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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:
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:
I'm sorry, buddy, that you are not spiritual enough to glimpse the higher meaning of my work. 6/12/06 After three weeks of playing phone tag, I finally chat to the Vivid girl (MySpace) Monday afternoon. Her phone keeps cutting out and we don't develop a rhythm. But if you like heartbreak, there's a killer moment two-thirds through. Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Lux, 21: "A lawyer." Luke: "Why? Were your parents lawyers?" Lux: "Nope. Nobody in my family is a lawyer. It was just something I always wanted to do and something my family always thought I'd do." Luke: "Were you argumentative?" Lux: "No. It was just an interest to me. I think I would've gone into entertainment law. My older sister is a tour manager. I would've helped her. It was something I was looking into for a while." Luke: "How did your ambitions change to bring you where you are today?" Lux: "Law is something I definitely can't do now. I've ruined that chance doing what I do now. I've got to find something else to do later on." Luke: "When you were in highschool, were you still thinking law?" Lux: "Yes." Luke: "Did you have fantasies about becoming a model?" Lux: "No. Not a long time ago. When I was a freshman in highschool, I had a friend who sent in one of my pictures to Teen magazine. They contacted me and asked me to start doing modeling and I said no. From eighth grade to sophomore, I was a punk rock girl. Music was what I was most interested in -- going to concerts... If I did modeling, I wouldn't be able to do any of that stuff anymore." Luke: "Were you doing crazy stuff to your hair?" Lux: "Yeah. I've had my hair dyed every color. It's naturally blonde, so if I dye it blue or red, it's pretty bright." Luke: "Were you always cute?" Lux: "Yeah, I would say so. I've always been into make-up, since kindergarten." Luke: "You like being a girl?" Lux: "Yeah." Luke: "At what age did you start having an erotic interest in boys?" Lux: "Seventeen." Luke: "You were a slow bloomer?" Lux: "I dated guys back and forth but I didn't sleep with them." Luke: "What kind of group did you hang out with in highschool?" Lux: "Everybody. I got along with everyone. I fit into every group. Everybody in highschool liked me." Luke: "And your parents loved you?" Lux: "Of course. I've always had a good relationship with my family." She grew up in Southern California. Luke: "Did you have a consciousness of the porn industry as a teenager?" Lux: "I didn't know about it. It was never brought to my attention. I never watched it. I never looked at magazines." Luke: "Did you ever have a period of your life when you were promiscuous?" Lux: "Never. I put a really high price on that. It's something valuable to me so I don't throw it around everywhere." Luke: "How did you start posing nude?" Lux: "[At 19,] I called up a friend of a friend who was a photographer [who became her boyfriend Kaden]. We started out doing fashion and artistic nude stuff. And then I stuck to Playboy-style stuff. Everything you see of me on the internet is basically Playboy-style. Then I made an exception and started working with magazines and doing explicit work." Luke: "With girls?" Lux: "The spread the legs stuff. Toys. Until recently, I was only doing Playboy-style stuff. No open leg." Her boyfriend is Kaden of KadenPhoto.com. "He's my main photographer. His main work is fashion. He's in a lot of European fashion magazines. He started doing nudes when I first met him." Luke: "How important is it for you to like the photographer you work for?" Lux: "There have been a lot of photographers who were jerks. I've never walked off the set. I've thought, 'I want to hurry up and get this over with.' But I've never walked off a set if I'm getting paid for it. I don't think that's right. I'm going to give him the best I can. I'm not going to purposely look like crap so I screw him over." Luke: "What are important qualities for a photographer?" Lux: "That they have a good sense of humor. That they're not total sticklers on how you have to look and how you have to move. It's good if they let you do your own thing and they instruct you a little bit." Luke: "What are the bad qualities that you sometimes encounter in photographers?" Lux: "A photographer who pokes around and takes forever to do one set. Twelve hours to do it. I've dealt with those photographers before." Who are these creeps? Lux won't name them. Perhaps my readers can? Email Luke Lux: "If you just hurried it up, we could get this done in two hours. Photographers who poke around and talk too much. I've had photographers who basically just hire the girl for an all-day shoot and they sit there and talk to you for half the day because that's what they really want." Luke: "That's pathetic." Lux: "That's the biggest thing that annoys me." Luke: "They deliberately just want to hang out with you?" Lux: "Yeah. It's retarded." Luke: "What about photographers who want to put you in painful poses?" Lux: "Yech. That's ridiculous. I had this one photographer who has you sit there and hold this really uncomfortable pose and then they have to sit there and light-meter everything and then change the lights around for every single pose and stare at it for five minutes and make sure that they like it. And then they start shooting it. Then they have to look at each picture they take while you're holding this uncomfortable pose." Sounds like Earl Miller to me but Lux won't say. Luke: "Did you sense that they get a kick out of the power and inflicting pain on you?" Lux: "I don't think it's that. I just think they're not good and they take forever to do everything. They're just not thinking about it because they're not the ones actually doing it. I don't think they get a kick out of it. I think they're just dumb." Luke: "Are they successful?" Lux: "There are successful photographers who do this. It just makes you not want to work with them again. They do high-quality work and get you into good magazines but at the same time it's just not worth it if you have sit 13 hours on a shoot and be really uncomfortable and in pain and be really annoyed. It's just not worth it." Luke: "What percentage of photographers try to screw you?" Lux: "I've had a few photographers try to hit on me. Sometimes it's just because they mistake my kindliness. I'm really nice to photographers. I have no reason to be a bitch to them. Some people mistake that and think, 'This girl likes me.' I've had about five photographers take that the wrong way and try to hit on me and ask me out to dinner." Luke: "Isn't that true of guys generally? If you're the slightest bit nice to them many of them will think you want to sleep with them." Lux: "I agree." Luke: "What went through your mind prior to your becoming a Vivid girl." Lux: "I decided on it when I was at AVN. I was signing at a booth. I was looking around. I walked past the Vivid booth and the Club Jenna booth and all the big booths. I was like, my still photography is slowing down now. Maybe I should take it to the next step. I went around to all the big booths. I talked to all the talent directors. I gave them my number. After I got home from AVN, I sent them all emails with a bunch of my pictures. "Wicked and Vivid both really liked me. Of course Vivid was going to be my number one choice out of those two. Out of all of them, Vivid is number one. I set up meetings with Vivid. I met with Steven [Hirsch, the co-owner] a bunch of times. He just turned out to really like me. I told them I wasn't going to do any video stuff unless I was signed to a contract. They agreed." She's done two shoots for Vivid. "Lux's Life was my favorite. I had so much fun. We had cameras set up where you confessed stuff to the cameras. I'd just go up and do something really weird and bizarre." Luke: "What do you love and hate about being a sex star?" Lux: "I love being published in magazines. I love opening up magazines and seeing myself in it. I love working with new people and meeting everyone in the business. There are a lot of great girls out there and a lot of really good photographers. I can't think of a downside of that. I guess if you're going out at AVN and people stop you every two seconds. I was at Lake Havasu and I got recognized and everybody was stopping me and asking for autographs. Sometimes it gets a little annoying." Luke: "What do you love most? The money? The publicity? The attention? The fame? The glory? Looking pretty?" Lux: "I love the attention and the money the most. "It hasn't changed me. I still hold the same beliefs." Luke: "Have you noticed a change in the way people relate to you, including people you've known for years?" Lux: "Yeah. I've lost a lot of friends." Luke: "How many?" Lux: "All of them basically. Twenty." Luke: "That's huge." Lux: "Yeah. A lot of these people were really good friends I'd known for a long time. The other half I haven't even told them what I do and won't. This is a business that not too many look kindly upon. It's rough." Luke: "Did you break down and cry?" Lux: "I just figured that if you can't accept what I do and who I am, then you're not worth my time. I accepted them and what they do for a living. If they can't do the same for me, that's their problem. It does suck because I lost a lot of people I love but there's nothing I can do about it now. I can't give up my career because of them." Luke: "Did you retain some friends?" Lux: "Yeah, I have some friends, but they don't know the extent of what I do. They just think I model. I didn't tell 'em the rest of it." Luke: "Do you have friends who know everything and have known you for years going back to highschool?" Lux: "No, I don't. Now the only girls I really meet are girls on set. Of course they're going to approve of what I do because they're doing it too." Luke: "Do you feel like you've stepped into a whole new world?" Lux: "No. I see it as just moving on. Just going through life. This is what happens. You're going to keep friends and you're going to lose them. Consider it a big circle." Luke: "You don't wake up screaming at 3 a.m.?" Lux: "Nope. I'm still up at 3 a.m." Luke: "What are your goals and dreams?" Lux: "I want to keep modeling for as long as possible. I've started doing mainstream movies. I worked with Warner Brothers. That's something I could do later on. Kaden's teaching me photography. We run a photography studio in downtown L.A. I'm keeping my options open. I'm not sure exactly what I will do after all this is over." Lux stands 5'7" and measures 34C-24-34. Luke: "When did you get the breast job?" Lux: "Five years ago." Luke: "When you were 16?" Lux: "Yes." Luke: "What was up with that?" We laugh. Lux: "It was something I needed to do." Luke: "Were you totally flat?" Lux: "Yeah. My parents agreed to it but I paid for it." Luke: "How did people at school react?" Lux: "I think I became a legend at my school for being the youngest girl to get a boob job. Everybody was like, 'I want to see your boobs.' I'm like, 'No, get away from me.'" Luke: "How many people did you show your boobs?" Lux: "I only showed my close girlfriends, but everybody at school knew. That first day I came back to school, that was a tough one. Imagine all the stares. Everybody coming up to me, yech. It was hard the first couple of months but everyone got over it." |
