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Sunday Morning 4-19-98

Finding Figuroa Street in downtown Los Angeles, I got within 300 yards of the convention center, and parked on the street for free beside a bunch of Mexican gangbangers. 

I grabbed my bag with its recorder, note pad and batteries, and nervously made my way up the steps and into the center. This would be my first appearance at a porn convention since last year's Erotica LA fair and I hoped that no one would beat me up. Luckily, few people would recognize me in my black suit and scraggly beard. 

Upon entering the main building, I heard a greeting from Arrow's Director of Communications, Marc Medoff, who had just flown the red-eye from New York. Arrow owner Raymond Pistol did not attend. 

As I stood in line, I tried to answer Marc's questions about why everyone in the industry hated me. I did not do a good job. 

I broke my tape recorder. 

Marc was just one of the many important Jews on hand. Others included director John Bowen Bone, Steve Orenstein (owner of Wicked) and his mom, Seymore Butts (Adam Glaser), Larry Cohen of Bob's Classy Lady who tried to sell me 13,000 pictures of naked ladies and a theory about AIDS - Republicans invented it to wipe out folks who did not vote for them. 

Stepping into the Erotica LA fair at 10:45, I first recognized Al Terego of the Elegant Angel classic Al Terego's Double Anal Alternatives. His real name is Ken DeLucia. Al Terego = Alter Ego. 

He now works for the internet company that serves Nici Sterling, Missy, Jacklyn Lick and about 20 other porn girls. They gross over $5 million a month. (Almost as much as me.) Former Merrill Lynch stockbroker Donald Osterholt owns Atlas Multimedia Inc out of Tarzana, CA. www.sex-sells.com 

I chatted with Ken for 30 minutes before saying hello to Jacklyn Lick who was showing off a tattoo on her thigh. She's been in the industry for 18 months now. I first met when she was just starting with a cute blond friend (now departed from porn) at one of Bill Margold's PAW meetings. Jacklyn says she's been busy taking acting classes and working on her kick boxing (among other pursuits). She seemed taken aback to meet me, as did about a dozen other pornographers. In person I come across more gently than I do via the net. 

Bill Margold manned the PAW/FSC booth and we exchanged nods but no words. He did not get a chance today to tell me again how I deserved to have been gassed in holocaust. 

News media - local, national and international - swarmed all over the event. One of porn's biggest powers, Edward J. Wedelstedt of Goalie, showed up for ten minutes on Friday. The thug with a prison record disappeared quickly when he spotted the TV cameras. 

I schmoozed with my "good friends" at the AVN booth. Stacy the art designer explained the screw up with the hardcore insert ZORO in the February issue. No one was responsible. The AVN webmaster discussed his plans to get their site in gear. Soon AVN correspondents will be filing reports that will show up that day on the AVN site. 

I shook hands and said hello to Juli Ashton and Serenity who signed at the Wicked Booth along with Missy and her husband Mickey G. Missy just signed with Wicked a week ago which is going all-condom along with the other major porn players. We made plans to attend an AGAPE church service one Sunday morning. As the spiritual leader of the porn community, I feel deep concern for the religious development of my parishioners. 

Missy will participate in a WOMEN LOVING WOMEN live sex show-art exhibit May 16 in North Hollywood. www.heilman-c.com 

About a year ago, Missy turned in a nasty scene with Kym Wilde who loves pain. Kym enjoys givnig and receiving, and pours out product for San Francisco's Red Board Video. Wilde is tall, muscular and intimidating. Her boyfriend Duck Dumont appears soft and pudgy with a round face. 

Fresh midwest blonde T.J. Hart received plenty of positive attention from fans and Nitro's Peter Davy, even though she has only appeared in five videos. 

Melissa Hill walked around with her boyfriend of the past year. About nine months ago the perky redhead moved from San Francisco to the San Fernando Valley. She misses the Bay Area where she has spent all her life. Melissa has taken a break from porn and may not return. She is considering setting up a website, possibly through Atlas Multimedia. www.sex-sells.com 

Perky blonde Candy Apples had a constant stream of guys at her Notorious booth, where a black couple sold watches that ripped off famous brands (designs). 

Summer Cummings and Sky Blue attracted much attention, as did Coral Sands. I chatted and laughed with Midori, the black porn star and sister of country singer Jody Watley. I introduced myself as a "friend of Mike South," which was an excellent way to begin. She said that I reminded her of T.T. Boy, meaning that I seem much more human than my reputation. Among other things, she'd heard that I was racist. 

Midori is Japanese for green. She handed out sharp green business cards with her vital info, such as her web site address: www.xxxmidori.com. 

I schmoozed with Wicked owner Steve Orenstein and his mom. I expressed my concern that a nice Jewish boy like Steve should settle down and get married. The problem is that his girlfriend, the sister of Wicked publicist Joy King, a tall blonde who had a cold today, is not Jewish. 

Steve grew up in Brooklyn, and had his Bar Mitzvah at a modern orthodox Young Israel shul. 

I spent from 4-4:30 PM schmoozing with Jew John Bone, the Pommie bastard. He has partnered with Jerry Garfinkle, who used to run Arrow (formerly owned by the Mafiosi Peraino family) and strip king Charley Frey to operate Cream. Jasmine St. Clair and Zoe signed autographs, and sold videos, keeping a steady stream of $20 bills flowing into John's sticky pockets. 

Bowen confirmed that he is going all condom. Yes, all John Bone films from now on will include a condom in the package which will keep shut-ins like me from staining the couch. This condom however will be the only one used in a Bone production. John couldn't recall any time he'd used condoms in a production aside from the gangbangs. 

Bowen said he had no objection to condoms except that they made for lousy porn and smaller profits. He said the reason he attracted such loyal girls as Jasmine was that he shared his revenues with them. 

John and I enjoyed a hearty laugh over the ineptitude of the FSC and their last Monday meeting where the major producers and distributors declared they were going all-condom. 

News that cigarette smoking has not penetrated down to the lower ends of the Bell Curve, as evidenced by this 1998 Erotica LA show. Porn girls such as Zoe, Midori, Melissa and company kept popping outside for smokes, taking breaks from signing autographs for their tongue-tied fans. 

Early in the day I thought I had seen Alicia Rio but decided I was too much under the influence of bio chemicals and had been dreaming. Yet it was true. There she was walking around and handing out business cards. She confirms the 4-98 AVN, and the stories about her on the net about her plunge into drugs and bag lady status. Alicia was followed around by 6-4, 220 pound friend Ray Hycoski. 

Rio says that her parents are taking good care of her, though they do not approve of drugs or porn. She plans to soon move out on her own. She has separated from her husband Steve Houston, who accidentally killed two people while coming down from cocaine in 1995. 

You can check out Alicia, who's looking a little the worse for wear, at www.secretdesires.com. 

Most of the pornographers I saw looked worse for wear. Folks harden, break down and age quickly in this business. A couple of exceptions - Steve Orenstein and Max Hardcore looked great. 

I spent 30 minutes at the new performers' union guild booth, schmoozing with double anal queen Liza Harper who says she is now all-condom, and her common law hubby Chris. Both are from France. Liza has been in porn for four years and plans to stay another six. After that they will get properly married and have kids. 

Later in the day, Johnny Black rallied the faithful with rhetoric about workers unite...you have nothing to lose but your chains... 

Shayla LaVeaux was on hand with her tall dark and handsome hubby James. She is considering becoming a contract girl. 

Samantha Styles attracted oodles of fans at Seymore's Butts booth. Seymore and Notorious were both shut down on Saturday and folks hauled away to jail for flashing. Mila was the guilty culprit at Notorious. 

Samantha hails from Sacramento, where I spent about a dozen years. She lit up when I mentioned the name Roger T. Pipe, and she said how thrilled she was to meet the gentleman on Saturday. 

Alisha Klass signed numerous autographs. She no longer does her radio show. 

Max Hardcore looks hale and hearty, with a tender sweet senorita on his arm. He was running off to do a couple of scenes with her before "returning her home to mommy." I mentioned to him the great Rolling Stone 3-5-98 article on Speed Seduction. 

Max was of course the perfect gentleman and he seemed just the type of father figure that impressionable young ladies like his "date" need to keep them on the straight and narrow road. 

Max confirmed a story in the LA Daily News that he spent about a quarter of a million dollars a year producing product. "You have to spend money to make money," explains Max, sounding like the Burt Reynolds director character in Boogie Nights. 

At Sean Michaels booth, he was surrounded by polite well-groomed young black men much like himself. He had candles and incense burning. We discussed race relations and using porn to send positive messages. Sean's working on his biography. Prometheus wants more dirt a la Jerry Butler's Raw Talent disaster. 

Perhaps Midori will do a book also. 

What Would Dirk Diggler Think?

By IRENE LACHER 

Los Angeles Times Sunday April 26, 1998

This is Erotica L.A., which is like a wedding fair, only it's for the adult entertainment and accessories industry. 

At long last, the fringe has joined the fold. Erotica engineers are coming out of the closet, and for the first time, they're offering their wares in the belly of the mainstream beast--the L.A. Convention Center. 

And that can only mean one thing--Candy Apples, meet CNN. After-hours is hitting prime time. And high time it did, says adult-film late bloomer 

Dave Cummings: "I think we're just normal everyday businesspeople." 

Who get naked at work. 

But, hey, this is the town for stargazing, and fans are dutifully fanning out to be photographed with the objects of their affection. They are cruising 100 vendors of erotic videos, erotic furniture (one word: bungee), X-rated holograms, faux body parts and photography studios where les artistes can shoot "All Nudes All the Time." 

At one end of last week's carnal carnival is the newborn Erotic Entertainers Guild, which is hawking interesting T-shirt possibilities for casual Fridays. The guild's handful of porn pros are also lending new meaning to the term sexual politics--they're campaigning for safe sex on the set. 

Cummings, who bills himself as the Oldest Living Man in Porn, is one of them because he wants to see more oldest living men in porn. In Cummings' field, 58 qualifies for burial insurance. But the balding, graying San Diegan is undaunted. 

"I brag about being 58. Where else can someone my age be lucky enough to have sex with both these young ladies?" Cummings says, pointing in the direction of two comely engineers, Candy Apples and Chandler. "They did a shoot with me in San Diego. They were both on time. Notwithstanding traffic."

Cummings calls over to Chandler. "I was telling her how dependable you are." 

Duly noted. 

Cummings may be pushing the envelope age-wise, but he's also a bellwether of trends. There's the boomer and boomer-adjacent trend of switching career gears in midlife. A former college economics major, Cummings still moonlights as a mortgage loan officer for savvy porn stars. And until in 1988, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army. 

Cummings says he never thought he'd be the lucky one out of 5,000 guys who try to break into the business every week. But it turned out he had something that 4,999 of them didn't--stamina. 

"A couple of months later, I'm in 'The Devil in Miss Jones, Part 5.' 

And now I've been in 130 movies in the last 3 1/2 years." And not just in bit roles. 

Cummings' career development points to one of the weirder subgroups among adult entertainers--recovering military personnel. Indeed, he's standing before a poster hailing the prolific "XXX-U.S. Army Captain" Johnni Black, who served during Desert Storm. Cummings ticks off other examples. 

"In the military, we do what we're told because it's for the mission. Maybe we're breaking out of that and doing what we want instead."

Hmmmmm. Let's chew on that one. 

Cummings is still a man with a mission. He's just aiming at a different target these days. 

"I want people to know that sex is normal, natural, healthy and OK."

Fa-la-la. Cummings points again to exhibitionists A--Candy and Chandler. 

"Here's one thing that's interesting. Those two girls, I'll do anything for them. They'll do anything for me. All the people in the industry, we're like a big, extended family." 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters by Mark Egan) - Juli taught junior high and Johnnie was an army captain. Don was a stockbroker and Rhonda still works in a hospital. All four have one thing in common -- they have changed careers and are making a fortune from porn. 

They were in their element recently as the Los Angeles Convention Center played host to Erotica L.A., where the public could peruse the latest in latex, lubricants, whips and eye-popping fetish magazines. Fans came in droves and posed for pictures with their favorite porn stars, Juli and Johnnie among them. They grabbed behinds and groped breasts. 

Some came in couples, some came in wheelchairs. Most of those who plunked down the $15 admission fee came alone. They examined elaborate masturbation devices, found out how to hire a dominatrix in a dudgeon and picked up brochures for sex-themed vacations. Even the most bizarre fetish was welcome, with the exception of child molesting. 

Over the years, porn has grown into a more than $4-billion-a-year industry with thousands of hard-core videos, magazines and Internet sites on offer. Most porn stars make a paltry living but the select few that rise to the top can make millions, and when porn puts on a show for the public it is a parade of princes, not paupers. 

GOODBYE MRS. CHIPPS 

Three years ago, Juli Ashton was teaching junior high in Colorado. Now she is the queen of porn. 

"I quit teaching and started dancing in a strip club," she said. "My ex-husband and I were very big fans of the adult industry. I watched videos three times a week and read the magazines ... it seemed like a great thing to do." 

Now the tall, blonde Ashton is a millionaire. One of the most popular porn stars, she has her own production company and is host of "Night Calls" on the Playboy channel. 

Why is she such a hit? "Because I love it and that shows. I love the people, I love the fans, I love the sex. It's hard to fail when you're doing something you love so much." 

Ashton, 29, said her only real gripe is with directors who get too technical about camera angles or dialogue. "There's some directors who just let you go and then there ... are directors that break it up and it's not as flowing as it is at home. So I just work with directors who let me f--, that's more fun," she said with a smile and a giggle. 

Like Ashton, many porn stars get their start at strip clubs and graduate to making porn videos when they realize the girls who make the most money do it for real on video. But Johnnie Black is unusual even in the porn business. The relative newcomer, voted Video Vixen of the Year, was a captain in the U.S. Army and served during the 1991 Gulf War. 

"I was an army captain and knew that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life in the military," Black said. " I was developing sexually into an exhibitionist so we came out to California to check out the industry and I just fell in love." 

MORE THAN A BUSINESS

Black talks about her new profession like a vocation: "I knew this was an industry where I could be myself and use my own ideals and everything I believe and pass it on to future generations." 

How does the life of an army captain compare with being a smut siren? "It's about the same," she said. "There are risks involved with everything that you choose to do with your life. In the army I jumped out of airplanes." 

Black was at the show with her husband, David Johnson, to promote an industry safe-sex campaign calling for more use of condoms and monthly tests for HIV. Her husband said he is not jealous of the other men who have sex with his wife in every imaginable position. 

"I'm a voyeur, that's what makes the two of us work so well together. I enjoy watching and she enjoys performing. Nobody else in the business loves her like I do and nobody loves me like she does," he said. 

Don Osterholt packed in his life as a stock broker to set up Atlas Multimedia, a company dedicated to making adult Web sites that can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000. 

"It's probably one of the most profitable enterprises I've ever done or been in," Osterholt said. "I spent eight years at Merrill Lynch as a stockbroker and the profit margins on adult Web sites can be in the tens of thousands of percent a year." 

Osterholt, 34, said he has made millions from his venture and has no qualms about flooding the Internet with porn. The Internet is awash with adult sites and some conservative groups have called for a cleanup to make it safer for children. 

"Everyone has a right to view, or even publish, whatever they want," he said, "and I wouldn't be making the millions of dollars a year I do if no one wanted to see the content I put on the Internet." 

Rhonda Neal is just starting out her business. By day she works in a hospital as a phlebotomist and after work she runs her business "Secrets Home Parties," which she compares to the women who sell plastic food containers in their homes. 

"I'm just like the Tupperware lady but a little more fun," Neal said. "We sell books and nice couples videos, masturbation devices for male and female, clothing and Kama Sutra oils." 

Her business has gone so well in her first year she plans to open her first retail store soon -- in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, the capital of porn. 

LOS ANGELES, May 14 (UPI) - Three porn actresses are facing criminal charges of lewd and obscene conduct for allegedly having sex with each other on the floor of the recent Erotica L.A. convention. 

The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office said it filed the charges today against 26-year-old Alicia Lynn Pieri of Ontario, 20-year-old Lisa Marie Wertz of Elk Grove and 21-year-old Karin Alison Chouinard of Newport Beach. 

Pieri's stage name is Alicia Klass, Wertz's is Samantha Stylle and Chouinard's is Halli Aston. 

Prosecutors said police vice detectives witnessed the women engaging in sexual activities with each other April 17 in front of the Seymore Butts Home Video booth at the Los Angeles Convention Center. 

The detectives said a large crowd of convention-goers had gathered and was watching the women engage in oral sex. 

The actresses were arrested, booked and released. 

Each defendant is charged with one count of lewd and obscene conduct in public, which carries a maximum one-year jail sentence and a $1,000 fine. The trio is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.

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