Rob
Black 11/3/98
Rob Black Profile Rob Black Scandals Interview 10/27/98 Interview 11/3/98 More Rob Black More Rob Black
I arrive at the Extreme Associates office at noon, 11/3/98, an hour early for my meeting with Rob Black. I hang out in the lobby shooting the breeze with Kim, the bouncy bubbly blonde bookkeeper-receptionist who worked at Zane for four years, black porn stud Byron Long and Extreme’s new editor, cameraman and director Charley Crow (who’s moved to Extreme with his friend David Aaron Clark from John Bone’s Cream).
I introduce myself to the direct muscular young porner Van Damage. "Oh, you’re the cocksucker," he says.
Van says that industry leaders like Vivid, VCA and the FSC "like to view themselves as this nurturing parent. But it’s really about money. They control the softcore cable business. Hardcore doesn’t matter that much to them. They’d like us to forget about softcore cable sales because if we ventured into that business they’d start sweating.
"We rule the hardcore domestic market. We give the fans what they want.
"They’re [VCA, Vivid etc] are crippling our industry by making the talent wear condoms. And they’re oppressing us in our right to be free directors.
"If they’re caring nurturing people, why don’t they up their prices? Why don’t they pay the talent more money for working without a condom? They can’t absorb the entire talent pool and employ them as condom only. We care more. We give the girls whatever amount of money they want, if it is reasonable.
"Vivid and VCA said that if we went condom-only, they’d help us with distribution. How are they going to help us with distribution? They’ve tried to destroy our market with their cheap product. Vivid goes to catalogue [cheaper prices] right away. VCA tries to hold out longer to give their product some integrity [why does holding your price give your product "more integrity"?].
"You read the internet. You see what they like. Rarely do you see a review of a Vivid movie."
Van introduces me to Tiffany Mynx. We first met over two years ago at a Jim Holliday shoot.
"Vivid sells a four pack of compilation videos for $4. They make ten cents per video? The consumer gets ripped off because he gets a pretty package with crap inside.
"A guy back in New York who owns a store can buy our product for $30 and sell it for $40 or he can buy Vivid for $5 and sell it for $20. Vivid and VCA should compete with their product instead of cutting their prices and destroying the hardcore market.
"I tried to talk to Russ [Hampshire] about this and he said, ‘who the f--- are you?’ The arrogance… [Russ does not remember saying this.]
"On the Free Speech Coalition [board meeting], Russ voted against Cherry Poppers, where they dress up [adult] women as 14-year old girls. Free Speech means allowing speech that you don’t agree with… [The FSC voted to fund legal action against federal "child pornography" legislation that outlaws dressing up adults as children. Hampshire voted against the FSC majority.]
Van: "That’s my view of the condom issue. It isn’t about being a bad boy, no I won’t wear one. It’s about being a true American and making things the way I want to make things.
"I take a PCR DNA test about every three weeks. Tommy and our contract boy Luciano get it every two weeks.
"Paul Fishbein says that we return pornography to the gutter level. What’s wrong with that?
"Some of your movies will sell better than others, largely because of a good box cover."
Van shot 15 videos for Elegant Angel and five for Extreme. "My last review in Adam Film World said my movie had the quality of a video feature with a gonzo theme. The talk, hype, reviews and fan mail has tripled [since creating Extreme].
"Quality shows up in sales in the long run. Initial orders will be the same…
"As long as everyone’s cutting prices and at each other’s throats, we can never get together and have a cohesive [pricing system]… If we all got together and said, ‘let’s raise our prices $3,’ there will always be that one cocksucker who’ll call the distributor to say, ‘hey, I’m lowering my price by ten cents.’"
I enter Rob’s smokey office. Rob puffs three packs a day of Camel Wide Lights.
He tells Charley Crow what he wants from today’s scene between little white girl Iroc and big muscular black Byron Long. "…Get her to rim his big dark hole…"
Rob describes his 22-year old new contract girl and live-in girlfriend: "Lizzy Borden really did kill her little brother. She spent years in reform school. She’s a reformed murderer. All the broads in our business are whackos. They all probably killed someone.
"During the stunts sequence [for Rubber] in Las Vegas, Ashlyn Gere got hurt. She collapsed a lung doing the pyro thing. I already have half of it [video] in the can. It will be out for the CES [1/99]. Ashlyn’s fine now. Her husband Marshall does stunt work. She does all her own stunts [in Rubber]."
Rob shows me the Vivid ad for "Vivid Extreme." Extreme’s lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to Vivid lawyer Paul Cambria and got Vivid to back down to "Vivid Raw." Then Extreme had to do the same thing to VCA. See page 64 of the 11/98 AVN – a small article about VCA Pictures Extreme. It appears that VCA not only tried to take the Extreme name but has also copied Extreme Associate’s logo.
"We’re not going to do comps. Maybe one a year, the best of Rob Black with bonus footage. We’re not like Zane who put out five movies a month, three of them comps. And our new feature from three months ago, we’re going to chop it up and put it into comps, Filthy f---ers 89, and sell it for $3. There are so many angles that people use when they get desperate for money. We do none of them because we’re not desperate.
"We haven’t missed released dates, aside from Rubber. Tom Byron comes out every month. Van hasn’t come out with anything for a while because he just did his first feature Fleshpot with a ‘60s theme.
"I approached Ashlyn Gere a year ago when I was getting ready to do Miscreants. I needed a supporting role which Jeanna Fine filled (playing Jesus) and won Best Supporting Actress [AVN]. Ashlyn told me that she needed to see the script. I sent her a synopsis. I don’t do scripts. I improvise like John Leslie. She calls me back saying, ‘I only do a couple of movies every year. They’re Michael Ninn features… They’re this and that. And they’ve got to have a script.’
"So when we left Elegant Angel, I called Ashlyn again with an offer to do a movie. And she accepted. I guess I had to prove myself.
"Victoria Paris got freaked out by the AIDS thing. I know her because I hang out with Jeremy Stone and Christy Canyon. We [Victoria and Rob] were talking and everything was great, then people started testing HIV positive. Victoria is doing nothing now except for a bondage thing and nobody sticks anything in her.
"None of the AIDS people worked for me during that window period."
Luke: "How much difference does it make in sales if you make a good movie as opposed to a mediocre movie?"
Rob: "The initial impact is nothing. In the long run, everything. Right now, every release sells an automatic number of pieces. Reorders show you if you have good movie. The reviews come in… If you make bad movies, it will hurt your credibility. Look at Elegant Angel. They were on top. After we left, their numbers were not affected. They still had our movies in the can. But eight months later and you look at their reviews on the internet, people say their movies suck. Look at the latest AVN. Sean Michael’s new movie got two stars. Dion Garusso’s Smut got two-and-a-half stars. In our history at Elegant, they never got fewer than three-and-a-half stars.
"You can always release a clunker or two. But don’t put out a clunker every week. I put out [Keith Again’s] Pornoman 2000. It’s a great concept but the quality is not great because we used brand new equipment. It’s still better than 90% of the competition.
"I ran my dad’s [four adult] bookstores in Rochester [from age 18-21.] I did all the sales, bought all the merchandise. I ran the promotions. I brought Nina Hartley and Christy Canyon to sign autographs. I know how to run a business. I didn’t know how to deal with the low-life scum bags in our [Los Angeles porn manufacturers] business."
Of Sicilian ancestry, Rob’s real name is Robert Zicari. His father Dominic, a porn pioneer, at one time owned 40 sex shops in the North East. "My dad was the first person in Western New York to start [adult] bookstores. He had the peep shows where you put your face in the glass in the booth and a curtain goes around you… It’s on 8mm projector. He took 170 busts for selling obscene materials.
"My uncle ["Chuck Zane" is really Charles Zicari] was selling shoes, living with my grandfather in the back of his house. And my grandfather cried to my dad, ‘could you please help your brother out?’ My dad made him the manager of an adult book store and eventually gave it to him. But my uncle Chuck couldn’t run it by himself. He needed help from this bag boy Frank DeLucia.
"When my dad was in jail [early ‘80s for tax evasion], my uncle closed one store and ran two of them into the ground. Stole all the money. When my dad gets out of jail and asks for his share of the [peeps] money, my uncle goes, ‘No Dom, those machines were old. Frank and I put new peepshows in. You’re not partners with that.
"When Reuben Sturman was inventing pornography, my dad was the guy he was selling it to. My dad took the busts for all these manufacturers. There was no VCA or Vivid then… It was Caballero and Swedish Erotica loops.
"My dad sold the first hardcore magazines. Reuben called him up… My dad put them up all in the stores in Rochester and Ohio… He got busted. They padlocked doors.
"My dad put up the money to start Zane Brothers in 1983. [Such titles as] Backside of the Future, Sweet Revenge, Passion Chase. They got heat for Backside of the Future. My dad had been convicted before. He told Chuck, ‘you take the business. When you make money, you give me back my money.’ So my Uncle bankrupts the company. He moves it to Rochester. Then out here. Reforms the company and pays everybody 12c on the dollar. He got Max Hardcore and John Bone and the company flourished. My Uncle bought a $1.2 million house. My dad said, ‘Chuck, you’re doing great. Now give me back the money you owe me.’ My uncle said, ‘Dom, that money you gave me was for the Zane that I bankrupted. This company is a whole new company with my money. So sorry, f--- you.’ There’s the bad blood. All my uncle does is f--- people.
"I ain’t new blood. I’m no different than Steve Hirsch who’s dad Fred [worked for Sturman]. I’m no different from Rob Spallone who’s dad was in the business.
"My dad had been in the business for years when Russ was selling bootlegged Star Wars video. [Hampshire, along with Walter Gernert and Chuck Bernstein, was convicted in MIPORN for shipping illegally duplicated tapes of mainstream movies such as Star Wars across state lines.] Russ says that Rob Black is going to bring the heat down us.
"If Chuck walked in that door, I’d punch him in the mouth. He’s the biggest piece of garbage in the world because he f---s family. That's the worst."
Luke: "Why did your dad take it?"
Rob: "Because it is his little brother. What is he going to do? My dad is very Italian [devoted to family]. He’s very loyal. You don’t beat up family.
"Rob Black is a character. I don’t go home and beat up my girlfriend or shoot up heroin or f--- dead fish. When I go home, I take a shower, I put on shorts and play Nintendo 64. I’m a private person. I don’t socialize with the business. My best friend is Tommy [Byron].
"Last week this new wrestling game [Nintendo] came out. Tommy and I went to Toys R’Us at 9PM. And the clerk said, ‘ohmigod, it’s Rob Black and Tom Byron. I worked at this adult bookstore in Studio City. I just got this job at ToysR’Us and I meet you guys here.’"
Rob lived in a $4000 a month mansion in Bell Canyon for 18 months. "I got it for Tricia Devereaux [Rob’s girlfriend at the time]. She wanted to get married and have kids. After Tricia, I went out with a civilian. We broke up after six months."
Rob makes European versions of some of his movies. "You can do what you want (even in America). You can piss and s--- all over someone. It’s only if you get busted and some jury in Lousiana finds it obscene. I was in Tower Records last month and picked up the new issue of High Society. There’s two guys pissing on a girl. And Penthouse had fisting.
"Tower Records and Warehouse do not carry my stuff because of price and content. You’ve got to go into a bookstore with taped-up windows and won’t let anyone in under the age 21 to get my video. Yet I can go into Tower Records and pick up High Society magazine and see people pissing on people. I can get Penthouse at any 7-11 store. When I was 16, I could buy Penthouse anywhere.
"I do pissing in my European versions but it’s hard to find people who will do that. Not every movie I do [for Europe] has that or fisting because I get such a high price for it anyway overseas. They don’t care. I did it for two videos and didn’t even put it [urination, fisting] in. I didn’t bother making that extra master [tape]. I get more money than Max Hardcore. In some territories I get more money than Gregory Dark and John Leslie. I get double in Brazil what they do. They could have the same deal but their boss John Stagliano won’t let them. Stagliano gives them $3500 for a master [for sales to Brazil]. They’ll sell 3-5,000 units at $25-27. John has to split that with his Brazilian distribution [Stanley Miranda]. John’s probably making at least $15,000 - $20,000 profit from each [master] tape sold to Brazil.
"Stanley was a sales manager with this other company [Clayton] in Brazil that I partner with. Stanley went out with John because he spoke English. So he told John, ‘we could do this ourselves.’ So Stanley left Clayton and started his own distribution network. Stanley and Stagliano f---ed this guy Clayton.
"Walter Gernert runs the VCA wing in Brazil. Russell [Hampshire] says he doesn’t BS. He once told me, ‘I don’t do anything with Walter.’ Bull.
[Russ told me 11/11/98 that there is no VCA wing in Brazil. Rather, a company that Walter works for licenses VCA titles for sale in Brazil.]
"Tommy and I were joking one night that we were going to make this fashion line – Extreme Bulletproof vests. Some day I’m going to get shot because I talk… All these guys are scumbags and for years they’ve controlled the business. And if you didn’t suck Russ’s dick, you couldn’t do this. It ain’t like that anymore. I’m the motherf---er who will tell you what is going on.
"I get this [about Walter and VCA] from my guys in Brazil. You’ve got VCA Labs and VCA duplication in Brazil and Walter Gernert has been living in Brazil for years. Walter Gernert was the one who put up all the money to make VCA in the US.
"Walter Gernert backed the company, Gregory Dark made the company and Russ Hampshire was the figure head, the guy in front, because Walter and Gregory have a shady past. Eventually Russ bought in. Walter sold everything to Russell and fled to Brazil. They f---ed Gregory and told him to suck dick. Gregory was supposed to get a piece and he got nothing. Russell was a puppet… He was supposed to be the third Dark Brother.
[A VCA source says that Russ and Walter started VCA on a 50/50 basis. Eventually Russ bought out Walter. Gregory wanted to set up his own video company using Russ as the front man. It didn't work out so Greg left for Evil Angel.]
"Russ talks s--- about me but Russell made his living being me. He was the figurehead for a company that made their reputation from being outrageous. VCA led the way with Café Flesh and the Dark Brothers movies… They were the first ones to do Klu Klux Klan scenes and rape scenes… They made all their money doing that and they condemn me… Russell is a piece of s---. These fossils don’t want anyone else to make money. They don’t like it when someone like me shakes things up. I take business from them.
[Russ 11/11: "Cafe Flesh is a strange movie but there is no bondage or degradation of women. That movie played in film schools, at the Nuart Theater in Santa Monica for a year... In the old days, a lot of things were permissable. Times change."]
"What we have here is Howard Sternism. He’s boisterous, creative and he knows how to market. I do the same thing. We have the same fans. Our fans will go to a Vivid girl signing and say ‘Vivid girls suck. You suck.’ We’ve got reviewers like Ivan Lerner at Screw who love us. He did an interview with me and asked me about Michael Ninn. I talked s--- about Michael Ninn. Then Lerner and Screw reviewed one of Michael’s movies [Diva] and they printed two paragraphs of the s--- that I said about Michael Ninn, and then Lerner wrote: "We’re now going to explain why Rob Black is right." VCA called them up. Russell said he wasn’t going to send any more [complimentary] copies to them.
[I hear that Russ called Lerner and asked: 'You watch a lot of movies? How do you think Michael's compares to most of the stuff out there?' Lerner supposedly said, 'much better.' Russ said: 'Why don't you put that in your review?' Screw then re-reviewed Ninn's video.]
"My eight contract girls are better than any other
contract girls in the business. Wicked has Jenna Jameson. Jasmine is
bigger than her. Tiffany Mynx is a bigger name than Serenity. I just
wiped out Wicked. Vivid has Janine. Jasmine is bigger than Janine. Jasmine
has been on Howard Stern more times than Jenna and Janine. VCA has Juli
Ashton, an old slug pig. Ashlyn Gere is bigger than Juli Ashton. Tiffany
Mynx is bigger than Nikita. Jasmine is bigger than Kylie Ireland. My
football team just destroyed their team. People pay more to see my people.
Juli Ashton does not get $15,000 a week when she dances. Jasmine St.
Clair does. Juli does Playboy but she’s never appeared on a real
talk show. VCA girls are slugs."
Evil Angel is the best selling hardcore company followed by Annabolic,
says Rob. Then comes Extreme, Elegant Angel…
"Vivid puts out 50 tapes a month. We put out four. Vivid and VCA sell about 2000 copies out the door. Russell said to me in person and around other people, ‘Rob Black sells more pieces than me.’ Russ sells more cable and sells more quantity. He has 3000 titles in catalogue.
"If Evil Angel lost one of their stars, that company would crumble. Buttman does not sell like it used to. What keeps that company afloat are John Leslie and Rocco Siffredi. Then Gregory, Silvera, Randy West…"
Black plans softcore productions for cable TV. "I’ll have to adjust. Instead of a heroin junkie, I’ll make the character an alcoholic… I’ve got these cable people throwing staggering figures at me."
***
I talked to Russ Hampshire 11/11/98.
Russ: "You [Luke] take misinformation just to stir up the s---. You are so bad..."
Luke: "I just printed what Rob told me."
Russ: "You know that some of it isn't true. Then you print later on that I was irate about his interview [with Luke] which is why I called him. [Luke wrote 11/8/98: "My interview with Rob Black disturbed Russ Hampshire's Hawaiin vacation. Rob gave Luke the Scoop on VCA's Brazilian operation conducted, says Rob, by Walter Gernert. Rob was too busy Friday morning to take Russ's call. Black says Hampshire has told distributors not to carry Rob's product."]
"You love to stir up the s---, don't you? How do you know I was irate?"
Luke: "Because I talked to Extreme."
Russ: "I called him up [11/6]. They said that he was in a meeting. I said that I would like to talk to him about his interview with you [Luke]. That's all. So how could you tell I was irate?"
Rob Black has yet to return Hampshire's call.
I suspect that Russ is annoyed with Rob calling him "a piece of s---." Russ is careful with his words and rarely says such things about others.
Luke: "Would you like to call Rob Black a piece of...?"
Russ: "No, why would I want to do that? What purpose would that serve?"
Russ says he's tried to be a nice guy with Rob Black. Russ called him up to ask permission to use the term VCA Extreme. Unfortunately, the AVN story had already run.
Russ: "You never called to verify the information [that Rob told Luke]."
Luke: "I didn't want to disturb your vacation."
Russ says that he now sells the Brazilian rights to his titles to a Brazilian company that Walter works for.
Russ: "Rob doesn't take any business from me. Yes, he outsells me on some titles. Some of my movies sell 5-6,000 pieces."
Several months ago Rob and Russ had a long passionate discussion. Russ told Rob how dangerous he thought Black's product was. Later, Russ called Rob back saying in effect, 'I'm wrong. Make what you want. I don't feel your product is good for the industry. It's a free country.'
Russ says he has never called a distributor telling them not to take Rob's product.
Russ needs a title for his new gonzo line. How about VCA Raw?
***
11/3/98
I hear that Tiffany Mynx (mother of two) is divorcing her husband who directs for Elegant Angel under the name Craig Daze. She loves her new breasts.
JokeySmurf writes on RAME: "I wish to thank Tiffany Mynx for her new hard-hitting sex vid: ASSWOMAN IN WONDERLAND. This video f---ing rocks!! This vid has it all; Nasty anal, hot 3ways, hot girl/girl action. Tiffany eats pussy like nobody's business. That is one horny bi-sexual bitch!
"I also have a foot fetish and she seems to cader this film to me. She walks around totally nude most of the film and we not only get to see her lovely ass,we also get to see hers and many of her female co-stars beautiful little bare feet. Her new tits are also looking good. I was one of the people who did not want her to get a boob job, but have to admit the new tits are tastefully done, not making her look monstrously endowed. They compliment her shape nicely.
"If there is one thing I didn't particularly like about the film, is in the opening sequence, Tiffany is ( portrayed? ) mixing alcohol and marijuana. I think this had something to do with the plot her falling asleep for the Wonderland theme, but it portrays an ( already ) negative image on porn.
"That being aside, I would gladly recommend this video to anyone who likes to see naked asses, hard pounding anal, pussy eating sluts, and pretty bare feet. I took a chance at purchasing this video off the shelf before even renting it to see if it was worth purchasing. ASSWOMAN IN WONDERLAND was well worth my $29. I'll be no good to my g/f for a few days."
Little white girl from Michigan, Iroc, rides with me as a group of us head for Claudio’s mansion in Bell Canyon. At age 21, she stands five feet tall and measures 34-26-34. She debuted in More Dirty Debutantes 88. Since then all her scenes (15) have been for Extreme.
Iroc is getting a divorce. She says that her ex-husband told her family about her porn work as revenge, to try to cut her off from the people who knew her. Van Damage thinks she looks like Spock on Star Trek.
Byron Long entered porn in early 1995. His girlfriend did scenes over two years ago as Dior (Dr. Fellatio, etc).
Eric, a French still photographer, rides his motorbike to the entrance of Bell Canyon, and then jumps in the car driven by Byron Long. Charley Crow will man the camera and Rob’s buddy Dave Pentycofe (former warehouse manager for Elegant Angel) will hold the C light.
Charles is shooting the Byron-Iroc scene for Rob’s movie Rap Her In The Crapper, Hit Her In The s---ter. This will be Iroc’s first time with a black man. Her first time with a girl also came in porno.
Claudio Bergamin and his wife Gina Rome keep a spotless home. An engineer and pilot, Claudio flew a twin engine from Rome to Oklahoma in 1995, stopping off in such places as Iceland and Greenland.
In February 1994, the solidly built balding Italian did his first porn scene (in an amateur production) with his wife.
Claudio now partners with Lasse Braun’s son Axel (Axel Braun Productions) – Cladio@earthlink.net.
He rents his mansion out to porners like Rob Black for $200-$300 a scene.
Axel shot two movies for VCA – Sexscape and The Book of Lust. Claudio appeared in both.
Axel and Claudio (a veteran of over 200 videos) recently made Fleshlight "about a crazy engineer, me, who builds a flash machine that makes girls want to have sex with him. And I have a bitchy wife played by my wife [Gina Rome].
"I sold everything in Italy (I still have my company there) and came here to get a commercial pilots license. I met John Decker (lived in the same building) and discovered the business. I’ve been dreaming my whole life about doing this.
"Two years ago Gina won the lottery to get a Green Card [permanent resident alien] so I married her."
Gina says the couple got their early breaks from Regan Senter. "Because I only worked with Claudio at the time, I didn’t have to do a demo tape with Regan. It’s his policy that he has to f--- all the girls. I’ve never f---ed anybody to get work.
"I’ve never tried to become a star. We started in this business because Claudio wanted to be in the business and he needed a girl to work with otherwise no one would hire him. Then we found out that it was a great way to make money…and it was fun.
"I like porn because I am a shy person and this is a way for me to show myself."
I wander upstairs to find Byron sticking his long black thing into Iroc. She’s dreading the anal scene. Byron prods her gently. They need lube. They forgot to bring lube. Claudio digs up one bottle. They use it all. Gina digs up another bottle.
"I’m the easiest-going guy in the Rob Black stratosphere," Charley assures Iroc.
"I doubt that," she replies, "no one is easy going in the Rob Black stratosphere."
Iroc closes her eyes and aborbs up her butt a few inches of Long. She whinces and pouts.
Charley, who’s shot about ten scenes for Extreme, puts her through two gentle anal positions and then a brief ass-to-mouth shot. Byron spurts into her open mouth. After the still photographer gets his requisite shots, Iroc leaves for the bathroom and a needed shower.
A few days ago, Charley Crow shot a degrading scene bathroom scene for Keith Again’s Cannibis Fly featuring Earl Slate, Gina Rome and veteran Jamie Leigh. Earl sodomizes Jamie. Supposedly it’s her final scene. She gets her head dunked in the toilet.
Gina plays the new secretary at Extreme Associates. She can’t concentrate on her work because of the noise in the bathroom. She walks in to find sex in progress. She joins in.
"Extreme has been such a pleasant contrast to my earlier employer [John Bone]," says Charley. "I’m making a movie called Archer’s Last Day. A character Tim Archer, played by Tom Byron, loses his job and goes through hallucinatory sequences of various hells. He rapes someone…
"I like the Extreme Repertory Company, all the Extreme contract girls. I like having a limited set of actors to work with. My approach is like Fassbiner [German director] troupe of ready made [actors]. I’ve always worked with non-actors [mainly low budget horror movies]. I want to tell some stories and express my vision within the porn genre."
Luke: "Would you rather see girls get f---ed or killed?"
Charley: "Ahh…. Get f---ed. I want to tell stories. How much can you do that in porn? It’s a great debate that I’ve seen expressed on your web page. I’m story oriented. It may be that my porn won’t work as well as other porn. My modest goal is that someone will watch my movie without fast forwarding. Usually, if someone is really into the story, they will skip over the sex. Or vice versa…"
Iroc spent nine hours at this house a few days ago to do one scene for Cannabis Fly. "It was a girl-girl scene, so you never really have an end to that. I played the guy (strap-on). Lizzy Borden and I did a girl from Regan’s office.
"I like anal even when it’s big. It just hurts a bit. It feels like an arm going in you."
12/10/98
Luke: "Russ says he just has a financial interest in Babenet?"
12/31/98
Extreme Associates' Rob Black's printed up T-shirts for CES which read on the front "Vivid Girls Suck." On the back of the white T-shirts in spray-painted style black letters, goes "Extreme Girls f---." Another shirt reads on the front "Extreme Associates 3:16" and on the back, "I just f---ed your ass."
Rob Black phoned 12/31/98 at 3:40 PM. "I heard that Stevie Hirsch is very upset with my shirts and may confront me at the show. It's all in good fun, baby. Just like when he tried to use 'Extreme.' He said, 'Extreme is a generic name.' So, 'Vivid' is a generic name. Nothing personal. It's not about the company Vivid.
"Two more of my wrestling buddies came in town for New Years - Tommy Dreamer and Big Dick Dudley."
Rob's partner Tom Byron used to date Jill Kelly, the favorite to win the AVN Best Female Performer award. "She used to do private parties for the boys at Russ Hampshire's VCA. Tommy would say, 'I'd like to go,' and she'd say, 'No, they don't like to have the boyfriends around.'"
I read Black excerpts from Johny Denim's nasty column at www.unchain.com which says Rob knowingly uses minors in his films and gets away with it (referring to the Sunshine incident, a dancer who may've been underage when she appeared in a couple of Extreme videos).
Rob: "Let's find this guy [Johnny Denim], Luke... I'll talk to Stevie and Russ and get their hacker to hack that guy."
Luke: "You've been knowingly using minors? How did that get past Scoop Luke?"
Rob: "I've got a secret thing with the government and they let me use 12-year olds..."
Rob calls AVN publisher Paul Fishbein several slang terms that I don't understand.
"If Paul wants everybody to wear condoms, why does he support Ben Dover [at VCA] and German Cherrypoppers?"
"I hear that you’ve been offered a bribe… And you won’t write about it.
"I’m disappointed in you… I hear that you’re going commercial. You’re compromising…"
Rob yells out to his office mates: "XXX offered Luke a job."
Rob to Luke: "Luke, everybody in the [Extreme Associates] office says that they would lose all respect for you… Luke the Scoop, the guy who busted all the doors down, is going to sell out. Luke, I am very very disappointed in you. The guy who found out about Marc Wallice’s HIV status before anybody knew is about to sell out. I’m very upset. You’re on major scoops and you won’t print such stories as XXX and XXX."
Luke: "I’m waiting a week or two… Investigating… Russ is a valuable source. And XXX was off the record."
Rob: "That information totally validates everything you’ve said about XXX being corrupt… If you printed that, it would show that XXX is corrupt, a piece of s---… XXX is a f---ing liar turd cocksucker. That’s what it does. And you are shying away from the scoop."
Luke: "Look, XXX was talking about this a month before I started in on XXX…"
Rob: "Lukey, you don’t think that when you’re sitting with Russ and them, that it is compromising you? You don’t think that XXX is the voice of Russ Hampshire and Stevie Hirsch. And they say, ‘XXX, offer this f---ing guy a job, will you please? Shut him up, for chrissakes. Buy him out.’
"Come on Luke, you have all these things and you’re playing a patsy. Come on Luke."
Luke: "I don’t rush to publish everything. Some things I wait on. I have a good professional relationship with XXX, and with Russ Hampshire, I’m not going to throw that away for one quick story."
Rob: "You don’t wait a week or two on a story for me."
Luke: "If it was really important to you, for me to wait, I would take that very seriously. I’d be willing to wait on a story for you. If it was just a fan shooting his mouth off, I’d run that about anyone right away."
Rob: "Luuukey, come on baby. Don’t fall to the system. Don’t become commercial. We beg you."
Luke: "Let’s see what comes down in January. I’ll be pounding away on this story all January."
Rob: "Vivid Girls Suck. Extreme Girls f---. That’s the Gospel. You watch to see if anything goes down at the CES because they are all gunning for me."
Luke: "I’ll be curious to see if you get in a confrontation with Stevie Hirsch."
Rob: "You kidding me. I’ll put my hands behind my back and put my chin out. Because if he hits me, then I’ll own Vivid. I could give him a beating within an inch of his life. But I’ll let him assault me, have him arrested, and then I’ll sue him and take his company. And then I could take all those f---ing whores [Vivid Girls] and make them take it up the ass. And make them do ass-to-mouth.
"I’d love to see Janine f---ed in the ass by Van Damage. And then he f---ing grabs her head and sticks it in a f---ing toilet. It’d be great."
Rob burps loudly.
Rob: "Maybe if I owned the company I could date some good looking receptionist at Video Team. Please. Or better yet, I could be just like him and f--- all the Vivid girls.
"They’re all coming after me, Lukey. But you love me, don’t you?"
Luke: "Yes."
Rob: "Why don’t you ask him about when he was with Nikki Tyler when Nikki was with Bobby Vitale?"
Luke: "He won’t talk about his private life."
Rob: "You should keep pushing him about it. Ask him. Ask him how he feels about these T-shirts that Extreme made that say "Vivid Girls Suck." If you saw Rob Black wearing one, would you be upset, Stevie? Would you resort to some form of physical violence?"
Luke: "Yeah, I’ll ask him that but if someone doesn’t want to comment about their private life, I’m not going to push them."
Rob: "All of a sudden you’re getting soft in your old age. Are you getting nervous because they hacked your site?"
Luke: "Umm, I am pulling back in some areas. A guy’s private life… I’m queasy about digging into that unless it has a direct affect on the business. If I had proof that [AVN’s] Paul Fishbein or Gene Ross or Bryn Pryor had carried on affairs with porn girls and then rewarded them with awards and good publicity, I would run that story. But all these anonymous accusations about someone’s private life, or if his private life didn’t affect the business, I can’t run that."
Rob: "Why, did he threaten you with a lawsuit or something?"
Luke: "No, I just don’t think it is right to pry into people’s private life. It’s below the belt."
Rob: "All of a sudden."
Luke: "Seriously, I am moderating and changing and pulling back in some areas."
Rob: "I’m still making no deal with Max Hardcore. He’s even below me and I’m pretty low. He’s lower than me. I’ve gotta go. I love you."
Luke: "Thanks for returning my call."
Rob: "I LOVE YOU!"
Luke: "I love you."
Rob: "Bye."
1/6/99
Tabitha Stevens is the new "publisher" of New Rave. Rodger Jacobs edits the magazine. He bought an interview with Stryc9 aka Cherry from Roger Pipe for the April issue.
Jacobs: "He did it a month ago while she was still an Extreme contract girl [before they fired her]. She promotes the hell out of the movies she did with them like Planet of the Gapes 2 and Slap Her in the Crapper. I call Extreme and talk to David Clark who does their PR. I ask him for some chromes and he says, 'I'm under orders not to release any chromes on her because she's no longer with the company.'
"What kind of sound business practice is this? When someone has a product to promote, there's no time for that kind of enmity. Can you imagine Warner Brothers canning Mel Gibson from a movie but they are not going to release any pictures of Mel Gibson. This makes no sense."
Rob Black 1/5 at 4PM: "She's with Max Hardcore. If they want chromes, get them from Max... I don't care... She could've left here on a good note but she didn't... She wanted to badmouth me and make enemies so f--- her."
Luke: "Doesn't that hurt your own business?"
Black: "Who gives a f---? She was a nobody who I made a player. I've got enough players in this company. Is she going to hurt my video sales? She was bitching about us and now she's with that drunk Paul Little...putting speculums up her ass."
Jacobs: "At the time of Roger's interview with her she spoke glowingly of Extreme Associates and, in particular, of Tommy Byron and Van Dammage. When I phoned her on Tuesday to ask her to send chromes to accompany the interview for NEW RAVE she was very accomodating and never once uttered a harsh word to me about Extreme or Rob Black. Mister Black's plaintive "I made her a star" screechings sounds like sour grapes to me."