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A Chat With Director Devan Sapphire

I've known him about eight years and we've usually been on good terms.

DCypher (DV8cultx.com) phones me back Sunday (March 19, 2006) at 3:55 p.m.

He is memorialized as a wonderful lover in this Rachel Kramer Bussell essay.

DCypher (Devan Sapphire): "I don't understand why you are being really mean to Heidi for no apparent reason. I understand that you're mad that you believe she had you thrown off a set [about three years ago].

"My movie Wonderland received an Editor's Choice in the February AVN.

"I understand that people are upset but I don't see why I have to get dragged into it. My movies have quality on their own.

"Why become unglued that somebody had dinner and watched a movie with your boyfriend? Heidi is dating a guy now. She's devoted to him.

"Maybe I just don't get it because I'm a polyamorous corrupt pornographer and largely liberal and I just don't understand. Even if they had sex, what's the big issue?"

Luke: "There's nothing I can say that can communicate to you how different people have different emotional reactions to these things."

DCypher: "As I watch this drama play out, it seems distasteful. I can't imagine that people would want to go to you and put their personal life on the web.

"I feel bad for Heidi. I think it is cheap that you allow people to post stuff anonymously.

"Are you hunting for -- did I bribe Heidi to get a good review in AVN?"

Luke: "Did you spend a weekend with Heidi in Vegas and have sex with you?"

DCypher: "I have never had sex with Heidi. I took Heidi to Vegas [about three weeks ago]. A friend was having people over. I told Heidi I was going out there. She asked me if she could come along. We drove out to Vegas. We hung out with my friend in bars.

"Next day we got up and left and came back to LA and had lunch with my girlfriend (Justine Jolie) and Tristan Taormino.

"The relationship I have with Heidi is completely platonic. I talk to her often on the phone. Sometimes we do lunch.

"Before I got into directing, I was doing PR for Sin City. I was used to being around all these people from AVN. I hang out with Pete Warren. I went out to his house Friday night.

"I hung out with him last night at the Wikitiki party [for Cctavio Arizala's book]."

Luke: "Rachel Bussell Kramer says you are an amazing lover."

DCypher: "She's really something. She wrote a glowing thing about me. Did it make you upset that I have never come on to you? I know you're lonely now that Holly and you aren't together.

"Don't you think that these attacks on Heidi are baseless and cruel?"

Luke: "I don't think they are baseless."

DCypher: "I think she's one of the only people you can't bribe.

"Reviewers in general don't get handed Ipods and PlayStation portables?"

Luke: "I haven't argued that she's any more corrupt than anyone else, including myself.

"Did Heidi write the review for Wonderland?"

DCypher: "She did. Does that mean that I can't hang out with people who review my movies? Would it be better for me to give my movies to Mark Kernes because we don't hang out?"

Luke: "I'm not making any judgments."

DCypher: "I read the quote that I had a quote from Heidi on my boxcover and that I took Heidi to Vegas and we spent the night. We had separate beds. We went to bed at midnight. We woke up at 8 a.m. and drove home. Is that unacceptable? Does that seem inappropriate?

"She's reviewed a movie I've done before and she's not given me an Editor's Choice. She gave me a 3.5 for my Sin City movie Blonde Factory."

Luke: "I don't know what AVN's policy should be about accepting gifts and fraternization."

DCypher: "I think that whatever happened with Kami and Ivan and Heidi, it is very unfortunate that this is being made public.

"I don't see how it is any more appropriate for me to go to Peter Warren's birthday party where half the people I know in the business were there.

"We invited Pete to Vegas with us. He just didn't want to go that weekend.

"Heidi doesn't live like a kingpin, like someone with buckets of money. She seems devoted to her job. She's a good friend. She's not the type of person who gives out good reviews to friends. Most people at AVN don't operate that way.

"I know how you love to salaciously spin things. There's no positive light that is going to come out on lukeisback.

"I put in a lot of work on my movies and now this is going to come out and people are going to think that I bribe AVN to get good reviews. If it was that simple, everybody at Metro would have good reviews."

Luke: "People will assimilate the information in different ways. If people want to hate you, they will seize on this."

DCypher: "That's all the internet has become -- people in this business bashing each other and not putting their names on it. I went through all of this with the pornogossip.com crap back in the day. Nobody would face up to me and admit they did any of it. What did it end up meaning? It did me a favor. It gave me a bunch more people I don't have to pretend to get along with. It's 40 less hands to shake at a convention and 40 less people I have to pretend to be nice to.

"Cindi Loftus liked my movie [The Prisoner] and I never did anything for her. I was nominated for six AVN awards and I won zero. I'm friends with Heidi, Peter, and Dan Miller. I get along with Mike Ramone, Mark Kernes, Paul Fishbein. I didn't get anything special out of it. I think I should've definitely got Best Screenplay over Camp Cuddly Pines.

"When I was the publicist for Sin City, you didn't see them winning awards and we were in [the AVN offices] all the time.

"Heidi is friends with Michael Raven. You didn't see his reviews going crazy this past year.

"I've heard stories about people who have outright tried to bribe people at AVN and been turned down. I heard a story from a guy who said he tried to bribe Gene Ross by putting $100 in the movie and that Gene pulled it out and threw it at the guy and said, 'Get the ---- out of the office.'

"What if I start writing that you are on the take? You'd probably like the attention. What if I said you were writing nice things about Holly because you were sleeping with her? That might be true. You were writing good things about suzenetcash because you were sleeping with Holly. You were on the take.

"If anyone does not believe I earned my review on Wonderland should watch Wonderland. I put my heart and soul into that movie.

"I had a shot that required special effects with the lighting. I couldn't have made that shot if I didn't have the right lighting people.

"It's not often that you see porn stars quoting Shakespeare.

"Gram Ponante gave me a good review and I definitely did not sleep with Gram. At least I think it was a good review. I can't really tell with Gram. He did say I thought I was Shakespeare, which wasn't very nice.

"You still like me, right? You still like my movies?"

Luke: "I don't watch your movies."

DCypher: "Do you watch any movies?"

Luke: "No. I hate porn."

DCypher: "Then why do you swim here? Why do you come here?"

Luke: "It's not to watch the movies. It's to tell the stories."

DCypher: "Aren't you upset that somebody created HollywoodMafia.com without you? They lived your dream. Here you are still messing around with these vapid shallow porn people that you say you can't stand. You tell me you're a Republican. You tell me you're a Jew. You tell me all this stuff. But you're still here. You date the goyim.

"Do you read the kabbalah?"

Luke: "No."

DCypher: "Are you upset that Jason Curious is? Everyone is taking that which makes you you away. Jason Curious is trying to be more Jewish than you."

Luke: "I don't feel proud when pornographers start teaching the kabbalah."

DCypher: "I've never read the kabbalah."

Luke: "Don't."

DCypher: "Are you saying I shouldn't because I'm a pornographer?"

Luke: "Yes. In my tradition, you are not supposed to study kabbalah unless you are married with kids, over 40, and fully observant of Jewish law."

DCypher: "Didn't they tell you that you are not supposed to play around in porn anymore if you wanted to be a Jew? And you're still here?"

Luke: "Yeah."

DCypher: "What does that make you?"

Luke: "Someone who doesn't live up to his ideals."

DCypher: "Are you a blasphemer? Is it kinda forgiveable? So he doesn't always eat kosher? Or is it a really big deal?"

Luke: "Plenty of people would say it was a big deal."

DCypher: "Plenty of people at your book party would say it was a big deal."

Luke: "Yeah. They're conservative."

DCypher: "I was going to say uptight."

Luke: "Most of my friends lead conservative lives.

"What's new with you?"

DCypher: "I have four movies in editing.

"I must say you're writing has gotten better. Even though I am often not thrilled with the things you choose to talk about, you have gone back to the top as far as gossip sites. I told someone the other day, I keep wanting not to read him. Some of the stuff he posts is offensive, but one out of ten stories he posts will be entertaining enough that you have to read it.

"It's just weird that when I read things that I am close to you are so off in the wrong direction."

Luke: "Do you think my writing is any better from my relationship with Holly?"

DCypher: "I found a lot of that to be really entertaining. I am most shocked by how well Holly handles the XPT people. They don't faze her. I hear the same stuff from Kimberly Kane, Ashley Blue and others how they don't take any of the people on there who are mean that seriously. They shrug it off.

"It's an evolution. A couple of years ago, people came out and started making horrible comments about each other all over the web. The end result is that some people shied away from the internet and other people became thick-skinned."

Luke: "Can you believe what Holly has let me get away with writing about her?"

DCypher: "When Scott Fayner wrote about Taylor Rain this much, they trashed him. Yes, I notice that from time to time, people will say things on your site that you talk about Holly a lot, but for the most part, people who read you have embraced her.

"I've always found that she was easy to get along with. I've never met anybody who didn't like Holly. If someone attacks her, by the time they're done arguing with her, they love her. I wish I had that level of a head. I tend to get angry."

Luke: "Jokes or tease that I could never give to any other woman, I can do to her and she'll laugh."

DCypher: "You should do a book called Luke's girls, all about her, Kendra, Mary Carey. A book about how divergent your views are but yet your tolerance of their lifestyle even though you don't believe in any of this stuff.

"I can't imagine how Mary Carey could go have dinner with those people after everything they've done."

Luke: "Are you and Justine Jolie getting married?"

DCypher: "That's the word on the street."

Director DCypher Laments Lack Of Promotion For His Film Prisoner

From www.dv8cultx.com, May 3, 2006:

When Noel Bloom was the GM for METRO, or as we liked to call him, Captain Jacuzzi, he allowed Jeff Mullen and ALL MEDIA PLAY to co-sponsor Nick Andrew's screening party for DARK ANGELS 2 while we were going head to head with the same title in the AVN Nominations. Who does that? When in the history of porn have you ever heard of a company sponsoring their competitors screening party? I don't recall it happening in the near decade I've been around. I can tell you that you'll never see WICKED or VIVID's names added to a NEW SENSATIONS screening party in this lifetime.

Maybe it's because Noel loved to hit the sauce early in the day nearly as much as he loved to tell us all stories of how he invented the Beta-Max. Do they let you hit the scotch like that at Sex Z Pictures, Mr. Bloom? Maybe it's because his memory isn't what it used to be, by his own confession, and he often takes too much on his plate to handle, then panics and leaves everyone around him hanging.

He sure did a bang up job of taking care of me and promoting PRISONER during the AVN show this year. Oh let me tell you. While Rob Rotten was signing pictures of himself most of the people in the booth with us had no clue who I was, and vice versa. And let's just say that Pam and Noel weren't too busy trying to promote the flick or set up any interviews while I was there. I spent most of my time floating around Club Jenna's booth, where I was treated like family despite the circus atmosphere of constant media attention.

I guess it shouldn't have come as any surprise that Noel showed up late and didn't walk with us to the AVN awards show, and that shortly after he accepted his lifetime achievement award he, his wife, and his son, all high tailed it out of the building, along with the wannabe publicity department from Metro, and the back East guys, stranding me and the Astrux guys before we'd even heard whether or not we'd won anything. I can't tell you how glad I was when he got the axe.

BTW- I have to laugh. Brian Gross, Adam & Eve's publicist and the point guy for the FAME awards, is the same guy who tried to keep me from walking the red carpet during the awards show because it was for "people that needed publicity like directors who were nominated for awards." PRISONER was nominated for 6 awards that went to Digital Playground and Wicked. Trust me when I tell you that I did it my way, even if Jessica Drake wasn't at all interested in interviewing me for Playboy television.

6/6/06

On Set Of DCypher's Taboo 22 From Metro

Ava Rose video of Ava Rose video of Ava Rose, Van Damage video of Charlie Laine, Celeste Star, Nevaeh video of Brooke Haven video of August video of Brooke Haven, Van Damage video of Charlie Laine, Celeste Star, Neveah, Carli Banks, Faith Leon, August, Herschel Savage video of Charlie Laine, Celeste Star, Neveah, Carli Banks, Faith Leon, August, Herschel Savage video of Charlie Laine, Celeste Star, Neveah, and Carli Banks video of Faith Leon, August, Herschel Savage

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I arrive on set at 10:20 a.m. I park on the street (and later forget about the sign that says no parking from 4pm-7pm. I pick up a $65 ticket).

DCypher looks happy to see me. "I can't remember when I last punched somebody," he admits. "It was probably when I was in bar and drunk. There have been a few people I've wanted to punch but they didn't want to fight. These days, it's not what I'm into. I try to approach people from a perspective of compassion and understanding. But I have bad days."

Ethan Cage holds the boom today. He's proud that his wife Lexi Lamour threw an elbow in a guy's throat when he grabbed her bum at McKenzie Lee's birthday party.

"I put her in karate class," boasts Ethan.

DCypher (now with Justine Jolie, he used to be married to Bunny Luv who's now the Digital Playground director Celeste) says that people who come into porn, including himself, have emotional issues they haven't dealt with. "They're put into an environment where they get a lot of attention, a lot of money, and there's access to drugs... That doesn't create the greatest environment to have a healthy functioning relationship with another human being.

"Why aren't you in a successful relationship? You have a strong moral basis. I read on your site that women find you quite dashing. What are you waiting for?"

Luke: "I hate it when people treat me like a porn person."

DCypher: "You feel like you are more than that?"

Luke: "Yeah."

DCypher: "You feel it demeans your intellectual capacity?"

Luke: "Yeah. LA Magazine says the only thing I know anything about is porn."

DCypher: "That hurts?"

Luke: "It did. It's not true. I have many dimensions."

DCypher: "Many people in the industry feel the same way. Even though they use their genitals to get paid or capture people using their genitals, they've been stereotyped. Why do you think society stereotypes like that?"

Luke: "Because sex is so powerful, anyone who trafficks in commercial sex is stigmatized, is primarily viewed as a pornographer."

DCypher: "Don't you think that's hypocritical?"

Luke: "No, it's inherent to the human condition. No society will view a commercial sex provider or entertainer as a human being."

DCypher: "Do you view porn people as inhuman?"

Luke: "No, because I know them and I don't care about their porn work."

DCypher: "What happens after they are done? Can they return to human status?"

Luke: "Generally, no."

Van Damage walks up.

DCypher: "I was just asking Luke if he felt that people in porn lack moral fibre."

Van: "How are you doing, Luke? Can I pinch your nipples?"

Luke: "No.

"They lack some boundaries. That's interconnected with morality but it doesn't encapsulate it. I don't think everyone in porn is a scumbag."

Van Damage: "What constitutes moral fibre?"

Luke: "Doing what is right."

DCypher: "You never want to answer my questions."

The crafts service Asian girl has tits to stop a bus. Her t-shirt reads "I luv my boyfriend."

I bet he loves her too.

I yell at DCypher: "I walked in here expecting to see some slamming action."

DCypher: "You've got to be the post we measure ourselves against. If you move, we'll slide into moral anarchy. How do we know if we're improving or declining?"

DCypher defends me for quoting from porners' MySpace postings. "I keep a journal. I would never dream of putting things from there on my DVSX site. A girl writes that she poisoned her girlfriend. What was that? Then they get mad when you reprint it. I'm confused why people get so upset. They want to control how it looks.

"In the MySpace era, everyone has a blog. The blogosphere is killing the news. Rupert Murdoch says it is good it is going, that personalized partisanized news is triumphing. In the age of reality TV and blogging, everyone is becoming L-ke Ford."

DCypher tells his videographer Jason Sullvan: "I don't want to alienate you like I did Barry Wood. He thought I was talking down to him. If you start to feel that I'm talking down to you, let me know."

Ava's scene requires her to act like a crazy person. She rocks back and forth screaming, "It's not real, it's not real."

She's about to cry.

Throughout the day, Ava says to me, "Luke, you're not an animal."

DCypher: "Despite what other women have said."

Luke: "Despite what Holly says."

I am a human being. I am a man.

Off camera, Ava Rose goes down on Van Damage.

I walk into the make-up room. Somebody says that Vivid girls are all powder and plastic.

Girl A: "You ever worked for Vivid?"

Girl B: "I don't think I want to."

Girl A: "I worked for them once."

I return to watch the director interviewed by a crew from Playboy's American Sex Star.

DCypher takes my recorder: "Are you lonely at night, Luke? What do you think about when you're alone? Can you hear the lambs screaming?"

The director says about his lead actress: "She has perfect shaped tear-drop breasts."

"Derek [at LADirectModels.com] asked Ava if she would be comfortable working with four guys and she said it was something she'd be interested in trying. He said she would probably feel safe on my set. We don't beat the girls up so much. It's not like a gonzo."

Ava says she would never have sex with four guys for a gonzo movie.

Luke: "How were you able to tap into the craziness for your role?"

Ava: "I came in here and I was like, 'How am I going to come in here and act?' I don't know where that crazy girl came from. I knew this crazy lady in the next door apartment who was a drug addict. I wanted to go over and save her but I was young and my parents thought I'd do drugs."

Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Ava: "Insurance fraud. I wanted to be a secret agent and insurance was the closest thing I could get.

"I know you don't twist words, Luke. People twist words."

Van Damage, dressed like a fascist, says his father and grandfather were in Auschwitz and to this day it still affects his grandfather. "He won't walk into a gas chamber."

Van: "How do you know what's right?"

Luke: "You need a transcendent moral code or it's just everyone's opinion."

From Chicago where she worked as a stripper during highschool ("because I wanted to move out of my parents house"), Nevaeh (a Penthouse Pet) moved to LA a year ago after entering porn.

She's skinny. Her t-shirt reads, "Do I make you feel fat?"

"I want to make as much money as I can," she says, "and then move back to Chicago and buy a house.

"I used to come out here two weeks of every month and it [the travel] just got so annoying."

She loves the money, beautiful women and attention that come with her work in porn.

Luke: "So how has it affected your life being a porn star?"

She pushes my recorder away and ends the interview. She finds my questions too intense.

DCypher: "I owe Metro one more movie. I'm off contract."

A light bulb explodes.

"It's the whole 6/6/06 thing," says a crew member.

DCypher: "I want to be more like Holly. No matter what you write about her, she ends up looking good. You want to put a bullet between the eyes of her friends. She writes back, 'Oh Luke, don't judge them so harshly. They didn't know I'd quit drinking.'"

In the name of his rebbe Jim Holliday, DCypher instructs the girls that their fingernail and toenail polish should match.

Joe writes: "Bless that director for wanting the girls to have their fingers & toes painted the same color. That's a real life thing that drives me crazy. Especially since women are so quick to say "That doesn't match!" to most anything a guy wears."

Ava (older by a year) and Mia Rose entered porn in February 2006.

Van Damage throws a fake tirade: "How do you expect me to act in this atmosphere? Where's my injector? Where's the water I asked for ten minutes ago?"

A crew guy who's worked in the industry for 20 years remembers when he used to stunt-cock all the time in the eighties when the main actors were limp from cocaine abuse. You didn't need an HIV-test then to jump into the action.

1:15 p.m. Charlie Lain and Nevaeh go smoke a bowl. The make-up artist requests that they do not smudge her work.

Ava Rose is strapped down. I ask DCypher if she'll be having sex while strapped up.

"Yeah," he says. "And then we'll bring in kids and they'll have sex with animals."

"Luke, you're not an animal," says Ava. "They can't have sex with you."

Referring to Van, Ava says: "Yeah, he's my daddy. He does dirty things to me because I'm a f--- hole."

I wonder if Ava (one of 15 contestants on Playboy's American Sex Star) would say such things if she truly understood how much God loved her.

Brooke Haven is asked what she would do if she got a million dollars.

Van, from behind her: "Get this strange guy out of my ass."

Playboy asks Ava repeatedly, "What would you like to say to Jenna?"

Ava doesn't know.

Who can blame her? What does one say to Jenna? "I admire your work"?

I interview Iowa's Carli Banks, in porn for 18-months. "I only do girl-girl.

"I signed up one 1Modelplace.com.

"My boyfriend at the time (for a year, ended a year ago) was always looking at porn. 'That chick is so hot. She's the most beautiful woman in the world.' I said, 'You watch. I'll be in one of those magazines.'

"An agent found me. I told my boyfriend I was doing fashion work.

"One day I brought home a Penthouse. 'Look at this honey.' We were flipping through the pages and there I was. He was so pissed. We broke up for like a week.

"That was one of the main reasons why I did.

"I wanted to live here. He wanted to live [in Iowa]. He's a momma's boy. He can't keep a job. He depended on me making money."

She has natural C-cup breasts.

"I love the money. It's easy. I hate that everyone knows what I do. It's kinda embarrassing that everyone's seen me naked. I'm more of a private person. Now I'm used to it but I kinda regret having my pictures all over the internet.

"I'm with a guy [UCLA student]. We don't talk about it. I keep it private. My personal life is completely separate. I don't let it affect me.

"We live with eight guys from this frat. I'm like a sister to them. They go, 'Eww, that's gross. I can't look at what you do.' The whole UCLA school knows what I do."

She giggles. "He doesn't like that too much."

"I will never do a scene with a guy. I couldn't live with myself.

"I haven't talked to my mother's side of the family in four years. My dad knows. I can't tell my grandma.

"I'll tell me dad, 'I'm going to be in this magazine this month. Don't get it.'

"My dad loves porn. He's a very sexual person.

"I moved in with him at 15. I had a crazy stepmom. She chopped off all my hair. He was married to her for five years. She was really sweet until I moved in. I moved out on my own at 16.

"He'll tell me, 'I had five girlfriends this week.'"

Celeste Star has been in porn for 30 months. She did one scene with her boyfriend at the beginning but since then has been girl-only.

Luke: "What motivated you to get into the industry?"

Celeste: "It was more my boyfriend."

Luke: "He was pushing you?"

Celeste: "Yeah, he was. When I started, it was for the money.

"I've had a boyfriend for two years. He supports me. He was going to drive me today but he went golfing instead. He's going to make us money golfing one day."

Luke: "Does he have a job?"

Celeste: "No. When I first started, when I was with my first agent and I wasn't working much and wasn't making much money, so I needed him to bring in a paycheck. I enjoy spending time with him. If we get married, it'll be both of us working and taking care of the kids.

"He doesn't use my money. He's not like my first boyfriend. He's laid back and he respects me and loves me."

Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Celeste laughs. "A doctor. In highschool, I wanted to be a plastic surgeon. I took all the necessities but I didn't pass my SATs with a good score so I decided I wouldn't be a doctor."

Luke: "How did your family react to your being a porn star?"

Celeste: "They don't know. I think my mom would be OK with it. She'd be shocked at first. One of my sisters loves it and the other sister says I'm throwing my life away."

Luke: "What do you love and hate about being a porn star?"

Celeste: "I hate waiting around. I love the sex. I love the make-up. You get to do pretty girl and look all pretty."

Luke: "What do you do with your spare time?"

Celeste: "Hiking, playing basketball. I sit and watch TV a lot."

Nicole and Voodoo celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary in October. She did her first scene in late 1999. For the past two years, she's worked as a photographer in addition to doing a few scenes a month.

DCypher, who ranks among the 700 most powerful people in porn, enjoys the admiration and caresses of his actresses.

"Why did we never date?" he asks them.

"Bad timing," is a frequent answer and one he finds comforting.

When he's all done with this movie, he can sit in the shower trying to wash away the filth and rock back and forth and cry, "Bad timing! Bad timing!"

Shooting pornography after Auschwitz is barbaric.

Charlie Laine walks around burping. She's bored and high. "If I get any more stoned, I'll fall asleep," she declares.

The four girls doing a lesbian four way protest when they learn that a boy-girl will be going on at the same time in the same place. They clash with the production manager Jay Shanahan, who's filling in for his sick wife Shanna McCullough. They call him Sergeant Porno.

Director DCypher steps in and calms everybody down and works out a compromise.

A member of the crew repeatedly straps Ava down.

"He can never love you more than he loves himself," says another crew guy to Ava. "And he hates himself."

It takes me an hour, but Tuesday evening I finally work up the courage to ask Faith Leon for an interview.

She's from a small town in North Carolina, which has shunned her since it found out she does porn.

In the industry for two years, she's done over 100 scenes. "I usually come out here for two weeks at a time and do two-three scenes a day. I moved here last year."

Luke: "What group did you hang out with in highschool?"

Faith: "I had friends in all the little cliques. I was the chick who had all the guys."

Luke: "Were you a cheerleader?"

Faith: "No, I was a sports player (soccer and basketball). Me and my sister (two years older) took number one in basketball North Carolina. I'm 5'11. I played forward. My sister is 5'10. She's an English teacher."

Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?"

Faith: "A veterinarian. I'm an animal freak.

"After highschool, I went to college for about a year -- North Carolina State. Taking 18 hours and working fulltime. I couldn't take it. I needed more money. So of course, blah blah blah. I am going to go back to school but I have to gain residency in California."

Luke: "What do you love and what do you hate about being in this industry?"

Faith: "I like the freedom. You feel pretty. You get dressed up and made up.

"It's overwhelming sometimes. Mentally, you've got to cool off. My fiance Marcus Leon (30yo) works in the industry too. We have to separate it from our lives."

Earlier, I heard Faith say her fantasy was to see two guys have sex.

Luke: "Would you lose respect for your fiance if he allowed another man to plough him up the rear?"

Faith: "I wouldn't lose respect, but I wouldn't want to see it because I know he wouldn't like it.

"We'll be together two years in November. We're getting married in November.

"When I met him, we had both just started but we didn't tell each other. Come on. If you weren't in the industry and I came up to you on the industry and said, 'I f--- guys for a living, do you want to go out?' Would you want to go out with me anyways?"

I shake my head.

Faith: "Exactly. I told him two weeks later. He said, 'Ohmigod. I do the same thing.'"

Luke: "What are the joys and sorrows of dating someone in the industry?"

Faith: "It sucks because I don't like seeing him with other girls. I don't watch his scenes. I like to know who he's working with for my own mentality's sake, my defence mechanism.

"Good things? The money. We own a house in Chatsworth that's paid for.

"I do want kids. I don't want to wait ten years to have them.

"We're trying to get the website thing going. We're planning to build up north (in a small town). I love the snow and the mountains. We're going to move up there. The standard of living is a lot less. Hopefully we won't have to do this. He does photography. I'll do a little small business. I've researched the town and I know what kind of business they need."

Luke: "Have you had to pay any prices for being in this industry?"

Faith: "Yes. The whole town (about 25,000) I grew up in knows what I do for a living. They've blackballed me. When my ten year reunion comes, I've got these pictures to show. 'Hey, I'm looking gorgeous. I've got a husband on my arm. I'm 21 and I own a $600,000 house.' I don't see any of those people my age doing that."

Luke: "Did some people stop being friends with you?"

Faith: "They completely cut me off. They found something on the internet, a huge company on the internet. It was one of my first scenes. It was absolutely horrible. I looked hideous. Of course that's what they found. Word spread like no other.

"My [born-again Christian] friend calls me up: 'I can't believe you do this.' You f--- other people. So...

"It's Bible-belt country. My brother (three years older) stopped talking to me. My dad for a while. We kinda told them that I'm out of the business. They don't go looking for porn. They're church-going people."

Luke: "Why are you such a rebel?"

Faith: "I've always been. I'm a loner. I do what I've got to do. It's for better causes. That's my excuse.

"I talk to my sister about my scenes. 'Yeah, I had to do this!' She's like, 'What?' She teaches highschool English. She thinks it's great. 'My little baby sister does that.'

"I'm still shy, reserved. If you see me on set, I'm not approaching people. You might think I'm a bitch because I won't come up and talk to you because I'm scared of talking to you. But if you talk to me, I'll talk to you."

Faith has no southern accent. "My family is from Michigan so I wasn't raised southern. My family doesn't. You won't catch me saying 'Y'all.'"

Luke: "What do you love and hate about Los Angeles?"

Faith: "I hate LA! Too many people! There are cars everywhere! Coming to work today, I sat on the exit ramp for 20 minutes."

Luke: "Do you get recognized?"

Faith: "No, because I don't wear make-up."

She finds many porn fans creepy and when her husband gets recognized in public, she doesn't like it. "Eww, that means they masturbate to our movies."

With her husband, Faith moved into this "cute neighborhood in Chatsworth. It's safe. You can go jogging at night. I thought the neighbors would bring pies but nobody did anything. There were no welcome baskets. I was disappointed."

Luke: "On the other hand, it's good that they don't know you because they won't know what you do."

Faith: "We're very private. They think that my husband is a photographer and that I'm a model."

Most of the girls are stoned. They alternate bowl breaks with cigarette breaks. Some of them have been waiting around since 11 a.m.

7:40 p.m. Charlie Lain yells out: "There's no 'I' in 'team.'"

I overhear AVN's Peter Warren say to DCypher: "Ron Jeremy was at my house last night. It was so weird."

James DiGiorgio writes me: "While checking out your latest 'photographic verite' images from DCypher's set, I became impressed with Duke, DCypher's PA, cuz he's wearing an "Archaeological Institute of America" baseball cap. In one of the images, he seems to be joyously preparing for a "dig" in Ava Rose's ass. It's makes me proud to see people in porn combining smut and academic research."

Whatever happened to Sin City contract girl Gina Austin? I guess she didn't want to do porn anymore and just left.

I ask the Dalai Porn Llama of Sin City who replies: "I really don't have a clue. I didn't ask this time figuring either religion, drugs, embarrassment, parental intervention, just plain tired of sucking cock on video, better offer, suitcase pimp's influence, roommate's influence, herpes, chlamydia, or all or some of the preceding."

A friend writes: "I saw her being interviewed on video at AVN.com, and she had a deer in the headlights look on her face. She hadn't done a lot of sex. She'd stripped briefly in Ohio."

I arrive at Porn Star Karaoke at 9:10 p.m. It's almost empty.

Sponsor Jason Sechrest rolls up at 9:20. He promises the crowd to make PSK more gay.

I hang out until 11 p.m. but I don't see any porn stars beyond Lisa Sparxxx.

A friend tells me that Tyra Banxxx is doing really well for herself. "She was tricked by Tyra Banks on her TV show to say that she was leaving porn, but she never had any intention of leaving porn. She's on the boxcover of America's Next Whore. It's a feature for Hustler directed by Roy Karch. It was shot on film."

Luke: "She can be proud of that. The boxcover no less. America's top whore. Wow."

Friend: "It's been a long time since there's been a black contract girl. Since Heather Hunter."

Luke: "She's like the next Rosa Parks. She'll be a role model for black youth all over the world. This will revolutionize the black underclass. Give them hope."

If you work hard in America, you can go straight to the top of a porn boxcover. Shot on film no less.

"She's like Stand and Deliver. It's like she's teaching calculus to inner-city kids."

Friend: "She's a great performer. Did you see her on Monster Loads? She was teaching other women how to ----."

Roy walks up.

Roy: "It's called America's Next Top Porn Model and it's from Sex Z Pictures. The broadcast rights will go to the Hustler channel."

Friend: "See!"

Luke: "Was she good?"

Roy: "She was very good. She's a nice girl. She took special time with this one for us because of the situation with the original Tyra and the Tyra Banks show. We shot some of the scenes in the same location where the original Tyra Banks show was taped. It's quite the parody. We're just finishing the editing. It should be out in the fall."

Friend: "I just saw the boxcover for it. It looks great."

Roy says I've carved out a niche for myself as the reluctant porn journalist.

Friend: "He's in wikipedia!"

I hear Lisa Ann (and Amy Reid) says she gets $2,000 per scene and won't do anal.

Da Burglar writes on XPT: "Dude, they (porn whores) are already "dead" inside, that's why they smoke, drink, do drugs and play Russian roulette with the HIV/STD Revolver. Cancer schmancer."