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7/15/01 I arrived at the South Hall Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles before 11AM Sunday and within five minutes, I'd walked around the show. I stayed on for another mind numbing three hours before fleeing from boredom at 2PM. I used to think that if I had a sufficiently long lever (the internet) and a decent fulcrum (l-keford.com) that I could move the world. Alas, this seems not to be the case, at least with this fulcrum. In fact, between porn and the race angle, I am getting pretty bored with all of this. I am getting repetitious. And the fact that no benefits accrue to me for my prodigious efforts on behalf of humanity here does not help matters any. Attendance was down Sunday and it seemed there were fewer booths than any other year of the show. On the positive side, the overall attendance for the show has never been higher, and we probably had proportionately more women this year than ever. A woman I saw in synagogue Friday night said she wanted to go. I checked in with a nice lady at the media section who gave me my pass. She said the show's going great and without incident. It is not as hardcore as some would but that would provoke crackdowns from the many undercover cops walking around. I walk into the show and into the arms of Adella, Digital Playground's loving publicist. Tony Montana, HIV positive hispanic porn star and husband to Laurie Holmes, walks over and gives me some paperwork about the December 9th AIDS marathon in Honululu (AIDSMarathon.com). Tony is Runner Number 0001 if you care to donate. Tony parrots Cole Tucker's line that he's trying to be a gracious host to the HIV virus. Montana, who runs eight miles a day, says he will outlive me. "Keep up the gossip, Luke," says Montana. "Everybody's gotta make a living." I hear that Jay Shanahan aka Jim Enright divorced his wife Tiffany, an ex-porn star. Jay's now taken up with a redheaded porn star and Tiffany's marrying a man in porn. I find VCA's corner in the Goalie Entertainment section. Vivid also took a corner. Their tall blonde contract girl Dascha signs. Julie Meadows and Shelby Myne sign for VCA. Neither VCA or Vivid gets anything out of the show as they don't sell to the public. But they're taking space as a favor to AVN, which runs the show. I sit and schmooze with VCA's Marty Turkel and Ed Kaile. There's been lots of theft at the Goalie booth. Fans walking off with DVDs and tapes. Rob Spallone arrives with his beautiful wife of 14 years Elaina, who says that in her 20s, she could've wiped the floor with the porn girls. Elaina feels bad that she and Rob missed church this morning. They keep going to different churches so they don't get too well known and thrown out. Saturday Rob Spallone disrupted a KCBS TV interview of folks at AIM Healthcare. Rob went off on a tirade about how crappy AIM is. Mainstream media assume that AIM is the key adult industry health clinic and they never question their assumption. When Rob tells them things they don't want to hear, they try to avoid him. "The cameraman ended up getting mad at me," says Rob. Luke: "Why? Because you ruined his interview?" Rob: "Yeah. I ruin everybody's interview." Spallone collars Theresa Flynt, who hosted a fundraiser at Hustler Hollywood for AIM Friday night and raised $10,000, and tells her many bad things about Sharon Mitchell and AIM. Rob says Theresa told him that she'd never heard criticisms of AIM before. He tells her, 'Don't you read l-keford.com?" She says no. Juliet Cariaga signs for AVNOnline.com. The different company booths reflect the personalities of their owners. Steve Hirsch's Vivid Video literally puts their girls on a pedestal (though not at Erotica LA). They usually sign from booths elavated several feet above the ground in front of displays featuring the classiest display advertising. Wicked puts their girls on ground level. Wicked Pictures is more accessible because its owner Steve Orenstein is accessible. I don't know anyone who has a bad word to say about low key Steve and few persons have negative comments for his formidable PR director Joy King. Wicked girls tend to show up on time and are always polite and professional and fan friendly. I never recall a loud confrontation at a Wicked booth or even harsh words. Wicked always feels like a safe place for Luke. A few weeks ago, I incorrectly reported Serenity was leaving Wicked. Not true. A preacher's kid, Wicked contract girl Devinn Lane seems like a woman I could bring home to momma. The show's longest lines are for slinkly slender Digital Playground contract girl Tera Patrick. A man donated $4000 to Sharon Mitchell's AIM Friday night at Hustler Hollywood for a date with Tera. A large crowd gathers around LoversCaughtontape.com. It features outrageous video of people unsuspectingly caught having sex. I watch a memorable snippet of what looked like a security camera capturing a secretary giving a blowjob to an executive in the elevator. Other segments show couples having sex at a baseball game. I was surprised that a number of booths showed explicit hardcore video. Elliot Segal, who owned Western Visuals, was known by many of his peers as a drug using creep. Then he got religion and became Orthodox. Except his bad behavior didn't really change. He just hid it better. He became an Orthodox Jewish pornographer who frequently acted like a drug abusing creep. He's suspected of burning down his own Western Visuals building in 1998. Segal now lives in North Carolina where he works in a car wash owned by his wife's parents. I chat with Calli Cox who's appeared in 51 movies in five months. Her boyfriend lives in Illinois. I chat with solidly built black girls Kitten, who's appeared in over 200 movies during her five years in porn, and Dianna DeVoe at the Video Team booth and try to bait them into saying something controversial. Dianna says reading l-keford.com is a guilty pleasure. "I'm always reading gossip on your site about people I don't know like Kendra Jade." Kitten's frustrated with only doing black movies. "I'd like to do more white movies. I'd like to f--- people I'm f---ing on the side personally. If you really want to see the true essence of me coming out on video, give me what I like - white boys." I saw Kitten with white stud Mark Davis at the Free Speech Coalition dinner Thursday night. Luke: "Why do you prefer white boys?" Kitten: "Because of their respect. What's been good for me has been white boys. They eat pussy all night long." Luke: "Black men don't like to eat pussy?" Kitten: "Most of them don't." Luke: "I'm like most black men." Kitten: "Why?" Fan: "If you won't lick it, you can't stick it." Luke: "I'm squeamish." Kitten: "But you want me to suck your dick, right?" Luke: "Yeah." Kitten: "I'd never date you." Luke: "I could make you a star." Kitten: "You know how many times I've heard that, from every producer and director. 'Hey Kitten, I'll make you a star. Do you want to come over later?' One thing I don't do. I don't f--- to f---. I really hate it when people assume that I will. "I know people in the business who want to hang out with me and they want to f--- me, but they don't want to put me in their movies." Luke: "You want to come make a home movie with me?" Kitten: "I've never made a home movie in my life." Luke: "Do you feel that this business has tarnished your soul?" Kitten: "My soul was already tarnished before I got into this business. I've been in the sex field for over seven years. I was a dancer and other things for two years before I got into porn." Kitten lost her virginity at age 13. "It was horrible. I wanted to cry. Then I got better at it." Luke: "Why did you get into porn?" Kitten: "For the money. I got tired of dancing. I like feature dancing but I hate dancing as a house girl." Luke: "Is pornography a great way to meet quality men?" Kitten: "Hell no." Luke: "It seems that most of the male performers in this business are always in and out of jail." Kitten: "Not that I know of. But then I only deal with quality men. Who did you see me with Thursday night?" Luke: "Mark Davis." Kitten's signing generic Video Team flyers which don't even feature her picture. Kitten: "I was late of course because I am like a star and I'm always late. I was up till 7AM. And I get here and I've got nothing to sign." We glare over at the white girl running the Video Team booth. Luke to Kitten: "Do you think that's because you're black?" Kitten giggles: "It is because I am black, dude. I am outraged." Luke: "If you were white, they'd have things here for you to sign. But they don't treat you with respect because you're black." Kitten: "Because they don't like us darkies." The white girl is cracking up because white guy Chris Mann's Video Team is known for its many black lines and its good treatment of black performers. Luke starts making up incendiary comments and attributing them to Chris Mann to try to bait Kitten. Luke: "That's just what Chris Mann tells me. 'I don't like those little darkies.'" Kitten: "If this comes up, just tell him [Chris] I was joking." Luke: "He says, 'They're good for picking my cotton.'" Kitten and the white girl are stunned. Kitten: "Oh he is so going there right now. Look out. Unless he likes to have dick picked, but that's something different." White girl moves away. "I'm not hearing any of this." Kitten: "No, it was a mixup in ordering. They ordered My Baby Got Back 25 and I'm number 24." Luke: "That's because you're a colored girl." Kitten: "Colored? I thought I was black." Luke: "What are you supposed to call them?" Kitten: "Ohmigod. Call me Kitten. Put me in some white satin sheets and f--- me the right way and my color comes right off." Kitten says she's never shot for VCA. She also wants to work for Wicked. With white guys. I see Melissa Hill, who I met when I first entered the industry in the Spring of 1996. Her boyfriend Ward@NetVideogirls.com licenses content. She introduces me to the owner Anthony who says the site boasts over 12,000 members. Anthony: "We keep our noses clean. We're in LA and Orange County. We offer streaming video on our site and we give people the ability to download clips. We create storylines. Its shot point of view. Everybody tests at AIM. We do our own casting. We work with very few porn stars. "We place ads in the LA Weekly and we pay well, about $1200 for a one hour scene. The traditional agents tell me that I don't know what I'm doing. That I shouldn't pay so much. "I can shoot and post it and get reactions that same day." Anthony is the male talent in his shoots. So far he's done on video over 100 girls. "We're like a little Disney. We shoot our own content. We've got our own content. We control everything. We've got nine employees." Anthony introduces me to Felony, a brunette who appears in the September Hustler. She's all over me, trying to make a sale. Her hands caress almost all my erogenous zones as she presses tight against me and rubs her pliant thighs against mine. She lightly twists my nipples and breathes into my ear that I really want to buy an autographed photo for $10. I'm embarrassed. This goes on for what seems like several minutes until we disengage. I protest that I am a disinterested journalist who's uninterested in pornography. Felony does a five man gangbang in Tales from the Clit 2. Felony: "I fired my old agent Rio aka Lisa of PYT. She's the worst agent/manager you could ever have. She not only tries to get you to do things you don't want, but she threatens you if you don't go along. When I fired her, she threatened to take my kids away from me. "If you want to do your own thing, you should self represent and not go with any agents. "Derek King. I worked for him for two days and fired his ass the next day. Our agreement was that he would not try to screw me literally in any of my scenes because I did not think that was professional. I didn't think that was appropriate for a business relationship. "The first four movies he lined up for me were with him. He conned me into doing one movie with him for David Lace. He said it was for Private magazine and he got me all confused. "David Lace is a wonderful guy." In her three years in porn, Felony's appeared in over 150 videos. "Extreme Associates prepare you for what they do. They tell you upfront how they do things and if you can't handle it, then don't do it. I did very hardcore stuff for them but I was able to handle it. They didn't force me to do anything." Luke: "How do you think the industry has the affected you?" Felony: "I quit. I only do pretty girls [nude photography] and I only work for Hustler now. Being in the industry for three years has affected me to the point where it gives me problems with my own fiance. I don't belief that if you have a partner, that you should go out and be with other people. Once I met him, that started messing with my head. And so I had to get out of the industry. "I'm glad that I've done the porn and become known. I had a wonderful experience and I don't regret any of it. But I'm glad I'm out. You can only take it to a limit." Actress Carrie Fisher and pimp Dennis Hof stop by Digital Playground to say hello to Adella O'Neal. Kevin Moore from StunningCurves.com says: "I don't get it. Steve Hirsch actually shook your hand Thursday night. Why? And posed for pictures. Is the porn world mellowing out on you? I would never shake your hand if I were Steve Hirsch." I introduce myself to several porn stars and everyone, including Violet at Dane Productions, reads my web site regularly. Gabor at Heatwave says: "Brigitte Kerkove was supposed to sign for me. But they called me Friday morning. They had to take her to the hospital. Her face was swollen from an infection. "That's Caramel [black girl wearing a silver dress] who's signing for me. She got her new boobies a few months ago and now she's a star and everybody wants to shoot her." I run into a TV cameraman who finds the show "dull, dull, dull. I've been to livelier shivas [Jewish mourning]." I leave and drive home. I realize this is crass...but photographing beautiful women, and yes I think many women in porn are beautiful, gives me a feeling of accomplishment. Taking a few good photos of a woman gives me an internal sensation akin to having f---ed her. I feel now like I've just returned from a day where I f---ed a dozen beautiful women. I'm sorry if your day has not been as satisfying.
Amused writes: I had to laugh at the new photo of you with Tony Montana. Gee, it seems like just yesterday Tony was serving you a summons at CES 2000 for the now dismissed Laurie Holmes defamation suit. What a difference a year makes. *sigh* Luke says: Just because we sue each other doesn't mean that we don't love each other.
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