Luke Is Back

Monday, May 24

Jay Ashley, Aurora Snow Breaking Quarantine

"They're luckily they got out of Hungary alive," says a porner. "They are more rough and tumble over there. Is it a coincidence that AIM closed the quarantine and returned the industry to shooting as normal within a couple of days of the news of Ashley/Snow breaking quarantine?

"When Jay was asked about being on the quarantine list, he lied, and worked with one of the local girls."

New Girl Drought - HIV Breakout Related?

Mutt writes on AdultDVDTalk.com:

I think it has to be. There are ZERO new cute young girls in the business right now, hasn't been in awhile. Madison is the only one in the last couple months I can think of and she's from out of state.

Need new fresh young girls badly. This has got to be related to the HIV outbreak and it's understandable. girls who are staying in are getting lots of work. I talked to a girl one day and she said she could do anything for us until end of May, a day and a half later and it was the end of June, completely booked with jobs.

HIV crisis didn't bring the industry to a halt tho, people were shooting through the duration. And if it had got worse with more cases of HIV production would have moved to other locales and moved more underground in L.A..

A big part of the business is dependent on new girls, but if there were no new girls I guess gonzo customers would adapt and get used to seeing the same faces on the box covers for years on end just like in feature movies. BUT with the gonzo girl attrition rate where girls leave the business due to getting 'wrecked', picking up nasty STD's, family and boyfriend issues - it wouldn't be very long before there weren't enough girls left to produce what the gonzo companies want to put out.

I am amazed when I look at a gonzo title from only a year ago and you look at the girls and 4 out of 5 are gone. So if there was a long term shortage of new blood it would definitely affect gonzo companies.

Great porn is more about the guys than the girls. in gonzo - features not as much. for me it helps if the guy is also good looking and young but that's because I'm selling mostly 'teen' content. but for any gonzo it's the guy who makes the scene go - it's like the pitcher and catcher in baseball - most people think the catcher is just some stocky guy who catches the ball from the pitcher, the catcher is much more than that and a great catcher can make a pitcher alot more successful.

BUT it's not as simple as the guy being a great f-cker and having screen presence/charisma, some like Rocco and Nacho are that damn good that they can take over the scene almost completely, they are superstuds - other studs should realize that it's not all about them, know when to let the girl shine and get out of the way a little.

P_Ramezap writes:

I don't think we even has seen the impact of the lastest HIV scare on the store shelves yet. It will be, maybe from a month from now till another 6 or 7 months that the draught will hit the consumers as companies are not producing as much as they normally do under the current circumstances. And fresh girls will be hard to find too, so we're stuck with the current girls for months to come. On the bright side, this will save me some bucks as there is less quality porn to spend money on.

David Aaron Clark writes:

From where I can see, the outbreak has definitely slowed down the number of new girls, but it hasn't stopped. I have no doubt that for better or worse it will pick up again by, oh, next Fall at the very latest. People have really short memories these days, especially kids.

I agree with TSCfan317 (I find myself typing that phrase a lot, for some reason!) that there are WAY too many new girls coming in -- there's also WAY too many producers out there, churning out too much crap. That's why everybody's sales figures aren't what they were five years ago, and why the basic price structure for female performers hasn't seen a significant rise in quite some time, and is already (adjusted for inflation) way below what it was 10 or 15 years ago.

It's a boom time for guys, though -- in the last two years, the price a good, solid B to A level woodsman can command has gone up a hundred-percent. In the case of black performers, who only six or seven years ago were deemed "uncommercial" and underpaid, it's gone up at least 200 percent!

The reason for this is obvious -- any nitwit with a little cash (or not ...) can announce that he's a "producer" and start shooting, and to at least be in the game, all a girl has to do is open up and say "Ahh" ... the guys have to be able to really deliver the goods. dac

p.s. On a related note of interest, I have had TWO of the girls that I regularly shoot this week tell me they've decided to go condom -- one,, according to her agent, is "trying to do only condom gigs," while the other is definitely condom or nothing. And they're both very popular actresses ....

Tony from Comstock films writes:

Ten plus years ago I was paying $500 for solo girl magazine layouts, and (thanks to the ghost of Ed Meese) we didn't even have digital penetration. Now I've got girls leaving messages on the phone telling me they'll do anal for $500. That's like saying you can get a two bedroom apt today for the same prices as a studio ten years ago. Something is definitely f-cked up.

RonK writes:

While I am not aware of the going rates in porn, the prices of many things has gone down. You can get brand new electronics for less in today's dollars than they used to cost in old dollars. A new porn video in 1985 costs $70.00, and a new DVD today costs under $20.00. The wages for most jobs have not risen with inflation, but instead have fallen. The wage trend in porn is following the wage trend of the US in general. People make less for doing more work. This holds for both Walmart employees and porn talents. Also, some girls might look at porn as better than flipping burgers and the stigma of doing porn is not as much as it used to be. In some circles, it might even be trendy. Hence there is a greater supply of talent and lower wages. The wage reduction for porn talents in the US is the sad result of the global economy and people who are not competitive in the global economy will face even more wage compression. Sad but true.

Mutt replies:

How much should a porn girl make per scene? $800 is the going rate, some girls demand and get $1000 for straight b/g. should the talent make more than the director/photographer? if you're using a company like VIVID the girls are woefully underpaid when compared to what the company will make from their work. Sorta like the way it was in baseball before free agency when the owners made big money and the players all more or less made the same - an average working man's wage. But for most small companies the girls are paid fairly.

Tony from Comstock Films writes:

There's no reason to pay $5 for something when you can get the same/equivelent across the street for $4. That said, when the economics of something defy logic, that's often a sign that there's change on the horizon. All evidence points to more and more people making less and less in the porn business. Maybe it's still better than flipping burgers, but if the trend continues at some point people will start to say "f-ck this, I'd rather be flipping burgers." At least when you're flipping burgers you don't have to worry about people not letting their kids play with your kids. When the "moratorium" was announced, our inquiries picked up a lot: triple at least. I had thought this was a result of the Chatsworth shut down, and sex workers were casting a wider net in search of paying gigs. It seems now that our pick up was merely a coincedence. Things are "back to normal" in porn valley, but of volume of calls/e-mails hasn't slackened.

David Aaron Clark writes:

We both know that as a matter of fact, in most cases the talent is being paid MUCH more than the director/photographer, unless the director happens to either outright own his own product, or has a significant royalty deal with the production company he's working for (still pretty rare). Which is doubtless a huge factor in the answer to the question posed so often elsewhere in so many different ways on this board by various fans: "Why does most porn suck? Why don't these guys behind the camera know what they're doing?" I'm not quite sure what the average freelance director's fee is at the moment -- I know it's dropped as well in the last ten years, for sure -- but I'm going to guess it's between $1200-$2500 for a gonzo.

Think about that, fans ... your average mid-level gonzo director who's churning out two movies a month is grossing between $14,500 and. $55K for all the sh-t he does ... and in addition, unless he's got a contract going, he's working show to show, never knowing when he might be out of work due to the company finding somebody who'll do it cheaper, has a better rap when they show up in the office (its not an urban legend: most company owners really don't actually watch their own product) or hey, maybe the owner decides that his nephew or girlfriend can do a better job ... Now does it begin to make sense why "the best and brightest" aren't attracted to porn? At this point, it's NOT the social stigma ....

Also: The flood of performer/directors is hardly because company owners looked at Evil Angel and saw that it made creative sense for a performer to start directing ... it's because they can pay them just a little more (maybe!) to perform in their own shows, and therefore drive the budget even farther down ... Though there are a few brilliant new performer directors such as Brandon Irons out there, and some that at least hit the mark, most of them just aren't very good. The ones who make the jump because they have some creative talent and better ideas than the people they get hired by are far outnumbered by the ones who think it will eventually somehow lead to a more lucrative income.

And then of course there's the big name ones -- most of whom seem to hang out long enough to be in the behind the scenes footage, and then leave the set, trusting that the mediocre but efficient journeyman camera guy they've hired will get the -- let's take a deep breath and recite it together: "Short tease, bj, three positions vag, three positions anal and a pop."

What Do You Think Of AVN Journalist Scott Ross?

Gene Ross says Scott was responsible for newspapers around the world identifying an HIV-free porn star as HIV positive a few weeks ago.

I emailed Scott Ross about this charge but Scott could not be bothered to reply. I take it that silence means assent.

A porner tells me: "Scott doesn't have enough training as a journalist to be a proper journalist. He tries. He can work at a place like AVN and seem O.K. until something like this happens. I don't think he realized what kind of people he was working for. At first, I thought he was just part of all this. Now I realize that like Mark Kernes, he knows many things that never see their way into print. AVN reporters get squashed, censored and rewritten by AVN publisher and editor Tim Connelly."

US SOLDIER RETURNS HOME, NOW SEXUALLY HUMILIATING EVERYTHING IN SIGHT

Williston, ND - PFC Ryan Goodwin has had what you could call a difficult time readjusting to life at home in Williston after experiencing the atrocities of war in Iraq.

The twenty-seven year old had spent the past seven months in Iraq maintaining watch over several detention camps across the landscape of the Middle Eastern country. And to the dismay of friends, family, and loved ones, he just can't seem to stop sexually humiliating everything around him.

"When he got home, I tried to give him a big hug," Goodwin's longtime girlfriend Nancy Carey complained. "But then he insisted on putting a bag over my head and hooking up a car battery to my genitalia. It was so. savage."

Goodwin's girlfriend Nancy isn't the only one affected by the apparent shift in the young man's behavior. Ryan's entire network of loved ones have voiced concern over his as well as their well-being.

"The other day I made him breakfast," Ethyl Goodwin, Ryan's mother noted. "And then he tried to get our entire family to stack up in a pyramid formation so he could take photos on his digital camera. When we said 'no,' he became enraged and locked himself in his bedroom. I just don't know what this war has done to him."

Goodwin is experiencing what medical professionals call Post Ordered Sexual Humiliation of Prisoners Disorder, or POSHPD for short. It is a fictional affliction that is apparently affecting many of our troops returning home, particularly those with a lot of pictures.

Doctor Rob Spallone

Rob calls Friday at 6:24PM: "From now on, when you put me up on the web site, I want to be known as Doctor Spallone. If people want to talk to me, they've got to call me Dr. Spallone.

"Lara Roxx received $1000 from AIM. Jenna Jameson donated $10,000 to AIM and other companies donated another $10,000. That money was supposed to be for [out of work] talent. Then they changed it to people who were HIV positive. Five people. That's $4000 a piece. I'd like to know where that $20,000 went."

Steve writes Duke: "I'm glad that you're back. I always enjoyed your "attraction/revulsion" take on the porn people, product and life stile. The fact that you can write complete sentences and don't shill for anybody but your friends is also refreshing. When the noise in your head got too loud and you blew off your identity, I felt like my little daily "soapy" was cancelled. Peace be with you."

The AVN Seven

Who did AVN fire last week? Aside from advertising manager Jennifer Rosenblatt, there were no big names. Two editorial people, a production person, an artist, one assistant, one person from AVN on-line mag (but he was rehired to the Internet dept). The company was over-budget in some areas. AVN still has 75 employees.

Gene Ross writes on Adultfyi.com: "I challenge AVN's Paul Fishbein to a debate. I made you. I will break you."

Here's an old profile on AVN. Gene Ross.

Editor writes:

Gene Ross's latest publicity stunt challenging Paul Fishbein to a debate underscores how pathetic and fragmented the adult business is. Its become fashionable to use the term "industry" and I often hear people say "are you in the industry" or "I've been in the industry 2 years". People say "industry" as if its some formal guild, political group or some entity with common goals and agendas.

The truth is, this "industry" is 90% hippocrates with their own agendas who scam, lie and cheat, and 10% normal people making money by providing a fair product or service. Also using the term "industry" is scam. To say "industry" normal(non-porn) people think of the automobile industry or the energy industry, groups of companies that perform the same service or create the same class of products. Usually they multinationals with many branch offices, large investments and employee thousands of people. Well, the Spanish company PRIVATE is the only company I know that even remotely resembles this.

Back to Gene Ross and Paul Fishbein. What exactly is there to debate? How does Gene Ross plan to bury him? Paul Fishbein simply needs to say: Gene, you used to work for me. Because of me, your rent was paid and food on your table. AVN has and continues to employee a lot of people so they can pay their rent and feed their kids. Beyond that, the companies who advertise in AVN are able to sell videos which in turns allows them to pay their rent and feed their kids. Because THOSE companies can sell videos, they have to order DVD replicating and VHS videos from companies who have kids to feed. Those videos have to be shipped by shipping companies and so on and so forth.

Regardless of what people say about AVN and awards based on advertising, all that does matter when that bottom line is a lot of people make a living from with AVN. Many people both at AVN and the people who place Ads are able to make a living. People making a living is what America and ANY industry is about.

Remembering Sharon Mitchell

If you walk into AIM, you will see a huge bird cage. But Boo, a parakeet pet of Sharon Mitchell's, is no longer with us.

Jack writes:

1986 or so: Sharon Mitchell, 90 lbs of anal freakiness, walks into her veterinarian's office on Ventura Blvd. in Tarzana with a baby double yellow-headed amazon parrot.

I think she was with that pretty blonde guy at the time, I forget his name.......but he was a preppy. Butler I think ...... Is he still alive? Has he become an ordained minister and drug counselor like the rest of the men in 80s porn?

I walk out with a patient's pet and spot her prancing around at the receptionist's desk, "Hi Mitch, what have you brought us today"?

I notice the entire side of her nose and lip were bright red and could only assume it to be from the kilo of cocaine she snorted the previous month. She was blazingly high.

"I bought this bird....isnt he cute?......how are you? ..............do you think its smuggled?........I bought it from Wings and Things..........how are you?.............I like your shirt..............how old do you think it is?................I like your haircut."

She rattles on like a 60 caliber machine gun. She's high on cocaine. She hugs me for no apparent reason. She tells me she loves me. "Well, looks like a nice bird............but you should get a full health check with blood work, lots of psittacosis in smuggled babies these days"

"sh-t a COSIS? whats that?" Mitch blurts out loudly.

"Chlamydia psittici, its an intracellular bacteria of sorts, causes a lot of disease in birds........and we've seen a lot of it this season with smuggled amazon parrots."

"OOH you scared me, I thought the bird had the sh-ts" she was so high. she kisses the parrot.

"Well, just be careful, its contagious to people.......self-limiting with flu like symptoms but better safe than sorry........."

I try not to start laughing watching her dance around in the waiting room. I then realized why porn stars love to f-ck on camera.......its the cocaine and the fact they are mentally ill.

Later, the receptionist asked me "Do you think Miss Mitchell is allergic to her birds? she kept rubbing her nose, sneezing and she seemed high on anti-histamines."

I just laughed and said, No, I don't think so..but I do think she was high on something" when I wanted to say "I think shes just allergic to cocaine, and the reaction is she lets men f-ck her in the ass on film and swallows copious amounts of cum."

If I recall correctly, the bird did have chlamydia and was treated with vibramycin.

The eighties were such an innocent time, so refreshing and new, and an era of porn stars who were so high they didnt care. It's ironic that Sharon is now informing people about the sexually transmitted chlamydia 20 years later......or as she put it "sh-t a cosis." I miss the eighties.

Blackballed From Porn?

Rob Spallone phones at 5:20PM. "Who's this guy who says he can get people blackballed from porn?"

Duke: "DCypher of Hardcoregossip.com."

Rob: "He couldn't get his mother blackballed from a bukkake. I got a phone call this week from Caitlyn at the LA Times wanting to know how people could be blackballed from porn. I told her you can't get kicked out of the litterbox. You can't kick s--- out of the litter box."

While people can't be definitively banned from porn (as it is a fractious industry), you can make life difficult for people so they want to leave the industry. TT Boy wasn't hired by anybody for years when Russ Hampshire (former owner of VCA) made some phone calls.

Russ was upset that TT had forced himself on VCA's head of production, Stephanie Ross. Russ asked TT to take anger managment classes. TT refused. Russ made calls.

Paul Fishbein Staying At AVN

In times of crisis, the industry's most unifying and powerful entity, Adult Video News, gets deluged with criticism. This HIV outbreak has been no exception and few persons have enjoyed beating up on AVN as much as I have.

This week, AVN's head of advertising, Jennifer Rosenblatt, was fired, which probably means nothing to those who don't advertise in AVN and know Jenn personally. She has many friends in the industry and is an easy person to like. I like her and I like people close to her.

I know that AVN president Paul Fishbein and Jenn have been good friends for years.

I believe the decision to let Jenn go came from Darren Roberts with Farley Cahan (head of AVN Online) not sorry to see her go.

I'm hearing Tim Connelly had nothing to do with this (but he's no friend of Jenn's either).

I suspect that Jenn was fired because she simply makes too much money. She may indeed make more money than any other employee in porn, probably three times as much as Vivid's head of sales, Howard Levine.

Paul Fishbein was the editor and publisher of AVN until 2003 when Tim Connelly came over from Adam Film World to run the show. Paul moved over to AVN president and he has not seemed as visible in the news media. Tim has been handling most of that.

Darren Roberts came over to AVN around 1998 from Babenet to help AVN conquer the Internet. I don't ever recall reading an interview with him but there is no doubt that he's a powerful player whose divisions at AVN are bringing in good profits.

It's been well know for years by people who know Paul that he'd rather be producing Hollywood movies than working in porn. Over the past few weeks, I've heard speculation that Paul Fishbein is retiring.

Gene Ross on Adultfyi speculates that Fishbein is retiring and that seven persons were fired by AVN this week.

My sources near AVN do not agree that Paul is leaving but they agree that AVN fired seven this week.

I hear Paul is working harder than ever and is at AVN to stay. I think he may even be looking forward to combatting a looming federal government crackdown on porn. The First Amendment has an almost religious significance to him.

One thing that I've found interesting about the criticism of AVN over the past six weeks is that very little of it is directed at Paul. Tim Connelly is getting most of it.

A couple of weeks ago, Fishbein went to Bill Margold's office for 100 minutes to make peace and to discuss industry issues. Paul had lunch with the explosive Rob Spallone. Paul wants to iron out the problems with XRCO created when Tim and Jared Rutter moved to AVN.

Paul tries to make people happy. It's an ingrained personality trait. He's a people pleaser. He wants to make peace. He's uncomfortable with those loose cannons such as Bill Margold and myself who take great joy in stirring the pot.

Paul Fishbein stays in porn because he likes to make money, he believes in free expression, and he has many close friends in porn such as Christian Mann and Steve Hirsch.

AVN has taken heat for Connelly's authoritarian stand during the HIV crisis but I don't think AVN's primary customers are upset.

By virtue of their personality, Fishbein and Roberts shy away from personal confrontation and hate it when people yell at them. Connelly is more explosive.

Hanging Out At World Modeling Monday, May 17

Jim South tells me: "Randi Wright called me about two weeks after the outbreak. 'I've got bad news,' she said. 'My boyfriend's coming back in town and he doesn't want me in the industry.'

"I understand when that happens. I don't get mad. I don't pressure them. I ask them if they want to finish out the jobs they've booked.

"Serena South joined the Navy.

"Some [talent] are deciding that they will only work with condoms. They accept that they are going to get less work.

"I wish it were all condom. So many more people would get into this."

Jim explains over the phone he's losing a new girl a week. They move."

Lisa Marie is cute. She has a great body. She should be showing up to more of her jobs.

An 18 year old girl, Cruz, is praised as cute. "It's a shame she doesn't return more of our calls."

Destiny DeVille (who did one scene in England) has $8000 worth of work booked for the next two days. She's 32B-29.

Jim South warns her: "Whatever you tell him, your mother will know in a minute."

Duke: "I'm your friend. You don't have to worry."

Uproarious laughter.

Destiny has a firm handshake.

Scott gets $50 from Jim South (to be paid back by Destiny) for almost four hours of driving Destiny around.

Fan Steve Doss stops by and sits on the couch with me.

Destiny says she was homesick for her first two days in the US.

Duke: "Did you like it when Rob was strangling you?"

Destiny laughs. "You ask the weirdest questions."

Duke: "Did anyone you see today want a free one?"

Destiny: "No. But they all wanted to see my bum."

Duke: "Did you have sex today?"

Destiny: "No."

Duke: "Is it hard for you to go a whole day without sex?"

Destiny: "Not at all."

Duke: "She doesn't really like sex. She's just doing this for the money."

She laughs.

I sing her the Beatles song Penny Lane. She doesn't recognize it.

I meet 5'3" black girl Tori Laine, a 19yo from San Bernardino. Not only does she have a high school diploma, her own car and a CA drivers license, she's working on her Associates degree in business administration. She will not do sex on camera, only nude modeling. She's cute, smart and funny. She'll play with toys but no penises.

"I don't like penetration on video. It's embarrassing."

"Do you think it represents the subjugation of women by men as has gone on for hundreds of years?"

"No, I don't think anything of it. I just don't care for it."

"Have you ever been with a man?"

"Yeah."

"What was it like?"

"Boring. I'd rather watch a movie. He's too small."

She's only had three lovers in her life.

"Does that include oral?"

"No. I don't do oral. My mouth is too small. Look. I've been in really long relationships."

"How did you end up in this office?"

"I needed to pay my car bill."

"Does your boyfriend know you're here?"

"I don't have a boyfriend. If I did, he'd be paying for my car.

"Are you going to be jacking off to this tape?"

"I don't masturbate. I'm too professional."

"What's your name?"

"Duke Floored. Or you can call me, My Moral Leader."

Long pause. She's aghast. "I'd rather call you Duke."

"What do you want to be when you get big?"

"I'm already big."

"I mean, really fat."

"You're funny. I have to go."

She leaves with her black friend Brandy.

Destiny, who lost her virginity at age 15, chats about her boyfriend who likes to drink and get into fights. He served two months in prison. Sometimes he turns his fists on her.

Paola AKA Master Devious stayed with Doss last night.

Steve tells Destiny that I am infatuated with her. She looks blank.

Steve: "You don't know what infatuated means?"

She nods her head.

Destiny says she supported the invasion of Iraq. "It was cool. My friends are in the army." She names off half a dozen names.

She says she's straight rather than bi. She's only had sex with two guys in her personal life and one on camera.

"How about escorting?"

"Never done it and never will. I hate it."

I dictate into my tape recorder that Jim South has been a lovable father figure for hundreds of vulnerable women (though Christy Canyon paints him in a sleazy light in her autobiography).

Jim: "I'll kill you if you put anything negative on there."

Duke: "I won't. I'm not going to abuse your hospitality. You've been very kind to let me sit here. There aren't many places that would."

I have two hours to kill before a party in Hollywood and I want to sit in the air conditioning at World Modeling on a comfortable couch and read my book on Vietnam and kibbitz with beautiful young girls.

5:34PM. Destiny whails that she's forgotten to take her birth control pills.

Duke: "How could you be so irresponsible?"

Destiny: "It's the time change. The jet lag.

"I want my daughters to be dancers and models and my sons to be boxers and porn stars."

"Would you like them to work with their sisters?"

"Are you crazy?"

Junior to Duke: "What if your sister was passed out?"

I ask Envy for a scoop. She says, "The first movie with me squirting comes out tomorrow."

Steve Doss gets annoyed that Destiny doesn't know who the Sex Pistols are, who Sid Vicious and Billy Idol are, and various other '70s punkers.

Snow Falls On Scott Fayner's Party

A lot of people were doing cocaine upstairs at Scott Fayner's party Wednesday night at ICE on Cahuenga.

Alexa Rankings

After a few days online, Lukeisback.com is shooting up the traffic charts with almost 5000 hits yesterday.

gof---yourself.com: 1,092
AVN.com: 5,650
Justblowme.com: 8,011
Adultfyi.com: 8,977
Lukeisback.com: 16,944
Adultbeat.com: 119,252
Adultstarsnews.com: 203,063

Holly Body Touring

Doc writes:

Hobbyist Huboo just drop a post were tells us that Holly Body will be touring in Philly the week of May 24th and in Boston for the week of June 1st. She is booking thru The Bella Donna, a reliable agency based out of Boston. Here rates are only US$500.00 so if the lady is in her GAME PLAN, she should be an instant success, but we all know that her past has haunted her (FLAKE). I've already requested the agency to send Holly to South Florida for any weekend after Boston's tour as I know a few of us would love to meet her and at that rate, for mulitple.

HIV And Responsibility

BIG time confusion on the quarantine list. Tony Sexton is still listed, yet Anabolic thought he was cleared and offered him work. Tony says AVN reported he was off the list erroniously.

Eergi writes:

To think that TT boy and his comrade Mark Anthony just destroyed the lives of 4 people. To think that by their acts of irresponsibility 4 people have basically been transformed into walking corpses. To think also that in this coldhearted and callous business still nobody has called TT Boy and his group to account for their actions. Nobody! Instead they waste time discussing LA County Authorities, discussing AIM, convening meetings, while everyone dodges the real issue, Accountability. People take the chances they can get away with. Would Jay Ashley have traveled to Europe to work if he knew the repercussions on him would be severe? Let it be known that unless the Adult industry seriously turns on these bad apples, tragedy will continue recur, more will die, and YOU may be next.

Jack writes: "Everyone is acting as though the HIV crisis is over, there are still 4 people on the AIM list that have pending results..Not to mention that it can sometimes take up to 90 days for the virus to rear it's ugly head. This is not news, it is something that even high school kids are learning in their sex education classes. Sometimes I wonder what this Industry is thinking! There should have been a 90 day moratorium, and no one should have been cleared early."

John Bennett Moves To Phoenix

I hear JoeE's (Joseph Elkind) ex-partner, John Bennett (JB), moved to Phoenix a few months ago, fearing for his life. About eight months ago, JoeE grabbed JB and jammed a key in his cheek and told him to fear for his life. JoeE and JB reached a business settlement (CENcash) about a month ago. JB has some business troubles that a bankruptcy filing might relieve.

I hear IBill lost a merchant account and Paycom (Epoch) is having similar troubles.

On The Set Of Chick Flick

Director Ron Sullivan lectures Lili Anne and Pandora Dreams before their sex scene in a bathroom.

Ron: "Why do we have sex in a bathroom? Because that's where men learned to masturbate. On the toilet or in the bathtub."

Ron tells Pandora: "I want you to dominate her. No happy sex. Don't ask her if she likes it. Don't giggle, or you will trivialize the viewer."

Pandora: "What does trivialize mean?"

As is my custom, I leave the room before the sex starts.

Dark English girl Destiny DeVille walks in without visible pain. She just did her first anal scene ever. It was with Lee Stone, who's big and thick. "It was fantastic," she says. "I wouldn't recommend it to everybody."

She has this scaly-white peel on her neck. She's says it is from skin care product she uses. Bill keeps telling her, "That's not peel pattern. That's cum." He's right. She's embarrassed and goes to wash up.

It was her first facial. She found it yucky.

She's paid her expenses for the month by that anal scene.

Destiny seems confused by the routine paperwork that she must fill out so Ron sits down and fills it out for her. Then she signs her name.

"She's a little flakey and easily distracted."

About ten percent of the time, Ron says he fills out the paperwork for his girls.

Ron reminisces about his third wife getting strapped down to a gurney during a bad drug trip.

"I used to be a high maintenance pain in the ass but now I want to be a low maintenance solution."

Ron shot many of porn's greatest movies on film in the 1980s.

Destiny DeVille paid visits to several porn companies Monday including Red Light District. Several of their director came in to check her out and they started touching her. It creeped her out.

I ask her to demonstrate on me the way they were touching her. As I experience the humiliation that she must have suffered, my empathy knows no limts. Nor do her hands.

She'd never done this sort of visit before and didn't quite know what to do. They told her it was expected that they should get to touch her. They push her into agreeing to do ass-to-mouth. They say it is required. They say all sorts of nasty acts that she does not want to do are required.

When Jim South finds out, he hits the roof. He tells her she never has to do anything she does not want to do. He tells her he will call Red Light about the matter to set things straight.

Lisa Lennox says she used to drink tequila before a scene. Now she drinks Red Bull, particularly if it is anal. It helps her loosen up.

I leave the house for a walk. When I come back, Lisa and Destiny are hugging and whooping with Ron and Bill. Bill says that was just not the scene of the day but the scene of the year.

Lennox played a stern teacher and Destiny a frightened pupil.

Lennox comes out of the bathroom wearing a towel. Ron's taken off his shirt and is mopping himself with a paper towel.

She falls to her knees and asks Ron, "Why are you undressed?"

Lennox laughs hysterically. She slaps his paunch and calls him the Pillsbury Dough Boy.

Ten minutes after the scene, Lennox says she's still dizzy.

Ron sips a Budweiser.

Destiny chatters: "Lisa Lennox was amazing. She was pulling my hair and dominating me. I felt scared but it was so amazing the way she acted. Everybody in the room says it was amazing. The best scene they had seen so far."

She runs across the street to get a phone card to call her boyfriend in England. She wears a classy black and white dress and heels. She fancies me.

I sit on the couch and read the best Vietnam novel, supposedly, Fields of Fire. She comes back and sits next to me, stretching her legs out over mine.

"You can't tape me while I'm talking to my boyfriend. My agent pitched this production company about doing a documentary about me, the first British asian porn star. They were going to show my parents dropping me off at the airport [unaware their daughter is going to America to do porn]. Leaving my boyfriend, telling him I'm going to do modeling, while really I'm going to do porn.

"I didn't want it shown on British TV so they canceled that.

"I asked Jim to get me Maxim-type work. My dream is to be a covergirl. If I could get on the front of Penthouse in lingerie, I would be so happy. I would quit then. I'm going to do some magazine shoots next week. He'd be proud of me."

"How would he react if he knew had Lee Stone had just thrust his penis repeatedly up your ass and then cum on your face?"

"He'd beat me up and go back to prison for it."

Though Destiny's parents are Muslim, she only goes out with white guys, "skin heads."

Destiny has a history of being abused. "Every glamor model has a history. They've all had something bad happen. My story is the same way. You leave home at 16. You move in with a guy you think you're going to be with forever. You really love each other. Then he'll try to push you away while all his mates are there. When his mates are not there, he loves you. Then in the second or third year, you start fighting. He starts hitting you. Then he gets a drink problem. When he gets to prison, he begs you to be his girl while he's on the inside.

"I knew what was happening. I broke away from it and went with someone else. He found out. We split up. I went back to college to get my degree. I got it when I was 17. You're not supposed to get it until you're 19 but I was really clever. Then I worked at a hotel as a receptionist. My boyfriend's parents owned the hotel. I was taking drugs and s---. He knew that I would somehow find my way back to him. I'd call him and hang up.

"We got back together. Then I found this [porn] agent. I told [boyfriend] that I was only doing topless modeling. Then his mates in Blackpool found me totally nude on the Internet. The whole town knew. Everyone knows me. 'Bloody hell. There she is. She's got her f---ing legs open.'

"He said to me, 'Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have been so mad.' I called the police on him 16,000 times. He said, 'You broke my heart. I didn't mean to call you a slut or anything. I just love you that much that I don't want you to get involved in anything horrible. If you want to go over to Los Angeles just once, then you come home and never go there again.

"I'm going to tell him that I'm trying to get on the cover of these magazines. Which I am going to do. I was going to come for three months but he got really upset, so I'm going home in June. Then I'll come back in February, June and October. I'm just doing it to get money for us. In Blackpool, guys don't walk around with more than twenty quid ($30) on them. Nobody can afford anything. Scally. It's a party town.

"It's 3AM. I'm going to see if he's awake.

"I've promised guys that I will move in with them and have their baby if they ever catch my boyfriend being unfaithful."

She dials and goes off to her bedroom, where two sex scenes were just shot.

I chat with Katie Gold, who entered porn in 1997, hooked up with Ian Daniels, then left porn in 2000 and moved back to her small town in Texas where she worked as a bookkeeper.

Duke: "What brought you back to porn?"

Katie: "Boredom."

Duke: "To fulfill a childhood dream?"

Katie: "Yes, that's right. To be the whore I was meant to be."

Duke: "Why did you leave [in 2000]?"

Katie: "Because of boy issues."

She returned in November of last year to do a scene for JM Productions.

Duke: "Are you having [Jim South Jr's] baby?"

Katie laughs: "No. I gave it away. Senior would like to have a granddaughter."

Katie complains she got cum in both her eyes today.

Duke: "What's the deepest darkest chapter in your sexual diary?"

Katie: "When I was 18, I once gave a trucker head to get a ride home."

Born in 1978, she lost her virginity at age 17.

Tracking Test Results

Duke's Buddy writes:

The past few weeks have seen an increasing number of "technology" based solutions to tracking test results, talent scenes, and the like. Each is championed by its creator and endowed with certain inalienable features and benefits for the adult industry. In reading each of these self-promoted solutions, one has to ask the question "is this a solution fulfilling a need?" or "is this a solution looking for a need?"

Skipping past all of the techno-babble about HTML, Java, forms, etc., all of the proponents of these techno-solutions have missed the quintessential point in their zealousness to be the "chosen one." That point is this: The industry doesn't have a lack of software or hardware resources to track test results or filmed scenes, but a fundamental lack of discipline and management skills to effectively manage an HIV crisis in the talent pool. Without these critical skills and resources in place and tested, no amount of systemic technology solution making will help. In fact, the addition of a technology-based solution will serve to exacerbate what is an already out-of-control situation through a false sense of security (" . . . the industry is protected because we have a system . . . ").

Technology for technology's sake never works. Ever wonder how many systems never make it to final implementation because the underlying rationale was defective from the start? More than you could ever guess in a lifetime. At least there is some marginal benefit for the economy-at-large, because people still get paid in many cases for these failures. Those with only a hammer in their tool bag of skills see a world filled with nailheads. Only thing is that not all issues are problems, and not all problems can be hammered into submission.

AIM needs to concentrate on strengthening its internal processes, controls, and get better management in-place before the next crisis hits. Any proposed software-hardware systems that support these processes, controls, and management can then be analyzed for feasibility in a pragmatic manner. All of the proposed systems, including AdultDAT recently given to AIM, cannot makeup for poor management processes and controls.

Terri Redor, publisher of TheFloatingWorld.com writes:

Duke,

I think that your 'Buddy' is right that a "lack of discipline and management skills" will make any technological tool useless in the face of another HIV crisis. AIM now has Adult Dat, which is basically a set of database tables in which producers may - if they have the discipline and management skills - dump data about their shoots. It's better than a pile of faxes and phone messages, but what happens to the data once it's in a digital rather than a physical pile, is still up to AIM.

I'm one of those who suggested that there be a technological component to the industry's tracking of STD's in the performer pool. I'm guessing that 'Buddy' didn't read my proposal, in which I suggested that STD management policies and procedures be clearly laid out and adopted before any coding was done. The system I proposed would be a management tool, not just a database. AIM's policies and procedures for dealing with any STD outbreak would become rules for the system's reporting, notification and classification operations. This kind of process management has been adopted by large corporations in the real world with a great deal of money on the line - why wouldn't such a system be of use in the adult world, where much more than money is at stake? And the requirements (planning) process for such a system would actually be an opportunity to clarify and promulgate management processes for dealing with future outbreaks.

I didn't make my proposal so that I would be "chosen" as some sort of guru. I don't think anyone already working in this industry is qualified to preside over such a system; outside help would have to be sought to develop it. But I have built and managed enough systems with similar components to make some suggestions. That's what I posted - a collection of suggestions for what could be accomplished with something more than a mere data-collection system. I propose several ways in which submitted data could be vetted, participants could be prodded into reporting regularly and accurately, and performers could gain access to information that would help them when they make decisions that affect their own health and that of others.

I've noticed that AIM loyalists tend to label as traitorous any suggestion that things could or should be handled differently in the future. And I've noticed that AIM-haters oppose any suggestion that doesn't call for replacing current AIM personnel with some other group of personnel. I don't fall into either camp, and I think I'll find myself with a lot of company when panic and hurt feelings subside over the next few months.

Hardcore Gossip Warns Porners Against Criticizing AIM, AVN

DCypher writes on Hardcoregossip.com: "...[M]any of you will still want to work in this business and attend its functions after this is all over. Keep that in mind when you join frivolous unions with spurious claims of how they are going to help you. Keep that in mind when you give quotes about regulation to the press, or any other issue you don't understand. Keep that in mind when you bash AVN or AIM. It's a small community in porn, and people remember things. I know I sure will and I have a lot of friends that own or run companies."

Ari writes: "Ooooh. DCypher will see to it that those who dare criticize AVN and AIM will never work in this business again. Nice to see the banner of free speech is being held so high.

"The sun won't shine without DCypher's beneficent grace. The mountains tremble in his almighty presence. Yet for all his power and might, he still toadies and grovels at the feet of Paulie Fishbein and Timmy Connelly. That must indicate that those two are the living embodiments of gods made flesh. Or it could just mean that they're just a bunch of numb-nuts. My guess is the latter."

Rob Spallone calls: "Maybe DCypher can get me kicked out of the industry. Bill Margold wants DCypher to kick him out too."

I hear Bill Margold snorting derisively in the background and say that nobody can be kicked out of the porn litterbox.

David Aaron Clark writes Hardcoregossip.com:

Dear DCypher,

Rather surprised & dismayed to see your rhetoric stray into that of a bully-boy for the capitalist power structure. Not going to disagree with you that there's a lot of crackpot-ism going around, but it crops up on all sides of the issues. Always disappointing to see a writer by vocation who condemns people for expressing their opinion (even if anonymously; what, after all, is "D Cypher" and the various psuedonyms of porn directors if not a cloak between us and the disapproval of the "outside world" ?).

As for condemning performers who as adult citizens and bearing a certain degree of human rights want to gather together to exchange information and consider organizing so that perhaps a collective voice might have a little more weight against the economic power of their employers some sort of "traitors" and threatening to "remember them" when it comes time for work, I'm sad to say, my friend, you sound positively unAmerican. Me, I'm making a POINT of considering hiring those performers who have shown a desire to be responsible participants in the industry that determines the course of their lives.

Tuesday At World Modeling, Wednesday With Rob Spallone

On the set of Chick Flick, directed by Ron Sullivan.

Samantha Slater

Ron Sullivan, Samantha

Pandora Dreams, Rob Spallone

Pandora, Rob

Pandora, Bill Diehl

Pandora, Rob, Lili Anne

Wednesday, on Rob Spallone's set. He wants me to get him a mail-order PhD out of Rolling Stone so he can wear a white coat and pose as a doctor.

Samantha Slater has been in the business six months and done about 20 movies.

Ron Sullivan: "She has that thousand-yard stare."

She's a gorgeous lithe blonde, 27yo, with a glamorous 1950s style blonde haircut. She was married to an Army man for five years. She did her first scene five years ago, then left the business.

I'm smitten. I stare hard. I'm trying to figure out where I've seen her before.

Ron notices me. "I haven't seen you smitten like that before, maybe with only two or three girls. You've seen her before but she's done her hair in a new way."

Duke: "Why do so many porn stars come from North Carolina [home to Adam & Eve]?"

Samantha: "Because it's the Bible belt, and filled with big fat close-minded slaves. I wanted to get the hell out of there.

"Yes, I was scared by the HIV crisis. That's why I'm only doing girl-girl now."

Bill Diehl directs Sam's photo shoot. "Open your knee. Let me see your left breast now. Turn your face right. Tummy back. Ooooh. OK, top off."

Sam can't distinguish between left and right. She has big tattoos on her side and buttocks.

Rob Spallone walks in. Trinity James has brought a box of glazed donuts from Krispy Kreme. "I'm going to teach you how to eat them," Rob tells her. He uses a napkin to squashes the donut and then stuffs it in his mouth. Repeat. Repeat.

Rob orders the girls to smoke outside.

Sam takes a big hit on her bong.

Duke: "How was the big talent meeting last night?"

Rob: "Only a dozen talent showed. There were all kinds of lawyers and doctors [about ten people from Cal OSHA]. Gene Ross. The industry's f---ed."

Bill Diehl: "Then I'm screwed then."

Rob: "On the 4th [of June], there's a big meeting that we're all invited to [hosted by various state politicians]. If they do all go all condom, and someone is caught shooting without a condom, what's the fine? One of the lawyers said the minimum fine would be $18,000 on the company.

"As far as companies paying for tests, that is up to the companies.

"Tony Tedeschi killed Cal OSHA [monitors workplace safety]. Out of nowhere, he goes, 'How many dentists have caught HIV in the past ten years?'

Bill: "Oh, a ton."

Rob: "Wait. Nobody knew where he was going. One of the Cal OSHA lawyers said none. Tony asked, why is that? Tony answers himself, before that there were dentists getting HIV. But now you've made it a law that they wear gloves when they go in somebody's mouth. How can you not make a law for us to put condoms on when we're dumping loads in faces, mouths, asses?

"He made a lot of sense. Tony's condom only."

Kenny, production manager: "Even during a blowjob?"

Rob: "I don't know. If you are going to be condom only, it's got to be for everything.

"Seymore Butts. I've never met him before. He's out of his mind. He made some good points. There was a weird chick out of her mind.

"About 40 people were there. One lady from the LA Times, Caitlin Liu. She called me while I was in anger management, asking if she could come. Mark Spiegler, Derek [from LADirectModels]. Nicole London. Jim South. Bill Margold.

"We were sad there weren't more talent there. There was very little screaming or yelling, except from me and Tony."

The meeting ran from 8PM until nearly midnight.

"Cal Osha is investigating AIM. They say they can get the tests cheaper than AIM does.

"Sharon [Mitchell] had a guy there. An ex-cop. Muscular. Jack Lawrence. He donates his time. He asked to speak. He said he was there to represent AIM. He read a letter from Sharon Mitchell. She basically said she was the last hope. Who cares? Get to the point. We don't want to hear her patting herself on the back.

"AIM wants to do two-week testing. Who is AIM to do two week testing? Who is AVN and AIM to shut down the industry? Sharon went on record that we should shut down for 60 days. Then she opened up after 38 days? How is that possible?"

Rob wanted to take his anger management class on a field trip to his AIDS meeting Tuesday night but the instructor did not want to lose his license. "He said that if my lawyer wants him to come to court for the divorce, he'll say that I'm doing just fine. That I have a lot of self control. I participate in the meetings."

Duke: "Seriously, do you think you are getting help from these meetings?"

Rob: "No. I run the meetings."

Rob sprays water on the dying lawn. "They're [Cal OSHA] getting involved."

Ron: "I disagree. They're trying to get out from under it. Who do you think formed OSHA? Insurance companies."

Rob: "Why would they come last night?"

Ron: "They're coming to find ways not to get involved."

Rob: "Oh no. They're doing a full investigation."

Ron: "They're going to write it off."

Duke: "How come they're investigating now? How come they didn't in 1998 when five people got HIV?"

Rob: "I don't know."

Ron: "It's a whitewash. Like the 9/11 commission."

Rob: "Tony went off on them. How come you're getting involved now? Because we never had any complaints. Never had any complaints? I called there ten times and nobody returned my calls.

"Sharon Mitchell says she's paying for [Jessica Dee's medicine] out of her credit card. Where's the $20,000 that was donated [by Jenna Jameson and companies]?

"Julian St. Jox's girlfriend, the tall black girl. She's not in the business. She's been doing a whole investigation. She's been at every meeting. That's her boyfriend and he was on the list. She wants to know why AIM didn't do this or that. She's been calling Cal OSHA and lawyers."

Rob talks to Samantha. "Did you say hello to my friend Duke? He's very wealthy. Do you want to date him?

"She's a whore."

Duke: "She's an actress."

Rob: "She acts like a bucket."

Ron tells me: "Samantha asked about you. I said you [had an ambivalent relationship with] porn girls."

Trinity James is getting breast implants to move from a B to a D cup.

Rob's shot a movie a week during the HIV crisis, including boy-girl without condom. "So's everybody else," he says. So Rob's no worse than everybody else, he says. "Who's going to stop me from shooting?"

Duke: "Sharon Mitchell."

Rob: "Sunday, the girls [including Destiny DeVille from England and Pandora Dreams, who swam in the nude] came up to [Mike Davis's] house for a barbeque.

"Monday, she was in Jim's office facing him. I come walking up and Jim's talking to her. I grab her by the throat. Jim says, 'What are you doing? You don't even know the girl. Are you crazy?' I said, 'So what?'

"He didn't know I'd met the day before."

Ron Sullivan's on the seventh year of his seventh marriage [to black girl Delores].

Ron: "John Leslie called me in 1997. 'Hey, I hear you married a nigger.'"

Rob wants me to take a picture of Trinity James sticking both fists up her ass. I refuse.

Rob sighs: "I don't feel well. I'm very tired."

Bill: "Keep it in your pants once in a while."

Tuesday, at World Modeling, Jim South tells a porner trying to book his British talent Destiny DeVille: "If [the penis] is too big, she can't take it."

Yet Destiny on Wednesday does her first anal scene with Lee Stone, no less.

Jim tells Misty Mason: "Stay in touch with us. Things are finely picking up."

Jim picks up the phone to field his sixth phone call from Brazilian porn star Luccia (who left Nastymodeling.com in a nasty and public dispute a few months ago) in the past couple of hours. "Luccia, darling, love and kisses." He wides his eyes.

Jim tells me, "I forgot what it's like to be busy."

Business has been quiet the past six weeks due to the HIV crisis but now business is at 80% of normal.

Latina Foxxxy Lady is coming in next week to get to work with her newly enhanced breasts.

Jim talks about one girl with a representative of Shane's World: "When she's not arguing with her boyfriend, she's very sweet and easy to get along with. He's a good guy. They just do the boyfriend-girlfriend thing once in a while.

Jim seems to enjoy chatting with me between his calls. "I got into this conversation about Texas. About Jim Bowie, General Sam Houston and Davy Crocket. Must've about ten of us eating. I asked the [porn] girl if she knew what the Alamo was. She said, 'Of course. Do you think I'm stupid? It's a car rental place in Sherman Oaks.'"

Duke: "These chicks are funny."

Jim groans. "If we had an army of models, [we'd be in big trouble]. Where's godzilla [Rob Spallone] today?"

Duke: "Valencia."

Jim: "Probably because of my breath, I'm never invited to people's houses.

"I don't want this all going on your website. This is a joke. Don't you dare print this."

Duke: "Scout's honor."

Katie Gold from Dallas breezes in and chats with her friend Jim South Jr.

Jim talks about Chanelle, one of his girls under a management contract. "We need to test this management contract," says Jim Sr, "because we really treated her good." Then she cancelled her shoots and signed with another manager.

Sr tries to scroll down a computer screen but can't figure out the mouse.

"You've got to roll the mouse wheel," says Jr.

I get up and show Jim how to do it. He's checking out a beauty from Denmark, Denise Klaraskon.

I give World Modeling a hard time about not having an asian men under representation. They say they have an asian guy named Steven Steelberg.

Duke: "Do you have a quota on the number of asian guys you represent?"

Jim Sr: "We never have quotas on nationality or religion. Anybody that calls us..."

Duke: "Is there a hostile work environment here for asian guys?"

They look at me as though I'm nuts.

Pandora Dreams is working every day through Jim South. She's condom only. Jim Sr. suspects she's getting work on her own and the producers are not paying Jim his agency fee.

Jr: "They all [talent] do that."

Sr: "You have to show me how to get into our websites. I get too many calls."

Jr: "I've shown you before."

Sr complains about young girl-next-door type chicks getting breast implants against his wishes. Their work often dries up.

Steve from Video Team walks in at 3:30PM and sits next to Envy for the next two hours. He wears his baseball cap backwards.

Savannah James did one solo masturbation scene and then quit, even though she was signed to a special management contract.

Randi Wright has quit the business, breaking Rob Spallone's heart. She has a boyfriend who does not want her to be a porn star.

A little dark girl from England walks in with her driver. Destiny DeVille, 19yo. One parent is Indian and another Maritian. She's booked with a scene a day, sometimes more.

Steve Austin worked at World Modeling on three stints of around two years each.

Red Light District Billboard On Sunset Blvd

I hear Red Light District is putting up a billboard for the Paris Hilton tape above the Dublins pub on Sunset Blvd. The tape is wholesaling for $22-25 each.