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Gene Ross1 Gene Ross 2 Gene Ross3

Since joining Adult Video News in 1985, Gene Ross has been porn's gossip king and AVN's lead editorial figure after publisher Paul Fishbein.

It took Gene and AVN a couple of years to effectively react to the immediacy of the internet, but in March, 1999, they launched www.geneross.com, a porno news and gossip site largely patterned on (and designed to compete with) www.l-keford.com.

In October, 2000, Ross announced his resignation from AVN. Three weeks later, he started work for Rob Black's Extreme Associates. Over the next few weeks, he detailed how Fishbein fixed awards, reviews and editorial coverage to suit his own financial interest.

Born in 1948, Ross lived on the East Coast until moving with Fishbein to Los Angeles with Adult Video News in 1991.

Ross takes on Prometheus Books critics Pat Riley and Bob Rimmer in his review of their X-Rated Videotape Guide 4.

"...Riley, for reasons that can only be described as self-serving, excoriates AVN for "political correctness," questions "ulterior motives" in our own reviews and criticizes us for failure to mention the "AIDS scare... This is coming from the same man who, years ago, under his real name, would type five and six-page letters chastising AVN reviewers for their fauz pas and would take exceptional pains to describe how certain actresses were cosmetically and - in their personal lives - sluts, hookers, and whores. Much hasn't changed in Riley's methodology as you'll witness in this book."

Riley writes: "Roxanne Blaze has obviously been told that she's the greatest thing since sliced bread and as a result has the inflated idea of her own importance that characterized Jennifer Stewart and Kelly O'Dell."

Gene Ross: "One of my particular favorites is the Riley view on Celeste in his take of Haunted Nights: "Celeste has her new humongous boobs with visible scars and restructured nose but she's still too big and too ugly."

Riley describes Melanie Moore: "Her hair doesn't say 'groupie from the sticks' but rather professional hooker."

Gene writes: "As far as ulterior motives are concerned, since I preside editorially over the contents of AVN, is Riley suggesting that I'm involved in some kind of payola scheme?

"That we didn't report on the AIDS [Johnathan Morgan] scare had implications beyond what Riley is able to fathom. At the time of the crisis, we worked hand-in-glove with the industry to diffuse this issue and not turn [it] into a vile media circus. This allowed the adult industry to police and solve an internal problem without risking possible national censure, or worse, an enforced shut down of operations.

"Riley writes off the whole [AIDS] incident by saying, '...In reality the risks were miniscule and I'll lay money now that no one has been infected because of this incident [Johnathan Morgan having on-camera sex with a girl who initially tested HIV positive but later tested negative. Johnathan was suspended from performing for several months.].'

"Riley proves that he's out of his element when he tackles mainstream sex films. In a review of The Pamela Principle, Riley says: "...it's a never-ending round of parties including one where she (Pamela) brings an ugly brunette in bed for a g/g." The "ugly brunette" is Kym Wilde whom Riley fails to recognize."

I've abbreviated Gene's column in the 10/94 AVN by eliminating most of the adverbs.

"Any film critic will tell you that good movies aren't as much fun to write about as putrid ones - those which afford all the choice one-liners and those clever webs of verbal decimation critics love so much to spin [see Hustler].

"Case in point...Michael Ninn's Sex…

"Ninn's is a natural born, compulsively interesting and beautifully laid out adult film. Unfortunately, it's a film fascinating to behold but frustrating for the hit-and-run comedy specialist to do a number on. That's because Ninn, a talented visionary who plays the tormented-artist-in-a-garret role to the hilt, is as likely to turn out a piece of convenience store sexual crapola, as a cop movie without a convenience store holdup. [That means unlikely.]

"Bad films...tap into the critics desire to wisecrack....To the extent that I can't even begin to relate [to] how spiritually cleansing it is to sink a video...works of art like Sex present a whole different set of challenges to...the killer/critics inside us.

"Sex is an aggressive movie that has something emotional to offer and something intelligent to say. Ironically, Sex didn't start talking to me until...Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, a warp speed, celluloid freebasing attempt to make the two-gun shoulder holster this year's fashion statement.... All of us may be natural born killers, that all it may take is a misplaced vowel, a disgruntled situation in the work place, one more crooked politician or a bad porn film to get the chain reaction started."

Gene Ross devoted two Adult Video News editorials to me in the summer of 1998. In the July issue, he writes:

...the industry at one time adopted this site's author, Luke F-rd. The industry nurtured him and gave him suckle - only to discover a pen-wielding Rosemary's Baby in its midst...

A keyboard vigilante with a penchant for a hangin', Ford, in my opinion, chooses to essay the role of some bow-wielding William Tell figure whose quest for truth and justice is achieved by methods best understood by the Ku Klux Klan. A British tabloid has nothing on Ford's style of reportage. When it comes to reaching into the bowels of fiction and piling on the manure, Ford's site might best be described as a compost pile vying for the Pulitzer.

What's more, there appears to be some weird obsession with Vito Corleone-type names and lurking Mafioso conspiracies that are somehow deeply entrenched within the catacombs of the adult network. Obviously influenced by Mario Puzo, Ford's daily internet hallucinations compulsively seek Capos behind every bush, dead bodies in every pile of linguine and register a more-than-obvious public vent when neither are to be found.

That would be amusing enough, but Ford's postings are at their hilarious best when they break the tacit industry code of omerta [silence]. Under no intentional circumstances is a performer's identity ever published, yet Ford drops real names with the alarming frequency of a sneeze during hay fever season. His callous disregard is justified by a rather dubious claim that his information has appeared in other source material like AVN. This I would like to see. On very rare occasion such a faux pas has been spotted in AVN, but Ford's collection of a.k.a. revelations rivals the FBI's for volume and circulation.

On further examination, three other initials appear to have captured Ford's morbid fascination: namely, HIV. Being the Internet Chicken Little that he is, Ford is taking credit for "breaking" the current HIV story - which is tantamount to James Cameron claiming originality for the Titanic.

With the bold determination of a Vincent Price character in a Salem Witch Hunt flick, Ford, in my opinion, has single-handedly turned the Internet into a Texas Chainsaw slaughterhouse. Even a spook story maven like Peter Straub might get the shivers from some of the bodies Ford's been dangling from meat hooks. Because of HIV, Marc Wallice's life will never be the same - with no additional prodding, insane conjecture or daily harassment; while performers like John West, Kaitlyn Ashley and Alyssa Love have been tried and sentenced merely on the strength of bizarre logic and absence from the adult industry without Ford's permission. The list of suspects will continue to grow as will the legion of geeks that cling to Ford's every questionable word.

Lord only knows what this guy would do with Jerry Springer.

A journalist (NY Times Nick R-vo) writes about the 7/98 AVN editorial bashing Luke F-rd:

"Ordinarily, I like AVN, have been aided by some writers there and am amazed at its increasing prosperousness. It's a good slick trade magazine, as those journals go. The column by Gene Ross in the most recent issue, however, bashing Luke F-rd just plain baffles me; it was also quite discursive. Gene, read the interview with Brooke Ashley on the newsgroup and then ask yourself why a similar no-bull interview wasn't printed in AVN. It's pretty clear that, at a minimum, on the HIV/Marc Wallace (and possibly others) culpability issue, AVN and others in the industry will not investigate or condemn anyone but the media, which is ludicrous. How can any publication bash Luke F-rd and the media and not also condemn someone like Wallace, whom most people seem to strongly suspect that knew he was infected and knowingly passed it onto others. The magazine's ire should be directed at Wallace and possibly others -- not the messenger trying to ferret out some truth here. Were it not for the postings on here, I honestly don't think the public would know very much about the seemier side of the business and the HIV testing scandal and Wallace's probable Typhoid Mary-like behavior. Honestly, Gene, I don't think I could have counted on AVN for the real scoop behind this story. And that is disappointing. Besides the Luke postings, some of Pat Riley's postings and some others discussing the Wallice/HIV issue have been right on. My advice is that the best posture for a trade mag like yours might be to just ignore the issue instead of acting as an advocacy organ. I am curious if AVN is also going to take a position on company's selling tapes that feature not only infected talent but the tapes in which they were infected."

7/13/98

Bill Margold says: "What's very interesting is that Gene Ross did the job on you [in the 7/98 AVN]. While overdue, it also suggests that Gene Ross is yowling piteously about AVN not being the quintessential gossip because you've taken it away from them. There is a strange form of sour grapes in that article, if you read between the lines. He's upset because he can no longer be the town crier. You're [Luke F-rd] the town crier. You've taken away his thunder. You've taken away Brandy Alexandre's thunder, but you're going to wind up the most hated man in this business, taking the mantle away from me, which I like.

"Once upon a time, Gene Ross was you, Luke F-rd. He had the playpen of the damned all to himself. He had the most powerful magazine in the business so that he could go out and hack anybody he wanted. Brandy came along on the internet and usurped some of his thunder. By that time, Ross was falling in love with every women he met, and wanted to get married over and over. He worshipped Taylor Wane, Alex Jordan… Kimberly Chambers… He was supposed to be in an untouched position, but he could be bought, for uhh, toupee supplies.

"I was the last person in the world to know that Gene was bald. I had never figured that out until people began making fun of him. Whatever he has on his head looks ok to me. More power to him.

"You came along. He looked in the mirror and saw himself losing luster, and he used his column to get at you. Mike Albo [Hustler Erotic Video Guide] has fallen by the wayside. I think he was warned by the people who pay him, that if he continues to bite the hand that feeds, the magazine would begin to suffer. So Albo was reined in."

7/19/98

I debated Gene Ross on the Ed Powers Radio Show. Read it here. And here's an excerpt:

Gene: "I have a question for Luke. In your ongoing search for truth, justice and the American way, I noticed a couple of days ago that you put on your web site that director John T. Bone bounced a $500 check to Cassidy. What's the point of that?"

Luke: "Well, John Bone has bounced checks to a lot of talent over the last few weeks."

Gene: "If you knew anything about this business, pal, which you obviously don't, you'd know that bounced checks are a way of life in this business. That someone bounces a check is not big news. This is descriptive of the fact that you are totally naïve and totally incompetent to handle this task."

Liz: "Yeah. You're an outsider looking in. You're not reporting directly."

Gene: "You have no clue."

Luke: "What a tremendous condemnation of your own industry that bounced checks are a way of life."

Liz: "We're just human."

Luke: "To the people, a dozen or so, who received those bounced checks… To them it was not an insignificant matter."

Gene: "They deal with it all the time. It happens."

8/28/98

As porn's gossip king, Ross has been the target of numerous accusations - most centering around corruption.

I hear that Gene Ross has a financial interest in John Bone's Cream Entertainment which explains why Gene tends to be pro-Bone in his editorial slant. And why Gene upraided me on Ed Powers' show for writing that John has written bad checks.

Gene and John have been friends for a dozen years.

John Bone says the above is nonsense. John points out that he has not won an AVN award for two years.

John says he used to own 1/3rd of Cream Entertainment along with Jerry Garfinkle and Charley Frey but that now John owns Cream 100%. Charley Frey wants to know: "John, how can you own 100% of Cream when you have not bought me out yet?"

Gene Ross writes to Luke: "I will not even attempt cordiality. Unless you post an immediate retraction concerning my so-called financial interest with John Bowen and Cream Entertainment, you can expect the necessary legal action taken against you. The comments posted August 28, 1998 on your website are both slanderous and libelous."

Charley Frey tells me: "John Bowen had been offering a piece of CREAM to Gene for months; and up to the time he f---ed me; Gene had no financial interest in CREAM; but, John's intention had always been to get Gene to f--- over the owner of AVN and in fact open a publication against AVN at some time in the future. What has happened since communication ceased between Bowen and I, I cannot attest to... but, I sincerely doubt that Gene would have anything to do with Bowen."

From December 1997 to July 1998, Cream contract girl Zoe appeared in every issue of AVN, including once on the cover.

9/1/98 Jasmin St Claire says she remembers John Bowen boasting, "I'm going to bring Gene Ross on board in October [1998] and f--- Paul Fishbein up the ass. I didn't believe John for a minute."

9/4/98

AVN's Paul Fishbein does not believe allegations that his employee Gene Ross, veteran porn journalist and critic, has a financial interest in Cream Entertainment.

Paul told me at 3PM Friday: "It's Gene's issue. He's hired an attorney and he'll be coming after you. As far as I'm concerned, I don't pay any attention to you. Any credibility you were building up, you've lost now.

"If I thought that you had anything I would sue you for it. It's [that Gene Ross has a financial interest in Cream Entertainment] flat out not true. If I believed it was true, I would fire Gene immediately. If Gene Ross is lying to me, I will fire him.

"Your sources may have a burn against John Bowen. They have their own agendas. They are using you. You're printing other people's allegations without having facts makes you a bad journalist. And you're dangerous when you do that. I had a feeling that you were cleaning things up a little bit. That you were printing more news and less rumor, and you were talking to people... And then you do s--- like this...

"Get a piece of evidence before you print, then you have a news story. Gene Ross is not a liar. He looked me straight in the eye and said that it was the biggest bunch of s--- that he ever heard in his life...

"Suppose it was going to happen in October [that John was joining Cream], but you printed it as fact. That's bad journalism. Lucky for me, most people in the industry don't take you seriously and they've laughed you off. Eventually you are going to burn everybody, and nobody is going to talk to you, and you are going to have nothing to write about. The list of people in the industry who can't stand you is growing by the day."

Luke debated Gene Ross on Ed Powers Show.

In the 9/98 AVN editorial on page ten, Gene Ross writes about his debate with me on the Ed Powers radio show on KSLX FM 97.1 in LA:

"I just wish you hadn't made that comment about the snuff film."

This was AVN publisher Paul Fishbein cringing the day after my radio confrontation with Internet gadfly Luke F-rd.

Ford's a guy about whom I wrote a not-too-complimentary AVN editorial a couple of months ago. Which, by the way, I was soundly criticized for in some quarters on the basis that it perhaps lent Ford too much undue credibility. A contradiction in terms, if you think about it, but it seemed like a pretty good idea at the time. Still does, as a matter of fact, now that I've been up against Ford in sort of a classic Hemingway situation and have seen what all the hubbub is about.

Though he proclaims himself to be an "accredited" journalist, I still contend that Ford's ione of these smear tactic commandos who deploys cryptic sources to do his dirty work, but, himself, isn't able to discern a fact from a fortune cookie. Which explains, possibly, why Ford's adult industry postings read like the dialogue equivalent of kung fu movies.

Ethnicity aside (a subject which Ford can't seem to relinquish in his own articles) myself, Ford, AVN's Mark Kernes and a couple million other people, including Brooke Ashley, one of Ford's frequent targets these days, were invited to cram into a broadcast booth to be on Ed Powers' midnight talk show. KLSX radio 97.1 FM in Los Angeles on your listening dial.

Bill Margold also was an invited guest on the program but didn't show for reasons particular to Margold. Something about Margold's having an early a.m. call time, according to Ed Powers. The fact that Margold is a frequent critic of AVN, having many times labeled the magazine "Corrupt," was one particular reason why I was psyching up for the show. At the sound of the bell my strategy was to come flying out of the corner of the ring and go straight for a no-holds-barred submission lock on Margold. Except I was denied. My snitches claim there was another story behind the story of the absence, one too good to pass up. Except my tendency as an accredited journalist (unlike Ford, I've been a reporter for real newspapers) is to consider the source and leave unsubstantiated swill to the Luke F-rds of the world. For, you see, has a knack for putting tall tales in their undignified and improper perspective. All of which offers explanation why he curries favor with the yarn-spinning Pecos Bills of the adult industry.

By no means a tall tale considering what she's had to endure, particularly as a result of Ford's callous Internet msuings, HIV victim Brooke Ashley handled herself adroitly and with quit courage.

I, on the othe rhand, lost my cool way before the show even got started and wanted to scramble over the barrier that separated me from Ford to put a "Stone Cold Stunner" on the man. Such is Ford's unenviable ability to make your skin crawl. (Proving I'm not alone in my feelings, Hustler Erotic Video Guide editor Mike Albo called in to the show offering to knock Ford's yarmulke off his head.)

In 20/20 hindsight, I have two, maybe three regrets about that evening. The first one was a decision to wear a "Johnny Bravo" muscle shirt. For whatever aesthetic purpose that achieved, Ford saw fit the following day to comment appreciatively on "my 200 muscular pounds...broad shoulders and thick biceps" for the benefit of the Internet. A simple Sylvester Stallone comparison would have sufficed, but another man's rapt attention to my machismo really wasn't the purpose of the radio debate. (Ford can at least take solace in knowing that if his journalistic career goes belly-up he can get a carnival job as a weight-guesser.)

My second source of contrition resides in my glib remark about snuff films. I'll explain: For some unfathomable reason, host Powers hurled a question at me about what movie I'd like to see Ford in, as if I'd like to see him in any. To which I snappily replied, "a snuff film." Yes, I would give a word-association psychologist fits, this I have to admit. But, because I assumed, judging by the circumsized expression residing on Powers' face, that my remark got bleeped, I didn't elaborate. Not that I'd want to see anything bad happen to Luke F-rd. How could I wish that on someone who expresses his undying admiration for my creatine-fueled physique? The point I would have made rests in Ford's bizarre fixations with snuff films and the Mafia as inextricably bound to pornography.

The third regrettable issue of the night was the hand grenade lobbed by Powers in Ford's direction, which I failed, miserably, to act upon. Ed asked Luke if he was an "eggplant," a question similarly posed by Dennis Hopper to Christopher Walken in True Romance. As idiotic as all of this ounds, even Ford's own sister tends to discredit him when she writes on the Internet: "He (Luke) was invovled in a motor vehicle accident in which his forehead impacted with a steering wheel...there is medical opinion that this affected his pituitary and resulted in something like a frontal lobe lobotomy...as a result of motor vehicle accident he (Luke) seems to lack a degree of insight and balance in his life."

Idiot me, I never brought this point up.

These gratuitous medical insights, no doubt, come as some small consolation to Brooke Ashley who now says she'd like to "strangle" Ford. Part of Brooke's calm during the radio interview was attributable to the fact that she hadn't read any of Ford's stories about her on the Net. Now she's wiser and mad as hell.

Marc Wallice tells me that he was on the verge of committing suicide after Ford's railings about his condition, and a performer named Kristen has sought psychological counseling, the result of Ford's erroneous postings about her HIV condition.

Several days after the radio interview, Powers had a chummy lunch with Luke F-rd. I asked Ed why was he consorting with the enemy.

"He's wounded," said Powers. "He's like a wounded cheetah. It's better not to ignore him." Of course Powers also admitted that he was afraid to leave his jacket draped on a chair to go to the men's room.

"I don't want him to know what I pay for my dry cleaning."

....

Mark Logan aka Bryn Pryor writes the editorial in the 10/98 AVN:

Recently, one of the Internet gossip mongers reported that our own Gene Ross was part-owner of Cream Entertainment. What a strange thing to claim. As I examine it, I begin to wonder, who is this particular tidbit aimed at? I know it's not true. Paul knows it's not true. Gene and John T. Bone certainly know it's not true. I even suspect taht the writer himself knows it isn't true (and if he doesn't, he's a good deal less intelligent than I give him credit for being).

Obviously, this rumor is aimed at those who don't know the truth, with the equally obvious intention of damaging the reputations of Gene, John, AVN, or all three. Luckily, those who don't know can't be bothered to examine the facts. If Gene is T. Bone's partner, he's done a lousy job of promoting the company. Since the beginning of the year Cream has gotten two magazine covers and one Editor's Choice. Of course, so has Arrow; so maybe GEne owns part of that company as well, not to mention the chunk he must own of VCA.

.........

10/29/98

For the first time in a month, I stopped by Star World Modeling (10/27/98) to see Rob and Joe Spallone. They'd just received the November 1998 AVN and Rob was mad at Gene Ross in particular.

Rob glanced at Chuck Zane's editorial. "Wasn't he the one with Cherry Poppers? Now he's worried about condoms? That's all BS.

"I've met Gene Ross a few times. He likes to come watch [porn being made]. He likes to rap with the girls and try to get a blow job. I've got a few girls who will swear to that but they don't want to be mentioned because AVN can ruin their name.

[On Wednesday at 2PM, Luke decided to do something unusual. Before publishing something about Gene Ross, Luke decided to call Gene and get his view, which is coming up. In short, Gene finds Rob's charges hysterically funny.]

Rob: "Gene called me up one day [April, 1998?], 'Rob, did you know that so-and-so got AIDS?' I say no. Why? Gene says 'Jim South and I are really close and I just called him up and he told me that he couldn't tell me. So I told him to go f--- himself.' This was a fight between Gene Ross and Jim South. Gene Ross told Jim South 'to go f--- himself' because Jim wouldn't give Gene who had AIDS. Jim doesn't have to tell everybody but Gene thinks that because he works for AVN, he should know.

"So that's why I started dealing with Gene. I told him I wanted to do an interview about the AIDS thing. He came here at a John Bone shoot [a gang bang competition in late April, 1998?] trying to get a blow job. I caught Gene jerking off in the bathroom.

"So I called up Gene Ross and asked him when are we going to do the interview. And Gene said, 'Rob, I'd love to do it, especially to get back at Jim South because he's a scum bag, but there's politics involved and they don't want to do it.'

"So I said fine, I will go do what I have to do. I will call the Health Department and I will take care of this AIDS problem with the real world.

"Five minutes later he calls back. 'Rob, you don't know what you said. You'll close the whole industry down. They decided that it would be better to do an interview with you. How about next Wednesday?'

"I had eight people waiting… James DiGiorgio, Dexter from Fat Dog. I wait and wait and finally call him. 'Oh Rob, I thought you were coming here.'

"So I went with Matt Jade and Jim… We talked for three hours. He brought up your [Luke F-rd] name. How he can't stand you. You're backed by someone in Australia. You're not a good journalist. You just write what people tell you.

"This magazine [AVN] will write up every little thing. If a girl gets beat up by her boyfriend, they'll write it. This was five months ago [late April, 1998]. Every month I call him up and Gene says, 'Oh Rob, it's a big story. It's going to take time.'

"I talked Dr. Bonura into lowering the PCR DNA price to $80. Last month I called up AVN to place a small announcement that the North Hollywood clinic lowered the price to $80. Gene says no problem. The AVN came yesterday. Every month they're talking about Sharon Mitchell and AIM and that Free Speech has nothing to do with it. That's a lie. I'm going to show you right here what it says."

Here are excerpts from Gene Ross's article on AIM in the 11/98 AVN, part of an ongoing AVN series on "life with HIV."

Mitchell's monthly nut is something like 10 grand, and one of her jobs as A.I.M.'s director is to come up with insightful ways to make the payments…

To that end, Mitchell lauds organizations like the Free Speech Coalition [donated $8500] and companies like Goalie Entertainment [donated $5,000], VCA [donated $5,000], Metro, Vivid, Elegant Angel, Fallen Angel, All Good Video, Extreme Associates, Shane Enterprises and Exquisite Pleasures for helping her keep afloat.

"Until A.I.M. gets a real solid form of income, it's going to be touch and go for the first six months," Mitchell believes. "I'm nailing, hammering, begging and borrowing, but I'm going for it, and I have a lot of high hopes."

…[F]or a monthly service donation of $150 [VCA among other companies subscribes], A.I.M. will provide video companies with a complete monthly listing of who has been tested.

Physically and emotionally, the new A.I.M. offices are situated a couple of city blocks away from World Modeling on Van Nuys Blvd., but they're light years from the bulls--- which prompted Mitchell to start smoking cigarettes by the carton…

Because World Modeling and A.I.M. shared the same hallway in the same building, whisperings of impropriety, complicity, kickbacks, blood-letting atrocities and other sinister conspiracies were common-place occurrences…

…Mitchell, who doesn't mind telling you that she has single-handedly shoved PCR-DNA down everyone's collective throat, sadly acknowledges that Kimberly Jade, one of the HIV-positive performers, won't return her phone calls…

…Mitchell seems happier than a pig in s---. Marc Wallice is on the verge of becoming her first success story… [S]he and Jeffrey Douglas are working to get Wallice's driver's license back so that he can get around.

***

Rob felt particularly hurt by the article by Tod Hunter on page 76 about the opening of the third industry HIV testing clinic - West Oaks Urgent Care Center in Canoga Park (818-709-5700). Rob's North Hollywood Clinic gets only one sentence at the bottom: "The Santa Nancy Medical Clinic, at 12910 Victory, near Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, is also offering PCR-DNA tests for $85."

Rob: "I called Gene and told him, 'last month I said we were lowering the price to $80.' And Gene said, 'Rob, the magazine is printed months ahead of time.' What are you talking about? This clinic just opened up and you promote it.

"Gene: 'Rob, why are you busting my balls?' And I was very nice yet he kept repeating 'Rob, why are you busting my balls?' If I was there, I would've loved to rip his f---ing toupee, his ugly rug, right off his head.

"He's jealous of you [Luke]. He can't write. If he was a real writer, he wouldn't be at AVN. He'd be in the real world. He's just another guy who wants to be around the porn industry to get his dick sucked. I think he's a fag. He's always checking me out. He's got the worst toupee.

"Finally, I told him 'you're a f---ing cunt,' and I hung up on him. He didn't have the balls to tell me that he couldn't write the article.

"So now Luke, you and I are going on the talk shows. We're going to tell them how they tried to hide the AIDS problem. We're going to fly to New York to do the Howard Stern show. We're going to do Jerry Springer… Forget the money and forget the agency [Star World Modeling]. We are going to f--- this Free Speech, Sharon Mitchell….The North Hollywood Clinic is doing more testing than the other three clinics put together because everyone knows that they are honest. Dr. Bonura is a friend of mine. He don't care about the money.

"If we have to close the modeling agency down to f--- up the industry, that is what we have to do. They can all suck my dick. AVN says I am in the mafia. There is no mafia. If they have a problem, they can come over here. I'm afraid of not one of them. There's no such thing as the Mafia. I don't know what the Mafia is, but I do know that if they have a problem, they can bring it right f---ing here and I'll show them a problem. I ain't kissing nobody's ass and I don't have to be a nice guy no more, and I'm going to f--- up this whole industry.

"This Gene Ross is only allowed to write what he's told to write. They'll be crying tomorrow that I called him a cunt. He used to hang around here because he was friends with Mitch Spinelli. He was trying to get into Buffy's pants. I caught him back then jerking off in the bathroom. When I first met him. I walked in the bathroom and caught him. I said, 'what are you doing?' Jerking off in the open. He's a pervert loser.

"Russ Hampshire said he has nothing to do with AIM. Well, right here in AVN, it tells you that VCA, FSC funds AIM. Russ told me not to talk to you. They are all afraid of you Luke because you print the truth.

"Luke, listen to this tape. Make sure you don't make no mistakes. Put it all in order. I didn't threaten anybody.

"Remember that Free Speech meeting [4/13/98?] when they said that if you don't go condom, we won't buy your product. That was against the law what they did. Their own lawyer Jeffrey Douglas wanted nothing to do with that. He seems like a nice guy. But these other guys telling us to use condoms… Suck my dick!

"Luke, you were in my office when I called the Jerry Springer show. And MTV and LA Weekly. We're going on there with you and some of the girls that got AIDS. Luke, you go ahead and make it up. Whatever you need. Do it right."

On Thursday, 10/22/98, Rob Spallone flew up to San Francisco with his boy toy Wayne Crews to meet David Sturman and show him Rob's new movie (directed by James DiGiorgio) Shooting Sex (which I wrote about a month ago). Rob and Wayne spent the night at a motel near Pier 39, costing over $200 for one evening ($1000 for the total trip says Rob including air fare), but Rob and Wayne say it was worth it.

Luke heard that David Sturman was disappointed with the sex in the video.

Rob: "Luke, put your tape on. I sold a movie to Sin City. Your part was great. We all laughed. David joked about it but I'm not sure he was happy about you giving yourself such a big plug. You said "Luke F-rd dot com" about five times.

"David is a young good looking guy. He looks like you Luke. He's about 35 [years old].

"David is a great guy. He's got some company… He's probably the only honest guy in this whole business. And probably the only guy who makes money. These other guys are all full of s---. This one tells me not to talk to you… David don't care [that Rob talks to Luke]. David was straight up [he had an erection while talking to Rob?]. Sin City is the f---ing company in this business…

"We were trying to make this transsexual bondage movie with Oliver…but the she-hes did not show up… So Saturday night we're over at James DiGiorgio's pad. And we meet this drunk lady in her 50s. And I asked her if she wanted to beat up Oliver for me in a movie. So, we're trying to talk her into it, after talking for ten minutes, she turns around and smacked Oliver so hard in the face… We thought he was either going to cry or kill her. We were all laughing.

"And I pulled out my wallet, took out $400, tore it in half, and gave her half the bills. 'You can have the other half if you come back to my studio and we'll film it right now.'

"She says, 'ok. I don't want nobody to see my face. I want a mask. I want to stop by my house and get my girdle.' She was an old broad. Jim and Matt go with her to her house. Me and Wayne fly back to Star World to set up a bondage scene (in ten minutes). They stopped at the liquor store to get Tequila. She was bombed.

"The dead guy [Dave, Rob's mechanic who lived on the premises at Star World] came walking out. I said, 'Dave, do me a favor. Put on this teddy and these high heels and I'll give you ten bucks. He says, get out of here. I said, I'll give you $12. He says ok.

"I told him, all I want you to do is stand in the scene and brush your teeth. It turned out that the lady was so drunk that all she could do was stick her tongue and scream and hit Oliver. She wouldn't listen. We had Dave in a coffin. So I said, Dave, come out and tell her what to do. Dave was a f---ing professional.

"I came in my office and looked in the monitor. They looked like ghosts. I start laughing so hard that I ran out in the parking lot and threw up. I bring Matt and Jim in here and they see it through the monitor and start laughing. They get the camera and film it. It's the f---ing sickest tape you'll ever see in your life.

"In three hours of taping we got 14 minutes of footage. I'll never be able to use it. The third time she fell down, I said, that's it, I want to go home. I stole her pocket book and stole my money back."

Rob, Joe, Wayne, Matt and I sit in the sun. Rob's dog BJ gnaws on a bone. "That's a human leg," says Rob. "You think that guy ain't hobbling?"

Rob arranges for me to pick up copies of Shooting Sex from the editor Weasel at Sin City. Rob suggests I call Russ Hampshire to tell him that Rob has gone off on him and the FSC.

I call Russ from Rob's phone and humbly ask him if I can stop by to take pictures of him and VCA. "I understand," says Russ. "You want legitimacy."

He says I can come over so long as I don't snoop.

I stop by Sharon Mitchell's AIM to take some pictures (Jed the Fish from KROQ radio is watching the MTV documentary on an AIM tv in the waiting room) before arriving at one PM at VCA to seek emotional and professional validation by taking pics of Russ and his company.

Hampshire spends the next hour with me, which, considering his 100 employees and his numerous reasons to loathe me, makes me feel warmly towards myself.

Russ wants gonzo shooters. He may spin off another company to just shoot gonzo. Chloe and Alex Sanders (Shadow Dancers) shoot new lines for him.

I play Russ sections of Rob's interview. He calls Rob and lets him know that just because VCA donated money to AIM does not mean that Russ runs AIM or tells the AIM doctors how to make their diagnoses.

Russ employs a person to simply keep track of performer IDs (going back over ten years) and HIV tests (about seven years).

Mike Ross says it is against the law for employers like VCA to require HIV tests for employment.

"When they first started this law about requiring two sets of IDs," says Russ, "I'd been doing that for years. I probably have more IDs than anybody around. People get IDs from me [other porn companies have asked Russ for copies of talent IDs]."

Russ pays payroll tax for anyone who works for VCA, an added 18% expense burden. Most companies treat porn talent and crew as independent contractors.

At two PM, I stopped by Sin City, which employs about 25 persons. They want to expand. Head of production Chuck Martino says that instead of giving directors $20-$30,000 to shoot a video, the company now has him pay talent and crew directly and give the director a fee. Sometimes a director would receive $30,000 to shoot a movie, only spend $20,000 on it and pocket $10,000.

I talk to Rob by phone Wednesday. "Luke, you f---ing scumbag. Why did you play my interview to Russ? I told you not to do that.

"Listen, I want you to write this.

Rob respects Russ. "He calls me up when he has something to say to me, instead of badmouthing me behind my back.

"When PAW and FSC decided to make the PCR DNA the industry standard HIV test, they [FSC & PAW] said they would pay for everyone's first PCR test. So I sent people like Herschel Savage over to PAW, and they made them join the Free Speech Coalition for $50 to get their free test. Then they said that people could get their first PCR test at the North Hollywood Clinic and that they would pay. So North Hollywood faxed over to PAW the bills. Sharon Mitchell paid the first few and then stopped paying. So I told this to Russ and he said, 'no problem. Fax over the bills and I will take care of it.' So Russ is an honorable man."

Luke "If Rob didn't talk to me I'd be f---ed" Ford, the "Internet's DeTorquemada" in the words of AVN's Gene Ross, called Gene at 2PM Wednesday to apply the screw's of Luke F-rd dot com's infamous torture machine to his AVN adversary.

Regular readers will remember that a few weeks ago Luke conceived in a heavenly vision that Gene Ross had a financial interest in Cream Entertainment. Now Luke needs to know if Gene has a sexual interest in Rob Spallone.

F Force Five  Planet Luck   Cafe Flesh

Gene: "Rob Spallone came in a few months ago and most of it was a strong diatribe against Jim South and the business. Essentially, Rob believes that everybody has entered into this conspiracy to cover up the fact that more people have HIV than is being reported. What I'm trying to do with the series ["Living With HIV"] in our magazine was to look at some of the positive aspects of what the industry is trying to do in light of this situation and try to do something on behalf of performers. What Rob is trying to get me to write is diametrically opposed to the spirit of the series.

"So he called me a couple of weeks ago and said, 'I'm going to be talking to 20-20 [ABC TV program]. When they come in, I want you to do a story. So I thought, this might be a twist I could write about. Anyway, the call never came. Maybe he never did the interview. Anyway he calls me Monday and says 'they [AVN] didn't run it.' Well, they is me. I write these articles. I said, 'Rob, I have a bunch of stuff on the docket to run. Maybe I'll get around to it.' Then he starts screaming to me about an article attributed to Todd Hunter in the magazine. Well, I don't have to answer to anybody about the editorial policy of AVN. I choose to write the articles I want to write when I want to write them. So he starts screaming at me, then he starts calling me a 'f---ing cunt,' at which time I hung up on him.

"A few minutes later, I get a call from John Bone. [Gene does a great imitation of John's upper class British accent.] John says: 'I just got a call from Rob Spallone and apparently he's going to talk to Luke F-rd and try to destroy you.'

"I said, 'f--- it.' Who gives a f---? Let him, f--- him."

Luke: "Rob says he caught you jerking off."

Gene laughs. "Ok. He's a fabricator of nonsense. He's probably got some wiring crossed the wrong way and he's not accountable for what he's doing.

"The last time I was at Star World was to cover Jasmine's final gangbang. And I was too busy writing about a gangbang to consider jerking off. I've never jerked off to an adult movie."

Luke: "Well, maybe Jasmine's gangbang was so arousing?"

Gene: "That is so ludicrous that it isn't even worth dignifying. The man is showing what little intelligence he possesses by making a quote like that. I am not a 75 year old man who can't fight back [Duke?]. If Mr. Spallone thinks that I have offended him in any way, tell him that I have a 14 page lawsuit that I haven't began to think about writing. I was doing him a favor by bypassing this but now I think I will pay some attention to the legal problems he faces in a court of law."

Luke: "Did you call Rob Spallone and tell him that you'd told Jim South to f--- off?"

Gene: "I have never ever picked up the phone to volunteer to call Rob Spallone. Never.

"Jim South and I have never had a harsh word. What happened was, I called Jim and asked him about a list and he got upset about it… Jim, we're part of the press and we're trying to help you here. He was under the gun and he didn't want to deal with it…

"Our magazine is not in the business of trying to rile people, create intense controversy… We're a trade magazine to parley information to the video stores. We're not trying to be Time magazine. We try to report on things as honestly as we can and get as many sides of the story. We don't try to stir up pots and screw people over."

Luke: "That's my end of it."

Gene: "I will leave it up to you. You do a very good job of it."

Luke: "Thanks Gene."

Gene: "I think this is hysterical. I emailed you that time about suing you [over the Gene Ross have a financial interest in Cream Entertainment] but I will tell you something… He is bordering on slander. He better have a good lawyer. It is one thing to be told that Gene Ross has a financial interest in Cream Entertainment and not knowing any better you might assume that might have some substance. But this thing… That I called him and told him this or that… That's horses---. I have never jerked off to an adult movie let alone real time on an adult shoot.

"Most people (at an adult shoot) are afraid to approach me because they think that I am this dour menacing figure and people keep their distance. I find that amusing and I play up to that (wrestling) image."

Luke: "Did you try to get into Buffy's pants on a Mitch Spinelli shoot?"

Gene: "I know Buffy. She's retired and a mother. Ohmigod…. I found hilarious your ongoing dialogue with Margold about my so-called affairs in this business. I don't date women in this business. Kim Chambers was the only woman that I ever dated.""

Luke [appalled that he may have run unchecked and inaccurate rumors]: "Margold told me that you had done a whole string of them."

Gene: "Where is Margold privy to my sex life. I'm alleged to have romanced Taylor Wane. She lived in the same apartment complex I did about seven years ago. So ergo, I was dating her."

Luke: "Do you and Bill Margold pick up porn girls together?"

Gene: "I wouldn't even try to compete with Bill. He's the man. I defer to Margold. He's so slick and smooth. I would just falter in comparison. I would only be the anchor around his neck if we were trying to do a twosome and pick up women.

"Taylor Wane and I went to lunch a couple of times and that was it."

Luke: "You weren't buffing Taylor Wane?"

Gene: "I hate to blow the image…but no. I'd see her by the pool and shoot the s--- and that was it.

"I was warned against [dating porn girls]. I had so many friends say, 'don't get involved with a girl from the business.'

"I found her [Chambers] interesting and intelligent for her age… It was weird and bizarre. We never really got engaged."

Luke: "I find it hard to believe that you've never jerked off to an adult movie. I jerk off…"

Gene: "I watch this stuff for a living. I may have to watch 15-20 movies in a row here at the office. When you have a deadline, you don't have time to get excited about them. I have never gotten emotionally involved with a girl in this business or a video in this business."

Luke: "I'd be nothing without Rob. He gives me the best stuff."

Gene: "He's the man. How was your vacation in Bimini, that didn't last too long?"

Luke: "I had to rush back because I heard you were a f---ing cunt. Is it true that you are jealous of Luke F-rd?"

Gene: "Luke, I'm jealous of your youth."

Luke: "Rob thinks that you've been eyeing him. He thinks you might be gay."

Gene: "Here is my type - I like women with long blonde hair, between 5'8" and 5'10" and are big boned and athletic. Now if Rob Spallone fits that description, then I have been eyeing him."

Luke: "I'm out of incendiary things to ask."

Rob phoned at 3:40PM, 10/28/98. "I just got off the phone with Paul Fishbein. You told me Luke that Gene Ross told you that he couldn't print the article because AVN don't want to write anything negative. True or false?"

Luke: "True."

Rob: "I just told this to Paul Fishbein. He said you go to Luke F-rd. I said, 'Let me tell you something. Luke F-rd had it on tape. I just listened to the tape. Don't tell me that I'm lying.' He [Paul] was just trying to stick up for Gene Ross. And I told him that Luke just spoke to Gene and Gene told him this. I want you [Luke] to print in that article that Rob has no problem with AVN. Rob has a problem with Gene Ross being a cunt and not being able to tell me that he wouldn't print the article and he's been telling me that it takes a few months, it takes time, it's a big article, and in two seconds he told you [Luke] that he can't print it because AVN doesn't like to print anything negative. Paul Fishbein does not believe he said that.

"I told Paul: 'Listen, I have nothing against you. I don't know you.' Then he [Paul] went off, that I [Rob] stick up for Luke F-rd. I said 'Luke F-rd is the best thing that ever happened to the industry.' He's going to get to the bottom of things and call me back tomorrow. I have nothing against AVN… Any questions Luke, you beep me. We're going to kill them tomorrow buddy. Me and Luke."

Luke: "Ok buddy."

.............

11/15/98

Early Thursday afternoon, Luke F-rd talked to a real journalist – the Vice President of Editorial Operations at AVN, Gene Ross, who recently wrote on Rob Black, pro wrestling and porn.

"The porn industry should embrace the same mechanics that have made professional wrestling so popular," says Gene. "You create controversies and rivalries and highlight skullduggery…because it develops viewer interest. Porn should take it to the next step where they carry these story lines through to video and not just air out stuff in print. Once you bring this controversy into the video forum, you can create a cliff-hanger context where you take these story lines and drop them off into the next feature so people can see, say, what is happening now between Jasmine and Kendra… I think Rob is successful in his persona. The reason for watching much of his stuff is that he is a character in his movies. He has the ability to make the industry interesting in a conspiratorial sense. He makes you feel that you are being made privy to some deep secrets. He presents it in an interesting way.

"Rob is most successful when he does a day in the life of… The Pornographer for instance, where he airs out what’s happening at Extreme Associates. They air out all the drama… Companies would be smart to do this within the context of their movies."

Luke: "Rob Black is a marked contrast to staid businessmen like Russ Hampshire and Steve Hirsch."

Gene: "You always have to look for the new way to promote the stuff… I’ve been in the business for 12 years. There’s always some new guy who says, ‘I’m going to change the face of pornography.’ Well, no you’re not because sex is only done a certain number of ways. You’re going to find a new way to have sex? No. What you’re going to do is to find a new way to promote sex. There isn’t much more you are going to do under the sun to change the look of a porno movie. They are what they are. Some people have a better knack for capturing porn than others but the whole idea is promotion and it’s always been promotion."

Late Friday afternoon Luke basked in the warmth of his new friendship with Gene Ross. As he prepared to shut down his computer to celebrate the Sabbath, Ford got a call from the boss - Rob Spallone, who was driving to Las Vegas with James DiGiorgio.

"What the f--- are you doing, Luke?" asked Rob. "You've got to print this. Rob says that Gene Ross... all he did was bad mouth Luke to hundreds of people."

Jim in the background: "On the Ed Powers Show radio show."

Rob: "On the Ed Powers radio show. Now he's telling you that porno people should do this and that. The only reason he's doing this is because Rob Spallone said that Gene is a c-nt. You're got to print this sh-t, Lukey. And our movie [Shooting Sex], that you're in, you've got to promote the sh-t out of it.

"You've got to say, 'Rob never reads me but somebody told him what was on there [Gene Ross on wrestling] and he's like, 'Gene Ross, this is the guy who says Luke F-rd is a piece of sh-t, the worst journalist ever...'' I want you [Luke] to bury him [Ross]. I don't like the guy."

Jim in the background: "Unless he's [Ross] offering you a job to work there." [Not true] And where's our piece of your new pay site?"

Rob: "We don't do that yet. Lukey, we have to have this understanding. You and me...All the owners call me up and ask, 'how is your newspaper doing?' They think that you're mine. These other people call up, 'I want to kick Luke F-rd's ass but I know that if I kick his ass you're going to beat me up.' Luke, you don't write nothing bad about me. You write what I tell you. You and me. We're like partners."

Jim: "That's exactly the controversy Ross was talking about."

12/2/98

Vice President of Editorial Operations, Gene Ross runs the 20% of Adult Video News that is not ads. I talked to him by phone around noon on Tuesday.

Gene: "We are drowning in new product. And distributors can only take so many new pieces. Nobody has broadened the consumer base [for porno]. I find it regrettable that high numbers are considered 5000 pieces out the door. Gauged against the population at large, that is not a high number of pieces..."

Luke: "Why not make one-tenth as many movies at ten times the budget?"

Gene: "It's the mathematics [of distribution]. It depends on what deal you cut with the distributor... What he agrees to buy your product for. You've got to wait three or four months before you see any return on your investment. It's like selling insurance - you have to make lots of sales before you start seeing stuff (renewables) coming back to you. An average company today, to make any money, has to put out an average of four titles a month. There is a mathematical formula already written into it. You're not going to be able to sell your product for more than X number of dollars [$8-$14 per tape wholesale on new releases to distributors]. Only if you have a certain name recognition can you squeeze out an extra dollar or two per tape.

"Thirteen dollars per tape is on the high end of what a distributor will pay. They will certainly try to get it for less."

Luke: "Most tapes are not very good?"

Gene: "I can't say that anymore. They're pretty decent. I've seen the evolution of porn. Some of this stuff is pretty good. The problem is that there is a lot of sameness to the product because you're using the same talent pool over and over again. It's the guys who are able to get the new girls first and get out the door with their product who will do better. Ed Powers has always been able to get the brand new faces first and market them first. That's part of the reason for his success along with that persona of his that people buy into... He's a non-threatening male performer. He sells the fantasy of the average guy getting to score with a beautiful woman. That's been the main theme of adult pictures since the stag loops of the 1920s. Great looking women were always paired off with not great looking guys."

Luke: "If someone made a feature for $500,000..."

Gene: "If I had $500,000, I'd put it in a savings account. You'd make better money. Why bother getting into porn. Today you really have to grind it out. The ones who are going to survive are the ones who've developed name recognition, who've been around awhile... Unless you can figure out additional methods of cash flow. You need a helluva lot more money than $500,000 to get a video company started. Anyone who had $500,000 and decided to pour it into one movie would be pissing away $500,000. You'd be better creating a whole block of $10,000 movies. As beautiful as a movie like Zazel is, it takes forever and a day to recoup your losses. And cable doesn't give you the money that it used to because there is more product competing for that market. Same with foreign. They have their own product which is probably on par with our own. American product is not as readily embraced as it used to be. And with foreign [sales], it takes longer and longer to recoup your money."

Luke: "What if an established company like Wicked spent $500,000 to make one gorgeous feature..."

Gene: "The market is what it is. If you've already established a price point with your distributor, that's it. You'll never get more. It's on your distributors computer. 'I've been buying your product for X number of dollars. That's it.' You can just hope that you will sell more of a product. That comes in re-orders.

"Everybody's dream [wholesale buyers] is the catalogue. Lots of [production] companies try to get to catalogue [prices slashed to $3-$5 a tape so that consumers will buy them for about $10 each, as opposed to renting] as quickly as they can because people are hip to knowing how it works. A new feature is new for a week and then some [production] companies push it to catalogue a month later. So everybody knows how to play the game. I'll [small to mid-size distributor figures] buy it when it hits catalogue. This is the thinking of the quick turnaround artists who work out of the trunks of their car... You can move lots of pieces and probably get cash..."

Luke: "Some video companies like Extreme say that it gives their product more integrity if they wait longer to go to catalogue. Why?"

Gene: "They're saying that it [their product] has that immediate grab. People want it right now. They don't want to wait for it [to go to catalogue prices]. It's a hot commodity. We can get our best possible price for it longer because it is so good."

Luke: "What would need to happen for us to have million dollar porno features?"

Gene: "That won't happen unless some mainstream company decides to take a crack... Within the industry as you're seeing it now, nobody is going to make a million dollar porno movie. Why? What could that possibly have? A million dollars could mean that you could get some well known actresses doing porn to get that kind of budget. I've seen porn movies that have poured in special affects... bells and whistles... Why? It looks nice for cable. It's nice to have helicopter crashes but it doesn't add to the intensity of a sexual scene. Editing... You can over-edit a porno movie too."

Luke: "You could get better looking women. The talent pool seems thin these days."

Gene: "That's debatable. I've been looking at lots of safe sex product lately and it's good. I just saw Vivid's Action Sex 2. It's good.

"This industry hasn't yet figured out what is a safe sex scene. Some think, 'so long as it has a condom it's safe sex.' No. That's the start. You still have to worry about where that wet shot is going [facials]. What point is served by doing condoms then having a facial?

"I don't see condoms aesthetically subtracting from the value of a sex scene. I don't think the marketplace has yet to send a message back about condom use. It may take a year or longer for the results... On a pragmatic stance, if you're shooting a movie, and actors are having difficulty getting up for a scene because of condoms, then that is a whole different story."

Luke: "How would you evaluate the talent pool?"

Gene: "I've seen some great looking women. The gonzos have been a blessing in the sense that you get to see a lot of women in one feature. The only thing that disturbs me is the proliferation of the tattoos. I don't appreciate seeing all the body artwork. If you're trying to shoot a romantic scene with all sorts of candles and gauze... and then you have a girl who looks like she's just been recruited by the Hells Angels... It doesn't work."

Luke: "John Bowen and Rob Black say the talent pool has shrunk because of fear of HIV."

Gene: "Black and Bowen are the stalwarts in the non-condom issue. If you're willing to keep an open mind, the talent pool is ok. Successful companies must think about generating their own talent base because most everybody seems to be drawing from the same pool of four or five talent agents. They're marketing the same girls over and over. Sometimes three agents rep the same girl. Freshness is a key foundation of good porno. Anyone will tend to look more favorably on a scene when they're watching her for the first time. After you've seen her for the 25th time, you'll feel like you're married to her. Where's the fantasy in that?"

Luke: "Does AVN have a stand against women smoking in films?"

Gene: "No. We get lots of letters from guys who say they'd love to see scene in which women smoked. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek editorial about that two years ago in response to a guy who wrote a detailed five page letter about what he wanted to see. And it was all built around smoking scenarios.

"Ultimately, we want to see everybody working maintain good health but smoking is so universal that you can't take an editorial stance against that. Sometimes smoking heightens the eroticism of a movie, as in a film noire take-off. It would only stand to reason that the girl would be smoking in the particular scene. It gives that bad girl thing."

Luke: "Why do so many people in porn smoke?"

Gene: "Nerves... But I've never smoked in my life so I'm the worst person to ask..."

Luke: "How good do you think porn looks on DVD? A friend told me yesterday that the technology is so good that it shows up many of the flaws [inherent in cheap porno]."

Gene: "That's a problem. DVD is only beneficial if you're starting with a good product to begin with. If you're just taking middle of the road video crap, DVD is a fruitless gesture. DVD accentuates a great film like Shock or Latex.

"VHS was more accessible because you could record... DVD don't have that yet. Many people have built extensive video collections. I don't collect porn but I have an extensive video library of 3000 titles. I'm not going to switch to DVD.

"The porno that best suits my taste is Evil Angel. Tape after tape. From Leslie to Stagliano, their stuff suits my preference. Keep in mind, I do not jerk off to porno."

Luke: "I find that hard to believe."

Gene: "Luke, I'm still lucky enough to get the real stuff. When pickings get lean, I'll learn to synchronize the hand - dick dynamic."

Luke: "You're a luckier man than I."

Gene: "You've just got to have a better line of bulls---. Do you know what I find is the speediest form of seduction? Whipping out a $100 bill and making sure that it has friends."

Luke: "How many women have you slept with in your life?"

Gene: "Over 600."

Luke: "Wow, what is the key to getting women into bed."

Gene: "Being outlandish. All the guys think that there is a certain way to do it, but it's when you break all the rules that you do the best. You've got to start off with a 'I don't give a s---' attitude. Lots of guys betray a franticness in their efforts.

"You get sex when you least want it. And the more you get, the more you get. If you go through a dry spell and you approach a woman, you're demeanor betrays you. But if you're getting it regularly, women sense it. They want you. Women don't want a guy who comes off as desperate. If you come off as a guy whose getting it all the time... Their sensory antennae grasp that immediately. It's part of the power dynamic. Women want to be around successful men who make money... and who are successful with women. When you go out to dinner with a lady friend, you'll tend to get more glances than when you go alone..."

Luke: "Why don't you pick up on porn chicks?"

Gene: "I don't find myself attracted to most of them. I go to the supermarket and see infinitely more attractive women than in porn. We're selling sex. You've got to find a woman who's willing to do it on camera. How many women are willing to do it on camera? Few."

Luke: "How do you decide what gossip is appropriate to print in AVN and what isn't?"

Gene: "I have to evaluate the source. Just because I hear a rumor, doesn't make it so. If you hear a fact, you have to check it out. If the story involves three people, you have to talk to all of them. The more involved the story gets, it becomes work."

Luke: "If Joe Porn Star breaks up with his girlfriend, when is that worthy of writing up in AVN?"

Gene: "It probably isn't unless it was a longtime recognized relationship. Breakups are bound to happen in this business. It's tough to maintain a relationship within the adult business."

Luke: "Do you have a different standard towards writing about their personal lives than about talent?"

Gene: "I can't remember the last story we ever wrote about an owner's personal life."

Luke: "Neither can I."

Gene: "Basically, people don't give a s---. We're a trade magazine but we have to have a consumer tinge to it. I ask myself 'who's going to be reading this article?' Few people care about the business end of the adult business."

Luke: "It's unusual for a trade magazine to have as much gossip as AVN does?"

Gene: "We don't have as much as we used to. Eight, ten years ago, the gossip section was much larger. I have to either credit or discredit you for that. Because once you put a story on the internet it becomes old news. You have the advantage of putting it out daily. AVN has a two month lag time. By the time the story hits print it's so old it has barnacles on it. So that's why I was telling you in one of our past conversations that I look for a story with a different twist.

"For instance, you wrote the story on Trinity Loren. You acknowledged the fact that she was found dead of an apparent drug overdose and all that. My twist on the story comes from the police report which is more revelatory than talking to people who say, 'Oh Roxanne, yeah, she came into the business in 1982... She was really a nice person.' That's one way to write the story. When I write a story about the demise of a porn star I try to work from the facts as they were presented to the cops."

Luke: "Has the coroner's report come back on JD Ram yet?"

Gene: "I haven't heard anything. And at this time what point does it serve? We all know that he had a drug problem. We can be 99.9% sure that it was drug related. He didn't impale himself on a bathroom door knob. That'll probably be in the December AVN."

Luke: "So you've already got hold of the police report on Roxanne? [How do I get that?]

Gene: "Oh yeah, weeks ago."

Luke: "Well, I'm glad someone is doing some real work out there. Talent complain to me about the gossip in AVN. It hurts their feelings."

Gene: "Show me an article that hurts anybody's feelings. Let's take an issue, say, a guy is alleged to have beaten up his girlfriend. I will not accept that as a credible story unless there is a police report on it. A story isn't a story unless there's paper involved with it."

Luke: "Is there any other criteria you use aside from truth and new angle? Perhaps it is too damaging or intrusive?"

Gene with a chuckle: "Truth is always a good measure. You have to judge things case by case... If an owner beat up his girlfriend, and we had paper on it, we'd have to handle it like anything else. If there's paper on it, then it's likely a story that appeared in a newspaper. Whenever you get three or four cop cars going to a domestic disturbance, more than likely that will appear in the newspaper. And that's something you can't avoid.

"Bianca Trump got pissed off at me because I wrote a story about her hooking. Excuse me, it had already appeared in a Fort Lauderdale newspaper. It wasn't like I was making it up or invading her privacy. Once the media grabs it, you have to give attention to it."

Luke: "Doesn't AVN work for the good of the business?"

Gene: "I don't know. Are you saying that we are the Sir Lancelot on behalf of adult? Yeah, if you're a trade magazine, you by definition are [out for the good of the industry] because you're writing about the business of the business."

Luke: "I remember talking to Paul [Fishbein, AVN owner, publisher and editor] about two years ago and he said you criticize people or you report on bad checks, when it is for the good of the business."

Gene: "We never did stories like that. We had wrestled with that from time to time because Paul had personal situations [Paul Norman and others had written Fishbein bad checks] and he was thinking of doing it... And then begged off... This is where I got into a debate with you on Ed Powers show. To me, a bad check happens in any industry. A bad check doesn't necessarily mean that I'm trying to screw somebody out of money. It just happens in the natural flow of cash. A delay in a deposit... If there was a systematic pattern of fraudulent behavior, then that is a story you have to look into."

Luke: "Do you have any thoughts on Marilyn Chambers comeback?"

Gene: "That photo they sent us of her looked pretty damn good. Which generation controls the porn market? Gen X or the over - 40s?"

Luke: "How well do we know the market for porn? Who buys it and why?"

Gene: "That would require a significant investment to study that. I'd love to see one. If we knew what sells a product we'd all make that kind of product. The famous quote came from Michael Eisner. 'In Hollywood, nobody knows nothing.' That extends to this business. Nobody knows nothing. No one person knows what's going to stick to the wall when you throw something at it. Everything is a crap shoot."

Luke: "Any newcomers making a difference on the business end?'

Gene: "We consider such people for a Breakthrough Award. I give Alex Sanders credit. He started out as a performer who's gone into all the facets of the production end. He's taken the editing side and made people re-aware of the value of that. He's changed the look, immeasurably, of how we rate features. People are more sensitive to synchronization, the look on the screen...music..."

Luke: "Does GVA dominate distribution to the extent of 60-70%?"

Gene: "I don't know about that percentage but GVA is the dominant force, obviously. If you're going to become a successful company, it has to start with GVA. You have to have a mainstream porn look to get acceptance from GVA. And their individual entities decide whether to accept or reject titles. GVA San Francisco can say yes, and another GVA will turn thumbs down. As I understand it, they are totally independent entities.

"Rob Black has been successful from the start because he has a background [in dealing with distribution]. He's brought many advantages to the table. He's as good a salesman as a producer."

12/9/98

I talked Gene Ross from noon to 1PM, Wednesday.

Luke: "Is there more bellyaching this year about the awards?"

Gene: "Luke, I don’t know. Maybe all the bellyachers are using you as the vocal front? We used to get all these scattered calls. But now you’ve become Complaint Central. Better you hearing this stuff… Now all I have to do is read it. It looks like you’ve been updating every hour."

Luke: "Did you have any thoughts on my Paul Fishbein interview?"

Gene: "I’d love to know who the hell was writing your script because you’re certainly coming up with better questions."

Luke: "Yeah, it’s not me. They’re sent to me."

Gene: "It reads like a lawyer is putting this s--- together. One question leads to another. It’s like a cross-examination process. It’s well constructed, like someone with legal training.

"This is like the movie Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. It’s like this anti-AVN cabal out there. It’s hysterical. If some of this stuff wasn’t so out there, I’d have to laugh at this. It’s amazing.

"Again, we always talk about perceptions and reality in this business. You can take five totally disenfranchised events that have nothing to do with each other and with a little creativity you can
weave a tapestry that is so complex and outrageous, that you have to say, ‘that makes sense.’

"It almost has me playing guessing games. It’s like an Agatha Christie novel [who’s feeding Luke these questions?]. Who dunnit? Who’s the suspect? This question might come from this source and this question might come from this source? Now wait a second…"

Luke: "Yeah, it’s somebody who knows Paul. I wonder if it is someone still on the inside?"

Gene: "My suspicion is somebody who follows the industry and has been around a long time. I’m reading stuff I’ve heard, this is folklore tales. Now, if you’re in the industry long enough, you’ll hear that this happened, and this happened and that happened… If it gets told often enough it almost becomes truth through repetition even though it might have little substance in fact.

"As long as I’ve been with AVN, I’ve heard ‘bribes, bribes, on the take…’"

Luke: "What did you think of the Premiere article?"

Gene: "I thought it was very funny. Being on the inside of the business, and knowing it better than the average reader, I saw errors in it. I thought ‘they got this person wrong. They were physically describing somebody as Greg Dark. No, it wasn’t Greg Dark. It was somebody else.’ Greg Dark doesn’t wear a feodor. On the whole, it was absorbing. It added a few vocabulary words to my lexicon."

Luke: "Do you feel that Paul Fishbein was being 100% forthright in his interview with me?"

Gene: "The only thing that I kidded Paul about in that whole article was when he said I was running a ‘family’ trophy business. I said, ‘Paul, that was my business. Family doesn’t have anything to do
with it. And when you start saying ‘family business… East Coast,’ Luke is going to think, ‘they’re Mafia. I’ve proved it.’"

Luke convulses with laughter.

Gene: "Yeah, the trophy business is really attractive to organized crime.

"It was my business. I had it for seven years… When I moved out here [1991], that was the end. Goodbye. I’m close with my family and Paul made the logical assumption that it was a family business. I still have contacts with trophy distributors, so I’m able to get distributor prices on behalf of AVN."

Luke: "Ok, these questions were prepared for me. I’ve heard through several sources that you’ve accepted bribes for good reviews. True or false?"

Gene: "In my life at AVN, I have never been offered a bribe. No one has so much as even hinted or suggested. However, I want to take this opportunity since this is an open air forum, to throw in
something that has been gristling at me for a year and a half. There is a producer or company owner out there who accused me… He started spreading word around that he knew for a fact that he knew
that Gene Ross was on the take. And he knew for a fact that there was a secret desk at AVN where envelopes of cash were deposited on a regular basis and taken by the staff. I was the head
disperser. This guy never had the guts to confront me face to face about it, yet he openly threw that around for a while. And I just want this guy to know that I know who he is and I want him to feel
extremely uncomfortable anytime he is my company. That I am looking deep into his black heart and knowing what a piece of crap he is. You’ve written about him from time to time on your web site. So I’ll dangle that in front of you and let your sources try to help you put that little thing together. That riled me [18 months ago]. Everyone who works at this magazine is conscious about what is said out there, and so we go to even greater lengths to maintain our sense of propriety. There’s always the suggestion out there that these guys are on the take…"

Luke: "Has any porn star offered you sex in exchange for an interview or a good review?"

Gene: "Luke, I only wish that they did. No one ever has and I feel really bad about it. It’s made me self-analytical and wonder what is wrong with me. No, that has never happened. Although there was
one time I did interview a girl who felt compelled to take her clothes off and sit naked in my office while I was interviewing her. Perhaps that was a subtle suggestion on her part, but idiot me, I did not pick up on the hint."

Luke: "Is the awards show fixed?"

Gene: "Oh God, again. No. Every reviewer who participates votes with good conscience. They go out of their way to do the right thing. But it all starts with the pre-nomination process which takes all year. I put together a master list based on reviews and feedback from reviewers… ‘This was a great scene. This was a great tape.’ So I put all of this together. This year we had a 70-page list to wade through. So over the course of ten days we lock ourselves into a room and send out for Chinese…and taking leak breaks… Almost sequestering like a jury. Going over each and every category. Arguing the pros and cons of each and every possible nomination. Someone made the joke, ‘here’s a bunch of college graduates arguing about anal tapes.’ If the awards show was fixed, it would our lives easier. But we chose the path of most resistance and try to do the right thing. The people here work too hard and I really resent hearing that this thing is fixed."

Luke: "Some people believe that the Savannah Best New Starlet Award was fixed?"

Gene: "Again, popular urban myth. I was around then. Her chief competitor was Angela Summers. It was the first test of the premise of that award, in that we vote for the woman who has made the most impact on the adult business. The argument was that Savannah was everywhere. The counter argument to that was – Savannah was the beneficiary of a company that put her on a bunch of boxcovers. She was a Video Exclusives girl long before she went to Vivid. But she competed for Best New Starlet. But her high profile mostly came from Video Exclusives run by Perry Ross, who was putting her on every doggone boxcover coming out. They’d have four or five releases a month and Savannah was every one of them. She had an advantage. The critics? Everybody was saying ‘Angela Summers. She’s like the girl next door. I love her. I love her. I love her.’ Whether the critics were being forthright with me? I voted for Angela.

"I’ve been totally astounded by some of the outcomes in the past so nothing surprises me about the final tally. Sometimes critics bulls--- you. ‘Oh yeah, I voted for this girl…’ I never counted the ballots…

"Angela was a much hotter performer. I’d look at Savannah on the screen and say, ‘she’s just going through the motions.’ I vote for a starlet who has that screen presence of a hot sexual performer.

"A few years ago, Asia Carrera won for Best Female Performer of the Year in a year that I don’t think was representative of her work. She’s nominated this year. This was a much more powerful year on her behalf."

Luke: "Summers was certainly a more classy person than Savannah."

Gene: "Well… I think Angela just had accessibility. Savannah was cold and aloof. I had been to sets and she was just as aloof off camera. I was told ‘you weren’t in her inner circle unless you were a rock musician.’ I never fit the description."

Luke: "Were you ever a rock musician?"

Gene: "I’ve long had aspirations, but you know…"

Luke: "How about Alex Jordan? Is it just a coincidence that she wins Best New Starlet then is given a contract by Odyssey, a company that Paul Fishbein admits to being a consultant to. How do you feel about Paul being a consultant to companies? Do you think this is a conflict of interest?"

Gene: "I don’t know the extent of Alex’s deal with Odyssey. I’m not sure about that. Alex was another interesting case. Industry producers said, ‘who’s she?’ She was looking for a contract with a lot of different companies and I remember the comment that was generally voiced, that she wasn’t box cover material. So again, AVN took heat that she won that award. Again, it was the critics coming to the fore, saying this woman… I don’t know whether she was considered photogenic or not, but every sex scene I saw her in, she was a dynamo. I think the critics voted with firm conviction. It was a good choice. But we took a lot of s--- over that one.

"Paul does what Bryn does and I do… We’ll talk to companies and offer them suggestions. I can’t sit here and tell you conclusively what Paul did. Paul is the publisher of this magazine. We shared an office building with Odyssey [from ‘91-‘96]. He was aware of the apparent conflict of interest. I think he was sensitive to that perception. He wanted to get out of there."

Luke: "Do you get paid for consulting with companies?"

Gene: "No, it’s never been offered. I feel bad. This is an industry where people are always trying to get s--- for free. I’m always getting pumped for free advice."

Luke: "How is Paul Fishbein as a boss? Is he as difficult as many say?"

Gene laughs. "Paul can be antic but it comes from AVN being his baby. He’s very protective of it. You have to understand his roots. He developed AVN from a four page newsletter. He was a video store manager when he came up with the idea for AVN. AVN was his midnight oil occupation. He worked during the day while at nights he’s slaving over AVN. He cares about what he does, to the point where he’ll drive you crazy sometimes… He’s follow-through oriented. He eats and sleeps AVN 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He takes many of the criticisms to heart… He’s sensitive to them. I can understand that. I’ve been there with him almost from the beginning. At one time, he and I were the only two editorial people putting AVN out. I used to put in 18 hours a day, taking work home at night and on the weekends. Before computers got really sophisticated, I typed every word of AVN. Reviews came in, not on computer discs, but type-written. Or hand-written. And I’m transferring all the information to computer by hand [1987, when Gene started fulltime. He began as a freelancer in 1986.]."

Luke: "How did you and Paul meet?"

Gene: "I knew his office manager but I didn’t know that she worked in the adult industry. I knew her from a mutual stomping ground. We had a breakfast club. A bunch of us would hang out at a certain nightclub and afterwards we’d go to a diner and shoot the breeze. My little shtick was to see mainstream movies and do off-hand humorous reviews. Apparently, she got word to her boss who was editing the magazine. ‘Hey, this guy might be good to write reviews for AVN.’ I got contacted by him and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The original managing editor John Taone decided to leave the business. His wife didn’t want him to be involved in adult anymore. She wanted him to go out and get a "legitimate job" in the printing industry.

"I’ve worked in editing and publishing all my life. For a few years I balanced the trophy business and AVN. I worked for a suburban newspaper in Philadelphia for 18 months… Then I took a job in public affairs with a Fortune 500 company. I had ten years experience in corporate PR. Then I went into the advertising game as a hired gun, as a public affairs advisor, for marketing products… I was involved in many things. I introduced Bailey’s Irish Cream to the United States…"

Luke: "Is Gene Ross your real name?"

Gene: "I’m not going to comment one way or another."

Luke: "That’s smart. Did CDI offer you sex with Buffy?"

Gene laughs. "I saw that from Rob Spallone one time… They never did. Buffy is a sweet heart of a girl but hardly my type."

Luke: "Are you married or single?"

Gene: "Single, which makes it real easy for me. I don’t have to deal with that whole wife dynamic and that insecurity factor…"

Luke: "Does Paul Fishbein have sexual relations with any of the girls in the business? Particularly Jill Kelly, Chloe, Kylie Ireland and Alisha Klass?"

Gene: "I think Paul mentioned in his comments to you that Jill Kelly, he’s probably seen twice in the last two years and she wouldn’t know him to trip over him. Chloe I see from time to time. Alisha Klass comes in from time to time. I haven’t seen Kylie Ireland for ages. Is Paul having an affair with them? I’d love to know how he’s pulling it off. I’d have to seriously doubt that. Paul is a married man and this is a high profile situation… He’s a healthy red-blooded American male who, I’m sure, finds these women attractive, the temptation is there… But you’d have to be crazy. No."

Luke: "Do you know of Paul having sex with any of the girls in the business?"

Gene: "No, but if I did, there’s job security." (Laughter)

Luke: "Is it true that you are not allowed to review any of John Bone’s or Rob Black’s movies and if so, why?"

Gene: "We do have that policy. And I think the John Bowen thing was fostered by you after you started writing that s--- about me having a financial interest in Cream. That part was to keep it above board. The Rob Black thing. Rob is a friend of mine. At AVN, we’re in a fishbowl where so many people know who hangs out with other people. Rob and I are good friends… We have a mutual interest in professional wrestling. We go to wrestling matches… And Rob is like a kid brother to me. He’s a good person. He’s kind of whacked sometimes but he’s…creative… He has an edge that many people don’t care for… I volunteered not to do his stuff because I don’t want to be in a position in print or otherwise to have to tell him that I don’t particularly like this or get into that whole line of s---. So I take the path of least resistance and say better to have a friendship than sacrifice it over a couple of reviews. Somebody else can do that job.

"I arbitrarily pick what I want to review. I take a look at the box cover. I like anal tapes. That’s a well documented fact. I love the Evil Angel stuff… The Bowen situation prevails because I’ve known John for 15 years… I don’t want to put myself in the position of being the cause of bad feeling. It’s just not worth it."

Luke: "You were with Paul Fishbein in Philadelphia when he had the mainstream video business that failed. Why do you think it failed?"

Gene: "I think Paul was way ahead of time with that. He was promoting Japanese wrestling. It’s just now that wrestling has become a real big pop culture thing. Had Paul done it down now, it would’ve been enormously successful. It’s a timing element that was involved. Paul was way ahead of the curve. Paul was an avid wrestling fan. He’s drawn away from it over the last few years. The market wasn’t sharing the passion he was sharing. The market has now caught up to him but he’s like, ‘yeah, I could take it or leave
it."

Luke: "How good a businessman is Paul Fishbein?"

Gene: "Paul does all the right things. He is a list compulsive list maker…items of things to do and he follows through on it. He’s relentless on accomplishing goals. He’ll get ideas at 3AM and get up and write lists. He does all the right things. I don’t know if he always hooks up with all the right people to accomplish those things… He’s intelligent, sharp…"

Luke: "Why did Sexpose fail?"

Gene: "I was the editor. You have to understand the magazine business. You have to be well-capitalized. You have to be able to withstand… Paul and I used to go to these magazine seminars in New York where they told you that you had to have capital to cover you for a year’s worth of publication. Sexpose was every other month. Sexpose had to, theoretically, be out there for two
years to catch hold. Paul had a business partnership…50-50.

"It was a combination of impatience to see results… You need capitalization and I don’t think they thought that out… And Sexpose never had a real clear idea of what it wanted to be. Sexpose wasn’t even the original name. The original intention was to be the adult equivalent of Premiere magazine. And it was going to cover the adult business as an entertainment art form… Then someone came up with the idea of let’s do it like National Enquirer. We had six months of meetings where we were going to do it one way, then all of a sudden, it was…try this. Then everybody looks at the first issue and says, let’s try this. I think the key to success on a magazine is that you follow through on your idea from beginning to end. Have one unifying vision.

"If it had been given time, it would’ve become enormously successful. And the stock of paper it was printed on didn’t do justice to many of the photos."

Luke: "How well do you know Yoram Dohan and what is your opinion of him?"

Gene: "Paul’s not going to like this… I like Yoram. Yoram is a slick operator. Smooth. Smart. I respect him. He was an Israeli commando, an office in the Israeli army. You have to have a certain
strength of character to have the background he had.

"The only contact I had with Yoram at AVN was that sometimes we would chat in the morning for 15-20 minutes. We’d have a cup of coffee and shoot the s--- about a lot of different things. Yoram had some ideas about where he wanted to take AVN. I don’t know about what went on between Paul and Yoram. Just boom, after 18 months, that thing went to hell. Paul relied on Yoram. Yoram was the go-to guy for everything and he was the guy able to carry-through on a lot of things. He started making inroads with different advertisers that we had never had before and he was aggressively opening up different markets for AVN. We were getting foreign editions of AVN. I don’t even know where that sits anymore. That’s pretty much gone by the wayside. Yeah, he was an innovator and I liked the guy."

Luke: "With Darren Roberts, do you resent that Paul brought in an outsider to run the company, in effect passing you over?"

Gene: "Paul at one time offered me that situation, to move from editorial into that. I saw a whole different set of headaches involved. Collecting money and that crap. I was just comfortable in the editorial niche because that’s what I’ve done all my life. I don’t want to put myself in position of going to ask people for money. That’s why I could never be good at taking bribes. ‘Oh by the way, what about an envelope?’ I’ve always been kind of funny that way. I just can’t knock on people’s doors and hound them for money.

"I had the Editor title. That’s like asking a Brigadier General whether they’d like to be a Lieutenant Colonel [lower rank]."

Luke: "Were there personal repercussions over the Rob Black award last year? The story is that the entire editorial department was banished to the warehouse as a form of punishment, and you, the most visible employee, was given a much smaller office. Do you resent that?"

Gene laughs. "A casual observer could say that… I’ve heard people say that. ‘What did you guys do to be out here in the warehouse?’ You get that crazy look in people’s eyes. ‘What are you doing out here?’

"Plans were already being made to expand AVN well before the awards show of last year. They were already building the office here. This was looked on as a temporary thing. We were growing and had no place to put people. True, I moved from a larger office space to a smaller one. But before I was in this glass enclosed thing, I was bubble boy. I had no privacy. Everybody coming in would stare at me as though I was on exhibit. So while it was a larger room, it was an uncomfortable feeling, to feel that I was on display. So where I am now is off the beaten path. Nobody interrupts me. I get a lot of work accomplished. I come in here at 6:30 in the morning and by 9PM I get more work done than many people do all day."

Luke: "I hear that AVN is on a youth kick and with your age and salary, you are considered expendable, particularly because the company is overextended?"

Gene: "I guess Paul’s admission that I’ve got a job for life rules out the expendable thing. Let’s make everything crystal clear here, with the exception of one person recently in editorial, I’ve hired everybody who works in editorial including Bryn Pryor. I don’t think Mark Kernes would represent a youth movement nor Tod Hunter with his salt and pepper hair would represent the youth movement."

Luke: "I’ve heard that you and Bryn Pryor don’t get along?"

Gene: "Somebody must’ve picked up a comment that Bryn supposedly made a couple of years ago, before he got to know me… He supposedly made a crack about "the mustachioed editor with the f---ing tan." An isolated incident that became folk legend that’s grown into this whole Hatfield and McCoys rivalry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bryn and I have the same personality except that I’ve mellowed. Bryn is a firebrand. I hired him because he came with a reputation for fighting on behalf of his people. When he was over at Champion, he made sure that his people were taken care of. That’s a military mentality that a leader takes care of the people who follow you.

"Also, it took us by surprise that Mark Kulkis said, ‘I’m leaving.’ And suddenly we had to fill a major position. Bryn was at the right place at the right time."

Luke: "Have any video companies or magazines approached you with offers?"

Gene: "Absolutely. Not magazines but video companies… In roundabout ways… Nobody has ever said…"

Luke: "If you left AVN, would you stay in the adult business?"

Gene: "I’d want to become a porn star. Yeah, I’d stay in the adult business. I saw my first adult movie at 16 years of age. At that time I said to myself, ‘I want to work in the adult film business.’ This is 1963. I came from a background and an area where that could’ve been accomplished, but son of a gun, it worked out that way. I’ve found my niche. I’ve done the corporate suit-jacket and tie routine and I always felt like I was a square peg in a round hole. I’ve found my niche. The industry was made for me."

12/11/98

Gene Ross phoned at 10:35 AM. "Did Jordan’s lawyers get involved with Sexpose? I don’t know. I just know that Paul and Ted Liebowitz pulled the plug on it… I had the impression that Liebowitz wanted to go on with it…

"Paul openly discussed some things. He had fully expected to get some kind of response from him [Jordan]… I know that [AVN legal columnist] Clyde DeWitt was called in on some matters relative to it…

"I wish Jim South would send me girls. Who the f--- is coming up with this s---? I keep a scoreboard [of the number of women he lays]? When I was younger I did, and I might’ve said that to somebody… When I was younger, that was a source of humor. I had a counter where I could flip numbers… I’d bring a woman into my apartment and she’d say, ‘What’s number 126 mean?’ And I’d say, ‘it means nothing.’ She’d leave the house the next day and see number 127… I guess it would never dawn on her. It was always a source of conversation…"

Gene started laughing when the topic of his supposed hidden surveillance camera came up. "That’s a great idea, dammit. I wish I’d thought of that. I could have my own video line and have a great old age. The total candid candid camera… I could get women from the business… I love that."

Luke: "What happened to reviewer Rich C. Leather?"

Gene: "Bryn as the managing editor deals with the freelance writers. Rich had a bug up his ass. He was claiming that AVN owed him money… Rich went to the mat with Bryn in the past regarding a review…dealt with Santino Lee. I was on the periphery of it, some kind of tape that Rich reviewed… Santino Lee was upset about something. Bryn was in the middle of it. That’s all I know… I heard that Rich Leather held tapes hostage and sent a message saying that I’m holding these tapes hostage until AVN squares up with money they owe me for reviews. That got ridiculous. I think Bryn said, ‘I don’t need this s---. This guy’s controversial… He gets….’ Bryn told him that you’re service are no longer required. End of story. A few weeks ago. I had to re-review some of the tapes that he was supposed to have handed in as a review."

................

In December, 1998, Kendra Jade told me that she'd seen Ross take regular cash payments from John Bone on Fridays. Kendra is the first person to go on the record with this accusation, though many other porners have whispered it. Bone and Ross deny it.

Ross and Bone have been friends since 1989. Gene has frequently advised John on his movies and may have even played a role in creating some of them such as Too Hot For Porno 2. Some say Gene wrote this movie, and helped, on the one day he was on the set, direct it. Gene definitely gave Bone and company advice on camera angles.

John Bone has often told creative assistants "Gene won't like this," about particular camera angles, editing, etc...

Ross has played a large role pushing porn's flirtation with wrestling. Gene wrote a long article for AVN in the fall of 1998 about the plans of his buddy Rob Black to connect porn with wrestling. Six months later, the plans have yet to materialize.

Around 1990, while AVN was still in Philadelphia, publisher Paul Fishbein told Ross that he would have to choose between writing porn scripts and writing for AVN. Gene chose AVN, and Paul believes that Ross has not sold any scripts since. Luke has learned that as late as 1994, Ross sold several scripts to Jim Holliday for $300 each. They were not good enough to use.

Gene, who publically wears a blonde toupe, stands over 6' tall and weighs about 210 muscular pounds. Born around 1938, he resembles the pro wrestler Ric Flair aka Nature Boy. In personality, Gene is intimidating and hard to get to know.

AVN publisher Paul Fishbein has been friends with Gene since 1984 and he says that Ross has a job for life.

12/09/98

I talked Gene Ross from noon to 1PM, Wednesday.

Luke: "Is there more bellyaching this year about the awards?"

Gene: "Luke, I don’t know. Maybe all the bellyachers are using you as the vocal front? We used to get all these scattered calls. But now you’ve become Complaint Central. Better you hearing this stuff… Now all I have to do is read it. It looks like you’ve been updating every hour."

Luke: "Did you have any thoughts on my Paul Fishbein interview?"

Gene: "I’d love to know who the hell was writing your script because you’re certainly coming up with better questions."

Luke: "Yeah, it’s not me. They’re sent to me."

Gene: "It reads like a lawyer is putting this s--- together. One question leads to another. It’s like a cross-examination process. It’s well constructed, like someone with legal training.

"This is like the movie Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid. It’s like this anti-AVN cabal out there. It’s hysterical. If some of this stuff wasn’t so out there, I’d have to laugh at this. It’s amazing.

"Again, we always talk about perceptions and reality in this business. You can take five totally disenfranchised events that have nothing to do with each other and with a little creativity you can weave a tapestry that is so complex and outrageous, that you have to say, ‘that makes sense.’

"It almost has me playing guessing games. It’s like an Agatha Christie novel [who’s feeding Luke these questions?]. Who dunnit? Who’s the suspect? This question might come from this source and this question might come from this source? Now wait a second…"

Luke: "Yeah, it’s somebody who knows Paul. I wonder if it is someone still on the inside?"

Gene: "My suspicion is somebody who follows the industry and has been around a long time. I’m reading stuff I’ve heard, this is folklore tales. Now, if you’re in the industry long enough, you’ll hear that this happened, and this happened and that happened… If it gets told often enough it almost becomes truth through repetition even though it might have little substance in fact.

"As long as I’ve been with AVN, I’ve heard ‘bribes, bribes, on the take…’"

Luke: "What did you think of the Premiere article?"

Gene: "I thought it was very funny. Being on the inside of the business, and knowing it better than the average reader, I saw errors in it. I thought ‘they got this person wrong. They were physically describing somebody as Greg Dark. No, it wasn’t Greg Dark. It was somebody else.’ Greg Dark doesn’t wear a feodor. On the whole, it was absorbing. It added a few vocabulary words to my lexicon."

Luke: "Do you feel that Paul Fishbein was being 100% forthright in his interview with me?"

Gene: "The only thing that I kidded Paul about in that whole article was when he said I was running a ‘family’ trophy business. I said, ‘Paul, that was my business. Family doesn’t have anything to do with it. And when you start saying ‘family business… East Coast,’ Luke is going to think, ‘they’re Mafia. I’ve proved it.’"

Luke convulses with laughter.

Gene: "Yeah, the trophy business is really attractive to organized crime.

"It was my business. I had it for seven years… When I moved out here [1991], that was the end. Goodbye. I’m close with my family and Paul made the logical assumption that it was a family business. I still have contacts with trophy distributors, so I’m able to get distributor prices on behalf of AVN."

Luke: "Ok, these questions were prepared for me. I’ve heard through several sources that you’ve accepted bribes for good reviews. True or false?"

Gene: "In my life at AVN, I have never been offered a bribe. No one has so much as even hinted or suggested. However, I want to take this opportunity since this is an open air forum, to throw in something that has been gristling at me for a year and a half. There is a producer or company owner out there who accused me… He started spreading word around that he knew for a fact that he knew that Gene Ross was on the take. And he knew for a fact that there was a secret desk at AVN where envelopes of cash were deposited on a regular basis and taken by the staff. I was the head disperser. This guy never had the guts to confront me face to face about it, yet he openly threw that around for a while. And I just want this guy to know that I know who he is and I want him to feel extremely uncomfortable anytime he is my company. That I am looking deep into his black heart and knowing what a piece of crap he is. You’ve written about him from time to time on your web site. So I’ll dangle that in front of you and let your sources try to help you put that little thing together. That riled me [18 months ago]. Everyone who works at this magazine is conscious about what is said out there, and so we go to even greater lengths to maintain our sense of propriety. There’s always the suggestion out there that these guys are on the take…"

Luke: "Has any porn star offered you sex in exchange for an interview or a good review?"

Gene: "Luke, I only wish that they did. No one ever has and I feel really bad about it. It’s made me self-analytical and wonder what is wrong with me. No, that has never happened. Although there was one time I did interview a girl who felt compelled to take her clothes off and sit naked in my office while I was interviewing her. Perhaps that was a subtle suggestion on her part, but idiot me, I did not pick up on the hint."

Luke: "Is the awards show fixed?"

Gene: "Oh God, again. No. Every reviewer who participates votes with good conscience. They go out of their way to do the right thing. But it all starts with the pre-nomination process which takes all year. I put together a master list based on reviews and feedback from reviewers… ‘This was a great scene. This was a great tape.’ So I put all of this together. This year we had a 70-page list to wade through. So over the course of ten days we lock ourselves into a room and send out for Chinese…and taking leak breaks… Almost sequestering like a jury. Going over each and every category. Arguing the pros and cons of each and every possible nomination. Someone made the joke, ‘here’s a bunch of college graduates arguing about anal tapes.’ If the awards show was fixed, it would our lives easier. But we chose the path of most resistance and try to do the right thing. The people here work too hard and I really resent hearing that this thing is fixed."

Luke: "Some people believe that the Savannah Best New Starlet Award was fixed?"

Gene: "Again, popular urban myth. I was around then. Her chief competitor was Angela Summers. It was the first test of the premise of that award, in that we vote for the woman who has made the most impact on the adult business. The argument was that Savannah was everywhere. The counter argument to that was – Savannah was the beneficiary of a company that put her on a bunch of boxcovers. She was a Video Exclusives girl long before she went to Vivid. But she competed for Best New Starlet. But her high profile mostly came from Video Exclusives run by Perry Ross, who was putting her on every doggone boxcover coming out. They’d have four or five releases a month and Savannah was every one of them. She had an advantage. The critics? Everybody was saying ‘Angela Summers. She’s like the girl next door. I love her. I love her. I love her.’ Whether the critics were being forthright with me? I voted for Angela.

"I’ve been totally astounded by some of the outcomes in the past so nothing surprises me about the final tally. Sometimes critics bulls--- you. ‘Oh yeah, I voted for this girl…’ I never counted the ballots…

"Angela was a much hotter performer. I’d look at Savannah on the screen and say, ‘she’s just going through the motions.’ I vote for a starlet who has that screen presence of a hot sexual performer.

"A few years ago, Asia Carrera won for Best Female Performer of the Year in a year that I don’t think was representative of her work. She’s nominated this year. This was a much more powerful year on her behalf."

Luke: "Summers was certainly a more classy person than Savannah."

Gene: "Well… I think Angela just had accessibility. Savannah was cold and aloof. I had been to sets and she was just as aloof off camera. I was told ‘you weren’t in her inner circle unless you were a rock musician.’ I never fit the description."

Luke: "Were you ever a rock musician?"

Gene: "I’ve long had aspirations, but you know…"

Luke: "How about Alex Jordan? Is it just a coincidence that she wins Best New Starlet then is given a contract by Odyssey, a company that Paul Fishbein admits to being a consultant to. How do you feel about Paul being a consultant to companies? Do you think this is a conflict of interest?"

Gene: "I don’t know the extent of Alex’s deal with Odyssey. I’m not sure about that. Alex was another interesting case. Industry producers said, ‘who’s she?’ She was looking for a contract with a lot of different companies and I remember the comment that was generally voiced, that she wasn’t box cover material. So again, AVN took heat that she won that award. Again, it was the critics coming to the fore, saying this woman… I don’t know whether she was considered photogenic or not, but every sex scene I saw her in, she was a dynamo. I think the critics voted with firm conviction. It was a good choice. But we took a lot of s--- over that one.

"Paul does what Bryn does and I do… We’ll talk to companies and offer them suggestions. I can’t sit here and tell you conclusively what Paul did. Paul is the publisher of this magazine. We shared an office building with Odyssey [from ‘91-‘96]. He was aware of the apparent conflict of interest. I think he was sensitive to that perception. He wanted to get out of there."

Luke: "Do you get paid for consulting with companies?"

Gene: "No, it’s never been offered. I feel bad. This is an industry where people are always trying to get s--- for free. I’m always getting pumped for free advice."

Luke: "How is Paul Fishbein as a boss? Is he as difficult as many say?"

Gene laughs. "Paul can be antic but it comes from AVN being his baby. He’s very protective of it. You have to understand his roots. He developed AVN from a four page newsletter. He was a video store manager when he came up with the idea for AVN. AVN was his midnight oil occupation. He worked during the day while at nights he’s slaving over AVN. He cares about what he does, to the point where he’ll drive you crazy sometimes… He’s follow-through oriented. He eats and sleeps AVN 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He takes many of the criticisms to heart… He’s sensitive to them. I can understand that. I’ve been there with him almost from the beginning. At one time, he and I were the only two editorial people putting AVN out. I used to put in 18 hours a day, taking work home at night and on the weekends. Before computers got really sophisticated, I typed every word of AVN. Reviews came in, not on computer discs, but type-written. Or hand-written. And I’m transferring all the information to computer by hand [1987, when Gene started fulltime. He began as a freelancer in 1986.]."

Luke: "How did you and Paul meet?"

Gene: "I knew his office manager but I didn’t know that she worked in the adult industry. I knew her from a mutual stomping ground. We had a breakfast club. A bunch of us would hang out at a certain nightclub and afterwards we’d go to a diner and shoot the breeze. My little shtick was to see mainstream movies and do off-hand humorous reviews. Apparently, she got word to her boss who was editing the magazine. ‘Hey, this guy might be good to write reviews for AVN.’ I got contacted by him and it was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time. The original managing editor John Taone decided to leave the business. His wife didn’t want him to be involved in adult anymore. She wanted him to go out and get a "legitimate job" in the printing industry.

"I’ve worked in editing and publishing all my life. For a few years I balanced the trophy business and AVN. I worked for a suburban newspaper in Philadelphia for 18 months… Then I took a job in public affairs with a Fortune 500 company. I had ten years experience in corporate PR. Then I went into the advertising game as a hired gun, as a public affairs advisor, for marketing products… I was involved in many things. I introduced Bailey’s Irish Cream to the United States…"

Luke: "Is Gene Ross your real name?"

Gene: "I’m not going to comment one way or another."

Luke: "That’s smart. Did CDI offer you sex with Buffy?"

Gene laughs. "I saw that from Rob Spallone one time… They never did. Buffy is a sweet heart of a girl but hardly my type."

Luke: "Are you married or single?"

Gene: "Single, which makes it real easy for me. I don’t have to deal with that whole wife dynamic and that insecurity factor…"

Luke: "Does Paul Fishbein have sexual relations with any of the girls in the business? Particularly Jill Kelly, Chloe, Kylie Ireland and Alisha Klass?"

Gene: "I think Paul mentioned in his comments to you that Jill Kelly, he’s probably seen twice in the last two years and she wouldn’t know him to trip over him. Chloe I see from time to time. Alisha Klass comes in from time to time. I haven’t seen Kylie Ireland for ages. Is Paul having an affair with them? I’d love to know how he’s pulling it off. I’d have to seriously doubt that. Paul is a married man and this is a high profile situation… He’s a healthy red-blooded American male who, I’m sure, finds these women attractive, the temptation is there… But you’d have to be crazy. No."

Luke: "Do you know of Paul having sex with any of the girls in the business?"

Gene: "No, but if I did, there’s job security." (Laughter)

Luke: "Is it true that you are not allowed to review any of John Bone’s or Rob Black’s movies and if so, why?"

Gene: "We do have that policy. And I think the John Bowen thing was fostered by you after you started writing that s--- about me having a financial interest in Cream. That part was to keep it above board. The Rob Black thing. Rob is a friend of mine. At AVN, we’re in a fishbowl where so many people know who hangs out with other people. Rob and I are good friends… We have a mutual interest in professional wrestling. We go to wrestling matches… And Rob is like a kid brother to me. He’s a good person. He’s kind of whacked sometimes but he’s…creative… He has an edge that many people don’t care for… I volunteered not to do his stuff because I don’t want to be in a position in print or otherwise to have to tell him that I don’t particularly like this or get into that whole line of s---. So I take the path of least resistance and say better to have a friendship than sacrifice it over a couple of reviews. Somebody else can do that job.

"I arbitrarily pick what I want to review. I take a look at the box cover. I like anal tapes. That’s a well documented fact. I love the Evil Angel stuff… The Bowen situation prevails because I’ve known John for 15 years… I don’t want to put myself in the position of being the cause of bad feeling. It’s just not worth it."

Luke: "You were with Paul Fishbein in Philadelphia when he had the mainstream video business that failed. Why do you think it failed?"

Gene: "I think Paul was way ahead of time with that. He was promoting Japanese wrestling. It’s just now that wrestling has become a real big pop culture thing. Had Paul done it down now, it would’ve been enormously successful. It’s a timing element that was involved. Paul was way ahead of the curve. Paul was an avid wrestling fan. He’s drawn away from it over the last few years. The market wasn’t sharing the passion he was sharing. The market has now caught up to him but he’s like, ‘yeah, I could take it or leave
it."

Luke: "How good a businessman is Paul Fishbein?"

Gene: "Paul does all the right things. He is a list compulsive list maker…items of things to do and he follows through on it. He’s relentless on accomplishing goals. He’ll get ideas at 3AM and get up and write lists. He does all the right things. I don’t know if he always hooks up with all the right people to accomplish those things… He’s intelligent, sharp…"

Luke: "Why did Sexpose fail?"

Gene: "I was the editor. You have to understand the magazine business. You have to be well-capitalized. You have to be able to withstand… Paul and I used to go to these magazine seminars in New York where they told you that you had to have capital to cover you for a year’s worth of publication. Sexpose was every other month. Sexpose had to, theoretically, be out there for two years to catch hold. Paul had a business partnership…50-50.

"It was a combination of impatience to see results… You need capitalization and I don’t think they thought that out… And Sexpose never had a real clear idea of what it wanted to be. Sexpose wasn’t even the original name. The original intention was to be the adult equivalent of Premiere magazine. And it was going to cover the adult business as an entertainment art form… Then someone came up with the idea of let’s do it like National Enquirer. We had six months of meetings where we were going to do it one way, then all of a sudden, it was…try this. Then everybody looks at the first issue and says, let’s try this. I think the key to success on a magazine is that you follow through on your idea from beginning to end. Have one unifying vision.

"If it had been given time, it would’ve become enormously successful. And the stock of paper it was printed on didn’t do justice to many of the photos."

Luke: "How well do you know Yoram Dohan and what is your opinion of him?"

Gene: "Paul’s not going to like this… I like Yoram. Yoram is a slick operator. Smooth. Smart. I respect him. He was an Israeli commando, an office in the Israeli army. You have to have a certain
strength of character to have the background he had.

"The only contact I had with Yoram at AVN was that sometimes we would chat in the morning for 15-20 minutes. We’d have a cup of coffee and shoot the s--- about a lot of different things. Yoram had some ideas about where he wanted to take AVN. I don’t know about what went on between Paul and Yoram. Just boom, after 18 months, that thing went to hell. Paul relied on Yoram. Yoram was the go-to guy for everything and he was the guy able to carry-through on a lot of things. He started making inroads with different advertisers that we had never had before and he was aggressively opening up different markets for AVN. We were getting foreign editions of AVN. I don’t even know where that sits anymore. That’s pretty much gone by the wayside. Yeah, he was an innovator and I liked the guy."

Luke: "With Darren Roberts, do you resent that Paul brought in an outsider to run the company, in effect passing you over?"

Gene: "Paul at one time offered me that situation, to move from editorial into that. I saw a whole different set of headaches involved. Collecting money and that crap. I was just comfortable in the editorial niche because that’s what I’ve done all my life. I don’t want to put myself in position of going to ask people for money. That’s why I could never be good at taking bribes. ‘Oh by the way, what about an envelope?’ I’ve always been kind of funny that way. I just can’t knock on people’s doors and hound them for money.

"I had the Editor title. That’s like asking a Brigadier General whether they’d like to be a Lieutenant Colonel [lower rank]."

Luke: "Were there personal repercussions over the Rob Black award last year? The story is that the entire editorial department was banished to the warehouse as a form of punishment, and you, the most visible employee, was given a much smaller office. Do you resent that?"

Gene laughs. "A casual observer could say that… I’ve heard people say that. ‘What did you guys do to be out here in the warehouse?’ You get that crazy look in people’s eyes. ‘What are you doing out here?’

"Plans were already being made to expand AVN well before the awards show of last year. They were already building the office here. This was looked on as a temporary thing. We were growing and had no place to put people. True, I moved from a larger office space to a smaller one. But before I was in this glass enclosed thing, I was bubble boy. I had no privacy. Everybody coming in would stare at me as though I was on exhibit. So while it was a larger room, it was an uncomfortable feeling, to feel that I was on display. So where I am now is off the beaten path. Nobody interrupts me. I get a lot of work accomplished. I come in here at 6:30 in the morning and by 9PM I get more work done than many people do all day."

Luke: "I hear that AVN is on a youth kick and with your age and salary, you are considered expendable, particularly because the company is overextended?"

Gene: "I guess Paul’s admission that I’ve got a job for life rules out the expendable thing. Let’s make everything crystal clear here, with the exception of one person recently in editorial, I’ve hired everybody who works in editorial including Bryn Pryor. I don’t think Mark Kernes would represent a youth movement nor Tod Hunter with his salt and pepper hair would represent the youth movement."

Luke: "I’ve heard that you and Bryn Pryor don’t get along?"

Gene: "Somebody must’ve picked up a comment that Bryn supposedly made a couple of years ago, before he got to know me… He supposedly made a crack about "the mustachioed editor with the f---ing tan." An isolated incident that became folk legend that’s grown into this whole Hatfield and McCoys rivalry. Nothing could be further from the truth. Bryn and I have the same personality except that I’ve mellowed. Bryn is a firebrand. I hired him because he came with a reputation for fighting on behalf of his people. When he was over at Champion, he made sure that his people were taken care of. That’s a military mentality that a leader takes care of the people who follow you.

"Also, it took us by surprise that Mark Kulkis said, ‘I’m leaving.’ And suddenly we had to fill a major position. Bryn was at the right place at the right time."

Luke: "Have any video companies or magazines approached you with offers?"

Gene: "Absolutely. Not magazines but video companies… In roundabout ways… Nobody has ever said…"

Luke: "If you left AVN, would you stay in the adult business?"

Gene: "I’d want to become a porn star. Yeah, I’d stay in the adult business. I saw my first adult movie at 16 years of age. At that time I said to myself, ‘I want to work in the adult film business.’ This is 1963. I came from a background and an area where that could’ve been accomplished, but son of a gun, it worked out that way. I’ve found my niche. I’ve done the corporate suit-jacket and tie routine and I always felt like I was a square peg in a round hole. I’ve found my niche. The industry was made for me."

12/11/98

Gene Ross phoned me back at 10:35 AM.

Gene: "Did Jordan’s lawyers get involved with Sexpose? I don’t know. I just know that Paul and Ted Liebowitz pulled the plug on it… I had the impression that Liebowitz wanted to go on with it…

"Paul openly discussed some things. He had fully expected to get some kind of response from him [Jordan]… I know that [AVN legal columnist] Clyde DeWitt was called in on some matters relative to it…

"I wish Jim South would send me girls. Who the f--- is coming up with this s---? I keep a scoreboard [of the number of women he lays]? When I was younger I did, and I might’ve said that to somebody… When I was younger, that was a source of humor. I had a counter where I could flip numbers… I’d bring a woman into my apartment and she’d say, ‘What’s number 126 mean?’ And I’d say, ‘it means nothing.’ She’d leave the house the next day and see number 127… I guess it would never dawn on her. It was always a source of conversation…"

Gene started laughing when the topic of his supposed hidden surveillance camera came up. "That’s a great idea, dammit. I wish I’d thought of that. I could have my own video line and have a great old age. The total candid candid camera… I could get women from the business… I love that."

Luke: "What happened to reviewer Rich C. Leather?"

Gene: "Bryn as the managing editor deals with the freelance writers. Rich had a bug up his ass. He was claiming that AVN owed him money… Rich went to the mat with Bryn in the past regarding a review…dealt with Santino Lee. I was on the periphery of it, some kind of tape that Rich reviewed… Santino Lee was upset about something. Bryn was in the middle of it. That’s all I know… I heard that Rich Leather held tapes hostage and sent a message saying that I’m holding these tapes hostage until AVN squares up with money they owe me for reviews. That got ridiculous. I think Bryn said, ‘I don’t need this s---. This guy’s controversial… He gets….’ Bryn told him that you’re service are no longer required. End of story. A few weeks ago. I had to re-review some of the tapes that he was supposed to have handed in as a review."

12/11/98

Kendra Jade, after a disastrous showing on the Howard Stern show yesterday caused by the presence of a drunk friend, says she is leaving John Bone.

A month ago Kendra asked to be released from her contract. John granted her wish. He had no comment Friday morning on Jade's departure.

Kendra said Friday morning by phone: "Yesterday I made a pretty bad mistake and went on the Howard Stern show and had a really bad interview because I brought a friend of mine with me who was drunk.

"She's not in the business. Just an old friend of mine. I asked her to come along because it was a four hour drive. So we got there early, about 3AM. And she said, 'let's stop at the bar and have a drink.' I don't drink but she got trashed. I had no choice but to bring her to the show with me because it was New York. I couldn't just drop her off. So she made an ass out of herself in the green room. And they loved it and brought her in. So it turned out to be a mess.

"Then I talked to John and this is something that happens to me all the time... He screams at me and calls me an idiot. And says that I've done nothing for my career and all this stuff. And I feel that I've put an awful lot of effort towards my career and brought his company hundreds of thousands of dollars with the Jerry Springer stuff. He's no longer that concerned with my career anymore. He's got other things that are more important to him, like having sex. I can't tolerate that lack of respect towards me anymore.

"John is not a man of his word. The car that he bought me from the money he made off of me, he will take back. And I'll have to move out of my house. I shot a scene for him and in return he was supposed to pay my rent, which he didn't. So I'm screwed at this point... Now I'll work for people who won't treat me like s--- and screw me over. Maybe that naive of me. Maybe everybody does that."

Kendra Jade phoned Luke at 1:45 PM, 12/15/98. "Are you on John Bone’s payroll?"

Luke: "No." [Though Luke was seriously considering it.]

Kendra: "Ok then, because if you were I’d be too scared to talk to you."

Jade, at home in Connecticut, burst into tears over the phone.

"John Bone repossessed my car. He put a lien on my apartment. The guy that I rent it from, Martin, is a good friend of John’s and the same person John rents his studio from. You know how John was supposed to pay my rent for the [free] shoot I did. He never did. John told Martin that he has the right to go in there and take all of my stuff because the rent wasn’t paid and John’s name is on the lease as well. So John is taking all my stuff because he claims that I owe him money. Even though I did all these shoots for him (3-4 in the last month) and he never paid anything.

"John has taken everything that I own. He’s cleared out my bank accounts because they were in John’s name and mine."

Luke: "How much money did he take from your bank account?"

Kendra: "God only knows. I have no idea. He called me this morning and he said: ‘You no longer have anything. You took all the press people that I introduced you to. You called Luke, Gene Ross and Mike Albo. And now you want to use those people against me. f--- you. I’ve taken everything that you own and you have nothing.’"

Kendra sobs over the phone. "I’m going to try to get on a plane tomorrow and get back out to LA and try to fix something. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.

"When I came out to LA, I didn’t have any credit. I didn’t have anything. So he [John Bone] co-signed with me on everything. A week ago he was telling me ‘you can still keep your car, even if you don’t work for me. I’m not going to f--- with you. I’m not going to do anything.’

"I didn’t trash him to anybody. I didn’t f--- him over. The problem was, Luke, he couldn’t give me enough work to pay my bills. Then when he did give me work, he f---ed me on the money anyway. So I need to find some way so that I can f---ing live.

"As time went by, I was just incurring more debt. So I had to get out [of Cream] so I could pay everything off. I guess now I don’t have to worry about it because he f---ed me on everything. I want everyone to be aware of how much of a f---ing miserable f---ing prick he is. They shouldn’t work for him because most of the time they won’t get paid, and if they do, most of the time they will get a bad check. He bounces checks on everybody. I stood by him through the whole thing. I worked for him at times when he had no money to pay anybody, I worked for him for nothing just so he could keep the company going. And then he f---s me. So right now I have no place to live, no car and no money. He is the biggest manipulator and liar I’ve ever met in my entire life.

"The f---ing Jerry Springer thing. Was he entitled to any of that money? No. Did he do anything? No. Did he f---ing sleep with Jerry? No. He [John Bone] was the one who took all the money and do you know know what he did with all that money ($350,000 from Jerry Springer)? He bought himself a car and he bought me a car. He just had my car repossessed so he never bought me anything.

"He pissed through all the Jerry Springer money because his company is broke again. Gene Ross is on his payroll. I was scared to call you because I didn’t know if you were too.

"I was in the office every single day. I know how much money he has. There were days when he couldn’t even pay his employees. He hasn’t paid my rent in two months."

Luke: "Doesn’t your cousin Donny work for John?"

Kendra: "While I’ve been gone, John has filled their heads with something… I talked to Shay [Cream employee]. She was my assistant and roadie [when Kendra danced on the road]. I’ve known her for seven years and she turned on me like that. I loved her like my f---ing sister…

"He’s left me with nothing but a pile of debt. He was the one who convinced me to move to LA in the first place. I was fine here [in Connecticut] and just flying out to shoot for him. I had an apartment and a car… And I gave it all up to go out there to work for him because he gave me a whole bunch of promises. I just hope that at 60 years old, when he looks in the mirror, he feels really good about himself. That he just f---ed a 21-year old girl for everything she had. [John is 51 years old.]

"He’s mad at me because I left. That I went to the people [Luke, Gene Ross, Mike Albo] that he had supposedly introduced me to and used it against him. If I left him, he wanted me to quit the business… But he’s left me with too much debt to just walk away.

"You know what John told me (before we got into a fight) about Kristen? That he had promised her a contract and all that because he wanted to piss off Matt Zane and because she knew lots of the young girls in the business and as soon as he got more girls, he was done with her.

"When John offered me the contract, I didn’t know anything about him. And I took it and I wish that I had been smarter."

Luke: "What about Zoe?"

Kendra: "I like Zoe. But she believes in John and that he will turn his business around. She’s the same person I was, in that I really believed in John. I believed everything he told me.

"He is very charming. He can make you believe anything he says. He can tell you the sky is pink and convince you that it is. Finally I got smart, that he was scamming me…

"When I go back to LA, I need to work immediately so that I can put a roof over my head."

Luke: "How sure are you that Gene Ross is on his payroll?"

Kendra: "Because I was in the office. I’d see Gene come in every Friday and get paid. I hate to say anything or even tread in that water because he’s another person [Gene Ross] who can f--- me really hard in the industry and I’m sure he will."

Gene Ross and John Bone deny the charges.

John at 4:20PM: "Kendra owes me $4000 for money I loaned her. She has not paid December rent on her house even though she has three girls who sublet from her and pay her rent. She told Martin that she’d pay the rent on the 12/22… Then she told Shay to rent a truck and that she was going to get all her stuff out and run, leaving me owing the landlord $1200 rent plus $800 in bad checks she wrote to D.W.P.. On top of this, I was paying for a leased car for her.

"Last Thursday she and her friends appeared drunk on the Howard Stern show. I ripped her a new asshole. On Friday, she and her stepmother Kelly Shambers went on a flurry to f--- me over. They called you, Gene Ross, Mike Albo and Peter Bond, with all kinds of terrible stories about me. I believe they were even threatening Gene to print all sorts of bad things about him."

[12/16 Update: Kendra phoned back to say that she is working things out with John Bone.]

I talked to Gene Ross at 4 PM, 12/15/98.

Gene: "I’m talking with John [Bowen] today. He said, ‘isn’t it odd that anytime I get involved in a partnership that breaks up, somebody makes some godawful comments about you and that you have some interest in this company. Let’s follow the pattern.’

"I wrote an article this past summer about John’s partnership breakup with Charley Frey. Charley was not happy that I did the story. He confronted me at the VSDA show and said, ‘I thought we were friends.’ I said, ‘Charley, we are friends. I played it down the middle. You did make the quotes you said.’ Charley: ‘Yeah, but did you have to quote everything I said.’ Gene: ‘Well gee, Charley, I am a journalist.’

"Well, no sooner did all this happen than these stories about Gene Ross having a financial interest in Cream started hitting your website. So, I’m talking to John and asking him if he knew where these stories could be coming from? And he said, [Gene does a great imitation of John’s British accent] ‘Oh, it could possibly be Charley. This sounds like Charley’s work.’

"I asked him and he said, ‘oh no, Gene, it wasn’t me. I would never say anything like that.’ But he said it in a tone of voice that made me think ‘yeah, Charley, I’m sure you never did.’ Oh well, that’s water over the damn. Who gives a crap?

"Then, all of a sudden, last week, Kendra makes a complete fool of herself on the Howard Stern show. John goes berserk. They have words and one thing leads to another. Boom. That situation is over. I think John will tell you that she gave him the final excuse to let her go because he’s been talking about it with his people over there… He had said something about he was going to make a decision at the beginning of the year, take a look at where his company was going with contract girls… He was of the impression that Kendra wasn’t really moving tapes. That she had that Jerry Springer notoriety and that worked but after that, there was no magic.

"Now we find out that Kendra Jade is in Charley Frey’s camp. [Kendra’s stepmom] Kelly Jade called me last Friday. She’s trying to get a story done on Kendra. And all of a sudden, she’s telling me that I have a financial interest in Cream. It was something she heard. From who? She wouldn’t say. I said, you better be damn careful because now you’re bordering on libel.

"So the next thing I here is that Kelly and Charley Frey are in bed together on a business deal. Then you email me today that a tearful Kendra Jade told you that I’m on John’s payroll, and I’m over there every Friday afternoon picking up checks.

"You’ve got to understand Luke, that we have the secret desk here where people drop off bribes. [Sarcastic] Now why would I pick up something when I’ve made it easy for John to come here and stick the envelope in the secret desk?

"So anyway, this is absolutely nonsensical. Why is it every time that someone has a bone to pick with John Bone they say this about me? John says, ‘I don’t hide anything. I tell people I get blowjobs and whatever… So they can’t attack me. But you [Gene] have the squeaky clean image so everybody tires to tarnish it.’"

[Luke: Charley Frey was not my primary source on the Gene Ross has a financial interest in John Bone story. I heard it from a couple of other porners in July, and I guess it is a story that has floated around. Charley and Jasmine have said that Bone planned to bring Gene Ross on board with Cream in the fall of 1998 and ‘f--- Paul Fishbein up the ass.’]

Luke: "Oh well. Kendra says that Jerry Springer paid $350,000 to John."

Gene: "I have no clue about that. The story I heard was that Kendra set up Jerry Springer… Kendra’s idea all along was to break Jasmine’s gangbang record… The Springer people contacted John and set up a meeting with Kendra…

"I never heard a dollar figure… I heard that a lot of people were going to get sued. Kendra wanted to be a tabloid superstar. She wanted to get on the Howard Stern show and she wanted to make a name for herself.

"Kendra sought a contract from Rob Black but he turned her down. Rob said to me [and Gene does a great imitation of how Rob speaks] ‘I couldn’t be involved doing this… Everything is cool with Jasmin. What am I going to do? Bring some whackdoodle into camp and drive Jasmin crazy… I don’t want to f--- with that.’"

Luke asks Gene to imitate Luke’s accent. Gene tries but it comes out sounding like John Bowen.

Gene: "I heard that Kendra got turned down by several other companies so she wasn’t the hot property she thought she was… Sure, she’s distraught now and lashing out. Understand, everything was in his name. That was his property. Logic dictates that if you are no longer under contract with somebody, that is no longer your property. Apparently, she wasn’t keeping her end of the bargain. She hoped to skip out on her rent."

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