On Set With Holly Wellin, Chelsea Zinn, Tricia Oaks

12/28/04

I arrive on set at 11am. A woman in her late 30s, Lexi Simone, waits at the door for somebody to open it. I turn the handle and she follows me in.

It's a lesbian movie pairing older women with younger women.

Ron Sullivan is in one room shooting a scene.

Kenny Carolina, production manager, and Bill Diehl, photographer, are in the kitchen.

I look at some of Bill's pictures of a tall blonde. Chelsea Zinn.

"Is that the younger woman?" I ask.

"No," he says. "That's the older woman."

Chelsea works with pig-tailed Tricia Oaks.

When Bill asked Tricia to touch herself during the still shoot, Tricia was shy and awkward.

Rob Spallone is shooting a softcore girl-girl movie Wednesday for Penthouse. It will be his second for the company. The house he wanted to use is no longer accessible because of all the rain. The road to it washed away.

Bill Diehl shot the stills for Rob's first Penthouse shoot a couple of weeks. His favorite girl of all time was on the shoot - porn star Nyomi, the sister of porn star Jade Marcella.

Nyomi and Jade did one scene together for Jade's website.

Nyomi said it was no big deal for her sister to go down on her.

Jade says it was no big deal.

I guess incest is no big deal.

11:30am. Ron's finished the scene. He comes out and sees a woman he doesn't know in the kitchen.

Kenny Carolina assumed it was my girlfriend.

"I'm Lexi Simone," she says.

"I am my kid's mom," says Bill Diehl, echoing Dr. Laura.

Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Chelsea Zinn Chelsea Zinn Chelsea Zinn Johnny Zinn Johnny Zinn Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Lexi Simone Holly Wellin Holly Wellin Holly Wellin Holly Wellin Holly Wellin

"You're young enough to be my granddaughter," says Ron to Lexi. "I don't like this older women, younger women. How about experienced women?"

Lexi likes that name more.

She's been in porn for ten days. "I just moved to Southern California in July. I got burned out on my job that I had done for a dozen years. I managed cosmetics for different department stores. I'm taking a break. I wanted to make money. I like sex.

"I've done a couple of photo shoots and one video. I was with a man, the producer/director..."

Her face scrunches up with distaste. "I'm bad with names. I think his first name was Fred. In his late 40s."

How was the scene?

"Her face scrunches up. "Not too exciting. He was wearing Sponge Bob boxers. I love Sponge Bob but it just didn't do anything for me.

"I do guys, girls, interracial, group, anal, depending on how big they are. I'm not going with anybody who's going to rip me in half."

How did you get in?

"I looked through the LA Weekly and found World Modeling. I went in there and that was it. I met with the world-famous Jim South. He's a cool guy."

How long do you want to stay in the industry?

"Until I don't have fun anymore."

Do you think you'll ever be able to have as much fun as your first video shoot?

She laughs. "I'm hoping for more fun. It's got to get better."

Kenny: "You should know that Luke is a Republican."

Lexi's face scrunches up. "Oh please."

Kenny: "He loves Bush. He doesn't like our industry. He just reports on it."

Lexi: "Bye."

I'll treat you like a flower.

Lexi: "Ok. I'll be your flower."

If you were a flower, what type of flower would you be?

She laughs. "A rose. Pretty to look at but with sharp parts of my personality. If you're bad, I'll be bad back. You better treat me right or I will prick you."

Lexi was married for nine years. "All my gay friends say he's definitely gay. When I used to take him to gay clubs, men would be hanging all over him and he wouldn't even stop them."

When you were a little girl, what did you want to be when you grew up?

"Somebody famous. Like a dancer in Vegas. On stage."

Lexi was saving her virginity for marriage. Then she got to age 22 and she decided she couldn't wait any longer. She and her boyfriend got a Motel 6 in the middle of nowhere and did the deed. "It was horrible." They tried it a few more times. Lexi wasn't into it. She moved on to other men. She says she's only been with 20 men in her life.

Have you ever met a man and done him that night?

"Oh yeah. Especially lately. When I moved to LA, I started meeting people on the Internet and they turned into one-night deals. I didn't want it to be that way."

Lexi still tells everybody that she is a "freelance make-up artist."

Lexi says that working in cosmetics was not a good way to meet men. About the only ones she'd meet on the job were boyfriends and husbands who were bored to tears. There was one thing they wanted however -- red glossy lips on their wives.

At World Modeling, Lexi mentioned that she had never had sex with a black guy. Two black guys then offered to give her practice black sex for free. She declined.

"They both said the same line -- 'Once you go black, you'll never go back.' Hmm."

Tricia Oaks asks Bill Diehl for some free photos.

Kenny: "It only requires one trip to the bathroom."

It's a funny line because Bill doesn't hit on the women. Sometimes they hit on him because he's a nice guy and he's rich.

Chelsea Zinn has been working in adult entertainment for years but has only been making movies for five months. She's done 20 as has her husband Johnny Zinn.

Holly Wellin, a beautiful blonde from England who married an American porn cameraman a couple of months ago, walks in. She's tired. She just took a red-eye flight from Philadelphia. She spent nine days there with her new in-laws.

She told them she was a model. That she appeared in Hustler. That her husband worked on commercials.

Her mother-in-law is a strict Catholic.

Holly forgot her AIDS test. "What a knobhead," she moans.

Kenny volunteers to inspect her for anything unusual.

Instead, Holly calls AIM. She finds out, to her disgust, that her test is expired (more than 30 days old).

She drives off to AIM.

Kenny books two other girls to replace her. Whoever gets there first will get the scene.

Ron remembers booking talent for a movie in 1979. "Whoever got their first got the scene and the second person got $100 for trying. They came fast."

Tricia Oaks, from Thousand Oaks, has been in porn a month.

How many movies?

She counts with her fingers and stops at five.

She's going golfing in the friends. "My friends and I like to do weird things."

How did you get into this?

"From a friend in NA."

Tricia explains to Bill that NA stands for Narcotics Anonymous.

Tricia says she used to stick heroin needles into her arm at 15.

Bill's amazed.

Tricia jokes that she's graduated NA. "I don't use drugs now. That's how my uncle died."

Bill: "So you kept up the tradition?"

Tricia: "I had to. A sign of respect."

We talk about her past scenes.

Tricia: "T.T. Boy tried to get most of his money. I didn't work with him. I worked with his cousin Jacob. He's the first director I worked with."

Tricia's happy with the photos Bill took. "I usually cringe at my photos."

Kenny Carolina talks about what a horrible driver Ron Sullivan is. That his previous car did not have a square inch that had not been dented. The one time he got a ride from Ron was a frightening experience.

Why Can't Luke Make Porn Stars Look Glamorous?

James DiGiorgio writes Luke: "your photography sucks beyond belief. get a new camera, learn how to use the one you use, or quit posting that crap... you ain't helping out your subjects publishing images of them that look like that. there's amateurs who can do better using a 19th century pinhole camera."

Why would people imagine that I write or photograph my subjects to help them? I do it as a service for my readers and as an expression of my autistic impulses.

Porn star Taylor Wane writes in the LF.com 3/15/01 update:

Dear Luke,

It so disappoints me when I see this kind of media being published. Why can't you spend your time making the stars and the industry look glamorous instead of reporting crap like that email.

It also amazes me that a lot of guys like the one that sent you that email thinks that any one over the age of 18 is old. Not all men are pedophiles, most men like a women that doesn't giggle while having sex or that are mature enough to hold a conversation. I really wish you would remove that report about me, it bothers me. Not the fact that the guy thinks I am old, I couldn't care less that he is into under age children and considers me old but the fact that you are showing me in a bad light.

Please talk about my movies or dance career, or web site or something that I work very hard at every day and something I have spent a whole career to achieve.

Do me a favor Luke, show me that you have humanity and please remove that report. I would greatly appreciate it. It seems to me that when ever a guy doesn't hear what he wants to hear. (That i will be a 2 bit hooker because they have no money) they threaten to report it to you. Are you to be just poison to the adult talent, or someone that we respect and would like to confide in.

Luke replies: "Taylor, it is my job to report on the sex industry, good, bad or indifferent... I have no desire to make you guys look glamorous or bad, I just report it like it is..."

Taylor Wane's Available

3/12/01 Mark writes TaylorWane.com: "Just read about your trip to St Marteens. Are you available for private shows in the LA area?"

Taylor replies to Mark: "Sure, it is 1500 an hour. 1600 by credit card."

Mark writes Luke: "Luke, Is she smoking crack or what? She is another Ryan Conner, finding idiots to pay outrageous prices for used up -----."

Taylor Wane replies to Luke: "I'm not sure why you sent me this. I don't appreciate this kind of publicity. The only way a loser like this could get used up??? ----- like me is to pay a high price for it."

Joe writes: "i might be mistaken but the last time i saw taylor wane was many years ago .last time i saw her in a movie was on the prowl 2 jamie gillis movie. all i can say she was hot then more than likelly hotter now i like olde pornstars."

Mark writes Luke: "For $1500 an hour you think she would LOVE all the publicity she can get. I know guys with PhDs who don’t get $100 an hour. My attorney gets $300 and he “f---s” me!!! For $1500 an hour I should get to bang her asshole till she cant walk. I should get head till her teeth fall out. After that she should do my laundry(whites) and wash my dirty dishes (nude of course)."

BrandyAlx1: "Even for services of prostitution, you should tell Taylor that it violates the merchant agreements of all the major credit cards to charge a higher fee or surcharge to people using them. Anyone has been charged more for using a credit card should report it and get a refund."