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Friday, April 22, 2005 Email Luke Archives Photos Stars Essays Search Luke Is Back.comLinks Advertise on Lukeisback Apr 20 Smut: A Sex-Industry Insider (and Concerned Father) Says Enough is Enough I interview author Gil Reavill (born October 17, 1953) by phone Thursday morning. Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Gil: "A marine biologist. Then, as soon as I got my head straightened down, I wanted to be a writer." Luke: "What kind of crowd did you hang out with in highschool?" Gil: "This was the sixties. This was the hippie crowd." Luke: "What were the expectations you were raised with?" Gil: "The liberal family. I lived in what was officially, according to the 1970 census, I lived in the whitest metropolitan area in the United States. Wausau, Wisconsin. My parents were good liberals. They even subscribed to Ebony [magazine] because they wanted us kids to have a grasp on how other cultures were. "We were WASPs. We went to a Unitarian church. "I majored in English. I went to University of Wisconsin at Madison and then graduated from the University of Colorado (in 1979). "I worked at daily newspapers in Colorado. I moved to New York in late 1980. In 1981, I answered an ad in the Village Voice that didn't name the publication but I remember the ad saying, 'Controversial village weekly.' That's where I met Mr. Al Goldstein and I started working as his ghostwriter at Screw [weekly]. I did his 'Screw You' column up front and then we started doing a lot of freelance stuff for Playboy, Penthouse. I did a lot of op/ed stuff for him." Luke: "Did you go into those joints and write reviews of massage parlors?" Gil: "Sure. This was before the [AIDS] plague. I dove into the commercial sex world. I was fairly innocent and naive (politically and sexually). I experienced everything that New York could throw at somebody in the early eighties, which was quite a bit. It was the Wild West. Yeah, I did it all." Luke: "How did you meet your wife?" Gil: "In a poetry workshop." Luke: "When did you guys get married?" Gil has to think about it. "In 1987 maybe?" Luke: "She wasn't disturbed by your writing for Screw?" Gil: "Ahh, I can't speak for her." Luke: "Was it an issue in your relationship?" Gil: "No. It was part of the package. It was a go-go time in New York City. The attitude was the feast in the midst of the plague. It's a medieval term. When the plague hit, they used to barricade themselves and concentrate on hedonistic pursuits." Luke: "What's your relationship to monogamy?" Gil: "At the present time?" Luke: "Answer it any way you want." Gil: "It's not monogamy I mind. It's celibacy. I burned through my philanderings. I love my wife. It may not be for everybody but I think it is a good thing for a lot of people." Luke: "When did you become a father?" Gil: "I was 38. 1990." Luke: "What did you love and hate about your time writing on commercial sex?" Gil: "I love the down low, declasse, louche energy of it. The flip side of the squeaky clean American coin. Times Square. There's a subversive energy to it. I think I grew out of that. I still appreciate it but I tend to put it into some sort of perspective after I became a father. I've changed in other ways too and I think the world has changed." Luke: "How has having a daughter affected your view of the commercial sex industry and how society should relate to it?" Gil: "The easy answer is that becoming a parent has changed everything. But that's not really true. Even back in the eighties, back when I was working for Al Goldstein, I strongly believed that sexual material should be kept segregated. Goldstein believed that. There was a disclaimer right in front of every Screw magazine sold that this material was of an adult nature, not intended for minors, who may not purchase it or view it or obtain it in any way. I believe that. I believe that this material should be available to consenting adults. "My book is about sexual material you don't ask for and don't want and don't consent and you get slapped in the face with it. Yeah, I'm offended for my daughter. Yeah, I'm offended for people who don't want this stuff, but I'm also offended for myself because sometimes I am not in the mood. I find it reprehensible. Maybe I'm projecting on to other people... I've seen it all. I just have this gut feeling that a lot of material presented in this culture, and the way it is presented, represents a form of sexual abuse of children. Not physically. But when you are confronting children under ten years old with adult sexuality, that's reprehensible. "Our culture does it in all sorts of different ways. The porn industry isn't the major problem. It's the mainstream media who are taking their cue from the porn industry and dishing stuff up in venues where people don't have any choice. "I was downtown recently and I heard a three-year-old singing that 50 Cent song about 'Take me to the candy shop, let me lick your lollipop.' Ok, it probably didn't cause any lasting damage, but a lot of people, including me, don't need a lot of psychological studies. It just doesn't seem right to expose young children to adult sexuality." Luke: "Any particular thing triggered your writing of this book?" Gil: "No. A couple of things went into this. The Janet Jackson episode. And just sitting down and watching MTV for two weeks straight for two-or-three hours a day. My daughter is to the age where she's watching MTV a lot. I wanted to see what was going on. The golden age of music video is over and a lot of these things are witless. The casual sexism on display is breathtaking. The sexual content is moronic because it is so obsessive." Luke: "What do you mean by sexism?" Gil: "It's a world of pimps and hos. There's only one role for men and only one role for women. Even back at Screw magazine in the 1980s, there were a lot of different roles for women and for men. Everybody recognized it was a fluid thing. But not in this reductive media atmosphere where we are presented with the two basic models of humanity." Luke: "Do you feel any contrition for your work as a writer on commercial sex, which implies that commercial sex is fine?" Gil: "No. If you took all the magazines I ever worked on, it still wouldn't address the problem -- that sometimes people want these things and sometimes they don't. There should be spaces in our culture kept clear of them. I believe in different standards for private expression and for public expression. I don't think that makes me a hypocrite. I think that makes me civilized." Luke: "Do you think pornography exacerbates the male tendency to sexually objectify women?" Gil: "Yes, but I don't think that's its major purpose or effect." Luke: "Do you honestly believe that pornography can be an island that only consenting adults [can visit] when they choose to?" Gil: "I think we can do better. I don't think it's a question of government control and law. We need to voluntarily reshape our culture. The example I like to use is the example of the family newspaper. There is no code of ethics imposed by the government on newspapers. But you don't see nudity in American newspapers. You don't see certain words in American newspapers. The code of what is acceptable isn't even written down. It's purely voluntary. It's passed from the newsroom veteran to the newsroom cub. "That is the model. What if the internet had something like that? What if Hollywood had something like that? What if other realms of media had that sort of idea of what's acceptable and what's not." Luke: "When I ask pornographers if what they're doing is morally licit, the primary answer I get is that it is legal and therefore ok. For most people, legality equals morality. By effectively legalizing pornography, that makes it ok for millions of people." Gil: "I don't agree with that at all. There are plenty of things that aren't illegal that aren't cool. I'm with Hannibal Lecter. I think that rudeness is a cardinal sin. The world that we constructed at the beginning of the millenium is rude. It's in your face. And it doesn't have to be. It's people acting out. People insecure in their place in society and they feel like they have to thrust themselves into other people's affairs. I'm offended by that. "I know a lot of people in the commercial sex biz and they are not the evil monsters, the evil geniuses, that some people portray them as." Luke: "Are they engaged in an honorable livelihood?" Gil: "That's between them and their conscience." Luke: "What's your view?" Gil: "I certainly felt I was engaged in an honorable enterprise when I was working for Al Goldstein. I thought I was a crusader for the First Amendment and a firebrand for freedom." Luke: "And you still hold by that today?" Gil: "I still believe in those values." Luke: "Do you still believe that you were a crusader for the First Amendment and a firebrand for freedom when you were writing for Screw?" Gil: "No. I think that was a load of bull. After I got to know Al Goldstein, I realized he didn't care about anyone's freedom except his own. It was a cynical manipulation of the idea of freedom. Freedom doesn't mean total abdication of responsibility." Luke: "Do you think it is honorable to make your living trafficking in the flesh of 18-year old girls and commercially distributing that product?" Gil: "I'm going to have to say once again that that is between them and their conscience. I would certainly scruple at that personally." Luke: "Why wouldn't you then extend that to others?" Gil: "Because I'm all about a libertarian approach to solving social problems. That there should be a collective consensus of what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. People who deviate from that -- I don't think that government action is the way to correct it." Luke: "Yeah, but you're not even willing to say that they are morally doing wrong. Trafficking in 18-year old flesh." Gil: "Yeah, I know. It troubles me deeply. I don't want to assume the role of somebody who says that this is ok and that is not ok. "I'm saying in my book that we can do a better job, not with these black-and-white judgments but with the grey areas. I can imagine that there exists in the world today an 18-year old girl who has the capability of and judgment of deciding for herself what she wants to do. I believe there might be somebody like that in the world." Luke: "Is the cumulative on average net effect on an 18-year old girl who does 30 porn films negative?" Gil: "I think it has been well demonstrated consistently that there were a lot of dysfunctional people who came into porn... If you read [Jenna Jameson's book] How To Make Love Like A Porn Star... By the same token, there were some who didn't fit that profile. "What is the accumulative effect on an 18-year old girl? Well, 99.9% of the time it's probably horribly injurious. I just can't give you a categorical..." Luke: "That's an answer -- 99.9% of the time injurious is an answer. That's a blunt answer." Gil sounds uncomfortable on the other end of the phone. We take a pause. Luke: "Did you have to personally struggle with stuff to write this book?" Gil: "Oh sure. I've been on the other side of this question for a long time. I wrote a proposal, which is how you sell non-fiction books. You write 50-pages and you go to a publisher and say, 'Do you want to hire me to write this book?' "When I wrote that proposal, I showed it to my wife and she said, 'There's nothing in here that is not you.' She's my best sounding board. "I still believe in the American ideal of creating the widest arena for expression. I'm still a member of the ACLU. I still believe in their work. I'm just saying we can do better at segregating material intended for adults." Luke: "Do you support the decriminalization of prostitution?" Gil: "I'm going to take a pass on that one." Luke: "I assume that 20-years ago you did support it?" Gil: "I worked for a rag that was filled with ads for prostitutes. Generally, yes, from a libertarian point of view, government regulation so often backfires. It so often does the exact opposite of what it intended to do." Luke: "So, rather than taking a pass on the question, why not say you support the decriminalization of prostitution?" Gil: "These are big ol' thorny questions and not totally germane to what I'm talking about in my book." Luke: "Decriminalization of drugs?" Gil: "I think we can do better. The war against drugs has created a whole underculture in the prisons in this country." Luke: "So therefore you support decriminalizing cocaine, heroin and the like?" Gil: "I'm going to have to take a pass on that one too. "What I feel like you're trying to do is pin me down to black and white positions. I've worked on stories about DEA agents, for example. I did a lot of true-crime stuff. I've worked a lot with police and criminals. I've come to realize that there are humans on both sides of the fence. That means fallible humans on both sides of the fence. I would think that would be true for prostitutes too. "I don't think America as a culture is ready to decriminalize either prostitution or drugs although Nevada's experience... I went out there for Elle and lived in a whorehouse for a week. I talked to all the women. The story I produced for Elle, maybe one aspect of my experience there, these were just human beings. They had a lot of different reasons why they were there. When they are presented in the media context -- oh, a hooker at the Bunny Ranch -- that's just one aspect." Luke: "Yeah, but it is the one aspect that is going to overwhelm in most minds any other aspect?" Gil: "I know that to be true." Luke: "Do you think that reveals some fundamental human truth about sexuality?" Gil: "I've been guilty of this and I've certainly seen this on the part of other people -- of a need to mythologize sexuality and place it in some transcendent context. In the book, I quote Lenin's mistress who says that sex should be like drinking a glass of water. It should be that ordinary and devoid of all this..." Luke: "Transcendence." Gil: "Of all this incredible weight we put on it. The realm of commercial sex isn't the primary guilty party here. Hollywood wants it this way. It loves it. It loves to present sex as some sort of transforming act, but every time I've done the deed, I've woken up the next morning. I still have to deal with myself." Luke: "Why do you support viewing sex as a transaction like drinking a glass of water rather than something with transcendent meaning?" Gil: "I just don't think that it works. I'm looking for transcendence just like everyone else." Luke: "Why do you support viewing sex as a transaction like drinking a glass of water rather than something with transcendent meaning?" Gil: "I just don't think that it works. I'm looking for transcendence just like everyone else., but from all the heavy lifting I've done in this area and people trying to make it something other than it is, I've never seen it really work. I've only seen people deluded." Luke: "You think it is a delusion to ascribe transcendent meaning to sex?" Gil: "Right. I think the only transcendence there is in this world is love." Luke: "So you're fine with decoupling sex from love?" Gil: "Well, you know... It's great when they coincide." Luke: "Do you think society has an interest in coupling sex with love?" Gil: "Society has an interest in decoupling sex from love and twisting sex in a hundred different ways like it was a gumby toy and trying to make something of it that it isn't. I identify it as reverse Puritanism. If you take a Puritan as someone who believes in no sex, reverse Puritanism is all-sex-all-the-time. Puritanism and reverse Puritanism are related and they are both idiocy." Luke: "So how do you decide what is right and wrong?" Gil: "In this field there's a question of social consensus. There's a tremendous amount of frustration out there at the tone of our culture. "I don't believe in imposing an idea of right and wrong. I do believe in a social consensus. Take the question of nudity in America. Nudity in Europe is a much different deal. There are nude beaches all around. There are topless women on page three [of The Sun newspaper in London]. America has a different tradition. You can say that one is right and one is wrong but that's like trying to stop the river from flowing. I'd like to honor our own culture. There's a vast agreement on what's appropriate. Poll results are overpowering that there's a widespread sense of frustration that the tone of the culture doesn't match the expectations of people in the culture. That offends me. It's undemocratic." Luke: "So if I was to ask you what is the source of morality, you would say social consensus?" Gil: "I think that's, you know, a good sort of rule of thumb." Luke: "So if we had a society where the social consensus was to murder Tutsis or Jews, does that mean that such killing is right?" Gil: "Consensus is informed by some sense of human ideals." Luke: "Where are those derived from? What's the source?" Gil: "Philosophy." Luke: "Which philosophy?" Gil: "Religion." Luke: "Which?" Gil: "Morals. Moral philosophers." Luke: "Which moral philosophers? They disagree." Gil: "They do disagree but I don't think you can really trackdown a social philosopher that really has a name that supports genocide." [Gil writes later: "In the case of the Nazis and Hutus, that wasn't social consensus, that was a small group highjacking social consensus and pursuing their own unconscionable ends. But there has been a consensus, down through history, about social justice. And most moral philosophers, all major religions, and modern progressive political thought has the same basis: for the weak, and against the strong. And who is the weakest element in society? Children. They are without voice. They have to depend on adults to give them their voice. So that's what I feel is fundamental here: for the weak, and against the strong."] Luke: "The Greeks and Greek philosophers were fine with leaving deformed children on hillsides to die." Gil: "Things change. These are thorny issues we are talking about here. There's a great deal of goodwill in the world and we should harness that more and insist upon creating a world we feel comfortable in. Right now we've created a world where people feel uncomfortable. With a modicum of restraint, good sense, and discernment, we can do better. We're doing poorly now at protecting our children and people who are offended." Luke: "Do you feel a tension between your libertarian ideals and the reality of parenting?" Gil: "My own private household is not a libertarian realm. We've got rules." Luke: "But more than that." Gil: "I feel a huge tension in any libertarian viewpoint. Take an example of child labor laws. If you ever want to talk to a libertarian and bring him down to an elemental question, ask him about child labor laws. Of course I support child labor laws. Is that a violation of my libertarian ideals? So be it. There are some aspects of this book that are anti-libertarian. But contradiction is part of the human condition." Luke: "Maybe you are moving away from libertarianism to?" Gil jokes: "Fascism." Luke: "No. To something. Maybe you realized libertarianism sounded fine in theory but I'm not sure you want to decriminalize prostitution, decriminalize drugs, eliminate child labor laws." Gil: "Exactly. I think you're right." Luke, stealing from Michael Medved: "Which phrase do you more resonate to? 'Express yourself' or 'Do your duty.'" Gil: "I'm a writer so I'd have to say -- express yourself. "This has been a hard book for me to write in that I have a lot of friends who were very much against it. They told me I was dancing with the devil. I tend to think of this as telling truth to power. A lot of powerful interests are interested in perpetuating a type of culture that is not acceptable to a lot of people that live in America." Luke: "Do you have a strong need to not to say you were wrong in the stuff you used to do in the eighties? Or you are just A-ok with everything you did in the eighties?" Gil: "Yes, I am. Because I was a twenty-something male, I was harnessed to this idea of rebellion, transgression. That's a tremendously effective idea when you are looking for your place in the world and you feel ignored and neglected and nobody's paying any attention to you. "I was the young prince of my family. Then you go out into the world and that and a buck fifty will get me onto the subway. "I know that me and the boys who used to work at Screw definitely subscribed to tweaking the bourgeoisie." Luke: "And now in retrospect?" Gil: "I think that impulse is fine and suitable for twenty-year-olds. But I don't think that impulse should be enshrined at the center of the culture the way we have done so. Western Civilization is the only culture that has done so. We've made it the coin of the realm. I was twenty-something then. I'm fifty-something now. Do I deny myself and say I was wrong then and I'm right now? I see it as a continuum. I wasn't thinking about these things then. I wasn't a deep social thinker, not that I am one now. "I was all too easily gulled by someone like Al Goldstein into thinking I was going to the barricades for the First Amendment." Luke: "There are going to be some middle-class people who went to college and responsible boring jobs, led conventional lives where they held a strict rein on their sexual impulse and other impulses, who are going to pick up your book and say, 'Hey Gil, you were part of the problem that created this problem.'" Gil: "You could burn in the public square every magazine I've been with and that would still not address the problem. "I believed back then in keeping sexually-oriented materials away from children. I wrote a New York Times Op/Ed piece for Al Goldstein [July 3, 1984] that articulated that stance. It's reprinted in my book Smut. Those are my words. Al just told me to attack mainstream media for showing horror films." Luke: "But to adapt John Donne, surely you realize that no porn is an island. It inevitably bleeds into the general culture. It inevitably gets into the hands of children. It inevitably affects the way people treat children and men relate to women." Gil: "That might be true, but I think we can do better with our barriers and our islands and our moats and our walls. I have no interest in living in a G-rated culture. But I do want a culture where there's choice. In this culture, there is no choice." Luke: "Have you lost friends over this book?" Gil: "Yeah. I hope the bridges will be repaired in the future but I've got a lot of people disgusted with me. It's an indication of how polarized this issue is. You can not venture forth with a mitigated approach (consenting adults anything goes, for children and people who aren't interested in it, there should be more attention paid to keeping this material out of their hands and out of their faces). There's an element of rubbing people's face in transgressive material, not only sexual material. If you feel like your buttons are being pushed in this culture, you're right. It's intentional. "I remember sitting around an office meeting with Al Goldstein and we weren't articulating it in that particular way -- let's push buttons -- but that's precisely what we were into." Luke: "Do you have disgust for Al Goldstein?" Gil: "On a personal level, yes. The man is... I can't even articulate what kind of reprehensible person he is. "I talk about in the book how there are two Al Goldsteins. There's the Al Goldstein for public consumption. Goldstein the symbol. And the Al Goldstein that I knew. The Al Goldstein who hurt everybody he came in contact with including me. I don't think there's a bridge in that man's life that he hasn't burned." Luke: "Didn't you realize he was a monster when you were working for him?" Gil: "For some reason, I was spared. He never directed his anger at me until the very end. I was doing a lot of other things. I wasn't only writing for him. I had a career as a playwright in off-off-off-off-Broadway theatres. "I accepted it for what it was. It was tremendously exciting in the beginning. As a writer, somebody pays you to run off at the mouth. It was incredible." Luke: "Weren't you a hit man for Goldstein? Weren't you taking after people he wanted to hurt?" Gil: "Yes. I guess the way I rationalized that was that a lot of times these were corporate CEOs and powerful people such as Carl Icahn. From a twenty-something point of view, that was perfect." Luke: "But in retrospect, you realize that many of the people you were hurting didn't deserve it?" Gil: "The choke on his shotgun was very wide. In his later days, he attacked some people, his secretary, for example. It was beyond the pale. He was always beyond the pale. He lived beyond the pale. I thought that was groovy. Not only in retrospect, but during my experience of working with him, I was often charmed and entertained by him, but the dominant reaction I had to him was disgust." Luke: "Have you ever considered apologizing to any of the innocent people you savaged on his behalf?" Gil: "Well, I can't really think of any innocent people. Carl Icahn, the corporate raider? I realize there's the twelve-step program where you go back to apologize to everybody." Luke: "Not everybody. Just innocent people you hurt." Gil: "Nobody really stands out. I once wrote an editorial against myself. He told me I was screwed up. I ghostwrote an editorial against myself. "In his public persona, he was right on much of the time because he was attacking self-righteousness. We can all get mileage out of that... I realize today that pointing a finger at somebody and saying you're a hypocrite, like Al often did, is like pointing a finger at somebody and saying, 'You're breathing.' It's not that big of a claim to make. "In the way he treated people in his personal life, it was a spectacle of awfulness." Luke: "Were you an enabler?" Gil: "Maybe. Not in that sense, but maybe in his public persona. I was a hired gun. I was gunslinger. Gunslingers don't really care if they work for the sheepherders or the cattle barons. I was having too much fun in New York in the early eighties to really think too much about who I was working for. I agreed with him targeting people like Carl Icahn." Luke: "Do you believe that we have a soul that lives on after we die?" Long pause. Gil: "I don't know if I am prepared for this level of discussion. "Let me see. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't." Luke: "Are you concerned that this book might cost you writing gigs for Penthouse and other sexually-oriented publications?" Gil: "It already has. Maxim gave me the boot. I was a consulting editor and a contributor (a dozen stories over three years). I didn't write social commentary for them. I wrote true-crime and investigative reporting. I've got a lot of friends there. When I sent them the galleys, they spiked a story I was preparing. It wasn't acrimonious. They weren't cursing me out. "Again, the only problem I had with something like Maxim was their display policy. The problem isn't somebody reading Maxim in the privacy of their own home. The problem is that when I'm cruising through the airport and I'm confronted with a vast display of Maxim covers... I want to choose. I know there are a lot of other people out there who want to choose. That was the substance of my beef with Maxim and they couldn't accept that. They've been assailed on that account a lot. Maxim magazine has to sell a million copies off the newsstand to meet their circulation goals." Luke: "Why did you send them galleys of your book?" Gil: "I have friends there. I don't want them to suffer because I was going to ambush them." Luke: "Do you think you'll be able to keep writing for Penthouse?" Gil: "Yes. Peter Bloch, the longtime managing editor, is another friend of mine. He read the book. He was amazingly evenhanded about it. We left it at that. "I read the Reavill Agonistes... They have to find an explanation for why a member of our side would flip over. This has nothing to do with selling my parenting book. That's still in print but on the remainder shelves. "I've always had strong feelings that this stuff is not appropriate for children and not appropriate for me every minute of the day. But in this polarized environment, if you breathe a word, uh, no thanks to Janet Jackson, I really don't want to see your breast on the half-time show, or Nelly who was on the same show, I really don't want to see that dirty dancing right at this moment, oh, you're in the other camp. That's moronic. People are capable of holding both ideas at the same time. It's the same on the Right. They have this zero tolerance approach to smut. Sorry, it's not going to work." Luke: "Do you think Times Square is better or worse today than in the early eighties?" Gil: "Using the utilitarian gauge of the most good for the most people, I think there's no question that Times Square today is a better place. But I will always cherish the days of Hubert's Flea Circus." Luke: "This has been awesome. Thank you." Gil: "Thank you. I can't believe the depth and personal attention." Jeff writes: " Very fine interview with Gil Reavil, if too long. I like the way you kept coming at him, refusing to accept his facile answers about morality and the source of ethics. His answer: communal consensus reveals a true light-weight who who have made a wonderful member of Hitler Youth. After all, the communal consensus in Germany at the time was, well, kill all the Jews. The interview is a great document that reveals the nothingness at the core of classic liberal so-called thought." Should I Bang Robyn From Porn Star Karaoke? Yaakov writes: "I want you to know that when I Instant Message you I am not subtly or not-so-subtly mining you for information, like some fellow-blogger version of the Whore of Babylon who added her cups of poison to your PSK bar tab." Duke: If you were single, would you bang Robyn? Martin: I'm not sure I know who Robyn was. Was she the woman I recommended to you as a Long Island Jewess? I try to avoid the Inter-web as a rule, but I will go look oh, and I am amazed to hear you use the verb "bang." What has become of you? Did Robyn make you preview the picture to her so she would approve? Are you familiar with the uniquely American cultural experience of Judaism, the Poconos-going, Kavalier-and-Klay, Isaac Bashvis Singer-Enemies A Love Story - Radio Days depictions? Robyn seems like a throwback to the curvy but sharp-tongued Jewish New Yorker girl of the 40s. An American Standard. I would not transport myself back to singlehood to "bang" anyone who hustles drinks, however. Nor should America's Pre-Eminent Porn Journalist. With a drinks budget, however, you would have been bereft of the existential crisis that informed your writing. So maybe it was good that she got all goldbricky on you. Excuse me, but WHY must you make public what should be no more than an open secret? I sit on the couch with Tim's new find Lizzy, 20 . As I'm about to begin my interview, her agent Tim asks her her measurements. She doesn't know. So Tim guesses by looking at her that she's: 5'4, 34a 24 34, shoe size 7 1/2. Lizzy is nervous. Before today, she had only been naked before two men. She hasn't done any scenes yet. Duke: "How did you get into the industry?" Lizzy: "Last week, I was just researching over the internet. I looked up sexyjobs.com." Duke: "What motivated you to get into the industry?" Lizzy: "Money." Duke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Lizzy: "A bodybuilder [since junior-high]. I never got into the
weights until highschool. They say to wait until you're..." Duke: "Why?" Lizzy: "My dad always liked Arnold Schwarzenegger. "I curl between 40-50 pounds. I leg-press 245 on each side. I don't ever max out. I work out five days a week for about an hour." Duke: "What kind of crowd did you hang out with in highschool?" Lizzy: "I hung out with my [one-year older] brother. I always got along with my [two] brothers." Duke: "Did they beat up any guy who tried to take you out?" Lizzy: "Yeah, if it was their friends." Duke: "Did you ever hook up with one of their friends?" Lizzy: "My husband is one of their friends. "My oldest brother is the most protective. He wouldn't let me date any of his friends. He chased a couple of them away. "I knew Jeremy all through highschool. I graduated in 2002. I've been married for two years. I'll be 21 in August." Duke: "What kind of student were you in highschool?" Lizzy: "An A-B student. My best class was English. I did a lot of plays." Duke: "Was it your husband who got you into porn?" Lizzy, a long pause: "I think it was.... I don't know. "It was his idea now that I think about it. At first he was, 'You should be stripper. You could make a lot of money.' I said, 'I can't do that. There's no way I could get comfortable to do that. I could do pictures... So... Yes, he even took the first pictures and sent them in.'" Duke: "He said, 'I'm your pimp, baby. Work it. Bring home the money.'" Lizzy and Jeremy chuckle. Duke: "Did he want you to bring girls home?" Jeremy nods vigorously. Lizzy: "No." Duke: "Are you sure?" Lizzy: "Yeah." Duke: "Are you sure?" Lizzy: "Yeah, I'm positive." Duke: "Are you into girls?" Lizzy: "No." Duke: "Are you guys swingers?" Lizzy: "No. Not at all." Duke: "So you're like a nice couple who..." Lizzy: "Yeah, it's pretty awkward. I guess you wouldn't expect it." She gives an embarrassed laugh. Duke: "Do you guys watch a lot of porn?" Lizzy: "No. We've watched a few." Duke: "I guess Jeremy watches a lot of porn." Lizzy: "That he does." Jeremy wears a guilty smile. Lizzy: "He probably hides it from me. I don't know. I know that when he goes over to my brother's house, he's totally looking at Penthouse." Duke: "What do you want to accomplish by doing [porn]?" Lizzy: "I don't know. I want to get in a big magazine." Duke: "Like what? Cosmopolitan?" Lizzy: "No. Hustler or Playboy. I read Cosmopolitan." Duke: "Will [Jeremy] let you work with guys?" Lizzy: "He said he would but I don't want to." Duke: "You just want to work with girls?" Lizzy: "No." Duke: "You don't want to work with girls or boys. What do you want to do?" Lizzy: "I don't know. I don't want to do either. He says, go ahead and work with a girl. If you want to work with a boy, I guess that'll be ok. "But I don't want to do either." Duke to Jeremy: "How would you feel if she brought home a beautiful woman for you to share?" Jeremy lights up: "I don't know man. It would be a trip." Lizzy, annoyed: "Oh gosh. That means he'd like it." Duke: "He wants you to get out there and pimp for him. Bring some girls home." Lizzy: "No. I'm not into that." Duke: "How would you feel about your husband screwing around?" Lizzy: "I'd pull a Lorena Bobbitt [who cut off her husband John's penis in a fit of rage]." Lizzy: "We could do scenes together but not until I feel more comfortable..." Duke: "With him? He creeps you out?" Lizzy: "It'd be different." Duke: "Maybe you guys should have sex more often." Lizzy: "Hey." Duke: "I don't want to cause marital discord." Lizzy says her ethnicity is Portugese and white. Jeremy: "She's Mexican." Lizzy: "No. I am not Mexican. Do you think I look Mexican?" Somebody says she looks European. Lizzy: "Oh gosh." Duke to Jeremy: "Does she have a bad temper?" Jeremy: "She has more of a spoiled-girl temper." Lizzy: "I was pretty spoiled. I was the only girl so I got whatever I wanted." Duke: "What are your ambitions in life?" Lizzy: "I want to keep a good body. My goal is to stay physically fit and to stay married and be committed. No cheating, which would be boy-girl action, which I will never do." She's saying this to her husband Jeremy. Duke: "Have you ever been with a girl?" Lizzy: "No. I've only been with my husband and one other person. Before today, only two people have seen me naked." Duke: "Are you a little tripped-out right now?" Lizzy: "Yeah. I've jumped in head-first." Duke: "Didn't you think it was kind of strange when Jeremy wanted you to do porn?" Lizzy: "Yeah. I was kinda upset about it. I said, you're crazy. Why would you even think of that? Especially being a stripper. He kept trying to talk me into it. Then he gets one of my friends: 'Help me talk her into it.' Then she's like, 'Yeah, you could make tons of money. When I turn 18, I'll do it with you.' I'm like, no." Duke: "What work have you been doing?" Lizzy: "I've usually worked at a hospital registering patients and at a couple of gyms. "Any more questions?" Duke: "What are your secrets to a happy marriage?" Lizzy: "Honesty. He's very honest with me about what he wants me to do." Jeremy smiles and applauds. Lizzy giggles. Wedelstedt is Indicted; Trial set for May 9
Allison emails:
My Dinner With Michael Kinsley I began Wednesday evening in a sulky mood. Yes, I was going to the Michael Kinsley (LA Times Opinion Editor) and Andres Martinez (Editorial Page Editor) at the Harvard/Radcliffe Club at the LA Athletic Club. Downside. The program was scheduled to begin at 6pm (when I could meet with all the hot brainy chix) but my date Cathy said we should arrive at 7pm. I absolutely must arrive on time to events or I get all out of kilter. So at 6:52pm, I walked up the Club carrying my book -- You Can't Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe. If anyone asks me why I've got a book with me, I'm gonna say it is just in case the evening is boring. That will let the world know how ticked off I am and these Harvard types don't impress me because I exchange email with Jenna Jameson. I call Cathy on my cell phone and say I'll meet her at the entrance. Seven minutes later and no sign of Cathy, I call her again. She's already in the program. I'm waiting outside like a fool for a woman who'll never come. It's the same old story. The panel is well underway as I walk in. There are no spare seats near hot chix and it would be rude of me anyway to seize one as I already have my date Cathy. Finally seats are brought to the back and side. I'm feeling happier because I didn't have to spring for the entrance. Thanks to Jim, our host. The panelists are mumbling and muttering under their breaths. They avoid the mic and it doesn't even matter because they have nothing to say. Just as I'm ready to open my book, Mike Kinsley knocks off a few good lines. Then Andres resumes the mumble about nothing and the moderator (Steven Arkow, works at DOJ as a federal prosecutor) in his tenor voice shuns the mic and I'm ready to write some nasty stuff about cutting the balls off of people who won't speak into the mic because they sound like eunechs anyway. Then I realize that this sort of writing would not endear me to Cathy who had warned me to be on my best behavior. Kinsley says there are 14 on The Times editorial board. There were no lawyers when he came aboard. Now there are three. He wants more lawyers because they are systematic thinkers. LAT Editor John Carrol disagrees. The moderator's voice reminds me of Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy birthday Mr. President" to JFK. I fight to keep myself in my seat when my soul wants to jump up and yell, "Have you guys ever considered publishing something interesting? Just as a change of pace, mind you." The LA Times has long been the most boring, and the most predictably and reflexively liberal of any major newspaper. I'm not sure it is any better under Kinsley. I've been reading Michael since I was a teenager. I think The New Republic (TNR) was at its best under his leadership (though his reign over Slate left much to be desired because almost all his writers were uniformly and predictably liberal, unlike the vibrant TNR). Michael has brought in a bunch of pals from the Northeast, including dull regulars such as Margaret Carlson. Snore. How about some fresh LA voices Michael? Kinsley describes David Shaw as The Times "Ideas" columnist. Cathy and I break into laughter. An insistent woman in the front row, without any prompting from the moderator about opening things up to the floor, badgers Michael about Shaw and other Times shortcoming. I immediately know its Amy Alkon, AdviceGoddess.com. Five minutes later, Cathy asks me, "Who is that speaking?" "It's Amy," I say. "Oh," Cathy responds, chagrined. "I wondered why her voice sounded so familiar." "Newspapers are establishment publications," says Kinsley. Martinez describes The LAT as "freewheeling" compared to The NYT editorial page. He says The NYT's "history and tradition is almost oppressive." Looking around the audience, nobody seems to care what Andres says. But they're glued to Kinsley who keeps trying to share the spotlight with Andres. A man with a heavy Mexican accent makes a three-point speech about the late Frank del Olmo, the first Latino editor at The LAT. The man is ticked off that The Times hasn't replaced him with another Latino editor. He praises Frank for being the only journalist to make a solid stand against the Mexican Mafia. "As opposed to what?" wonders Cathy. "Other journalists support the Mexican Mafia?" Though the room is filled with Harvard/Radcliffe graduates, many of them are idiots. They ask lengthy ponderous questions. Kinsley praises the promising accomplished Latino voices at The LAT. The man in the audience wants them to further Frank Del Olmo's racial activism. That's exactly what's needed in journalists -- more racial activism. Martinez and Kinsley suck up to his racial platitudes rather than slamming them down his throat as he deserves. What kind of reaction would a man praising activism for the white race get in this crowd? He'd be shown the door. But when it comes to Latinos and Blacks, you can never be too racially active without the wimpy liberals at The LAT stepping into line behind it. Kinsley's talk about the bright promising Latinos at The LAT reminds me of those who talk about "articulate Blacks." Andres grew up in Mexico but he has no Mexican accent, yet many people of Mexican ancestry who grew up in California speak with a Mexican accent, such as porn star Daisy Fuentez. The man wants to know what editorials The LAT has published that would make Frank del Olmo proud. Instead of telling him to jump out the window, Andres lists a variety of pro-Latino editorials, including one for giving CA Drivers License to illegal aliens (thereby destroying the DL as a valid ID device for a US citizen). A middle-aged black woman says her 20-year old niece doesn't read newspapers, doesn't know who John [R.] Bolton is, and that this therefore must be the fault of newspapers. "Your niece is a moron," says Cathy, and Kinsley says the same thing, though in more polite language. Kinsley stammers a lot, repeating the same word up to six times before he can move on. Mike says he's been an opinion journalist all his life and he doesn't feel like he's influenced anything. Cathy leaves at 8:10. Jim invites me to dinner with the panelists and a dozen other elites. Kinsley sits down opposite me. His first question is what year did I graduate Harvard. I confess I'm an interloper. I quote chapter and verse from things he wrote 20 years ago. He says he doesn't know whether to be flattered or frightened. Kinsley says Mickey Kaus with his blog has a bigger influence (due to his immediacy) than the LAT editorial and opinion pages. Kinsley was used to the immediacy of Slate (which was slow in web time). He'd send off an article, take a shower, and return to his computer to find his article online. Now at The LAT, he turns in his column for Sunday on Tuesday. Kinsley says newspapers are doomed. He wants to do more blogger/interactive things on The LAT website. He's excited by The LAT's new head of Internet operations -- Rob Barrett, the husband of Ruth Shalit. Kinsley wants to know how I make money from blogging. I confess that the only way I do it is to write about porn and surround it with ads for porn sites. That stops conversation around us (a bunch of elite lawyers) and so I talk about my decade writing on the industry. Michael wants to know what questions I ask porn stars. I say the first one is -- when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Then the group of us went around and answered the question. Michael always wanted to be an opinon journalist. My second question to porn stars is -- what expectations were you raised with. Michael says he was expected to be a doctor (cartoonist Michael Ramirez has four siblings who are doctors, he's the disappointment to his mother). Third key question -- what do you love and hate about what you're doing. Kinsley suggests that a better question would be -- what do you dislike about what you're doing. That's more genuine. Love and hate is too dramatic. Wrong, I say. You need to key in to people's most powerful emotions to get the most compelling material. And you can't ask a porn star point blank what she dislikes about the industry because you will likely raise her immediate suspicion that you are putting her and the industry down and you are most interested in damaging information. Porn stars are too familiar with people who want to slam their industry and as soon as they get a whiff of this, they clam up. The key to any great interview is not the exactness of the questions but the amount of rapport you are able to establish with your subject. I quote back to Kinsley an article he wrote 18-years ago on his two-weeks in Australia. I asked him how much Australia's kindliness was due to the racial monotony of its population (98% white). He said that he pointed out in his article that Australia's dynamism was substantially due to its opening up to asian immigration. Kinsley waxed lyrical about racial and sexual-orientation diversity on Miami's South Beach. I asked him about the higher crime rates that result from racial (and other types of) diversity. Kinsley didn't see any connection between high crime rates and diversity. So I shut up on this sensitive topic. I ask Kinsley if he had any Republicans writing for him at Slate (I don't recall any being on staff). "Oh sure," Michael says. "Who?" I ask. "Jack Shafer," says Kinsley. "Jack's not a Republican. He's a libertarian." "He voted for Bush [senior and junior]," said Michael. Not convincing. Slate was almost pure liberalism with a smattering of libertarianism (as far as staffers). Jack Shafer replies to my inquiry: "I ain't never voted for no Bush." Shafer says he has never voted Republican for president and that the one word that best describes his political beliefs is "libertarian." To the best of my knowledge, there has never been a registered Republican who was a staff writer for Slate. Kinsley (who wears a couple of days' growth of beard on his face) says the Outfoxed documentary was crap. Kinsley remembers Stephen Glass as a nice kid at The New Republic who worked as a secretary. Kinsley felt bad he couldn't get him writing gigs. Glass went on to fabricate information in about 40 articles for TNR. Kinsley had the same reaction to the Stephen Glass movie Shattered Glass as I did -- it was superb, though too reverential towards TNR. Kinsley has long hated fact-checkers. He thinks reporters should be their own fact-checkers and having fact-checkers on staff makes reporters lazy. I asked Michael what was the most perceptive article written on him. He mentioned one in Vanity Fair by a famous 20/20 correspondent who wrote that the man who doesn't blink (watch Kinsley on TV, he rarely blinks) blinked (when he accepted and rejected the editorship of New York magazine within 24-hours, during this same time he received his diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease, which he only made public when he left Slate about two years ago). I remind Kinsley that he never got to edit Literary Editor and incoherent blowhard Leon Wieseltier who's long had a snug relationship with former TNR publisher Marty Peretz that leaves Leon exempt from editing, even though he desperately needs it. Three years ago, Michael married his former boss at Microsoft who now runs the Bill Gates charitable foundation. Kinsley splits his time between LA and Seattle. I ask Michael and the group if they've heard of Air Supply. Nobody has. I tell them that I learned about love through the prism of Air Supply songs. They look at me mystified. These are Harvard graduates. What exactly do they teach there? Obviously no Australian Music Appreciation. I sit next to a beautiful woman I knew a decade ago. Now she's married and has two kids in addition to a thriving career. I'm reminded again of how far I lag behind my peers in the things that are most meaningful. Kinsley scoffs at how the Washington Post carefully labels satirical articles as "satire." I regale the group with tales of my five hours of live radio debate with Paul Cambria on this. Paul thrashed me (I took Kinsley's position on satire -- that if you label it, it is no longer funny, and the inherent material should reveal whether something is satirical or literal). Kinsley and Kaus (both graduates of Harvard Law School) wanted to start a magazine that would have a big disclaimer on the front that some of its contents were invented. They thought this might serve as a protection against libel suits but they were quickly dissuaded. If an average person could read something you wrote or published and believe it was true, then you are on the hook for libel if you maliciously publish falsehoods. Unlike Mickey Kaus (who has a thing for zany right-wing blondes), Kinsley has never dated Ann Coulter nor known her in a Biblical way (not implying that Mickey has known her in that way). I ask Michael which magazines he most looks forward to reading. He says The New Republic. He says The Atlantic is the magazine he feels he ought to read (but rarely does). Whenever I stop talking, the Harvard/Radcliffe types quickly revert to discussing odd architecture in various obscure Harvard buildings. Jolly lucky for these folks that I came along to liven up the party (and I didn't even have to demonstrate, even though I was about to at times, the traditional Australian art of penis puppetry). Jane writes: "I loved reading your Michael Kinsley piece. He's my favorite opinion writer - brilliant writer - but I remember seeing him on Crossfire and being horrified. Every time he was attacked he looked like he was about to run home and tell his mommy. I'm curious if he was better in a non-confrontational setting?" It was a terrific experience having dinner with him. A lifelong dream fulfilled and far more wholesome than many of my other dreams. Playboy Playmate Heather Carolin Escorting For NY Agency PrettyCityFriends may be the next agency to fall. "Heather Carolin looks and feels great but is not that much fun in person," writes a knowledgeable source. It's so hard to get good service in these depraved times. If you can't find integrity and love through an escort service, then where should one turn? 'Don Hollywood' Mixes Adult-Film Acting With Legal Work
Panel Finds Judge Violated Canons LOS ANGELES - A three-judge panel of special masters concluded Tuesday that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Kevin A. Ross committed willful or prejudicial misconduct when he, among other things, acted as an arbitrator for a reality court TV program and awarded damages at a strip club to a wet T-shirt model. Teagan Presley Is Pregnant?
If it is not Scott Fayner writing this, then perhaps it is someone close to him. The site used to have the same hosting as l-keford.com. Porn Star Karaoke - Black Widow Productions Night Mallou Mallou, Black Widow Prods owner Richard Williams Mallou Mallou Tricia Oaks Tricia Oaks Stormy Daniels, Wicked contract girl Mike Moz, Lisa Sparxxx Stormy, Mike, Lisa Shy Love Wankus, Jamie L Wankus, Jill Kelly's brother Wankus, Jill's brother James DiGiorgio Kristen, Wankus Lori Alexia Lori Lori Lori Robyn Lori Lori, Genesis Skye Lori, Genesis Lori, Genesis Lori, Genesis Lori, Genesis Genesis Skye Genesis Keiko, Kris Slater Keiko, Kris Mallou Mallou Moses Bennett, Dick Tracy I arrive at 8:50pm. I see Sardos owner Seymore chatting with a friendly policeman sitting in his patrol car. As soon as I walk in Sardos, I'm hit on by Robyn. She berates me for portraying her as a fat slut in last week's report. She rests her legs on my lap, wraps her arm around me, looks me in the eye and says that I really want to f--- her. I protest about my journalistic integrity. She says I'm a crappy writer and a crappy photographer and I really want to f--- her. Mike Albo writes: "Well, she's right about two things." The waitress comes over and Robyn orders a $7 shot and puts it on my tab. Wait a minute. I'm broke. I work hard to save my pennies and this girl I don't know just ordered a drink and put it on my tab. Robyn says I will be paying for her drinks all night. The waitress asks for my credit card. I panic. I make $500 a week and that barely covers my expenses. I spend much of my time worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills. I do no discretionary spending. I never buy drinks (for myself or anyone) when I go out because I can't afford it. I have water bottles in my car and I take long swigs on them before going out. I know that's cheap but I have no alternative. I tell the waitress I'll pay for the drink in cash. I resolve to never allow a woman in a bar to get fresh with me again. This is a lifetime pattern. Women seem to think of men as cash machines. Since I was a kid, girls have been arrogantly expecting me to spend money I don't have on them. I can't forget the chutzpah of girls in elementary school demanding from me free sticks of gum. What am I? Mr. Money Bags? I step up and away from Robyn, desperate to sustain no more damage to my depleted wallet. I keep her at arm's length for the rest of the night and even though the bar is filled with beautiful women, I hit on none of them for fear they will expect me to buy them drinks. I'd much rather take a chick to a house of worship than a bar because at least at church or synagogue, the drinks and eats are free and the whole moral tone is more elevated. Wankus and Kristen give away free copies of Black Widow's Lesbian Pissing 2, a family favorite. I meet Lori Alexia (of LoriAlexia.com) in the crowded bar and talk her outside for an interview. She measures (naturally) 34D-22-34. She wears size one. She stands 5' tall. Wednesday I found this bio on her website:
Her website adds:
Duke: "When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Lori: "An attorney. Because all my family are doctors and attorneys." Duke: "What kind of student were you in highschool?" Lori: "Actually, I was in college. I graduated college [at age 20] with a BA in psychology." Duke: "What kind of crowd did you hang out with in highschool?" Lori: "I was innocent. All the guys wanted to f--- me because I was a virgin." Lori looks around and then apologizes. "I'm always distracted." Duke: "How old were you when you lost your virginity?" Lori: "Twenty one." James DiGiorgio pushes in on my interview. I couldn't control him when I hosted an internet radio show with him five years ago and I still can't control him today. Jim: "How did the guys know you were a virgin?" Lori: "Everybody knew I was a virgin in highschool." Jim: "Even if you weren't a virgin, they'd still want to f--- you." Lori giggles: "That's true." Duke: "How did you get into the porn industry?" Jim: "Because you wanted to lay down the law." Duke: "Were you a gymnast in highschool?" Jim: "No. She was a virgin. Gymnasts don't stay virgins. "What's your ethnicity?" Lori: "I'm Baisian. I'm British, African and Indian." Jim: "Dude." Lori: "I've done about 20 scenes. But I have a really big fan base. Everybody out there knows who I am." Jim: "I don't know who you are." Lori: "Because I was Miss Nude America. Shut up! Never mind. Lori tires of Jim's obnoxious comments and walks off. I chase after her. "Wait! Wait! He's the rude one. I'm not rude." Jim: "I'm very rude." Duke: "Don't worry about him. Talk to me." Lori: "I went to MTV and I was a VJ with Carmen Elecktra for a year. And then I started housedancing. I ended up Miss Nude America. I was the first ethnic in 40-years to win it. Then I became a feature [stripper]. Now I'm in porn." Duke: "How did you make the transition into porn?" Lori: "Because I won feature entertainer of the year [from Nightmoves magazine], the biggest award you can possibly win in adult entertainment so I started doing porn because it was the only place I could go from there." Duke: "How has it affected you to be a sexual object to so many men?" Lori giggles: "It's made me more sexual." Duke: "You're the psychology major. So do a little introspection." Lori: "Real funny. I don't know. I'll have to really think about that. "When I got into porn, I started dating a guy in porn, a white guy. He's Hungarian." Lori has only dated white men. "He was so beautiful. Our relationship ended after four months." Duke: "What do you love and hate about the porn industry?" Lori: "What I hate about it is that our relationships are bad. What I love about it is that you get to have sex every day." Duke: "Don't you get sick of it?" Lori: "No. Of course not." Duke: "Surely, sometimes, you have to have sex when you don't want to." Lori: "That's true. That's a good point. Most of the time you're f---ing somebody you don't want to f---. That's hard. But you also have to look at it as a profession. This is my career. You have to go to work and you have to work with people you don't want to work with. Just like any other job. When you're sitting at your desk, you don't want to be sitting beside somebody you don't like. Sometimes, when I go to work, I sit beside someone I don't like, or I f--- someone I don't like." Jimmy butts in again. Duke: "Jimmy, Jimmy, Jimmy. "So what are your ambitions?" Lori: "I'm successful right now. I have a feature dancer agency." Duke: "I hear that acrobatic dancing is hard on the body." Lori: "It is hard on the body. And I'm the only one who does it. Look at the girls who've burned out." Jimmy: "Nikki Lynn [who divorced her husband and lost a 12-year old child] was a Nude Miss America. I shot her first scene. She could do headstands and all that stuff." Lori: "It's different from me. I do them in stilettos. It's different because it is very dangerous. "She has a smoking hot body. She and I feature danced in Providence, Rhode Island a year ago." Jimmy repeats, just in case we missed it and failed to be suitably awed: "I shot her very first scene in the porn business." Duke: "Do you think the sex industry or the regular world is more racist?" Lori: "Both are racist. It's very hard. If you're Asian it's easier than if you're black. If you're black, it's really hard. I don't care how good you are. I was the first ethnic in 40-years. It was very hard for me. I do things you've never seen in your life and it is still very hard for me. I'm Baisian. If I were pure black..." Duke: "Do you consider yourself black?" Lori: "Yes, I do." Jimmy butts in: "It is very hard for black girls in this business. I know that." Lori: "I was able to make it because I'm very small and petite. It's not fair." Jimmy: "The world's not fair." Lori: "Dude, of course you're right." Jimmy: "It's not fair that 180,000 have died in Sudan in an act of genocide. But you're not Sudanese. You're safe from that." Here I am trying to have a nice pleasant conversation with a porn girl I've just met and Jimmy's going off on his genocide rant. Jimmy: "If a girl's black and she can't rise to a certain level in the porn business, that's not as unfair as a lot of other people on planet earth." I step between Jimmy and Lori. I turn to Jimmy. "Ok." Jimmy's perfectly happy ruining my interview. "I'm just trying to add a little excitement to your interview," he says. Duke: "Do you have a preference in the men you date?" Lori: "Maybe you shouldn't record this, but all the men I date are white." Jimmy: "Are fat Italian guys." Jimmy tells me afterwards: "She's full of herself. Done 20 scenes and she thinks she's all that. "All these kids think they're reinventing the wheel when they can barely turn a camera on... They all think they're doing something unique, but I shot that same scene eight years ago." 11pm. I stand outside with the smokers. Many of them are shivering from the 60-degree cold. Genesis awaits the arrival of her new boyfriend. She met him at Sardos last Thursday night. He's a band manager (In Ending) and works for Sony. She shivers and smokes. Duke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Genesis: "A singer. Once I got older, rock. When I was younger, the stuff my mother listens to (country)." Duke: "What kind of student were you?" Genesis: "I was honor roll until I hit highschool. I was introduced to marijuana. That was seventh grade. I just started skipping highschool because I hate drama. I didn't want to be around all the crazy people. People were always wanting to start s---. There was fighting. "My freshman year I went to a bad school. Then I went to a school were everyone was rich and I wasn't." Duke: "What kind of crowd did you hang with?" Genesis: "Everybody. I have friends from all sorts of groups." Duke: "How old were you when you lost your virginity?" Genesis: "Fourteen. I met him three days before. We were joking about it and then it just happened." She says she slept with six guys in highschool. "I started [in porn] three days after I turned 18 with girl-girl stuff for websites." Genesis turns 21 next month. Duke: "How has all the gossip over the past six months affected you?" Genesis: "It's not. People will be children. Jealousy seems to be a big problem in the industry. All the girls seem to feud against each other. Relationships are s----- in the industry. Don't do it. "What's good about [porn] is that I am finally getting a chance to fulfill my fantasies. I am a big exhibitionist. I love to be watched. I love that guys are jacking off to me. "Fans. I think it's cool to have them. It's a weird feeling to think that there are people out there who are fans. Not so much creepy, but at AVN, I'd only been in the industry since July, and my first scene came out in August, and I met a guy who brought every boxcover I was on and asked me to sign it." Duke: "What are your ambitions and dreams?" Genesis: "I'm trying to work on my singing and get it out there, but I have a feeling that it's not going to work out. I plan to stay as long as I can in the industry. I'm taking a course in web design. I'm a big internet geek. I plan to start my own company, like everybody wants to do." Duke: "How did family and friends react when you became a porn star?" Genesis: "Most of them know what I do. My mom thinks I only do girl-girl. My dad thought it was cool. 'Get into Playboy.' Everyone one said, do your thing. You're making money." Duke: "How has your time in the industry affected you?" Genesis: "I'm finally living. "I grew up fast before I even got in the industry. I'm on my own for the first time. No family, friends." Duke: "Does that make you more vulnerable to temptation to do things you shouldn't do?" Genesis: "Not at all." Duke: "How do you set your limits?" Genesis: "I do what I like. I did some things that I probably didn't want to do but I did them anyway because I thought they would be fun or interesting to try." Skye dated Brett Rockman for eight-and-a-half months. Duke: "What are the perils of dating within the industry?" Genesis: "It's difficult because you really can't have the physical relationship that you'd have with someone who is not in the industry, and to me that's important. And that the guy I was dating was way older than me. "I had a boyfriend when I got in the industry. He made me choose between him and porn. And here I am. "I'm dating a new guy. He's cool with it. We're having a good time. That might be it." Keiko: "Seventeen is the most widely used number in the Bible." Genesis Skye: "Ooooooh. That upsets me." Genesis's birthday is May 17. Keiko and Genesis discuss religion. Genesis just got a new tattoo on the back of her neck. It's an ancient Celtic symbol which has taken over by Christianity to symbolize the trinity. Genesis: "Don't tell Derek." Her agent at LADirectModels doesn't like his girls getting tattoos. Genesis: "I love Derek." Keiko hates Derek: "He was my agent for five months and he got me four shoots. People would call wanting to book me and he'd say I was a lousy performer." Keiko's birthday is May 18. On May 19, Genesis leaves for New York to do the Howard Stern Show. "I just found out that my German penpal isn't dead. He's a really good friend of mine [even though they've never met]. I hadn't heard from him since September. I was afraid he had drugged himself to death." Moses Bennett and Dick Tracy release Hardcore Havasu next week through XWorx. I see a couple and I ask them if they work in the industry. They say yes, behind the scenes for Black Widow Productions. She is the most beautiful woman I've seen in my life. I've seen her throughout the night and wondered about her story. She's so beautiful it hurts. She doesn't want to be photographed. She has classic Italian looks. She is so beautiful I repeatedly force myself not to stare at her. I chat with her boyfriend and even when she asks me a question, I force myself to keep looking at him. If I were to gaze for more than a second at her, I might dissolve into a puddle. He's an editor. She's in advertising. I walk to my car shivering and drive home. I toss and turn on my floor and listen to Barry Manilow's Greatest Hits until falling asleep. I see too much beauty on my job and it hurts because I want to possess it and it is not mine to take.
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