BURNING ANGEL
OP/ED by Meow Misti Dawn from her blog http://www.meowmistidawn.com/?cat=1
Well, this blog was going to be slightly impartial and my experience with Burning Angel and joanna, but now that my twitter account has been mysteriously been hacked I dont see the point of playing nice, since for so long they have not. This is in pieces of experiences i want to shed light to. Sorry if it seems broken.
Lets start a while back…
Really things with BA started going south about a year and a half ago. Before hand i had no reference to normal set behavior and what to expect so it might be unfair to complain about that. One thing that sticks out in my mind is i wish i would have known better about the way her releases, they are made so that ANYTHING filmed that day can be used. So on my first trip out with Jessie Lee and I filming our 3 way scene, we started blowing James Deen off camera and fooling around, which he started filming. We thought we were just playing with the camera since we hadnt started shooting or anything yet. Couple months later, Joanna posted that 5 min video on her site. Jessie and I were very confused where it had come from since we were just fooling around off set. Thats called content. And if told before hand it was going to be used, i would have been fine. But instead they slyly did it. Fooled me. Shame on me.
Then AVNs last year i contacted a different company trying to find a place to sign because I thought it would be good to get my name out more. Joanna did not like this idea. Actually she was really upset when I first shoot for Belladonna as well. back to the story, I guess her started the anger with just me. She told me that AVN was “stupid” and “no one was ever there” and that it wouldnt do much for my career. I still wanted to go and i did. Also i ended up making some really good connections that I still use today. seemed very useful to have gone.
Then there was Vivid Alt before it was gone. Eon Mckai booked me for two scenes last minute. As we know Joanna and Eon never got along. But im not, nor was a ever a contract girl for Joanna, NO GIRL HAS EVER BEEN, so i wanted work. When she found out i was shooting for him she quickly called me to tell me how crazy he was, how hes drugged out, and again how working for him would do nothing for my career. So i canceled the scenes, trusting my who i thought was my friend. Then Eon called and yelled at me for about 30 mins about Joanna and he knew it was her while i quit. I denied it. Guess what, It was. I quit 2 jobs because Joanna asked me too.
Then the issue of my website. I had been building a site myself for a couple months and was ready to launch. Joanna asked if i wanted to have Burning Angel build it. I declined and said thanks but i already had it done. This was June of 2009. a couple weeks later joanna asked again, and gave me a list of things they could offer me by building my site. I agreed this time. fast forward to April 2010. The site STILL isnt up and i request a launch date, contract agreement of payments split for the site, or i walk. Then James Deen calls me and wants to know why i want a contract. I would think ANYONE with a website would want one. It simply needed to state that I agree to give you X amount of content in X amount of time frame and you split the profits 50/50. I refused to talk to James about it because the issue was with Joanna. He told me Joanna couldn’t talk to me now because I requested a contract so it had to be written by the lawyer and since that was the case I could only speak to the lawyer to speak to her. Well, logically I said if she cant speak to me with out a lawyer now, then i cant speak to you with out one. Why it went this far i dont know. He finally put joanna on a 3 way call and we talked. I thought things were fine. After the call the lawyer called and yelled at me for about 20 mins and told me if i didnt take the contract deal id never work again and I wasnt going to do any better than what they offered me. WAIT WHAT? how did a friendly conversation about writing up our business with the site turn in to this?! In this conversation James also told me that Burning Angel was never going to shoot me again. Why would they? they could take the videos i paid to make for my site and put them on burning angels site. Thus having new content of me for free. I wish i would have understood this “network” thing.
Also lets touch on the New Jersey convention and Jessie Lees wreck. As draven, bella, and i are pulling up to the convention we get a call about the wreck. Long story short, we wanted to visit her in the hospital but joanna told us we couldnt because they werent allowing her visitors but she was up and talking fine. A week later, bella spoke to jessies mom, she wanted to know why we never visited. NOT ONLY could we have visited, Jessie was in a fucking COMA not up talking around! they had to restate her on scene! Best part, immediately after the wreck in which JOANNA was driving, joanna tweets before EMTs even get there. What a friend. You might think talking about the wreck is tasteless since i wasnt on scene, i was at the convention but its a testament to joannas hearltessness.
**** After posting this blog Joanna “Jojo” who works for joanna and was in the wreck commented on this topic basically stating that it wasnt my business, she also brought up that i had asked to goto the hospital that Saturday. I wasnt even going to bring this story up but i guess I should now. That saturday i was feeling very sick, i asked draven to ask joanna to take me to a doctor. She stated to drave, and i quote “Misti is just trying to steal jessies thunder, tell her to call a cab” two days later, being in new jersey with no car i am back at Bella Vendettas house and pass out making dinner and have to rush to the ER. So yes jojo, I asked to goto the hospital, I didnt know my sickness was to be scheduled around joannas mistakes. Sorry my timing what inconvenient for you. ****
Fast forward 6 months after my site launch. It took 9 months to launch my site with burning angel. 9 months. after 6 months of being with them i wasnt happy with the way things were going. They were using me for anything or events, even though they make 50% of my sign ups, youd think theyd push me everywhere to get as much as they could. but no. and i didnt really like the image they wanted for me. So i gracefully asked “hey i was thinking you guys dont seem to really need the extra site on your plate and i want to do my own thing. how about i just take my site over?” seemed like no biggie and they agreed. But this is where is all went terribly down hill and fast. And i had recently moved to LA and was trying to get with an agency and get work. also i failed to mention to them that i knew math and my checks didnt add up…
I got signed with LA Direct models and joanna wasnt happy about that. She started calling my agent about me and saying i was too much hassle. Also I was signing at AEE/AVN. The last day on the convention i find out from the company im signing for, who i wont mention their name, Joanna had called them and asked them to drop me and to replace me with two of her girls. Now this signing had been set up since september on my own, nothing to do with burning angel, and i have worked with other companies at this point. I also hadnt shot for joanna in a year and a half at this point. Why she kept trying to get her fingers in my life, i dont know. The company told me the last day that joanna had called and requested i be let go and they thought i should know. Now tell me that this isnt that start of trying to ruin me. Of course im livid. I feared shed do this but i thought it was crazy to think. It wasnt till this point i put it all together, everything before i just brushed off as accidents. No joanna was trying to ruin me and the next few months would prove it.
**** After posting this blog, Lee Roy contacted me and asked me to take his name out of it because Joanna did not tell him that. I asked who it was that said it and he said he wouldnt release their name. Rather it was Joanna or not, the fact that this was said about a Burning Angel set makes the source pretty easy to find *****
The next situation was a simple tweet. I replied to Lee roy myers after seeing his tweet about shooting girls for content and i had worked with him before. Although i did no know him before October of last year when i just moved to LA. He replied to me “why should i hire you after the shit you talked about me on a burning angel set” I had to explain to him that at this point it had been a year and a half since i had even shot for burning angel and i just met him 3 months prior so that was impossible. That squashed that fast.
Next came the Misti vs Jessie movie party. I had no desire to go, they were all old scenes, some of which were already on other dvds. and at this point i wanted nothing to do with them I wasnt speaking poorly of them publicly i just wanted then to go away. Joanna had to call me and book me thru my agent to even get me to this party. which she paid 300$ and i told her to give to jessie for her bills. The meeting for this set up was fun. She called my agent and we all had to sit down and have a meeting. Finally a 3rd party that joanna would have to admit what she was doing to. I confronted her about the AVN situation and trying to get me dropped. She denied it at first but once i told her i had written statements. she finally confessed that she did say these thing, specially trying to get me dropped from signing at avn IN FONT OF MY AGENT .
Then for my birthday I was booked to work for Jenna Haze. Joannas good friend. I ran in to her the night of the xbiz awards and her casting guy Payso, now the shoot had already been set. Payso told me they had shot James a couple of days before and when he mentioned they were shooting me James tried to tell them i was no good. Payso told him to shut his mouth politely. Then two days before my shoot was too happen, it got canceled with Jenna. Never to be rescheduled. odd timing.
And here we are. There are countless other situations thats gone on. Shes called my agent a million times telling me to leave her alone. When i didnt even contact her, the only time i contacted her i asked her if she wanted to meet for coffee and talk about this, she told my agent i was harassing her.
So after months of things i know about and im sure more i dont even know shes successfully made sure she ruined me but now, with her success at it i have no reason to not tell the truth of what happened. What can she do make sure more people dont hire me? already has done that. What can this blog do? hurt me more? nothing left to hurt. Im sure shes going to try and sue me. Let her. I dont rally care at this point. I need to get this off my chest to let it go finally, and for others to know and be careful to not make the same mistakes.
People have the right to know the company they support and for so long i choose silence on this topic. I have been asked countless times in interviews, tweets, and emails why i have left and other than my close friends i never told the truth, I played nice for public sake. But thanks to the internet you can learn about the product you buy and what you support and i can tell you Burning Angel is not a “punk” rock company or anything better than Suicide Girls or Wal Mart. Burning Angel is just a porn production company that rides on girls that want the “status” of being a burning angel and not really supporting their endeavors to make a living at porn. They are just one of many shady porn companies that treat their employees like second rate.
There is more i could write, but this is the basic jest of it.
Joanna made porn what after school specials say it is. They use you, pretend to be youre friend, then try to get rid of you when they are done.
The worst part out of all of this is that i thought she was my friend. I did so much for her for free, offered help when her and james broke up and she moved out. Nothing. For reason she focused all her hate on me.
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NL- I asked Joanna if she would like to tell her side of the story-
Joanna’s Reply- BurningAngel does not respond publicly to hearsay and opinions. We believe that everyone is entitled to their own voice. We wish Misti nothing but the best of luck in her future endeavors .