie, and there ya go. Your in the porn magazine business, with your competition's advertisers lined up to place their ads, hopefully believing they'll get a fair shake with reviews and awards and all that kind of shit, while you rake in the advertising chips and push your own shit for free.

So how do guys like Rob Black and Gene Ross pull this off? I'm not even going to get into where the funding comes from, but it's one thing to snag a few guys to run a new smut magazine, it's another to distribute the thing. Enter David Sturman with his "in place" magazine distribution machine. I know you want to say, "say it ain't so, Don Barzini." But sorry, everything I hear on the street says it is.

Yours, Don Barzini

P.S. Tell that fat Clemenza he still owes me, and I always collect.

Waiting For The 800lb Gorilla

We're waiting for the 800lb gorilla to act. How will AVN respond to corruption charges? I hear Paul's been meeting with his lawyers and his primary target is former managing editor Ken Wood, followed by Gene Ross.

XXX tells Luke: "What is the high - low on when AVN files suit? You know that one's coming. The 800lb gorilla is yet to fight. I don't think AVN will name you. I think Gene and Ken Wood have given them a woody.

"Fishbein's lawyers are making copies of Gene's website every single day and have been for a while. From where I am sitting, the guy who appears in the most trouble is Ken Wood, for his list of criminal wrongdoings that AVN had done."

Luke says: I don't think Ken listed AVN criminalities. He listed various criminal charges but he did not directly impute them to AVN.

XXX: "At least it's an interesting read every day. I'm hitting reload on your site and Gene's several times a day. I thought Gene would just disappear by the wayside.

"I think Tod Hunter's a great guy but I don't think Paul could've made a worse choice for AVNGossip.com. Tod's a very non-controversial guy. Press releases from Vivid and Digital Playground is boring."

Gene Ross Updates

Here's a transcript of Tuesday's Luke F-rd Live with an introduction courtesy of Gene Ross:

Gene writes: Former AVN managing editor Ken Wood was a guest of Luke F-rd yesterday afternoon. Ford asked Wood with all the controversial information being dispensed on both l-keford.com and generossextreme.com, had he learned anything he didn't know about AVN. "I can't say I learned it was a cesspool of corruption because I already knew that," said Wood. "Nothing shocking. I knew most of it." Wood related the fact that he learned about AVN via Ford's website, applied for a job as a freelancer and finally started working full time for the company. When taking the job as managing editor, Wood said the reception he got from employees was one of luke warm acceptance. "They didn't try to put any obstacles in my path right away. But soon, once I made it clear I wanted to do certain things with the magazine, take it in a certain direction which would have required work, most people weren't willing to put in the effort." Wood quit in June and said it had been building for some time.

Wood: "The animosity that had grown towards me from the editorial staff was a very minor reason. A major reason was things I had come to know that you've been kindly publishing. It made me very uneasy about working there. It's not something I wanted to be associated with. I felt I was above that. I felt it was time to move on. It was my belief, and like I said before, I don't have the kind of evidence to declare something to be a fact, but it was my belief there were many illegal things going on, mainly of a financial nature; and many unethical things I didn't want my name associated with."

Ford: What was going down with the company's 401k retirement-savings fund accounts for employees?

Wood: "This is interesting. I wasn't there long enough to take part in the program. You have to work there for at least two years or something like that. I found out from a member of the AVN staff [Ken Michaels] about some irregularities in the employees' account. What I mean by that is the employees would get a regular statement of their account which I believe was handled by Paul Fishbein's brother-in-law. They noticed that over time the amounts that were supposed to be deposited automatically in their accounts became less and less. There were irregularities there. When I pressed for details, the person I talked to, said apparently Paul Fishbein had either taken money out of the accounts or had neglected to put the appropriate funds into their accounts so that he could pay off some bills. Of course this enraged me because I thought this is a guy who, pretty much common knowledge, is a millionaire. If he needed money to pay bills why couldn't he take it from his own funds instead of, in a sense, stealing, allegedly, from employees' retirement accounts."

Ford: "I believe that Mr. Fishbein has considerable bills to the Internal Revenue Service that he needs to pay."

Wood: That was my understanding.

Ford: Would this tend to preoccupy the man?

Wood: I don't know enough about the man's personal finances. I've never seen any documentation or personal documents to comment. It was always my understanding from what he would be telling other people, that I would overhear, complaining about a huge tax bill or all the bills he's got to pay. It was my belief- I never voiced this to him - but if you're a business man you should be able to handle all these things without resorting to drastic, unethical, and illegal measures to remedy them."

Ford: I heard that he was getting tied up, days at a time, trying to process his personal taxes. You think he would have enough money coming in from all his different operations. What do you know about charges of embezzlement that have been raised against Mr. Fishbein, particularly in connection with the trade shows that AVN is now operating?

Wood: Who raised those charges?

Ford: I believe they've been raised by various sources, but particular, you mentioned...

Wood: I never mentioned him directly...

Ford: ...with embezzlement charges; you were not that specific.

Wood: First of all, to be courteous I 'd like to say high to any of Paul's lawyers who are probably listening to the show right now. Because from what I hear Paul has convened a war council of sorts at AVN with his attorneys to determine if there's any call for suing Gene Ross or myself for anything we've said. Frankly, from the very beginning since I've come up discussing these things, I've given any statements I've made a good legal Teflon-coating. As with what you recently published, my nominations' list? In which I list fraud, embezzlement, things like that...I never made any direct mention of Paul Fishbein or AVN in terms of those charges because those are, obviously, serious charges. I would want to be very careful about what I say in that regard for obvious legal reasons. (Transcript courtesy of Gene Ross)

[Jim DiGiorgio interjects]

Jimmy D: Let me ask the tough questions because you've been pussyfooting around this whole thing. Ken, did you ever approve any bad reviews of any of my movies?

Wood: Could you run some titles by me? I have no recollection of authorizing any negative reviews [against Jimmy D.]

Jimmy D: We got past that tough one. Did you while Gene was still an employee at AVN, did you have contact with him. And in that contact did he tell you that he was going to leave and, in so doing, did he ask if you would be willing to reveal those revelations? Or did all of this take place after his departure?

Wood: "Shortly after I came to AVN and once it was known I was going to assume the managing editor position, I always maintained close contact with Gene. As for anything he may have told me about a potential move from AVN, I can't comment.

Jimmy D: I don't want you to think I'm trying to prove there was a conspiracy or anything. Was there a conspiracy?

Wood: There's always conspiracies.

[Gene sez: "Yeah, the one we discovered against Wood in early June which prompted him to quit AVN.] (Transcript courtesy of Gene Ross)

Jew Hatred At AVN?

James DiGiorgio and I interviewed former AVN managing editor Ken Wood, a Jew, this past Tuesday on Luke F-rd Live.

Jim: "Did you and Gene plan this assault?"

Ken: "No. I was visiting Gene one day and he said, oh, how about doing an interview? It was not planned in advance. But of course we both have plenty to say."

Luke: "How does AVN approach Vivid? Mainly with loving kindness."

Ken: "Mostly in the realm of video reviews. Anyone at AVN who takes a videotape knows off the bat that if they're not prepared to give it a stellar review, they better prepare to lock horns with the publisher because inevitably there will be hell over at Vivid over a negative review. That's why you rarely see a negative Vivid review other than their gonzo line.

"Vivid, in 1998, was touting Babylon as one of their top features of the year. They said they'd spent an enormous amount of moeny making it. It was Lexus's last video for them. She did anal and all that stuff. They were touting it as a special feature. When it was initially reviewed by one our staffer it did not get a flattering rating.

"Somehow, whenever a Vivid tape gets reviewed, Steve Hirsch seems to know what the rating is before the review has gone through the proper editorial process. It is possible that before the managing editor knows what the tape got, Steve Hirsch knows.

"Steve Hirsch would then call Paul Fishbein and yell and scream about how could this happen. We spent so much money on this. So Paul would then pass the orders to editorial to have someone different review the tape. We always had our understanding of who on the staff would be more positive to a Vivid feature."

Luke: "A Mark Kernes."

Jim: "Do you think my reviews would've been better if I'd been making movies for Vivid?"

Ken: "I'm sure they would've been."

Luke: "It seems that it is very important to Paul how much money is spent on a movie and that he feels that AVN has a special moral obligation to big budgeted films like Search For The Snow Leopard from Adam&Eve. Most folks who saw Snow Leopard laughed at it."

Ken: "This is the way Paul looks at it... The high budget movies are important to the companies that make them. And if those companies are advertisers with AVN, it then become important to Paul. He knows what the reaction will be if he doesn't promote them.

"Search For The Snow Leopard came up at several times at our awards meetings. Some staffers thought it deserved some nominations... For some reason, our publisher [Paul Fishbein] was conspicuously promoting that movie to be included in many categories in which the majority of the staff thought it shouldn't be. And it ended up winning awards."

Jim: "How do you explain how Rob Black's partner Tom Byron can so consistently get so many Editor's Choices when there wasn't much money spent for his movies?"

[LF: AVN likes Tom.]

Ken: "This is a different genre. Vivid makes features. Big budget films are features."

Jim: "I got four AVN nominations for a feature I did last year that was very modestly budgeted. You could say it was because I did it for VCA but VCA spent way more money on other movies that did not get nominations."

Ken: "I look back on my tenure at AVN with mixed feelings. There are some fine individuals who work there. I've learned and grown a lot from working there. It was a lesson in reality."

Luke: "How did Paul Fishbein feel about his editorial staff?"

Ken: "Paul runs hot and cold depending... He can go from praising his editorial staff to blasting them for professional or personal [reasons] because he feels they're ungrateful to him."

Jim: "Why do you feel compelled to join Gene's vendetta against AVN?"

Ken: "There's no reason why these things shouldn't come out. Personally, I don't have a vendetta against anybody there. It is my understanding that Paul has recently been complaining about people betraying him, like Gene. That's what I heard from AVN. The party line is 'Gene betrayed us.' Nothing that Gene has published is untrue. So if you wanted to prevent things like this from coming out about AVN, or if your Paul Fishbein, against you, then maybe you shouldn't have done these things in the first place. Then you'd have no controversy.

"That Gene is a channel for all of the crap that has gone on there for 14 years shouldn't be held against him. And the fact that I am talking, I don't believe should be held against me. In my mind, I'm just washing my hands of a sordid affair."

Jim: "Well, let's suppose it is held against you. Is Extreme or Gene Ross going to help fund your legal defense?"

Ken: "I have my own means for legal defense. I have several relatives who are in law. One of them, a cousin of mine, when I told him about all this, that if it did go to court, you've got to let me work it for you. He's one of those lawyers who loves to bring people into court.

"If Paul's lawyers look at my comments, all they can do for Paul is shake their heads and say, 'I'm sorry but they didn't do anything actionable.' We didn't sign confidentiality agreements with AVN.

"I got up from the table [at the AVN Awards, 1999] where Bryn Pryor was sitting because at the time he was in charge. I just looked at him and said, 'This is fixed.' He smiled and shook his head."

Jim: "Was this for Best Video or Best Film?"

Ken: "No, this was about a half hour into the show, over the course over the first ten awards, that a lot of us could tell that things were not exactly kosher... By the facial expressions of editors at my table, I could tell that they didn't vote for it [the winners]. I didn't vote for it. It strikes an odd note when every single freelancer for that magazine would've had to have voted for that one tape in the category."

Jim: "Maybe they threw out the dimpled ballots."

Luke: "Ken, whenever Paul Fishbein looks me in the face and tells me something, I believe him."

Ken: "Most liars tend to do that. They have a lot of practice. I definitely believe that Paul Fishbein was not truthful when he described the political situation at the magazine.

"I noticed that Luke and Gene jumped all over my comments about Tod Hunter dating porn star Sonja Redd. I've never had a problem with anybody having a relationship with somebody in the industry providing that they did not seek to influence things on that person's behalf at awards time..."

Luke: "So you don't feel moral outrage at porn journalists who have relationships with porn stars?"

Ken: "If I did, then I wouldn't be able to talk to you."

Jim: "Luke, you're a serious journalist and you've had relationships with porn stars. Does that violate your own code of ethics?"

Ken: "I'm not sure that Luke F-rd is serious or a journalist."

Jim: "When you were at AVN, what did they think of Luke F-rd?"

Ken: "Every member of the editorial staff, with the possible exception of Mark Kernes, checked Luke F-rd's site every day. Love him or hate him, they wanted to know what he was saying."

Jim: "Do you think that they were mostly reading it for the spiritual advice?"

Ken: "I don't believe so. I would not classify many of the AVN editorial staff as being spiritual."

Jim: "Luke's the only guy I know who mixes the Torah with porn."

Ken: "That's a pretty tough..."

Jim: "It's a different angle on the thing. It's his hook. Everybody's got to have a hook."

Luke: "What did people at AVN tell you about my comments on AVN?"

Ken: "When I first came to the magazine, I was assured that most of the things I had read on l-keford.com were erroneous. The longer I was there, the more I found out that certain things were true... People reading your site would say, yeah, that happened. Or so and so did say that. I think your batting average improved. I think you went from .250 to .650."

Luke: "What are your thoughts on the state of porn journalism?"

Ken: "There are different types of porn journalism. The kind that AVN runs, trade magazine journalism, differs from a regular magazine. People at Hustler make no bones about the fact that anything that comes out with the Hustler name on it are going to get good reviews. People don't expect them to be objective. Nobody's going to make a buying decision based on something in that magazine. But because AVN presents itself as the objective arbiter of what is marketable in porn, we're telling stores what they should stock and in what quantities, people expect us to be objective and evenhanded."

Luke: "What do you think the morale is like at AVN now?"

Ken: "Pretty low. Just the fact that most if not all of the staff are probably glued to these websites [LF.com and GeneRossExtreme.com] should say something. And from what I've heard, there was a rumor control meeting held at AVN yesterday [Monday, 12/4/00] to address the issues. So the fact that you're holding a meeting to address these things, you're admitting that there is a problem.

"If this was just Luke F-rd two years ago writing things about AVN, I don't think there were meetings held to address these things. But when it's Gene Ross, who served the magazine well for 14 years, that is a different story. Because people throughout the industry reading his site will say, well, there must be something to this."

Luke: "What was the morale like at AVN before you left?"

Ken: "I couldn't say that the morale was ever high there. People were always disenchanted and it was just a matter of to what extent they were. There was always the most tension between Paul Fishbein and the editorial staff. Paul had his stereotypes of the editorial staff and they had theirs about him."

Luke: "It seems that there was a current of antiSemitism flowing through some in the editorial department against Paul Fishbein, who is a Jew."

Ken: "That's exactly what I said to Gene. It did happen. More than one member of the editorial staff used that phrase that I had mentioned ["Paul Fishbein is a cheap Jew"]. There was a person there who used the expression that I don't want to identify them because they're a sensitive person who would be distraught about it. That struck me as odd. This was supposed to be the haven of politically correct liberals. It was shocking to see indicators of antiSemitism."

Luke: "What about in the industry generally? There are a disproportionate number of Jews in the industry."

Ken: "There's a difference between antiSemitism and jealousy. And I think that's what a lot of that is. That so many of the people who control the porn industry are Jewish. But it is just a coincidence, I believe, that they are Jewish. It is not like a group of Jews got together and decided, 'Let's run the porn industry together.'"

Luke: "You don't think there's a Zionist plot here?"

Ken: "No. But once Jews in the industry sense there is antiSemitism, that is motivation to band together. Not because of any premeditated plot."

Luke: "Do Jewish porners stick together?"

Ken: "...Company heads do. The only exception that I know is that people accuse Russell Hampshire of being the biggest antiSemite in the industry. From what I know, most of his sales staff is Jewish and they have a peaceful warm relationship with their employer."

Jim: "Ken, are you working for Extreme?"

Ken: "Not officially. I'm not getting hundred dollar bills for payment."

Jim: "Are you doing little things for them?"

Ken: "Yes. Nothing official. Nothing on the books.

"And as for performing in front of the company, I would require too much money... As I am a Jew, it's all about the money."

Jim: "I think we covered it all. I'm not into the political intrigue like you are, Lukey. I just want to know why I didn't get better reviews and why he doesn't know who I am. Those are the tough questions."

Ian writes: Hi Luke, I've been reading on your site how Gene Ross is 'spilling the beans' about what a terrible person Paul Fishbein, his erstwhile employer, was, and what a terrible place AVN was to work in. For my part I don't give Mr. Ross any credence because:

a) he didn't criticise AVN or Mr. Fishbein so long as it paid him to keep quiet;

b) he stayed with AVN until he got a lucrative job offer elsewhere;

c) he is now telling tales which may well not be true but the luridness of which will probably please his new employer.

Luke says: Gene stayed because he had no other job options. The tales he now tells are deadly true. He witnessed most of it first hand. Gene was in very deep at AVN. He now has that rare employer who doesn't fear AVN. Most every other company does.

Gene plays his cards close to his vest. Now that he's with Extreme, he can express himself more freely. Normally a very difficult man to understand, Gene The Opaque is becoming much clearer the past two weeks.

Porner writes: Ask Paul Fishbein about Svetlana, Dick Miller's Meridian. You didn't know? Ask Eddie.

Porner says: I'd see AVN publisher Paul Fishbein wrapping up boxes of videotapes (which were submitted from companies for the AVN Awards) to ship to Philadelphia. And Paul would always make up some bullshit excuse such as, Oh, I have friends in Philadelphia that like these kind of movies. Come on Paul, you're sending them to your stores. You don't make money by giving tapes to your friends. Paul partially owns at least five video stores in the Philadelphia area.

DVDs are easier to resell because a company can't have on the screen, for a DVD, for screening purposes only. They're not going to stamp seperate discs for that.

Bryn Pryor aka Mark Logan reviews all the DVDs. I think Paul had a special deal with him about getting some of them back. Knowing what I know about Bryn, I don't think he would've cared to keep 90% of those DVDs.

Various members of the AVN editorial staff are interested in jumping ship.

If AVN faced a politically sensitive story, Paul would assign those directly. He wouldn't even wait for the managing editor. He'd go directly to Mark Kernes or Gene, that they'd be the best persons to handle sensitive stories.

AVN ain't going to fold. They've got a monopoly.

Fishbein doesn't yet understand the internet. He's from a different generation. He's not in touch with today's webmasters. He cuts favors for his inside people but often he can't tell the difference between insiders and outsiders.

AVNOnline is an important magazine because of its advertisements. That will spike your traffic by 500 uniques a day if you put in full page ads.

12/7/00

Luke Pours Gasoline On The AVN Bonfire

Clemenza writes: "Paul Fishbein always acknowledged that he made an offer to Gene Ross to own a piece of AVN. But Fish always blamed his business partner Stuart Franks as the one who nixed the deal."

Luke says: I have not received AVN's side of any of these stories as yet. I'm sure that AVN and its publisher Paul Fishbein will deal with these matters before the end of the year. On December 19th, Fishbein is scheduled to appear on the Tera Patrick show and he's promised to answer all questions.

Trying to pour gas on the AVN bonfire consuming my site and Gene's, I called some porners for reactions.

I talked Thursday afternoon to Moonlight Entertainment owner Mark Stone, a longtime friend of AVN publisher Paul Fishbein and Gene Ross. Mark says he loves both guys.

Mark: "Oh no, Luke F-rd. What's up?"

Luke: "I'm just trying to bring people together. Riding Gene Ross's coattails."

Mark: "I always tell Gene and you that I never read the shit. Not because I don't like you. But the past few days, I have been looking at Gene's "Twelve Days of Fishbein." And he's linked with you now, right?"

Luke: "Yeah, we're friendly."

Mark laughs loudly. "Maybe the Israelis and the Arabs can live in peace."

Luke: "What's your reaction to GeneRossExtreme.com?"

Mark: "Obviously Gene is extreme. He must be harboring a huge burn against Fishbein and all the poisons that were lurking in the mud are now hatching out. I'm sorry to see that.

"It's hard for me to believe that there's that much interest in all that [airing of corruption charges against AVN]."

Luke: "What are you hearing from your peers?"

Mark: "From company owners and whatnot, I haven't heard that much [reaction]. And what I have heard have been along the lines of my comment. Not that they're reading it and saying, 'That motherf---er Fishbein' and all that. It's more that they are shaking their heads at a sorry situation, is the vibe I would get.

"Gene spilling all that mud... The guys at Extreme better watch out. How could they feel safe about saying anything?

"Listen, Gene is a good friend of mine and I love Gene. I haven't talked to him since he's been writing all the Fishbein stuff. But judging by what I'm reading, he's f---ing burnt and he's letting it all out and I am sorry to see it. It's too bad that it had to get to that point. The people that I've been talking to are more shaking their heads at it. But obviously, there's an audience that loves this kind of stuff.

"And as far as the inner workings and the corruption at AVN, I know that you love to jump on that stuff too. I can also say that people are also fascinated by the Kennedy assasination. Will we ever know the truth? There are a lot of people with different agendas and why someone would say something, really, I would like to stay out of the fray. I just watch."

Luke: "Some people think that Gene has broken the code of omerta (silence)?"

Mark: "Yeah. As I told you at that convention (IA2000 in Las Vegas in January), when people rip at each other, that's fair game. But when you had allegedly published Fishbein's home address [LF: I believe I published addresses of his former, but not current home address] or whatever that was, to me that is over the line. You can destroy the guy without doing that.

"As far as Fishbein and other people that you write about, you cross other lines.

"I have a different attitude to all the gossip stuff than most people. It's mildly amusing and entertaining to me. Most of it is minutaie. Is it important? No. It's entertaining.

"Has Gene's broken codes? Maybe. But he likes to back it up with quotes from other people who were also burned.

"Truthfully, I haven't talked to Fishbein about this at all. I'm sure that he's pissed.

"There's some stuff on there [GeneRossExtreme.com] that I would say goes over the line? Yeah.

"Gene's obviously harboring great resentment and a giant burn. I guess that he feels that it is ok to do that."

Luke: "Are you going to be performing at the AVN Awards show this year?"

Mark: "No. We're producing and directing and putting the whole thing together. Like last year, we've been putting other people in the band slot. I love playing the show. But we did do it for 13 friggin' years."

Luke: "Do you object to not performing?"

Mark: "No. The last few years we'd always been talking about when we'd do something like this. As it grew bigger and bigger, when the show starts we're on stage and everyone else is on their own. And there are times when you can see that Gary and myself walking to the sides of the stage and telling people, 'You've got to do this. You've got to do that.'

"In the end, after doing it last year, I was happier with the end product than with us doing the whole thing. I like playing because I like playing. But can we do a better show if we're working more behind the scenes? Yeah. But it is just a little too big.

"But it was a situation that was gonna happen at some point. It was just when and how."

J.B. tells Gene Ross: "See if you recall this. Early 90's [The 1991 AVN show to be exact]; Saturday of the award show- lunch time at the Sahara. I'd been in the crowd at the trade show with Mark and Gary [from Moonlight Entertainment], and another one of our crew personnel for the award show. We had been going around assigning the last group of presenters and shooting our video. We broke for lunch and ran into you downstairs. We sat down at the little hot dog f---ing stand they had there. We sat at a table and proceeded to have a conversation. You were always a stoic kind of guy. I had only talked to you a couple of times in my life. But you were pissed beyond f---ing belief. You sat down and said, 'f---in' Fish; f---in' Fish.' Like what's up? 'f---in' Angela Summers won [The Best New Starlet], but he's giving it to f---in' Savannah.'"

Mark Stone says that the above recollection is not accurate.

Mark: "I wouldn't take J.B.'s word as an authority on anything. Ask around the business about JB's level of integrity and honesty and forthrightness and you'll get a good picture. JB is persona non grata to most of the business."

Luke: "According to Steve Hirsch [says JB], JB stole $100,000 from Metro."

Mark: "I believe that. JB has done of a lot of horrendous things in this business.

"He worked for me for five years. I'd always thought he was ok. And even after he left in a bad way, and we buried the hatchet later on, and everybody starting blaming me for JB being in the business."

Luke: "What's going on with you these days?"

Mark: "I'm shooting other movies and we're selling catalogue stuff."

Luke: "How many new movies is Moonlight putting out a year?"

Mark: "I'm not shooting for us. We're just doing comps and catalogue right now. I shoot for Wicked and Lucky Smith and AVN and other people. I'm as busy as hell. I'm getting a lot of play on VH1 right now for that Porn To Rock 2.

"So what do you hear about how this is playing with people?"

Luke: "I'm not objective. I love to bash AVN. I'm surprised by how little reaction these revelations have caused and how solidly people line up behind AVN and condemn Gene Ross. In my understanding, Gene's just telling it straight. Stuff he's seen first hand. But people don't care if AVN is corrupt."

Mark: "I love Gene. But obviously you don't do something like this unless you are really burned to the bone. And when you're out to paint somebody as an asshole that a lot of people know very well, Fishbein's a quirky guy. People who know are going to know how he is. It's not going to be a giant surprise to a lot of people. If you're going to quote that Fishbein flipped out, then yeah, what else is new? I don't know if there were a lot of big surprises there for a lot of people.

"It's [reactions] been mild. No 'Wow, did you read what Gene said? Shit, this is terrible. They suck.' Definitely they're [AVN] in a position over there that no matter what they do, they're damned. There's no way to do that show without some people thinking that the fix is in for this one. There's no escaping that. No matter how clean..."

Luke: "Whenever serious charges have been raised in the past against AVN, AVN has replied. Now AVN hasn't said jack."

Mark: "If I was advising Fishbein about this, I'd tell him not to respond. Why?"

Luke: "I'm devoting every ounce of energy to pouring fuel on this flame and it's not taking off."

Mark: "It's gotta be that people really don't care in the end. Enough people understand that a lot of it is meaningless. Especially if you look at those prime examples, such as Rob Black winning. If Fishbein was going to be choosing, Rob Black doesn't win. Nic Cramer was on stage at one time and said, 'Oh jeez, I won. I guess it is not fixed.' There have been a bunch of people over the years who've been shocked that they won.

"Steve from Wicked always says - the first year that he won a lot of awards, it was a big surprise. But now, a few years later, he's successful. Now he's always mentioned, 'If you're not Wicked and this and that...' It's all related to some sort of graft and advertising. I've got to tell you that it just isn't. From what I've seen, it is not.

"And if Paul knows that it is honest. And if he keeps those ballots... You've checked those ballots before, right? I have too. And it looked legitimate to me. And in the end, it's just all a big lovefest anyway, isn't it?"

Luke: "In the end, it's interesting for the human drama."

Mark: "To people who know Gene and Paul, it's going to be interesting. But to a lot of the business, their eyes are going to glaze over and they're not going to give a f--- about incidents that happened ten years ago and vague charges of politics. You guys are pouring all the gas you can on it and it's just not taking."

JB tells Gene: "Stevie Hirsch tried to get me fired from Video Team. He told Chris Mann that I stole $100,000 from Metro. I wish there had been $100,000 at any f---ing time to work with. We were doing $120,000 movies with $40,000 in the bank chasing money all the time. People would always talk shit and that's the hardest thing. There's some really vindictive little f---in' dress-wearing f---s in this business who don't got the balls to stand up to you, but they'll f--- with you and put knives in your back all over town."

Luke says: I cruised by Gene Ross and found this interview which Gene must've done with Mark Stone weeks ago.

Mark: "[A]t the end of last year's show, Fishbein was so freaked out because he knew that anything that was bad about the show was directly as a result of his insistence upon asinine things we told him not to do... Immediately after the show was over with, he runs up on stage and in front of Dyanna [Lauren] and somebody else and then in front of another couple of people he was calling for witnesses to say to me, 'Next year I don't want you guys to have anything to do with the show. I want witnesses to hear me saying this.'

"Now, over the last year, he has slowly been taking everything- a lot of the actual producing of stuff - he's handing that over to that f---ing moron Lisa [Love]. She's a moron. She's unqualified for the f---ing job. Maybe she's qualified to suck his dick...

""Not only do I consider it a betrayal type of thing, this f---ing guy went back on his word and all that stuff. But he's going to kill the f---ing golden goose singlehandedly.

"For some reason Russ Hampshire's always the one that comes to mind that must be saying to him, 'are you going to have those f---ing guys again? Well I'm not going to buy any f---ing tables.'

"Gary more than me, but both of us, I need the f---ing money I make from this show... But I came right in and said, 'hey, you've got us by the f---ing balls, you know we need the money. Why don't you f--- us real hard and cut us out of the whole thing.' I was so f---ing pissed off at him. Fishbein is now going to tell us exactly how he wants the show to do and we're supposed to execute it. I have no idea what this f---ing guy wants to do. It's sick. The f---ing guy's going to ruin this f---ing show. He's been constant- total about faces every couple of days."

Luke called Mark Stone at 4:30 PM Thursday.

Mark: "Does anybody really give a f---?"

Luke: "When did you do that interview with Gene?"

Mark: "That wasn't an interview. That was off the record comments. That was all off the record. I don't deny one word of it. Matter of fact, it was so verbatim that he must've taped it.

"That was when it first went down. It didn't go down right. However, why I don't deny one single word of what I said there, in the end, Fishbein was right. It was the right decision. It was something that went down. I didn't like the way it went down at the time. I flipped my lid like I do every once in a while. It's a forgotten incident to me. The major decision, this was the year to pull us out of the band, this was the right decision.

"Under the circumstances, at the time it happened, I didn't like the way it went down. And it f---ing pissed me off. In the end, do I consider it a big huge thing? No I don't. Will we play the awards show in the future? I say we will."

Luke: "Damn, it's funny reading though."

Mark: "There are lines in there, as I'm reading, and damn, that's exactly what I f---ing said. And it's over a year later. Gene must've been taping it and if he wants to say that I am full of shit with the Fishbein spinmeisters and all that... I don't have that giant burn. Everything there [on Gene Ross] is word for word what I said."

Luke: "Very funny."

Mark: "Yes it is. But it was over a year ago."

Luke: "Gene must be holding a lot of good stuff."

Mark: "Oh man, if Gene taped me every time I called him off the record. He'll be able to quote some horrendous shit back and it will be at least as funny as that. But that was a pretty good one. I was f---ing livid at the time.

"Everybody is a human being. Nobody is a perfect Jesus Christ. And you can't have a relationship with somebody for 15 years and not have some incidents like that.

"I like to stand for truth, justice and the American way. But sometimes in the course of business, business forces you to shade the truth. Or even color the truth to a degree that you normally wouldn't want to. But as far as me flipping out personally with Fishbein. Yeah, I was totally pissed. Yeah, I was totally f---ing burned.

"Is that burn anywhere near in existence now? No. Was it the right move to pull the band out of there at that point? I think so. Is there ever going to be a band as good as us playing the awards show? No way. We did too many different things too well.

"It's all true and it all so doesn't matter. George Bush is going to be president no matter what goes on these f---ing websites. As I said earlier today, it's all entertainment. And I can definitely see people reading this and laughing their ass off. Because there's some good colorful language in there.

"Yes, that was an off the record conversation and Gene put it out there. Everybody's gotta make their own judgement about that. Am I super f---ing burned that Gene put that out there? I gotta say no. Do I think he should've done that? No, he shouldn't have done that. Does it offend me and make me f---ing hate his guts? No.

"I think it underscores that he wants to put the screws to Fishbein no matter what.

"Was I surprised that it was a huge f---ing headline? Yeah. And do I wish that he had better pictures of me to post? Yeah. The last couple of pictures up there have been terrible. My main complaint about the thing is please use better pictures."

AVN's Rebecca Gray Writes Scripts For Wicked, Vivid

Gene Ross writes: Rebecca Gray Wrote "Kissing Game" for Wicked Pictures and Reviewed Her Own Movie For AVN.

"[T]he stench of Rebecca Gray's vagina is all over this year's AVN Awards. In light of recent revelations that Gray co-wrote the multi-award winning Seven Deadly Sins for Vivid and the fact that Gray continues to write scripts for Wicked, both Wicked and Vivid films should thus be considered ineligible."

Gene Ross Fires Back At His Critics

Gene Ross writes:

"I have to make comment regarding some of the observations being offered by shithouse pundits on Luke F-rd's site. These are people in the know? Yeah, right. For starters, let's get one thing crystal clear. Ken Wood is NOT an employee of Extreme Associates. And, at least until I'm informed otherwise, truth is the best defense, and everything I've said so far on this site is One Hundred percent accurate. No exaggerations. Meetings did occur as I have related them. Statements are quoted as they were said.

"Alan Miles, particularly, seems to have a lot to say on the subject of trash-talking. Is Miles forgetting how he wanted me to do a website hatchet job on attorney Clyde DeWitt several months ago and I didn't? And, all of this talk about an Extreme magazine? Yeah. Rob Black's putting one out. It's a hardcore publication ostensibly being distributed by David Sturman. It has nothing to do with AVN.

"Somebody also raised the notion that current employees over at AVN are content. Duuuuh. They should be. What remains is the thick-as-thieves [yeah, tell us about the real origins of The Money Shot, guys] Arizona Mafia over there with the exception of Tod Hunter and Mark Kernes."

Alan Miles writes: Luke: "As I have already told Gene in an email today: I have never even mentioned the name Clyde DeWitt to Gene in a bad way at all, and don't know why he dreamed that up. Clyde is a friend and I've never said anything bad about him -- no reason to. I did mention to Gene a while back [in response to one of Gene's posts at AVN] that Clyde, while working as a prosecutor for Harris County, Texas, co-wrote the Texas law outlawing "obscene devices." That law was passed in 1978. This is fact and has nothing to do with any "trashing" anyone."

Goddess writes Gene: "I generally agree with the things you say, BUT I don't agree with the answer you gave Rachel Worth the other day, and I think she is making a very good point. You can't liken yourself to a reporter going into a third world country and coming back and reporting on what he saw, when you were a PART OF THIS FOR 14 YEARS. Whether you agreed with his choices or not, as long as you did what Fish said, you were participating in it. Now you're trying to separate yourself from it, and it just doesn't fly. Whatever the reason you want to give for not leaving, it was STILL YOUR CHOICE, and with every word you use against Fish, you're revealing a great deal about your own ethics.

Gene sez: "Yeah, and what's your point?"

Porn Pro writes Luke: "As an old newspaper man, Ross should be ashamed of his constant shameless skewing of the facts. His relationship to the truth has become dubious at best. It's obvious that the only brand of journalism he's practicing currently is the never-let-the-facts-get-in-the-way-of-a-good-story brand. With each new emotional posting about AVN (Ross's form of self-administered psychotherapy), his credibility goes further and further into the toilet. He should know better. And the sad thing is, he does."

Gene sez: "So this moron would have to know the real facts to know them I'm skewering them. Since I've been giving, exclusive behind-the-scenes reportage, that mean this moron was there. I don't recall ever seeing him."

Porn Pro writes Luke: "Has it ever occured to you and The Bitter One (Ross) that AVN hasn't responded to all your unsubstantiated, loose-with-the-truth allegations simply because NO ONE GIVES A GOOD GODDAMN about all that inside baseball other than the two of you, who quite obviously, desperately need to get lives?"

Extreme director Thomas Zupko writes Gene: "I also know FOR A FACT that a certain [AVN] reviewer was bribed with cash, whores, and various other unsundry pleasures as an enticement for a positive review and award eligibility."

Zupko writes that he used to believe that AVN Awards were handed out on the basis of merit.

"When Gene initially arrived at Extreme and started exposing AVN for the corrupt organization it is, I took it all with a grain of salt...But then... I realized—much to my regret—that everything he was saying was true, that what I once believed to be a system of merit was essentially a system of rewards based on greasing the slimy palms of Fishbein and filling the coffers of AVN..."

Zupko wonders why the AVN trophies don't include the winner's name, even though the winners are decided two weeks before the awards show. Could it be that sometimes the winners are chosen arbitrarily at the last moment?

Zupko and Gene say that Paul Fishbein has tremendous power in the adult industry, not because he deserves it, but because porners are cowards and don't want to stand up to AVN.

Jay writes Gene about the process companies go through when they're unhappy with an AVN review. For instance, Adam&Eve's Apassionata (starring Asia Carrera) was originally given a 7 rating, then rereviewed in a later issue with a 9 rating. A similar thing happened to A&E's Snow Leopard (also starring Asia). Initially it was reviewed poorly (but this review was not published) but then it was given to someone else who gave it a high rating.

Gene writes about the Apassionata matter: ""My recollection of the incident was there was some major bitching waged on the original rating, and it was changed. I saw Appasionata. I would have given it it's original rating."

Adam&Eve advertise big in AVN.

I believe that Bruce Walker and Lynne Lopatin were dropped as AVN reviewers (around 1993?) after they gave an Ed Powers tape a low rating.

Gene brought Rebecca Gray into AVN (in 1997?), and helped bring in Bryn Pryor as managing editor (1997?), later followed by Mikey Ramone (1999?). He now regrets his initial support for all three members of the "Arizona Mafia," the term now given to the clique around former AVN managing editor Bryn Pryor aka Mark Logan.

Gene interviews Susan Block, Paul Fishbein's former office manager. Block says she learned from Cherise, former AVN receptionist, that there were problems with the company's 401K plan.

Block says: "Because Cherise said she tried to get her money out three times. And she's being told that the account's open and like redeposits are being made or something, but the amount of money she feels that should be in there is not. There's enough robbing Peter to pay Paul that goes on. We know the kind of shit that he [Paul?] always did and everything, but that's not right.

"He's [Paul?] gone through how many people in accounting? I'm beginning to wonder if he doesn't go through them regularly so they don't find out too much what's going on. When they learn a lot where the body's are buried, all of a sudden they're not working there any more. It's very strange. Does he still have that damned weasel [Darren Roberts] running everything over there. God, that is like to me the single worst taint-association of a lifetime. Because ever since that guy's come along, it seems like everything started going downhill really fast."

Gene receives an email about the AVN Expo. "At the CES show this year all exhibitors signed contracts for a booth for a 4 Day show, that same 4 days it has been for years, then, after many months AVN sends out a fax to all exhibitors a few weeks back, who have already paid for a 4 DAY SHOW, saying that it is now only a 3 DAY SHOW, but no one gets any money back --huh?" (Gene Ross)

Gene wants to ask Paul Fishbein under oath: "Have you now or ever been a paid consultant of an adult video company?"

Meaning, does Paul Fishbein have a financial interest in other porn operations outside of AVN? Does he stand to profit from the successes of porners who he "journalistically" covers in his magazines and websites?

12/10/00

Gene Ross Updates

I've been reading Gene's site.

He seems to allege that Fishbein and Edward Wedelstedt were business partners for years until a recent breakup. This allowed Paul to publish a story on how the feds busted Wedelstedt and found about two million dollars at his home. The AVN article at the time promised further updates but Paul apparently put the kabosh on that. There have been no further AVN updates on the Wedelstedt bust.

Gene writes further in satirical mode about Metro Home Video's Kenneth Guarino: "Howdy Paulie had made similar mistakes in the past when he had the show's clown character, Clarakernes, report on the hilarious antics of Buffalo Kenny G. Buffalo Kenny G. was pissed off about that and Howdy Paulie, copping ignorance, sold out Clarakernes and the show's Indian character Chief Thunder Ross. Howdy Paulie had even threatened to fire Chief Thunder Ross, even though the story on Buffalo Kenny G. was commissioned by Howdy Paulie himself in front of witnesses. Reruns are now available in syndication so today's kids can enjoy all the rollicksome antics in Paulieville."

Earlier in the week, Gene published an email from Extreme director Thomas Zupko who alleged that an AVN reviewer "was bribed with cash, whores, and various other unsundry pleasures as an enticement for a positive review and award eligibility."

Ross then receives an email which names the reviewer as Mark Kernes.

Bruno writes Gene: "Kernes was 'allegedly' wined and dined by Ray Pistol and supplied with entertainment of the female persuasion - this in exchange for coming out to Vegas, and doing an on-the-set piece and later lauding Goddaughter 5 in a review. Divine Brown winning a Best Screenplay nod? Wasn't that the hooker that sucked off Hugh Grant? And isn't she Ray Pistol's girlfriend? How cozy. And that's not all, Kernes is in deep with Seymore Butts. Why do you think Kernes is so pro-Butts in his write-ups of the Sunshine decision? Talk to Chuck Martino. Seymore has a smooth way of patching up the bodywork in Kernes' dented 401K. You bet. If this is all true, the stench of Mark Kernes' ball cheese is all over Goddaughter 5, a movie that's actually worse than Godfather 3."

Goddaughter 5 got nominated by AVN for Best Video, Best Director [Bud Lee], Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Group Sex Scene, Best Overall Marketing Campaign and Best Screenplay.

Esad writes on l-keford.com: dear luke, please tell gene ross that i am deeply offended that he thinks i am Bryn from Avn! I happen to be alot funnier than Bryn and i purchase my computers from stores that take credit cards! Nice try Geno, but believe it or not you have people within your own little porno world that dislike you and your holier and thou attitude. the way you would hold court at the CES show giving away AVN talent tickets like you were King Solomon (jew reference for you, luke ) dispensing wisdom! Gene you make Fishbein appear to be almost human, or at least his skin color and hair are! Luke will you post some very funny pictures of gene and paul if i can find them? have a nice weekend! esad"

Gene responds: "Okay you fat f---. That posting gave you away. The next time you come into Extreme I'll walk up to you in front of everybody and scream Esad in your face, you fat-faced, f--- piece of shit, poor excuse for a porn star. That comment about the tickets was your undoing. And you want to know why you never got a ticket? It's because Fishbein never recognized you as a porn performer you fat f---. So go steal some more phone numbers and make midnight obscene phone calls to women. That's what you're best at doing. Leave the Internet games to the big boys you alcohol-pasted fat-faced f---. You're going to rat out Extreme? You're done at Extreme. You're done in this business, you fat-bellied, Internet-mark f---. How dare you talk about wrestling angles to Luke F-rd, you piece of fat f--- shit. As Rob Black stated weeks ago, we invented the game."

I believe that Ross may refer to a former assistant to Jim South.

David Aaron Clark writes Gene: "I must say all this new-found frankness rings a little false in the context of who's footing the bill -- looking forward to those exposes of Extreme's bad business dealings and inhumane attitudes with my breath held, y'know? Much less a detailed expose on the various crimes against humanity committed by our mutual old pal John T. Bone."

TP writes: "Gene: I work at Vivid. Just thought you'd like to know that Steve Hirsch just issued a new company-wide edict: anyone at Vivid who talks or e-mails you will be fired on the spot. This all stems from the e-mail you received from Mike Barbella a few days ago. Hirsch saw it and blew a gasket. He dressed Barbella down in front of several people, saying he didn't want his company or anyone who worked for it associated with "trash like that.""

Gene sez: "Should that story be true, wouldn't you think this single courageous act would qualify Hirsch for a Freedom Isn't Free Award this year at Night of the Stars?"

According to Ross's site, "Fishbein had a very clever way to obtain email lists which he then sold to a marketing firm for big bucks. Under the guise of creating another bogus annual retailer survey, Fishbein wanted it rewritten in a way where the questions in the survey wouldn't matter. Not that it ever did. It was fluff to support his wily purposes - to get the retailers' email addresses. The survey said if you give your email address you'll get a free subscription to AVN. The whole point was he was going to sell tens of thousands of email addresses to an Internet marketing firm. Of course not telling people that is very unethical, like that would matter to the commandante. Basically, retailers, if you're getting lots of spam mail these days, thank Fishbein. But that's okay. Fishbein made out."

Frank writes: Do you suspect that Rob Black is going to use Gene and then dump him? Gene is burning a lot of bridges right now.

Luke says: Rob and Gene have been good friends for years and I believe their relationship will last a long time.

Frank: Why does Rob hate AVN enough to finance this attack?

Luke: Rob hates the inner AVN-Vivid-VCA clique which dominates the industry. Rob also loves publicity. Rob and Gene are a good fit.

XXX says: "Adult Video Nudes (a 1994 video written by Gene Ross) was about Adult Video News. And 'The Money Shot' sprang from that. Took it one step further. About a mythical magazine based on AVN. Rebecca Gray got credit for the script for The Money Shot but it was stolen from Gene.

"They, Rebecca, Ken Michaels, Bryn Pryor and the Arizona Mafia, took the whole idea from behind Gene's back. Gene was the one who organized the first meeting and brought them all into the fold. Gene said, I want you guys to be a part of it. Next thing Gene knows, they've taken the project behind his back and want to squeeze him out of it. Nice people."

Luke: "When Paul looks at me in the eye, I believe everything he says."

XXX: "That's what Paul's good at. Looking you in the eye and lying. He does that to everybody. He'll call you in like he's taking you into his confidence, and then he'll call somebody else in and give them a totally different story than the one he gave you. And you feel like you're getting a private secret. And then he wants to play people against each other. Yet he comes across as Mr. Sincerity.

"This may go back to Gene's tarrot card training. For the first time Gene met him, Gene didn't like him. But then he thought, adult. Sounds interesting. I'm in for the ride."

Gene recalls: "I'll never forget the first time I sat across the desk from AVN publisher Paul Fishbein. He had the phone craddled in his left hand, and I noticed that his right hand was snaking down his pants. Then I realized it. The man was playing with his balls. Even to this day Fishbein does that - play with his balls."

Porner Don Barzini says: It's amazing how everybody's extremely sensitive about themselves. Even an ultra tough guy like Gene Ross. You can see he's irked by me and Esad, etc. I think Gene Ross and Ken Wood are out on a limb right now. I don't think that anyone in the business thinks what Gene is doing is cool. Porners think he's breaking the code of omerta.

You can't work at a place for 14 years and escape culpability. Goddess called it for what it was. If you singlehandedly built that magazine, why didn't you say at one point, 'I'm leaving or I get a piece'?

I don't think anyone in the business will hire Gene now if his deal with Rob Black falls apart. Because they won't trust him. They won't feel safe letting him on anything. And because they will fear Paul Fishbein's AVN wrath.

Gene's not doing this for a sense of porno justice. Gene and Extreme have a goal here, and it is to take down AVN. And replace them as the industry's mouthpiece.

Or is it just personal? Do Gene and Rob Black just hate Paul Fishbein that much? AVN gives Rob a lot of pages and a lot of publicity and a lot of awards and they're kind to his shows.

Tom Zupko looked like a fool venting so much anger over getting an AVN Spotlight Pick vs an Editor's Choice.

I'm surprised Gene hasn't gotten into the Bobby Sox controversy. The (1997?) Vivid film was reviewed badly at first by AVN, then suddenly given a great review and then won all sorts of AVN awards. That's the only film I remember in recent years where I heard porners speculate that it was fixed.

12/12/00

Mikey Ramone Named AVN Managing Editor

Here's an article in the October 2000 AVN magazine by Gene Ross:

After several months on the job, Mike Ramone, the new managing editor of AVN, says the position is a perfect fit for his background as a veteran, award-winning journalist and bona-fide pornophile.

Even before he began freelancing for the magazine five years ago, Ramone was a fan of the publication, picking it up every month to preview the latest releases on the porn horizon. Since that time, he has written hundreds of reviews, as well as On The Set pieces, Innerviews and business features — just about the whole gamut of what AVN has to offer.

“Being managing editor is truly a privilege and an honor, and I really look forward to helping to steer this magazine’s coverage of the adult industry into the new millennium,” Ramone, a native of Philadelphia, says.

AVN publisher and editor Paul Fishbein, another City of Brotherly Love expatriate [as is AVN V.P. of Editorial Operations Gene Ross], says of Ramone, “We like these Philadelphia guys who have strong work ethics and great journalism skills. Mike has the perfect combination of editing and writing skills and a knowledge and appreciation of the adult business.”

A graduate of Philly’s Temple University [as is Fishbein], Ramone moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s.

AVN Gossip

I hear that Paul Fishbein has threatened to fire any staffer who corresponds with me.

This link refers to a Paul Fishbein who serves as vice president of Amermar Enterprises of Philadelpia, the home town of the AVN publisher. Is this the same Paul Fishbein?

From the 06/08/1999 The Harrisburg Patriot

Lower Allen Twp. commissioners [in the Philadelphia area] are girding for residents' reaction to the anticipated opening of an Excitement Video adult bookstore on Hartzdale Drive near the Capital City Mall.

State records show that Global Video Inc. was formed on Nov. 10, 1997. Its officers are Paul Fishbein, Stewart Franks, Scott Herman and David Betesh. Records show that Fishbein, Franks and Herman also are involved in the operation of the Excitement Video store on Jonestown Road in Susquehanna Twp.

Global opened a retail store in the Hartzdale Drive location last year, but closed it down after the township issued a cease-and-desist order. Global then filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg against Lower Allen, claiming Lower Allen violated its constitutional rights and that the township's regulations on adult bookstores were overly broad. The suit said township regulations defined an adult bookstore as an establishment that contains, among other things, books and magazines that focus on certain anatomical areas or certain sexual activities.

Did You Read Tod Hunter Today?

Tod Hunter writes on AVNGossip.com: "Had lunch last week with Wicked Pictures VP Joy King and Publicist Daniel Metcalf and they told me that Rebecca Gray did not write Wicked's The Kissing Game, which got a solo writing credit by Brad Armstrong. They also said Brad was very surprised by the allegation."

Luke says: My source remains firm that Rebecca did write the movie. Perhaps she wrote the script under a different title and it was transformed into The Kissing Game? I've emailed Wicked for comment.

Tod Hunter could also ask his fellow AVN scribe Ken Michaels, who allegedly alleged that Rebecca Gray wrote The Kissing Game.

Believing that their own employer is on shaky ground, one or two members of the AVN editorial department, I've heard, have talked to people at Wicked Pictures about employment opportunities.

Gene Ross writes:

1. When it comes to Wicked Pictures, Tod Hunter is a major practitioner of artful obsequiousness, so his attempts to curry favor would be thoroughly understandable

2. Bryn Pryor and Joy King of Wicked are oooooooooh so tight and thus the pipeline for Gray to Wicked has already been established; wouldn't be surprising if Pryor's already directed some features for them on-the-sly.

3. Gray's participation in The Kissing Game was big talk of the AVN office.

Ken Wood, as quoted on Luke F-rd: "I noticed that Luke and Gene jumped all over my comments about Tod Hunter dating porn star Sonja Redd. I've never had a problem with anybody having a relationship with somebody in the industry providing that they did not seek to influence things on that person's behalf at awards time..."

Tod here: Two things:

1. I do not discuss my relationship with Sonja Redd.

2. I may have suggested her at the Nominations meeting but everybody went along with it. And if I had any "influence... at awards time" she would have won.

Farrell Timlake from HomegrownVideo.com writes Tod: Remember the flick "Mutiny on the Bounty"? Of course, as you being the film buff that you are would be quite well aware that I am referring to the Brando version.

A classic is a classic, especially when it is based on a true story, which of course the story of the HMS Bounty was a true tale. Do you recall? So full of moral dilemma. An admiral who is hard facing many problems in a turbulent sea, then finding salvation on an island paradise. There, he is only to find that once order is restored and all are denied their ephemeral splendor, the crew chooses mutiny and sets a lamentable course.

Now, who was right or wrong when both are right and wrong? I think, if I remember correctly, the theme of the film is that there must be some order, some structure of decree even in paradise I am not going to give away the epilogue. Everyone should see it. History just may be repeating itself once again. Let's watch and see. You know what I mean?

Tod Hunter writes: Ken Michaels - apparently the "source" of the Rebecca-Gray-wrote-Kissing-Game story - offers this description of what really happened:

"No, I haven't "alleged" that Rebecca wrote The Kissing Game. I read about it on the websites (just like everyone else). A few people here have asked me about it and my comment to them (after checking the AVN database) was that she had apparently written THE REVIEW - gave it an Editor's Choice. Thus I opined that IF she had written the movie - whether her review was an honest one or not - that could be seen as bad.

"Somebody at AVN - the editorial offices in particular, which is where the subject was discussed - needs to get their bullshit straight before they talk with their friends and/or report it to Luke and Gene. And yeah, I've asked Rebecca about this. She tells me she wrote the review but not the flick."

Fishbein Cancels His Appearance On Tera Show

Monday morning, AVN publisher Paul Fishbein cancelled his appearance on the Tera Patrick show December 19th. Fishbein had been promising to answer all questions.

Then Digital Playground, sponsor of the show, sent out a press release promising that various adult journalists would be in the audience to see Fishbein answer the tough questions.

Paul's now chickened out. He's using the excuse that his lawyers have counselled him to not comment.

I bet Fishbein's racked up over $10,000 in legal fees dealing with the charge from GeneRossExtreme.com.

As the Talmud says, silence implies consent. By staying silent, Fishbein and AVN are implying that Gene and Ken's charges are true. After all, Gene and Ken had a first person view of almost everything they've stated.

If I was accused of the things Fishbein's been accused of, you'd never be able to keep me silent. I sure wouldn't hide behind lawyers.

And speaking of Gene, let's go to his site and check his highlights:

"Rossano walked and later began publishing his memoirs although taken to task for it from rats within the Luca Fordzi organization who accused him of breaking omerta- the code of silence. An odd comment to make since codes of silence usually suggest there were coverups of a sinister nature to begin with."

12/13/00

Paul Fishbein, Gene Ross and the AVN 401k Plan

Esad writes: "Dear Luke, For over two weeks now Gene Ross and others have taken AVN to task regarding alleged errors in their 401K program. I would like to pose the following questions to Michael G., Gene Ross, and Paul Fishidiot; If there was mishandling of the funds was it deliberately abused for personal gain or was it an accounting error that Fishidiot had nothing to do with as per his normal brilliant management style, and he is simply the victim of a bad bookeeper or shoddy accounting? I also wonder how many other adult companies even offer their employees the benefits of a 401k program as part of their employee package? Luke, these are questions legitimate questions that you should seek the answers too.. What does Vivid, VCA, Extreme, and other companies offer their employees? Did people like Gene Ross, and Michael Scumbag receive company sponsored 401k matchs or was it all of their own money in the pot? I personally believe that Fishidiot is as an employer is well ahead of most when it comes to providing for his staff, unfortunately he lacks the business skills at times to properly oversee his empire."

Gene Ross replies: "Until Esad comes forward with his real name, this person won't be acknowledged by me. I will not answer any of his questions.

"However, the contention about the 401K plan. Was it an accounting error? It was an accounting error that went on for three years according to Ken Michaels.

"And number two, originally, the 401K was sold to the [AVN] employees as matching contributions. That stopped. AVN hasn't been matching funds. Initially AVN was going to match you dollar for dollar, it didn't happen. It stopped after awhile.

"These are the things that the uninformed know nothing about. I still say that Esad is somebody on the inside at AVN. I think they're just throwing some blind errors in there to make it look like...

"Until Esad has the balls to come forth and be recognized under a real name, a name that is identifiable in the industry, this person has absolutely no credibility whatsoever in what they're saying. And all their comments should be taken as such.

"And don't give me a number such as John Smith. That don't mean shit. Unless you're a name that's recognized in the industry, sorry, but you have no credibility. And that goes for anybody who's an established or frequent emailer to any site. And that goes for some famous people that we see landing up on the sites, voicing their opinion. They are not part of the day to day goings on in this business. And all they know is what they read and what they hear from somebody else. Unless you see it first hand, you are not an established credible person. [Chaim, Godess, Curious, Lord Peter, Gene means you!]"

Sue writes Luke: "I tried at one point to email Gene, get in touch with Gene, after he kept serving as the misinformation mouthpiece of Stephen Cohen regarding the Kremen v. Cohen lawsuit, and he would NOT return my calls, or email me. Gene is serious that (to him) if you are not a name-brand person in the industry you have no credibility....this is an unfortunate attitude, one I'm glad you don't share."

Gene: "People can say that I am lying my ass off. I'm sorry. Everything that I'm reporting, I've seen first hand. From God's mouth to my ear. And I don't give a shit if anybody believes what I have to say or not. There's no motive here. I'm simply writing what I've seen in the business."

Luke: "Everybody I talk to in the business believes that what you're writing about AVN is true."

Gene: "Of course because everybody in the business has seen it. I'm the first one to talk about it. And I'm not trying to be some kind of martyr here. But if I am going to write about my observations in the business, I no longer have to color them in pastel colors. It is or what it is. Here's what happened. Here's the conversation we had. Here's an instance that happened at the Cancun Conference or something. If you choose not to believe it, that's fine. I just happened to be the one who was there."

Luke: "Did you see Ken Michaels try to get out of accusing Rebecca Gray of writing 'The Kissing Game' on Tod Hunter site (AVNGossip.com)?"

Gene: "Just trying to see Ken Michaels get out of a pair of pants would be funny enough.

"As I said, everything that's going on on my site was either reported to me first hand or I saw first hand. I'm not going up there and making up shit [like Luke does]. I'm not telling you about somebody getting blowjobs in the mens room when it didn't happen. I've got enough factual stuff, which is funny enough, to not have to go out there and make up shit. Though some people actually did believe that humorous bit I put up there about AVN employees receiving $5000 Christmas bonuses. Actually, some AVN freelancers emailed me wondering if it was true.

"What was the tip off? The accounting firm of Dooey, Cheetem and How? Duh!"

Luke: "Farrel Timlake was being facetious when he accused AVN of responsibility for Savannah's suicide?"

Gene: "Of course. Though he was actually reporting real things that happened at the table he was sitting at... But he was putting a facetious spin on the whole thing.

"According to the accounts [crack AVN writer] Ken Michaels offered me via his conversation with Roland Roth [AVN controller]... This had happened for three consecutive years. I'm sure it was 'mishandled.' The way it was reported via Ken Michaels, the money was used to pay bills. So that doesn't sound like mishandling to me.

"On one of my last couple of days at AVN, I had this conversation with Ken Michaels outside. He asked me if I had heard from Ken Wood. And I said no, but by the way, one of the last things that Ken Wood had mentioned to me was that you had told him all about this whole 401K business.

"And Ken Michaels picked up the conversation by coming in my office fifteen minutes later and he proceeded to tell me what it was all about. And yes, he did back up Ken Wood's account to me. Ken Wood said that he had also talked to Roland and there were a number of employees who knew there were irregularities.

"I had noticed on my own quarterly statement that money was dropping. I'm trying to figure, the market was strong. I'm seeing moneys not being there that should be there. So maybe it was an aberration and I never thought to ask. It just came up in a conversation one day. I started talking to Ken Wood, had anybody noticed this? And he replied, well, didn't you know? And then he proceeded to tell me what he knew. And I'm going, holy shit.

"And no sooner had Ken Wood left than I had a phone conversation with Susan Block, Paul's former office manager, who told me that other former AVN employees had noticed the same thing in their statements. Something didn't seem to be right.

"I'm not accusing anybody of anything. This is what was told me. I didn't get in a personal uproar where I confronted anybody over there. I just took it for what it was. This could have many different explanations but the way everybody was getting in an uproar over there, it seemed that this was the situation that needed to be looked into. I am not accusing anybody of wrongdoing. I never did on this site. I'm just saying this is what went down. People were saying this and it seemed to be the talk of the office."

Is There No Justice For The Black Man At AVN?

When a stud like Lexington Stelle, with his juicy juggernaut cock, is left out of the AVN nominations for Male Performer of the Year, it makes you question the integrity of such awards.

Gene Ross says: "I had an interesting interview with Lexington Steele yesterday and Lexington Steele's of the opinion that he was greased out of the Performer of the Year nominations of the year this year because of his affiliations. He wouldn't come out and say "Anabolic" but it is Anabolic. Anabolic and AVN don't get along. And it is his heartfelt thought that that is what happened. That it is a political situation.

"He was very serious. He felt hurt. He said, 'Listen, if you assemble the top ten male performers in the world, I've got to be in the top five.' I've got nothing against the men who were nominated this year. They're all solid performers. It's just puzzling to him that he wasn't included, especially after he had won last year.

"You can look at it two ways. Was it a gross oversight? Perhaps. Or was it politics? Who knows?"

Hairmaster writes:

Luke, Much as I've enjoyed the last few weeks of AVN-trashing, it's getting tired (Paul Fishbein is corrupt and his staff are a bunch of hopeless losers; big news). So, in the interest of Interest, I've decided to wage my own one-man war against the biggest loser EVER to work at AVN, and the only man more hated by the adult industry than Fishbein: Gene Stormin' Halitosis Ross.

Now, I realize that it's possible you won't print this since you seem to have become Ross' personal butt-boy lately, but maybe you've got some balls left, like you had in the old days. Let's find out. (By the way, Luke, the dirt I'm about to dish took maybe 12 hours to dig up. If you want to have some real fun, look into old Geno's past. It's hysterical)

The best part about reading these rantings from Ross has been how he paints himself, and his other personal butt-boy Ken Wood, as total saints in their history with the most boring magazine on the planet. And since rumor has it that Fishbein has threatened to fire any AVN staffer who responds to you, and you seem to be too interested in quaffing Gene's choad lately to ask any real questions, no one's likely to call them on it. So I thought I would, just because I hate Ross, have for years, and it seems like fun.

Let the carnival of darkness that is Ross's life in porn be told. If you're man enough to print it. Gals, be aware that Geno has a collection of tapes from his encounters. Be sure to check all the cubby holes and potted plants for hidden cameras.

But enough on Gene's charisma. Let's talk business. And for every time Fishbein f---ed Gene over the years, Gene has f---ed Fishbein right back. One of the reasons Gene was so pissed over Sexpose folding is that he was trying to do a deal with Ted Liebowitz to start a competing magazine behind Fishbein's back. When Sexpose went under, that deal fell through. Maybe the reason Fishbein reneged on his ownership deal with Ross is that he knew he couldn't trust the cocksucker.

Gene was making almost 100 grand a year at AVN PLUS Fishbein paid for his car PLUS Fishbein paid for Gene's shitbox apartment PLUS Gene got big Christmas bonuses PLUS he didn't have to DO ANYTHING.

That's right. That was the last straw for little Gene, and that's why he has such a hard-on for Bryn Pryor is that Paul hired Pryor to replace Gene. Ross kept his title, but didn't have anything to do with running the magazine, and everybody in the industry knows it. Until they put up geneross.com to compete with you, Fishbein didn't know what to do with Gene. Ross had no idea what was going on at AVN. He just wrote his little gossip column and kept to himself. Hell, Rebecca Grey's been gone from the magazine since October, and Ross didn't even know until someone told him last week. That's how in touch he was.

Bryn Pryor was a f--- up too, in that everyone who dealt with the magazine hated him. He used to tell company owners to f--- off on the phone, and he got in a fist-fight with Matt Zane at the XRCO Awards. No one really knows why Fishbein kept Pryor around. I've heard he got Paul pussy, but that seems stupid. It was probably the stolen computers deal, or maybe the movie they were supposed to be working on that Ross now claims was stolen from him. Fishbein finally kicked Pryor out of the job when Jeff Steward called Paul's partner, Stewart Franks, and threatened to pull all of Legend's ads unless they got rid of Pryor. Pryor also asked to take over Gene's column when he left, but they wouldn't let him do it, afraid that he would be too abrasive.

As for Money Shot; which Gene keeps whining about being stolen, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) registration lists six creators [including Ross]. The real story seems to be that Ross was also trying to get Ted Liebowitz to finance this, and couldn't come through. Then he hooked up with some producer who wanted to buy the idea, and cut them all out. When he got outvoted by the other five, he backed out and lost interest. They were thrilled because they didn't want to deal with his hack writing anyway, but they kept going to him for approval. He hasn't given any of them the time of day since they went to Fishbein, but now that they're finally doing it as a stupid-ass internet.

Gene Ross says: "As John Bowen has said on many occasions, it is so easy for people to hide behind a cloak of anonymity. And make all kinds of charges.

"As for videotaping women with secret cameras, that is nonsense. That's some nonsense charge levelled at me two years ago on your site.

"I paid for my apartment, and if AVN is declaring that as a business expense, then we have an IRS violation. I was not making $100,000 a year. I did have a company car. I said that I had negotiated a deal to come to California.

"Remember, I've always stressed - it [unhappiness with AVN] was never over money. I did not get big Christmas bonuses.

"Money is the last thing I will beat somebody up on. I will always take the high road. I will never argue with anybody about money. I never have and never will."

"Paul did not hire Pryor. I hired Bryn Pryor.

"If AVN kept me on with such a lavish salary and nothing to do, it must've been a payoff. They were paying me to keep my mouth shut.

"Yeah, I wrote my gossip column and kept to myself. But doesn't that contradict the previous statement that I had nothing to do? I was focused on working over there. I did not have time for interoffice gossip. All these other people did. Rebecca Gray being gone from the magazine since October. That's bullshit."

Today Gene publishes on his site GeneRossExtreme:

El Zorro writes: "Watch out my amigo, commandante Fishbein is hatching a plot of a diversionary nature. There will be a string of anonymous emails detailing how you allegedly sailed through AVN on a cush salary and did nothing; and how you were in bed with Ted Leibowitz to do a magazine with him."

Gene sez: "If I was sailing at AVN, that then suggests that I must have had something on somebody and was being paid to keep my yap shut. As far as Leibowitz is concerned my last contact with the gentleman was a couple of years ago at dinner when he asked me if 'Fishbein was still banging the Mexican broad.' I understand Paul was very upset that that cat got let out of the bag.

"And let's keep one thing in perspective, shall we, all the detractors have are broadside comments to make lacking wit and texture. My stories include substance with all the details, times, places, etc., not to mention written with panache, style and grace. Something seriously lacking at AVN. Frankly, who's more believable?"

Ross quotes from AVN publisher Paul Fishbein's 1997 letter to Alex Katz of In-X-Cess: "I am deeply offended by your petulant, childlike behavior and your inability to do business like a man. And you have no guts....you are lucky you are in the pornography business, because it is a business of fools," Fishbein goes on to write. "Only in this industry can the most wretched, dishonest, and illiterate make money."

Ross writes: "Fishbein then details the letter with three pages of self-aggrandizement, boasting his integrity, etc., obviously detaching himself from the refuse of the 'dishonest' that he is forced to do business with.

"Think about those comments next time you get an ad solicitation. By the way, Fishbein had me do a grandiose axe job on Katz for geneross.com." (From Gene Ross)

12/14/00

Claudia Prado - AVN Accountant By Day

Gene Ross wrote: "As far as Ted Leibowitz is concerned my last contact with the gentleman was a couple of years ago at dinner when he asked me if 'Fishbein was still banging the Mexican broad.' I understand Paul was very upset that that cat got let out of the bag."

Luke says: I've noticed that AVN has a surfeit of beautiful women working there - among them Jennifer Rosenblatt, head of sales, Lisa Love, Paul's secretary, Nikki Fritz of AVNLive.com and Claudia Prado, the Mexican stunner in accounting.

Lynne asks: Are you prejudiced against women in the creative end of the business, or are there now or have there ever been any there no beautiful female writers, editors, artists and so forth at AVN?

A casual glimpse at a Fishbein profit statement

A casual glimpse at a profit statement from Bush, Levin & Tecosky, certified public accountants, indicates that Fishbein's Philadelphia company FBF Video paid Paul in 1995 $48,400. For advertising and promotion, the company spent $233,582. The company grossed $1.7 million.

YYY, AVN porn insider says that for the AVN Awards show, Paul Fishbein rakes in $125,000 profit.

Luke says: Paul told me that any profit from the shows goes to charity.

YYY: He tells everybody every year that he never makes a dime. If he doesn't make a dime, why does he do it? Charity. The charity is his right pocket. The Paul Fishbein Foundation.

Why Does AVN Corruption Matter?

XXX says: "But this controversy has no effect on sales. It has no effect on production. It has no effect on anybody's livelihood. The moment it does there will be a big reaction. As long as it doesn't, nobody cares. Though it is interesting."

YYY, AVN porn insider replies: "They're wrong. AVN corruption does take break off their tables because certain companies [Vivid, Video Team, etc] get the push over others. For instance, Ben Dover. The whole Ben Dover phenomenon was personally created by Paul Fishbein. Howie Klein, Ben Dover's lead salesman in the US, used to room with Fishbein. Fishbein had some sort of sweetheart deal with Odyssey. Paul pushed Ben Dover to the limit, writing reviews under different names and giving his videos the big push. Even to the extent of creating the Breakthrough Award and giving it to Ben. Everybody in the industry was up in arms over that one.

"Fishbein created the Breakthrough Award to give it to Ben Dover. What the hell is a Breakthrough Award? All Ben Dover was doing was immitating Stagliano."

12/15/00

Massive Lawsuit Awaits Extreme, Gene Ross, Ken Wood?

Esad writes: dear luke, my sources within the pristine walls of that sacred vessel of integrity, AVN, have informed me that some very unpleasant legal action awaits Mr. Ross in the very near future. I believe that Gene will have a great opportunity to write about his "hometown" hookers. It seems that a certain brilliant Pa. lawyer will soon request the company of Mr. Ross and possibly Mr. Black for some romantic quality time, Philadelphia style! Who says you can't go home! From what i have been told Fishidiot will spare no expense in order to have Gene's "real scalp" mounted on his office wall! I have this vision of Fishbein banging porno chicks on his desk gazing up at Gene Ross stuffed and mounted on his wall! I believe the Extreme boys realize they have some serious exposure because they are certainly "tap dancing" now about who said what. I believe Extreme will be having a slight product price increase to cover the costs of their inpending massive legal expense. Fishidiot up to now has hesitated to send in the troops because deep down inside he really likes Rob Black, and he feels sorry for Gene Ross. What an idiot! esad (formerly Bryn, Paul, Kernes, some other fat guy, and now the infamous, "Hairmaster", according to Gene!)

there is a definite fear of your relationship with gene that prohibits contact at this time from other people within or formerly of Extreme. In due time I will "unmask" myself but I assure you that I am not a pro Avn insider. I believe this is the fifth indentity of mine that Gene has succesfully unmasked!. If he ever accuses me of being Steve Hirsch I will have to kill myself.....I can't imagine counting that much money all the time and spending countless hours writing all of those fascinating AVN Award acceptance speechs every January! I don't really like to drink so I can't be Russ Hampshire. I dress to good to be Paul Fishidiot and I really don't like redheads .....Maybe I am Rob Black and ESAD is one of my "funfilled" Extreme publicity stunts?.....Could I be Luke F-rd using ESAD to gain favor with the new powerbroker in porn, Gene Ross? I couldn't be Mark Kernes because I email Luke way to early in the morning, generally before breakfast, which for Kernes isn't over past Lunch! Maybe I am one of the Stone brothers, its not like they have anything real important going on......Chris Mann is a possibility, I like hanging around pretty, loose black chicks, and Chris certainly has the extra brain that fishbein is missing! I think i am that guy Chaim, i don't know who he is but I enjoy his material. Ok gene i am Chaim!

luke, How about contacting all the video companies, including Avn and Extreme, and asking them how much they are giving their employees in the form of a christmas bonuses? Considering the fact that Extreme is 60-90 days behind with most of their vendors I am just wondering how much of "other peoples" money they are giving away? Can Gene Ross provide proof that he was paid a year in advance for climbing into the sewer at Extreme? Is Paul Fishidiot giving Christmas bonuses to his staff or is he spending it all on lawyers?

Luke replies: Gene Ross says he will no longer respond to the anonymous attacks of Esad and company. If you want a response, put your name on the attack and Gene will respond.

1/10/01

Paul Fishbein To Start His Own Wrestling League

Esad writes: Luke, My sources inside the pristine walls of AVN have told me that Paul Fishidiot is currently negotiating to start his own wrestling alliance. Over the last several weeks Fishbein has been making serious plans to form a rival west coast wrestling alliance that will hit Rob Black right where it hurts him the most, in his wallet!

Fishbein has a deep love of wrestling and published his own wrestling magazine when he was fourteen years old with his current AVN partner, Stu Franks. Fishbein along with his mentally unstable ex-wife, owned a Japenese Wrestling Video Company called Dusty Woods Entertainment which specialized in Japanese Wrestling.

Fishbein has close contacts with TV Asahi and Fuji Television in Japan who are both extremely interested in the project. Apparently Fishbein has access to top level Japanese Wrestling Talent that will appear for monthly West Coast Wrestlling Tours.

Fishbein’s Bank, City National Bank, thrilled with Fishbein, based on the success of his Internex Trade show business, and AVN have agreed to finance the entire project. Prior to this, Fishbein was seeking private money within his well heeled group of friends and business partners back on the East Coast. Several banker types were on the AVN guest list for the AVN awards show in Las Vegas this past weekend. The whisper around the AVN office is that Fishbein tripled his revenues on this show. It went so well that even Fishbein’s miserable silent partner Stu Franks was caught smiling!

Fishbein over the last six weeks has met with Jim Cornette, who will exclusively book the talent for what will probably be called the IXPW, International Extreme Pro Wrestling. Fishbein is waiting for his slew of attorney’s to legally bless this “Extreme”ly below the belt name! Fishbein also has a long standing friendship Paul Heyman, aka Paulie Dangerously of ECW fame. There is no love lost for XPW from ECW ever since XPW crashed an ECW show many months ago. Heyman and ECW who are cash poor but overflowing in wrestling talent and creativety, are interested in possibly co-promoting their wrestling alliances.

Fishbein who always liked Rob Black prior to whole Gene Ross mess was originally going to offer Rob a piece of this deal. For obvious reasons Fishbein has decided against partnering with Black or anything or anybody that has anything to do with Gene Ross. Unlike some of his other failed business projects, Fishbein will stay strictly on the sidelines of this business and allow true wrestling professionals to run the company. Fishbein will responsible for any porno angles that might be developed in the future.

A Disappointed Porn Fan writes: Luke, I'm not "in the biz" but I went to the AVN awards show last night as an interested observer. Many people in the audience were so bored they started streaming out by the middle of the "show." As for the "show" there really wasn't one ... no clips from the porn films and videos ... no live music ... just porn stars walking to the podium and announcing the winners to a bored and very non-responsive crowd. There was very little applause and many people I talked to were quite disappointed in the whole event considering that it cost $199 per ticket to get in. Was this a typical AVN award show? I saw clips from a past AVN awards show on a VH1 program called "Porn to Rock" and it showed a live rock band and it looked like a lot more fan than we had last night. What gives?

1/15/01

Clarence Duffy writes GeneRossExtreme.com: "Dear Gene; The other day you said: "At the award show Fishbein proclaimed that the 'cancer' had left AVN's editorial offices." What a crock. The cancer is still there. it's making "The Money Shot." Bryn is even in the same office he had when he was editor of AVN. (When Ken Wood became editor, he had to stay in his cubicle then finally got an office halfway across the building from Editorial. Bryn never budged.)

"And, speaking of cancer, Bryn's malignant influence is radiating through the entire adult industry. If it wasn't for Bryn's cheerleading "AVN Award Winner" Chloe would be spending her nights shooting up and her days asking "do you want paper or plastic?" "AVN Award Winner" Tristan Toramino would be just another academic with a "how-to" sex book trying to get on Jerry Springer. "AVN Award Winner" Ren Savant would be just another porn director, and the Elegant Angel fisting video would still be Bryn's wet dream instead of a reality.

"Of course, there's his selfless support of Rebecca Gray's writing career. And when the "long-awaited 'Money Shot'" crashes and burns (hell, he couldn't sell it to anybody and, in desperation, plans to give it away on AVN's web site) he will probably try to oust Mike Ramone and take back the magazine unless Bryn's crony Joy King can arrange a writing/directing deal at Wicked for the team that wrote "Seven Deadly Sins" and directed the beloved cult classic "Poker.""

1/30/01

Clarence Duffy writes Gene Ross: Take a look at the February 6 issue of Inside magazine. I have. Right near a review of the web version of The Critic (marked with little pictures indicating "classy", "stupid fun", and "mad-awesome") is a devastating slam of Fishbein's Folly, aka The Money Shot, complete with helpful little pictures indicating "unique" (uh-oh), "slim pickings" and "frustrating".

As I consider myself a fair-minded sort of person, I tried to watch The Money Shot . My computer, however, rebelled at the postage stamp-sized picture I was squinting at, first cutting off the sound and then freezing up entirely. I think the computer knows something. perhaps it read the review too.

The "show" doesn't come off any better in the written review, which poses the question "How much demand exists for porn-caliber actors reciting porn-caliber scripts, without any actual porn-caliber porn?" You'll never convince me that Bryn ("Poker") Pryor and his all-star cast of AVN staffers past, present and future aren't smarting a bit (those that can read, anyway). How long will it take before they realize that their roman a clef has feet of clay? In the eyes of the mainstream world they want so desperately to join, it appears that their magnum opus is no better than the porn they sit in judgement of. What next, film fans? Perhaps they can release it with Seven Deadly Sins. sort of a drive-in double feature camp fest.

Luke says: I've tried several times to watch THE MONEY SHOT but I've never been able to get it to work. Here's what Inside magazine wrote: "A Larry Sanders-style take on the adult-video industry? That's the promising concept of The Money Shot, a live-action Web series on AVN.com, iFilm.com, and its own Moneyshottheseries.com. Actual money shots remain tastefully offline. But how much demand exists for porn-caliber actors reciting porn-caliber scripts, without any actual porn caliber porn?"

Inside Magazine put three icons next to The Money Shot: unique, slim pickings, and frustrating... so I guess it wasn't a rousing endorsement of the site as much as it was of the content.

Red Velvet

An excerpt from f---PaulFishbein.com: "Captain Bob, Captain Bob (no relation), you've got a lovely daughter. Did you know that your bisexual offspring (she also happens to be that 23 year-old redhead we talked about earlier) has been f---ing both Stacy Valentine and Paul Fishbein? Don't worry about your reviews, though. 'cause Mark "I'm In the Pocket of Seymore Butts" Kernes is taking care of them. (Fat-ass kernes winning the reuben sturman award is a big f---ing joke.) C'mon, everybody sing: "She wore Red Velvet, oh whoa, redder than velvet were her eyes...softer than satin her tender thighs..." In the December, 1999 issue of AVN, Paul Fishbein under the pseudonym Max Bloom writes an article about Red Velvet, the woman he was f---ing."

Luke says: Max Bloom is Paul Fishbein. Whether they've had relations, I don't know. One source tells me no. Fishbein does have a reputation for liking redheads.

The article is the only time that I remember AVN giving this much space to a make-up artist.

Esad writes: Luke, Extreme has until tommorow to pay AVN their advertising bill or the lawsuit will land them in court. While f---paulfishbein.com was alot of fun to read I can't help wondering why Gene Ross felt compelled to be me. My hair is real, my breath is fresh, I am not the poster boy for escort services (it seems Paul and Gene do have some common ground), I do not suck dick or kiss ass to stay employed, and I do not attempt to blackmail competing websites to limit their postings. What you know- Extreme Associates- The kings of censorship! Paul Fishbein spoke to Wrestling booker Jim Cornette today about upcoming LA area wrestling show.

4/12/01

Esad2001 writes: Dear Luke, The big news over at AVN is that good things are happening concerning Fishbein's newest baby "The Money Shot". That will be his big announcement in the near future.

Fishbein has secured a location for the Wrestling show he will be promoting that I mentioned many many months ago. (Hint: it isn't no high school gym!) Jim Cornette is deeply involved.

Fishbein was really pissed off about me leaking his NY weekend getaway with Steve Hirsch. Truth be told, Fishidiot has gotten a lot smarter about keeping his big mouth shut around the office. It makes information harder to get but it does make it more fun when things slip out!

By ignoring Gene Ross's existence Fishbein has successfully eliminated Gene as a player in this industry. Ross is nothing but a gopher for a company that will be out of business a year from now. Interviewing and reviewing his own companies' product is a far cry from being on the cutting edge of the adult business like he was over at AVN.

Fishbein's partner, Stuart Franks should be credited with forcing this strategy on Fishidiot, who would have engaged and defended every Ross post AVN action with his big ego and mouth. I am sure some of what Gene Ross had to say was true but you cannot assume that Fishbein's silence validates many of Gene Ross's other lies and scams. For once Fishidiot listened to good business advice from his lawyers and partner!

Word has it that the AVN/Extreme lawsuit is getting down to deposition time and the onetime future mayor of LA will have some serious explaining to do. This case will only settle with Rob Black and Gene Ross hanging next to each other on matching crucifixes. Luke, if you read AVN you will notice that Extreme simply does not exist anymore. I wonder if Rob Black has used the series I offered to him called "Rape Fantasies of The Attorney General"?

5/7/01

AVN Lays Off Several Staffers

Adult Video News laid off at least six staffers over the past few weeks. Gone are journalists Ashley Kennedy, Melinda Messenger (Hsu) and Humphrey Pennyworth as well Gay/Bi assistant Johnathan Brown and assistant controller Linda Fuzzard.

Esad writes: Dear Luke, Despite contrary opinions offered in your most recent columns, most of the firings at AVN et al, were strictly budgetary cuts. Even a f---ing idiot/genius like Fishbein has finally seen the light about overstaffing and running your business too fat!

"As far as I'm concerned," says Ashley Kennedy (fearless420@hotmail.com), "the parting was amicable. I still very must respect Paul Fishbein. I don't know how long I will be in Los Angeles. I'm now free to freelance.

"I wore my rollerskates into work one day to see if anybody would say anything. They didn't."

Kennedy did get reproved one day for showing too much cleavage.

From New Orleans, Ashley freelanced for Larry Flynt Publications before joining AVN.

Ashley Kennedy writes: Luke, I worked for LFP in a freelance capacity for a couple of years. I was never on staff, nor have I ever claimed such. Simple misunderstanding, I know, but I think it's important to set the record straight immediately. My own, now folded cut-n-paste rag and AVN aside, I have never ever ever been on staff anywhere, nor have I wanted to be. Not even High Times.... I'd go crazy up in that little office, not to mention NYC in general. Ask any editor in my sordid journalisitc history; I'm really not the corporate type. As a matter of fact, I used to make fun of things like 401k plans and cubicles as I tramped from one end of the world to the other, backpack, laptop and kid in tow. That's exactly how I ended up here last summer... I was only supposed to be gone for three weeks. You see, I take great pleasure in working topless and barefoot with a loaded bong next to my computer, but it certainly wasn't feasible in the AVN office. Actually, I've noticed that most! corporations frown on that sort of thing, despite the fact that it's pretty good for employee morale. Rollerskating is acceptable at AVN, however. Just thought prospective employees should be fully aware of the benefits.

I still haven't looked at your site today, but I can see that you posted the cleavage thing, as my inbox held a request for photos of said cleavage. Heheh. Anyway, it doesn't really matter to me if you post the initial cc, but be aware that Greg and I have correspnded quite a bit over the weekend, and perhaps you'd be better served with a different approach. Let me explain. We are essentially in complete agreement about the need for HCV testing in the adult industry, although I personally think the need is far more pressing in the prison system, where there's a much greater percentage of HCV infection than in the general population.. My issue with his statements stemmed solely from the 85 percent in three years mortality rate he quoted. I want to see the study that supports it. He's pulling the abstracts for me, so that's all good. I feel pretty strongly that his stats are either off, or more tailored to a specific thing, such as liver enzyme elevation of a certain level ! for a prolonged period, rather than just untreated HCV-infected people in general. Do you understand? Anyway, the bottom line is that, yes, adult industry professionals should be getting tested for it, even though it isn't known to be transmitted through vaginal sex, as it's strictly a blood-borne virus. AIM does, in fact offer tests for it. The question is how routinely are they given. Luke, I think you'd be accomplishing more on this issue by picking up the phone and calling Sharon to check the facts of the issue, what AIM has to offer, and what advice she'd give to industry pros so that they may better protect themselves. And education is the best weapon in the prevention arsenal. Don't you agree?

Luke says: I talked Monday morning to former AVN assistant controller Linda Fuzzard (nannycow@earthlink.net), 54 years old. AVN fired her (she started December 13th and was fired May 5th) last week along with her friend Ashley Kennedy.

Linda: "I got blown up for saying 'f---' to the same lady (Elaine Taite, assistant to Darren Roberts) that got upset over Ashley's cleavage. I said, 'I'm just tired of feeling f---ed over.' And I got fired by [AVN Vice-president] Darren [Roberts] an hour later. So I'm looking for work.

"Darren said to me, 'Did you just say to my administrator that you were tired of feeling f---ed over?' I said, 'Yeah. Why? Do you want me to go?' He said, 'Yeah, now. That's no way to talk to my administrator.'

"That woman has been on everybody since the day I was there, minisculing their minutes of their time clock, their phone calls...

"I worked there for five months. They held a closed door meeting. I listened at the door when I heard my AR clerk griping to the CPA. And the next day, when Elaine chewed me out, I said, 'I'm just tired of feeling f---ed over. Why is there a meeting going on behind my back without me in it?' And the next thing I know, I'm history.

"I cleaned up all their books in five months. They got the cleanest statement they've ever had in four years.

"Their books were a mess. I replaced Steve Bryce and a temp. And they had no books. They were a mess. They didn't have [their accouting setup] Mass 90 set up right at all. I reconstructed their whole system so that they now have six income and profit centers.

"I don't know if they got rid of me because they didn't like me. This woman [Elaine Taite] has been on me since I moved in with the controller [Roland Roth] because I needed a place to live. He offered me his 'empty apartment.' But this woman's [Elaine?] son was living there and he's not a well person. And from that minute on, and from that minute on, Elaine was on me like stink on poop. And that happened in January.

"From January to May, I had nothing but daily problems with this woman. And finally, when stuff hit the ventilator last Tuesday...

"Elaine's Gestapo. Darren says, 'I don't need a security system when I've got Elaine.'

"My boss [controller Roland Roth] is using my laptop in Brazil to work every day for the company. He's trying to stay on top of their bank accounts from Brazil..."

Luke: "The company that directly employs you is?"

Linda: "Teddy Communications (owned by Darren and Paul and co) which owns AVNOnline.com.

"The guy before me that Elaine got fired was Steve Bryce. Granted he didn't go a great job in the installation of Mass 90 but he did ok. Steve was there about 18 months.

"That deal with Ashley having to wear a nightgown [for showing too much cleavage] was the dumbest thing I've ever heard of. Ashley asked, 'What size breasts would be ok for this dress?' Just constant nitpicking crap [from Elaine]. I don't think she has enough work as an administrator because that's why she's so obsessed with demeaning and putting her employees down."

Luke: "It sounds like she's Darren's right hand man, doing his dirty work?"

Linda: "She is. She's the bad cop, he's the good cop."

Luke: "Darren's his own good cop, bad cop."

Linda: "Yes. I found that out after a few months. I just didn't talk about it.

"They fired Ashley over the phone. That's against the law. They called and cussed at her. I heard the recording. And they didn't pay her three hours they owed her either. That's kind of crappy little company they are."

Luke: "Why did they fire Ashley?"

Linda: "Over childcare issues. She had terrible childcare issues come up. Then they wouldn't let her telecommute. She brought the [six-year old] boy in one day and Elaine was the one who made him leave. She wouldn't let him sit there. And other people would bring their dogs and kids in to work.

"Ashley got blown out the same day I did and we back together the same day to get our checks and our junk. Although I had most of my junk in my car when it happened to me."

Luke: "I know that Paul [Fishbein], AVN publisher, brings his dogs in."

Linda: "There are ten dogs in there all the time. Mine didn't come in the day that Darren said that the people who own dogs are going to start cleaning the carpets.

"There was always tension there. They say this is ok, you are on salary. So you don't get docked and you don't get overtime. But the minute you miss a day, they dock you."

Luke: "Who brings his kid in?"

Linda: "Roland has had his in a couple of times. But she stays in the office. And Ashley cleaned up a spot for her boy. He didn't see anything going on. He had his own little spot. But Elaine went off and the kid had to go home. They're just an unreasonable company.

"If you know anyone who needs a good accountant, especially with the program Mass 90 and Quicken, I'm available and I come with good references.

"This was my first time working in the adult industry. I didn't have a problem with it. That's why I was blown away that I got blown out for saying I felt like I was getting f---ed over. I've heard more smut and dirt... That's part of the office conversation. Though it did make me angry that in my 35 year accounting career, I did break down and cuss during a heated discussion. Normally I don't. This woman finally got to me.

"I don't believe that any of these terminations [recently at AVN] had to do with financial cuts. They were all personal. Particularly Ashley and I.

"This woman [Elaine Taite] should not have the power he's giving her. This is a woman who complains about a dildo on a desk.

"Why is it that Elaine is getting rid of every accountant on that side? She got rid of Steve Bryce, the temp, of me... I know she's not stealing. The books are good. It's all about control. But why is she so obsessed with control of the accounting department when she's an administrator? Down to the point of arguing with Roland where furniture goes."

Luke: "You don't think they keep moving people in and out because they're hiding anything?"

Linda: "To be honest, no. And I've been in that position. I've audited many a dealership and many a company, and I've seen embezzlement and screwing with the IRS. No, they have nothing to hide. They make a lot of money. They just need a clean system. But Elaine is just a total control freak."

Luke: "How many people have been laid off from AVN?"

Linda: "Six at least in the last two weeks. But I know it is not for budgetary reasons. They are going to do some budget cuts but I was not involved in it. And it was not on Teddy's side, it was AVN's side. But I know that these six [firings] were all for personal reasons."

Luke says: I believe that Darren Roberts owns Teddy in name only, due to his divorce from ex-porn star Allison Roberts. If you look at the books and the incorporation papers, you might find Darren doesn't own Teddy.

Linda: "There having some changes there. Their management still sucks. Their chain of command sucks. They say one thing and do another. Roland had warned me early on that when Darren [Roberts] gave me a verbal instruction, to confirm it with an email. It's the kind of company where you do have to watch your back."

Luke: "What is Darren's role at the company?"

Linda: "I'm not real sure other than owner, president or whatever his damn title is. He's in charge. He works closely with the internet people on sales. He gets the funding for the various trade shows. He's acting owner. It's a complex question. What he does is he supposedly runs the place but he does it through managers like Elaine. He invests a lot of money and he takes out alot of money... He's just a nice cute little guy with Gestapo [Elaine] behind him."

Luke: "Is AVN a good place to work?"

Linda: "It's cliquey, secretive, a lot of whispering type company. I think there's a lot of fear of job security around there. I know that I had no job security in my heart and I don't think anybody else does either. At the Christmas party. I'd been at AVN for two days. I arrive at the party and I wondered why everybody was in cliquey groups. I think that if a poll was taken at the office right now, and it was anonymous, I think everyone would say that they felt no job security whatever. A lot of backstabbing, a lot of bad stuff."

5/21/01

From Sunday's New York Times magazine, by Frank Rich:

Though he embodies the corporatization of porn, Fishbein exudes a certain swagger. "I'm here by accident, and now that I'm here, I'm proud of what I do," he says. "My mother sits at my awards table each year when girls accept awards for oral sex. Sex sells and it drives the media, and it always has. Billboards, movies, ads, commercials. It's what we're thinking about at all times of the day. We're told it's bad, and it manifests itself as political debates."

The browsers on the two computers behind his desk are kept on CNN.com and AVN.com, which is modeled on CNN's as a (porn) news portal. The decor of his large, meticulous office is mostly movie memorabilia. A film buff as well as a news junkie, Fishbein is a particular fan of the high-end comedies of Woody Allen, Albert Brooks and Preston Sturges, and he could be a highly articulate, slightly neurotic leading man out of one of them. He speaks glowingly of having just taken his 12-year-old stepdaughter to "Yi Yi." Does he watch the movies that AVN reviews? He flinches. "I haven't watched an adult movie without fast-forwarding since I saw one in a theater at 18. I watch them for business reasons. My wife and I don't watch them for entertainment. It is hard for me to look at it as more than product."

Many of the top porn producers are within blocks of Fishbein's office in the utterly anonymous town of Chatsworth -- an unhurried, nondescript sprawl of faded strip malls, housing developments and low-slung (and usually unmarked) business complexes that look more like suburban orthodontic offices than porn factories. Everyone in the business seems to know one another. "There's a certain camaraderie among those who are on the fringe of society, a similarity to outlaws," Fishbein says. Yet he seems like anything but an outlaw; he was about to fly off to the Super Bowl and then a skiing vacation. I ask if organized crime is a factor in today's porn world. "When I got here, I heard there were mob companies," he answers. "But I've never even been approached by a criminal element. I've never been threatened or bribed. So if it ever existed, it's part of the history of the business." He almost sounds disappointed.

AVN Stands By Its Statistics

6/1/01

Last Friday, Forbes.com published a devastating criticism of AVN's statistics.

Dan Ackman writes for Forbes.com:

The idea that pornography is a $10 billion business is often credited to a study by Forrester Research. This figure gets repeated over and over. The only problem is that there is no such study. In 1998, Forrester did publish a report on the online "adult content" industry, which it pegged at $750 million to $1 billion in annual revenue. The $10 billion aggregate figure was unsourced and mentioned in passing.

According to Adult Video News (AVN), an industry trade magazine, Americans spent just over $4 billion to buy and rent adult videos last year. This figure is baseless and wildly inflated. From there, the numbers get even more obscure.

Does the adult video market have $4 billion in sales? Not even half that.

This figure comes from Adult Video News, an industry trade paper--not from Variety, the Hollywood trade paper, which [Frank] Rich cites. How Adult Video News gets this number is not clear. We asked Adult Video News' managing editor, Mike Ramone. "I don't know the exact methodology," he said, "It's a pie chart." Asked to break the figure down into sales versus rentals, a standard practice among those who cover the video industry, he said he didn't think it was available and suggested we call the editor-in-chief, who didn't return our calls.

In fact, there is no chance that the adult video business has revenues of even $2 billion. This hardly compares to the sales and rentals of legitimate videos, which were roughly $20 billion last year, both according to Adams Media Research and Variety. (Neither Adams nor Variety track porn sales.)

No one tracks the adult video business with any rigor or precision, Adams says. But his "most generous" estimate is that sales and rentals combined are no higher than $1.8 billion.

GeneRossExtreme.com says: "The only self-interested statements in this instance are AVN's. The figures they quote constantly, and the ones that are repeated blindly by the mass media including the New York Times Magazine, are theirs and theirs alone. There's no substantiation to any of the absurd tallies quoted fast and often by AVN. Someone should ask to see the math, in which case AVN should be able to produce, company, by company, including distributors and retailers, a breakdown of sales and rental figures to put the debate to an end once and for all. But they can't. It would an immense file but I seriously doubt you'll ever see it. Certainly in the years I worked there, I never saw it or even a hint at one."

Almost a week later, AVN publisher Paul Fishbein responds:

CHATSWORTH, Calif. -- Adult Video News Publisher Paul Fishbein, responding to a recent news report that sharply questioned the validity of statistics the magazine publishes on the size of the porn industry, today issued a ringing endorsement of those numbers.

He said that Vidtrak, which tracks the number of video rentals - both adult and non-adult - in U.S. general interest retail stores, reported that $8.25 billion worth of tapes were rented last year. Adams Media Research, which tracks sales of videotapes in U.S. general interest retail stores, reported that $10.79 billion worth of tapes were sold in 2000, he said. Those two dollar amounts, widely quoted by the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA), add up to total of $19.04 billion worth of videos that were rented or sold in U.S. general interest retail outlets in 2000.

VSDA, meanwhile, reported in past years, that sales and rentals of adult tapes accounted for 16% - or $3.05 billion - of that $19.04 billion figure, Fishbein said. But the $19.04 billion figure, according to the VSDA, does not include sales and rentals from adult retail stores - only general interest retail outlets that primarily carry non-adult titles or no adult titles at all.

XXX tells Luke: "If the AVN rebuttal story is true, how come Mikey Ramone didn't know any of those facts BEFORE the Forbes story came out?

"Do you know anything about the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA), or how they made this 16% estimate? It might be 16% of the store that stock porn-- no more than half the total. Also Fishbein says he polls the stores, then he relies on this 16% etc to get his number. Which is it?"

New York Times writer Frank Rich still stands by his $10-$14 figure for the porn industry, despite Forbes.com's debunking analysis. Rich still cites the now discredited Forester Research and "his own findings." Meanwhile, a source at Hustler agrees with the Forbes story.

PornoPatrick writes: Luke speaking from my experience of 18 years in the video supply business and watching the decline of the V.S.D.A and the numbers of the mom and pop video stores there is not even a slim chance the numbers based on percentages is not even close. For instance the V.S.D.A claims there are 50,000 Video Stores when I know for a fact that Video Store Trade Magazine mailing list is only 18,000 plus or minus. Out of those 18,000 stores, we have large Video Chains, Blockbuster, Movie Gallery,and others that do not even carry adult product. Adult on the average is 4th or 5Th in the categories behind, Action,Comedy,Drama,Horror,Children then Adult. Ask any Video Store owner' Fishbein's formula is based on final end retail value. Fishbein's theory is at the least 15% accurate. That other 85% is waste.

Ken Wood Interview

6/4/01

I interviewed former Adult Video News managing editor Ken Wood over the weekend.

Luke asks: Did Paul Fishbein ever email Nici@Nicisgirls.com?

Ken Wood replies: "Are you kidding? I have second-hand knowledge that he and his friends patronized Nicis Girls many a time. But, like I said, that's second hand info in the porn industry. You never know how accurate that is. Have you asked Gene?"

Luke asks: Or how accurate was that site f---PaulFishbein.com? With its purported Fishbein emails?

Ken replies: "Well, let's put it this way: If they were fake, they had to have been written by somebody closer to Paul than his dogs. But I think you already know my feelings about the validity of the claims made against him.

"I can't believe you sent the whole history of that site [f---PaulFishbein.com] to me! Oy vey.

"I didn't know that Steve Orenstein was related to Nicky Orenstein, but in fairness to Steve (or Nicky, depending on your opinion of the former), I don't know if that's true. As for Steve's personal habits or problems, all I can say is he's always come across as an enthusiastic and competent executive to me. And he put no pressure on me whatsoever to review DreamQuest, Wicked's top feature of the year, favorably. I gave it 10/10 on my own.

"As for Red Velvet, all I know is Paul did the interview (Max Bloom was one of his reserved bylines when he wanted to be anonymous, just like Andrew Wyke is still used by a member of the AVN staff) and why would the publisher of the magazine, who barely has time to meet with his editors to discuss important matters, be interviewing a pretty redhead (*REDHEAD*) hairdresser for his magazine? Something was definitely fishy there...no pun intended.

"Has heart disease claimed the life of Darren Roberts yet? The karmic implications there are just too damn obvious to be missed.

"By the way, I just remembered a cute little story from my days in hell... One afternoon, as I was about to leave the parking lot at AVN, I noticed Teddy (the "grande dame" of Paul's canine crew) wandering in the cul-de-sac outside the AVN office. Shocked by this, especially because cars often come flying out of the adjacent parking lot into the street, I left my car idling and ran to pick Teddy up in the middle of the street. Carrying her into Paul's office, I said "maybe you should make sure the doors are kept shut." He went ballistic, running through the halls, screaming "Who the f--- let Teddy out!?!?!" However...(the moral of this story)...he never said thank you."

Luke asks: What did you think of that Forbes.com piece?

Ken Wood replies: "The writer definitely did his homework, and for him to come out firing directly at AVN is very damaging. Sure, everybody in the industry says AVN's crooked, but for Forbes, an internationally renowned magazine to point the finger and say AVN's figures are bogus is stinging. Also, whoever wrote to the Forbes guy claiming to be yours truly must have an insider's view of AVN, that's obvious. It's true that Paul waited till the last minute to submit his sales and rental charts, but for all I know he was waiting for last minute "statistics" to flow in. In any case, they're hardly sound."

Luke asks: Who is Andrew Wyke?

Ken replies: "Sorry, I can't divulge. Although I must admit I myself used it on one or two occasions. It's sort of a communal carnival mask, but one person in particular uses it more than others."

Luke asks: Has AVN threatened you in any way over the past nine months?

Ken replies: "Well, if you call the pathetic attempt to scare me by leaking hints about lawsuits a threat, then yes. But I never took that seriously. Knowing Paul's mind, I figured that he wasn't willing to spend the money on legal action (which would have been groundless in any case), and instead would rather try to frighten me into silence. Other than that, I haven't heard a peep from the dungeon at Eton Avenue."

Esad writes Luke: "luke, has ken wood finally fessed up that he/gene were running f---paulfishbein.com? for the record Ken Wood is bigger asshole than fishbein! Wood did not have access to the data that he so cleverly writes about and then claims an imposter who agrees with is using his name! Ken Wood was lucky if AVN let him order lunch for the hogs over in editorial let alone have access to important industry info. Whether fishidiot's numbers were juiced or not, ken wood would not be on the inside of that discussion."

6/14/01

Leave Paul Fishbein Alone

laurien@cyberweb1.comwrites Luke: After seventeen years of silence in this business I am compelled to write the following regarding the amount of time people in this industry dedicate to nailing Paul Fishbein to the proverbial cross. I didn't realize he was the next messiah. If all of you donated as much time to your film projects as you do crying over whether or not you are nominated there would be more than one winner for each category and maybe even new categories created. Everyone who shoots anything thinks they deserve an award. How do you satisfy everyone in such an ego driven industry? Lets expose Paul, he f---ed this porn star, he f---ed that one. I'm not saying he has but are you trying to tell me that if you were in his shoes that you wouldn't? Get real. Your own "Christ Like" behavior would keep you in line? Hey, if you owned the magazine and were responsible to keep it floating, you wouldn't give perks to people who spend tens of thousands of dollars on advertising? Do you know of any other Industry that's not involved in some type of so called corruption? Government? Politics? Attorney's? Utilities? Need I go on?

I've been in this business nearly 18 years now. I've shot for nearly every men's magazine on the news stand, designed boxes and shot photography for close to 2,000 movies and have produced close to 100 video's if not more. Nobody in this business knows who I am. I have never advertised in the AVN, never won an award and get zero publicity. Yet, my business couldn't be better. Positive proof that the evil Paul Fishbein is not the source of your demise, maybe it's you. So get off your jilted asses and direct your attention to making better product. Hell who knows? You just might start doing well enough that you don't care what Paul is up to or you just might get an award for it.

I had just finished reading all the Gene Ross info on Paul and was compelled to email you. I don't like to get involved in anything in this business. In the middle of it all, I had to stop and ask myself why Paul is even bothering to respond to all this bull shit. I couldn't help but wonder how he has time to run his magazine with all the corruption he's involved in. He must either be the second coming or superman! Not that I'm religious or anything but all I could envision was the last supper with Paul at the head of the table. We have all the characters involved including Jude (Gene Ross). All these x-employees [of AVN] sound as if they are Saints? Who would have thought that the pornography business could attract so many people with such high standards? No wonder priest enrollment is at an all time low.

Former AVN managing editor Ken Wood writes: Luke, I thought this was very interesting indeed and I have two minor observations to make in response...

laurien@cyberweb1.com writes Luke: "After seventeen years of silence in this business..."

That's funny, seeing how Paul Fishbein started AVN exactly seventeen years ago back in Philadelphia.

"...In the middle of it all, I had to stop and ask myself why Paul is even bothering to respond to all this bull shit."

Very cute, except for one thing...Paul Fishbein actually hasn't responded to anything openly, so how would this "laurien@cyberweb1.net" be aware of Fish "bothering to respond" at all?

By the way Paul, you're an atrocious writer and everybody in editorial always thought so. My point being, stop writing on your own behalf if you can't cover your tracks.

I am jealous of The Fish in one regard though: The weather in Marina Del Rey is f---in' awesome right now. Peace out.

XXX says: AVN was started in August of 1992 (almost 19 years, not 17) and the first issue was Feb '83 for the record.

MikeSouth.com writes: Luke you can tell Ken Wood to extract his head from his ass. He should know that Laurien is the Photographer who has shot many Penthouse layouts as well as layouts for many other magazines. I believe the guy married Taylor Wayne but I don't know that they are still married or not, I presume they are.

Ken Wood replies: Dear Mike South, Next time I see you, maybe at Erotica LA, I'll buy you a drink. It's easy to get riled up in this business over meaningless bullshit, and I'm no exception.

But Mike, check out what you wrote and check out what Laurien wrote...

Mike South: "Luke you can tell Ken Wood to extract his head from his ass. He should know that Laurien is the Photographer who has shot many Penthouse layouts as well as layouts for many other magazines."

Laurien: "Nobody in this business knows who I am."

One more thing. Why should I be aware of people who shoot for Penthouse or any other magazine? The rag I used to write for was called Adult VIDEO News, not Photographer's Monthly.

One final note on all this Laurien business. He may have intended to pull some of the heat off of Paul Fishbein, but in reality he turned it up a few degrees. Look at what Gene Ross pointed out and it definitely makes sense. Confirmation from a successful industry insider that advertising in AVN is all-but useless.

Laurien: "I have never advertised in the AVN, never won an award and get zero publicity. Yet, my business couldn't be better."

Let me run that by all you advertisers once again, just in case you have jizz blocking your ears...

"I have never advertised in the AVN, never won an award and get zero publicity. Yet, my business couldn't be better."

Thank you Laurien. Photogs and writers make strange bedfellows.

MikeSouth.com replies: hey tell Ken nobody, myself included, is immune from rectal cranial inversion. I know Laurien because I met him once briefly in New York City and because as a photographer I pay close attention to the work of those more successful than myself so that i might get better. I suppose theres no real reason to think Ken should know who he is except for the fact that I'm 3000 miles away and I know who he is... maybe I expect too much...regardless I didn't mean for Ken to take it personal and it doesn't much appear that he did.

On the flip side my opinions about Paul Fishbein haven't changed, Paul has always been straight up with me and I with him, I have written things I am sure he took issue with but regardless of opinions that has never been a deterrent to a professional relationship. I consider Paul a stand up guy. I don't think the AVN awards are fixed (Lord knows Xplor didn't buy mine, and I damn sure didn't). Paul is a high profile guy making him a big target but in the grand scheme of porn ethics I think Paul's are top notch.

Gene Ross writes: By his own admission "laurien" is pretty much saying that AVN is corrupt, that we should accept it and move on because it's a part of every day life; not to mention the fact that it's a pointless entity. Laurien pretty much backs that contention by admitting he didn't need it to further his own career or "business". There you go, in plain black and white. People should stop and realize how many advertising dollars they're wasting each month- under the misguided notion they're going to be selling more tapes- and that they'd be better served financially by investing in energy mutuals.

For what you give and theoretically what little you get back in return, it's really a foolish business proposition all the way down the line. [For the favored few, the way it really goes is this- forget the gloss of the reviews, the stories, etc. the reality is AVN serves as the intermediary which marshals deals then gets a piece if the action for doing so. In essence, your advertising buys you into the inner circle. If, as a video company you're on the dole, you don't squawk. Stands to reason. You're now part of this amazing welfare system. If you're not, you should look into it and demand to get a piece of the so-called $10 billion action that's out there.] Otherwise, advertising? Fuhgeddaboudit.

I'll quote an AVN statistic that comes back to strangle them. They'll tell you that the magazine goes out to thousands and thousands of video stores. I believe 20,000 was a figure most often quoted. Ask yourself how many pieces of a title are you moving. 2,000? 2,500? 3,000? Then ask yourself, are ALL those video stores taking your product? Hell no. Have your numbers increased significantly over the years? Hell, no. Are video stores doomed to be non-existent? Hell, yes [technology-technology].

7/12/01

Scotty Fox Shoots Richard Mailer's Movies?

From GeneRossExtreme.com: Charlie Schipcock writes: "Scotty Fox is the man, beer keg swilling or not, who has been surreptitiously directing and shooting all of Dick Miller's movies. AKA. Richard Mailer, Fishbein buddy, whom Fishbein also allows or had allowed to write his very own reviews of the movies [in AVN]."

Luke says: Richard Mailer is Paul Fishbein's buddy. I don't believe that any filmmaker, let alone Mailer, gets to write his own AVN reviews. I do believe that Mailer wrote an on-the-set piece for AVN. He did a first-person account of shooting a big Wicked movie in Prague.

XXX Porner writes: Charlie is right on the money about Dick Miller getting to write his own AVN reviews. It is known in some circles that Dick was allowed to re-wright a review for a Cherry Poppers that he shot. This I know from the most credible sources possible.