5/23/06
Vivid Girl Lux Kassidy Shoots Her First Movie
Lux Kassidy Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Shylar Shylar Shylar eats a breakfast burrito (not safe photo) Shylar eats Shylar Shylar Shylar Shylar Shylar eats Missy Monroe Missy Monroe Missy Monroe Missy Monroe Missy Monroe Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Missy smokes Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux, Christian Lux, Christian Lux, Christian Lux, Christian Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Lux, Christian Lux, Christian Lux Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Kassidy Lux Christian, Lux Christian, Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Lux Lux Lux Lux Kassidy Lux Kassidy Gram Cracker Gram from South Africa Chloe Diore Chloe, Gram Chloe Chloe
Holly Randall shot stills of Lux two weeks ago. "She was really nice and had a good sense of humor. She was personable. If I liked girls, I'd have a crush on her."
I go on set with Vivid Tuesday at Lux's invitation and run into my old pal Shylar. I remember when he was Reb Sawitz's assistant at Pretty Girl International. A long-haired stoner, Shylar would tear up over Little House on the Prairie reruns. For the past eight years, he's been working as a production manager and producer for Vivid.
He has a six year old boy who helps him with the boxcovers -- just kidding! His blonde British wife Catherine, a slender former Vivid PA who got him his job, now stays home and looks after the house, child and Shylar's insatiable urges.
I arrive at 10:15 a.m. to the Iny estate in Encino. I believe the house was bought for shooting porn and that (David?) Iny owned another porn shooting house for the past five years.
The place is gorgeous, up in the hills, with a sweeping view of the Valley. Yet nobody lives here. It's tranquil beauty is wrecked on a regular basis by pornographers who pay about $1,500 a day for the privilege of taking what is innocent and whoring it out.
I look at the trees and the flowers, let my eyes rest on the waterfall, hear the singing of the birds, feel the beating of my heart, and in the depths of my soul, I cry for what I could've been.
I ask Shylar what happened to him. His hair is cut short. Is he still with Catherine?
"It was our 12-year anniversary last Sunday. I have a kid that's six. I just followed the paycheck and it took me corporate. I couldn't kick that stoner image with the hair."
Luke: "Do you have to pee in a bottle every month for Vivid?"
Shylar: "Absolutely not. Vivid is not that corporate. It's still a version of the wild west. We're more corporate than Metro and less corporate that Hustler. It's a comfortable middle for me."
Luke: "Catherine was a PA for Vivid."
Shylar: "Until I got her pregnant."
Luke: "Was that part of the plan?"
Shylar: "Yes. I married a hot chick so I could get into the business. Ten years ago, it was so wild west. And now it's a factory. Even the gonzo porn is factory."
Shylar explains the movie's story: "The director Anderson Pop (portrayed by director B. Skow's assistant Gram Crackers) is a drunk. Nobody can find him because he's drinking. So we just use the behind-the-scenes footage to cut a movie, so every scene is an over-acted stereotypical sex scene. We shoot the pizza delivery guy. We shoot the 'My boyfriend just broke up with me,' girl-girl."
He explains his "Zen of porn production. You just go with the punches. Why worry about it? It ain't going to change. You can't get mad at talent and hold grudges. There aren't enough of them. You're going to have to go with it."
A crew member: "Shylar is a friend of all."
Shylar: "I cater to the crew rather than the talent."
I check out the crafts service. It's a Vivid set so things are lavish. Lots of chocolates and granola bars.
The only thing we're short on is women. There aren't any until Lux finally arrives at 10:35 a.m. and reinforces our shaky heterosexual inclinations.
Like men locked at sea, we were beginning to question our most deeply held beliefs.
I see my friend Jace Rocker who gives me a weary smile and wave and says that he can't dislike me personally.
How slow he's been to forgive my fleeting but tawdry 2001 affair with his ex-wife Britt Morgan.
I learn from that exchange that Jace and women are not things and their feelings are not to be trifled with.
Oh, but such wild ecstasy it was to have Britt visit the hovel, share a few minutes on my internet radio show, and then off together to a glorious dinner at a kosher restaurant climaxed by a hug goodbye.
"I deliver divine karma," I tell Jace.
"That's supposed to be a negative thing," he notes.
"I just give people what they deserve," I reply. "I'm God's servant. Would you disagree with that?"
He laughs.
A guy says: "He's cocked and ready to go."
Jace: "There are people who get on buses and strap themselves with bombs and kill people in the name of God."
"Do you think I strap on bombs and go to porn sets and blow people up metaphorically?"
Jace laughs. "Yes. Most of the folks in this business are just trying to make a living."
Yeah, and so are drug dealers.
Luke: "I thought you were an artist. I thought you accepted a higher calling. You had the soul of an artist until you sold it."
Jace moves away from me, laughing. "I'm smart enough to know what he's doing," he tells the crew.
That Jace Rocker can be a real downer for my hard-hitting exposes.
I tell him, "The truth will set you free."
A crew guy: "So will a bullet."
John, the 20yo PA, won't shake hands. He's germphobic. He keeps washing his hands throughout the day.
Shylar raves about Kurt Lockwood's performance last night (day one of the two-day seven sex-scene shoot) as the pizza delivery guy. "He'd done a thousand scenes in four years and never been a pizza delivery guy. We really cheesed it up."
Director B. Skow torches the nacho cheese chips while waiting for Lux to get out of make-up.
Skylar fills out pages of paperwork, including an entry for the director's vision for the boxcover: "A close-up beauty shot of Lux."
Marketing purpose: "Lux's first Vivid title. Shot on HD."
B. Skow: "No condoms."
Shylar produces the Monique Alexander movie Cherry Bomb starting May 24.
Shylar: "Porno - bad acting, bad food, no money, no time."
Shylar says his wife demands that he be monogamous. He did take a distinct fancy to the naturally busty Sarah Stone yesterday.
From an overheard whispered exchange between Jace and the videographer, I gather that I wrote something horrible and inaccurate about the videographer about eight months ago.
When I offer to correct mistakes, the guy says he'd prefer me to never write about him again.
But how can I do that if I don't even know his name or social security number?
The director's (B. Skow) opening shot reminds me of Robert Altman's in The Player.
A videographer plays a camera guy shooting an oiled Christian in tight trunks. "You're a Greek Adonis!" yells the photog as Lux drives up and walks in the house, followed by the director.
After the shot, I ask Christian if the photographer brought out his inner beauty.
"Absolutely," says Christian. "I'm hoping it'll lead to something more."
Christian says that every time he works for B. Skow, the director makes him wear something stupid.
"Is it some kind of homo-erotic thing on the director's part?" I ask.
"That's it exactly," drawls Christian.
Lee Garland, the flaming make-up artist and versatile actor, tells the director that Lux is tearing in one eye.
"You hit her, didn't you Lee?" challenges a crew member.
"How many minutes of double anal?" Missy asks the director.
In porn 15 years, B. Skow has mainly made boxcovers for Vivid. He's directed six movies, all in the past year.
Missy Monroe drives up. She has a new tattoo on her shoulder. She used to be skinny with B-cupped breasts but now she's curvy with D-cup breasts. She's a feature dancer, just back from a club in Pennsylvania.
A month ago, she moved her father in with her.
"I flew him out on 4/20," she grins.
They smoke pot together. "It's hard for a pot-smoker to get a job," she says. So her dad is now her assistant and roadie. He collects the money from the fans as they line up in the strip club to get polaroids with Missy.
She's encouraged several strippers from the club to fly out to Los Angeles and become porn stars.
One stripper she met at the club is deaf and dumb. She carries a note pad with her around the club to interact with customers.
"What percentage of your customers ejaculate during a lap dance?" I ask.
"None, if I can help it," she says. "You stop making money if they ejaculate. Only stupid girls allow a guy to come because then they make no money."
She says at the Crazy Horse club in San Francisco the strippers carry condoms around with them when they prowl for customers.
One customer in Pennsylvania last weekend paid $300 for 30-minutes of private dancing. The stockbroker was so drunk he fell asleep after five minutes.
The previous night, he spent $900 on her.
Missy says she's never done a private.
Missy's dad hasn't been laid since he arrived in Los Angeles. "He wants a hardbelly. Jim Lane offered him a scene with Kat. She was game but he didn't want any guys around. He's not ready."
"He walks my dog and does my dishes and and cleans my house and does all the stuff he made me do when I was a kid," she says with a giggle.
"How long since you lived with him?" I ask.
"Since I was 14. It's cool to have my dad around. I didn't have much of that when I was a kid."
"Who's idea was it for him to move in?"
"I gave him a roundtrip ticket for ten days and then I wouldn't let him leave."
Luke: "How does he feel about porn?"
Missy: "He's learning about it from behind the scenes. He's never bought a porn video or a porn magazine. He's different from the guys who come to conventions and try to feel your butt and your breasts and your crotch. When guys do that, I punch them (three times that's happened)."
In porn for three years, Missy Monroe still works several days a week.
"I was told, 'It's going to slow down. You're not going to get any work. Make sure you save all your money. It's not going to be around long.' I saved my money. I'm still working every day."
Missy got pulled over and ticketed the other day for an expired registration. Then the officer gave her another ticket for an expired driver's license.
Monroe directed her first movie for Defiance Films - Big Tit Whores. It came out in January. She's frustrated that she can't find any reviews of it.
She says the wrong credits (from Taylor Rain's Spunk in the Trunk) ran on the movie. Missy's not satisfied with the lighting and she's annoyed she did not get to sit in on the editing. She wants to learn editing.
"The credits said Barry Wood did the camera. It was Chris Hall. It said Nate was my PA when it was Tory Lane. I had Cheyenne the photographer and it says I used Todd Todd. Cheyenne is like $900 a day. My boxcover was the best."
Keith O'Conner from Defiance Films responds to my inquiry:
Yes, Missy was correct regarding the incorrect credits. The first batch we had made for screeners had the incorrect credits at the end. It was corrected before it went to replication. Missy's a great girl and she took her directing of this title very seriously. Her and Tory Lane (Missy's Production Manager for this movie) controlled this production from start to finish and the end product was great. Big Tit Whores had a strong 'ship day' numbers wise, but we were most pleased with the amount of re-orders; which shows us how well received the title has been with consumers.
What I liked the most was that Missy picked up on things such as the lighting, the variances in camera angles, even scene pairings! We're also planning a joint production between Missy and Taylor Rain, as the two of them really hit it off here in the offices when Missy came in for an interview with Taylor Rain, collectively they had some great ideas for upcoming projects. We've already chosen a second title for Missy to direct for Torrid Entertainment and that will start production in June.
We've also inked Tory Lane top make her directing debut in June for Torrid Entertainment!
I overhear Shylar says to the crew: "And he's all proud about being a sex offender."
He won't elaborate when I press him.
She started nude modeling at 19. She's just turned 21. She says this is her first porn movie. She only does girls. She plans to have a long porn career.
"What made you decide to do hardcore?" I ask.
"I decided when I was walking around AVN [in January in Vegas] and seeing all the girls."
Her boyfriend shot her first nude shoot.
As I'm walking out, I spot Christian lying on a couch. Half the time I see the guy on a set he's trying to sleep.
Khunrum writes:
You know Luke, these are porn women but you never take pictures of them doing anything porn oriented, like being nude for instance. Photos of them engaging in nasty behavior would be great but pics of them without clothes would be a good start. What you give us week after week are scantily clad but nevertheless dressed vacation like photos of young women doing nothing. Sheeeeeeezzzz! We can see this type of material at the local mall. And what interest does a bearded tattooed guy eating a burrito wrap have for your readers?. You may as well take photos of regular people dining at Taco Bell. Thin gruel buddy.....very thin.
I'm sorry, buddy, that you are not spiritual enough to glimpse the higher meaning of my work.
