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I spent an hour schmoozing with Playboy Home Video Senior Producer Eric Mittleman and Helmetcam man Gary Gray. "Playboy cable TV hit its stride about three years ago," said Mittleman, a bald man in his mid'30s who stands about 5'3". "A lot of it had to do with Jim English [President of Playboy Networks Worldwide] coming into the network." Eric gave me half a dozen videotapes of Playboy shows, including The Profession, a Red Shoe Diaries style series about hookers. "The wraparound is a woman interviewing prostitutes about johns. It's funky and got cool visuals." Greg Dark shot the first two editions a year ago before hitting it big as a music video maker. "The Playboy production process is just like any other TV show or movie," said Mittleman. "Mainly the post-production is much more involved than hardcore. I've visited a couple of hardcore places and they're cutting from camera masters. And they're online [editing] is their offline. There's no real process or preparation there. It's just two people going at it... "About two years ago we hit a production groove of designing stuff for the soft core market. Shows like Nightcalls, Strip Search, Sex Court... On last night's show [Nightcalls], we pushed the limits. I think the host of the show talked on the Howard Stern show about how lawyers come down to the set and say you can spread your legs at this angle, and not that angle. Last night we were able to go this angle [widespread] because we were demonstrating dental dams. The girls were covered with a think pink latex. "Every article you every read about safe sex mentions dental dams. But I've never used one... So I sent my assistant out to get 16 for the show..." Mittleman flipped through the sex channels on his cable TV outlet, as we observed and discussed the differences between Playboy, Spice (owned by Playboy) and Spice Hot, now owned by Vivid. Spice Hot shows penetration but no cum shots or anal sex. Playboy is the softest of the three, but all three are getting raunchier. Spice and Spice Hot tend to air the same movie at the same time, said Mittleman. "This is Playboy's Most Wanted," narrates Eric as we watch naked women gyrate on screen. "And each edition we focus on a body part. This is Private Parts." We watch pussy shots. Regarding male erections, Eric says Playboy has a 45 degree rule. Up to 45 degrees, erections are ok. More than that, forbidden. We have a lot more women at Playboy Channel now... I have no desire to look at erect penises. Women want to see erect penises, at the women at this channel do." Eric has a beautiful blonde girlfriend (and a tall sexy personal assistant). "TeN is Playboy's only competition. Spice Hot is more of a friendly relationship. When we bought Spice, we had to find a buyer for Spice Hot. Because of the longstanding relationship between Vivid and Playboy, Steve Hirsch was the natural person to go to. "If nudity drove people to the magazine, it is sex that drove people to the [Playboy cable tv] channel. "I've been here eight years, doing Hot Rocks, which was non-nude wraparounds of music videos. You might occasionally see a breast or some explicit language... Then I started Nightcalls and Strip Search three years for the new Playboy. Until Jim English arrived, we did no taped movies. Everything was film. And what's been most successful has been the reality-based shows while anything that is narrative is competing with new releases [mainstream and hardcore] and doesn't do as well. "We kinda have ratings, such as buy rates for a night. We purposefully put Nightcalls on a Wednesday night because it was a dead night for us. "Before the channel, they had PlayboyVideo Magazine (in the early 1980s), which, when the channel started, grew into Playboy Home Video. If the budget is under $100,000 an hour, it's a TV show. If it's $250,000 an hourm it's a home video shot on film." Luke: "Is it true that Playboy Playmates have to sign a release that they will not do pornography?" Eric: "I don't think they have to sign a release. But from the Playmates I've dealt with, once you've dealt with women who are going to take some amount of clothing off for a living, they all have that limits. For strippers, the topless girls hate the full-nude girls and the full-nude girls say, 'oh, we don't like her because she spreads.Or does lap dancing.' "Most of the girls who become Playmates, Playboy is all she will ever do. Even to get a Playmate to do her video with a guy somehwere in the video, not necessarily having contact, is a major accomplishment. They do pledge to not do any nude work for anyone else for 18 months. "The internet has taken off so well because it eliminates the gate keepers. The only thing that stops pornography from being multi multi-billions is the gatekeepers. You get jaded in Los Angeles and New York because you can get pornography. If you live in Des Moine, there'd be that one store 20 miles away, a shack in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to the internet, once you punch in your credit card, you get live sex 24 hours a day. "I think the [porn] industry is f---ed in the head because everyone is competing for a slice of the pie that is already there. I hear the same thing from people at every single major porn company. Everyone is thinking, 'how can we get our numbers up, to sell movie A over movie B.' Instead of, 'how do we expand the audience?' "The audience is out there because the curiosity is out there. I literally can't go anywhere without someone asking me a million questions, 'what's it like to work with this person or that person?' So, the curiosity is there but the accessibility isn't. The industry's challenge (and Wicked has done some good things in this direction because many of their girls have hosted shows on E! [channel]) is to get that guy in Des Moine who wouldn't normally buy a porn film. He sees her on TV, thinks, 'wow, she's hot,' and then he clicks on the computer and buys something. "But then there are downsides to the expansion of pornography. It's a Catch 22 because you can only get a real perspective on the business by working in the business. "What's the difference between pornography and obscenity? I don't think it's pornography to watch two people have sex on screen. I think it's obscene to give them $200 apiece and then not pay royalties on it. I just come from an artist's perspective. If you're creating a film of visual entertainment, you should share in the profits, which is never going to happen." Eric Mittleman Eric Helmetcam Man Gary Gray Helmetcam man with (L-R) Juli Ashton, Alexandra Silk, Helmet, Tiffany and Sydney Luke: "Do you really have a big long black dick?" Gary Gray: "That's an actual likeness. Not many people would expect me to have a 24-inch doubleheader down there, but I'm chockfull of surprises." Helmetcam Man aka Gary Gray, for his day job, dubs programs into Brazilian Portugeese, Latin American Spanish, and Castilian Spanish for the overseas branches of Playboy cable TV. I'm responsible for making sure that all the top women in the adult business speak foreign languages. Eric asks Gary for a copy of the tape Best of Night Calls. It's a very small tape. Ba boom. Gary: "We've found that when we language dub it, it looks better than the original because at least they're now moaning in sync." Eric: "The two professional organizations that don't usually do adult content love us - Close Captioning Institute for Night Calls and a translation service." Gary: "Mom and dad didn't know what to name me. They were at a Red Sox game in Boston. They decided that whoever hits the next home run, that's who we will name him after. So Rico Petraselli lines one out of the Park. So they say, so much for that, I guess we'll call him Gary. True story." Eric: "Rico Gray as the Helmetcam man." "I created him." Gary: "He put the helmet on my head. I came up with the personality." Eric: "I was hot off the trail of watching Jenny McCarthy's career, so I figured Gary would be my next one. "It's a typical Playboy story. Nightcalls is a successful 90-minute show. Some bean counter decided that we could do an extra half hour at virtually no cost. I said, 'that's no longer TV. That's radio. As it is, I think Nightcalls should be an hour long.' They said, great, just fill that half hour and spend no money doing it." Luke: "Gary." Gary: "They brought me in for $5 a show. And then I realized what they were paying everyone else, and I got it up to $10. I didn't have an agent. Now the half hour costs them a big bundle of money." Luke to Gary: "Did you ever f--- Jenny McCarthy?" Gary: "I was not inclined to go down that road. I couldn't give her her sitcom deals that she needed." Eric: "Yeah, and you weren't married." Gary: "One of my early jobs for Eric, when Jenny was a Playmate, was picking Jenny up from the [Playboy] mansion and taking her wherever we were shooting when I was PAing for the company. She was one of the first Playmates I met who had a personality. The average girl back then did not have much to say, before Playboy became so multi-media." Eric didn't f--- Jenny either. "From the day we hired her, she was dating her manager behind her manager's wife's back." Luke: "How do you spell his name?" Eric: "P-I-G. No, Ray Manzella." Luke: "She wasn't interested in you, even though you created her?" Gary: "She won't even return his phonecalls, that bitch. "My best Jenny story. We were at a party and talking. And David Spade came over, who's big on Saturday Night Live, and he's trying to work on her. And she says, 'do you mind leaving us alone, I'm talking to Gary.' And he was shocked. I was just a lowly PA then. "My first paying job in Hollywood was as a PA for Playboy, but I didn't know it at the time. I was 22 years old, fresh in town from Boston. I worked on a free short movie and the coordinator really liked me and asked if I wanted to work on this thing next week. So, the day before the shoot, she calls me up. 'I know you're supposed to start at 7AM, but I need you to start at 6AM, because you have to pick up the Playmates.' "I said, 'Why do I have to pick them up first thing in the morning, I'll pick them up tonight and keep them in my house. It seems foolish to get out this early in the morning. Everything's going to be closed.' She said, 'what are you talking about? Not those kind of playmates. Playboy Playmates.'" Eric: "If you meet any Playmate from the '70s, the first thing she'll tell you is, 'you really missed the great days.'" Gary: "I go to my first Playboy shot and am completely flustered. All these gorgeous women are walking around naked." Luke to Eric: "Has success spoiled him?" Eric: "No, Gary is the only one who keeps thanking me for putting him in the position he is..." Gary: "It certainly has jaded me. You can't spend years around these women and not view life and sex differently. I had Houston on my show last night. She just did her 620 person gangbang. Just one more eye opening experience. The best email I got today about last night's show simply said, 'well, that was interesting.'" Eric: "When Jenny's TV series got cancelled, I called her manager and offered her work in craft service. He's not fond of me. "When Jenny left Playboy for her MTV career, she did it in a bad way, badmouthing where she came from, just like Traci Lords denied she was a porn star. Jenny McCarthy hosted Hot Rocks [on Playboy TV] for three years before she went to MTV. The only reason she got to audition for the MTV gig was because of an interview she did on Hot Rocks with Paulie Shore." Gary: "The true pinnacle of interviewing is, can you hold your own against Paulie Shore." Eric: "The only time I've heard Jenny McCarthy mention Hot Rocks was a line in her book. 'The only bone that Playboy ever threw me was that they allowed me to host this cable show Hot Rocks.' She didn't mention all the training we put her through." Gary: "I mention Eric in every interview I do." 7/20/01 Former Playboy Night Calls producer Eric Mittleman phoned from his new job Creative Light Entertainment where he's starting its film division. When his contract expired last November, Eric jumped to a reality TV company that thought up the National Enquirer UNCOVERED show. Eric: "We're doing some softcore movies [at CLE]. And some horror films and comedy. They're basically a film distribution company and they wanted to launch a production division. The guy who brought me here brought me to Playboy ten years ago - Scott Zakran. "I've been here two weeks. "My own sensibilities are more in the PG13-R rated world. We're making adult movies [not pornographic]."
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