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Gary Dean aka Adrian Gold

5/18/01

I encountered Legend director Adrian Gold January 7, 1999:

I find some mainstream folks who shoot real movies for HBO. They're secretly making pornos for Legend Video and are paranoid about getting caught. Today they're shooting pickups on their first hardcore production, boxcover stills, and one S-M scene between the blonde newcomer Kelly O'Ryan and the strapping Frank Towers. In porn five years (over 200 videos), Towers stands 6'4" and weighs 240 muscular pounds. Ten years ago he weighed 150 pounds but was inspired by meeting Arnold Schwarnaegger in 1986.

Mainstreamer "Adrian Gold" says his crew stressed professionalism to its porn talent. That if they showed up late, they would not be used. Everyone supposedly showed up on time. Until today when Kelly O'Ryan, who's flaked on several shoots of late, arrived over two hours late. On the edge of cancelling her, Gold has Bill Deal shoot Kelly for the boxcover and then do Towers.

Luke says: I talked Thursday afternoon 5/18/01 to three former crew members for Adrian Gold who want vindication. They feel that Adrian and his wife Lauren Hays [aka Laura Orona] burned them. Lauren has done numerous nude scenes for Cinemax and Playboy etc... Her web site is SXI.com. She's a reporter on the Playboy TV show Sexcetera.

Adrian's real name is Gary Dean Orona. The IMDB.com credits him as director for Trance (1998/II), Stripshow (1996), Great Bikini Off-Road Adventure, The (1994) (as Gary Orona), Bikini Carwash Company II, The (1993) (as Gary Orona). He also uses the name Billy Moon.

Wayne Crews, a veteran crew member of porn movies, tells Luke: "Gary used to do a lot of HBO booby movies. He's really bright and very creative. He's a special person. It's just that one thing is said and another thing is done.

"I contact Adrian in 1998 when I worked at Gourmet Video for Rob Spallone and them. He came in and I just got the gig because I was working at the studio. I helped him with one movie. He had me do a non-sex part playing Dr. Richter.

"The movie did good. And after that, he called me up and asked, 'How would you like some work?' I worked for him on some different movies as an assistant. He asked me if I had played with a camera before. Well, yes. I'd watched many of the great [porn] cameramen work. So I figured I could try.

"I was still his assistant. We'd go out to the desert and various locations and learn what filters, yadayadayada... Well, around February - March of 1999, he contacted me. He had to do six [porn] movies he was selling to an outside vendor. So he asked me to shoot them. He said, I can only afford to pay you so much. It was worth it. He started training me on how to use the camera. What to do, what not to do. What angles to use. I was going to be his softcore videographer.

"At this time, he was doing all the stills himself and shooting everything himself. And editing everything himself. We shot these movies. We shot the movies and they came out great. They were called Surveillance, Tickled Fantasies... He had me shoot three other movies that were super low budget gonzo. He paid me a low budget and got me to go to all my friends and get deals out of the talent.

"We did this movie for him. We shot it at Rob Spallone's old house [in Woodland Hills?]. And about a month later, around May, I get a phone call from my friend Gary. 'What the f--- man? What happened? People are starting to talk. I thought I told you to keep my name hush-hush. No one can know what I do. You're going to f--- me, dude. You've got to chill.' I wondered where all this came from.

"About a year later, I found out what happened. He told the guys at Legend that he was shooting everything. That he was the man. He had this ungodly amount of money into these deals with these guys. He had them paying him big money for these deals on the agreement that he was going to shoot and edit and so forth. It started with me shooting softcore and turned into, 'Hey, tomorrow, you do all the hardcore.' Then the next day, 'Hey, you did such a good job, why don't you just finish this movie out for me.'

"So I turned from being his ten percent guy to shooting 75% of his stuff.

"At Legend one day, they were going through the chromes. And the guy there didn't recognize one of the girls. Well, Rob Spallone was there and they asked him. He looks at the pictures and says, 'That's my house. I saw this scene shot on the walkway. Wayne shot this.' The Legend guy says, 'No, it was not Wayne. It was this way professional guy shooting.'

"Legend went back to Adrian Gold aka Gary Dean and says, 'What's up?' He says, 'No, no, no, I'm shooting everything. They don't know what they're talking about.' He put me on a four to five month break after that.

"Then, in November of 1999, he asked me to shoot for him again. I shot 75% of his softcore. I worked my ass off as his crew. It was me, a makeup artist and his assistant who booked talent and got locations and times together. He kept emphasizing how quiet we have to be. You can't even tell people that you are shooting. And I wondered why. But I went along with it. It paid my bills.

"I worked about four or five times a week for about a year. Then in December, he called me up and said people were talking again. He says that Rob made a stink at Legend. f--- this guy. He's ripping you off having someone else shoot this stuff. And Rob was right. Gary was taking advantage of these people.

"So after I didn't hear anything for a week or two, I tried to call Gary a few times. And all I wanted to hear was, 'Hey dude, I can't use you anymore.' I wanted to hear something. He would never call me back.

"So myself, a makeup artist (Tyson Fontaine) who was screwed over by him and an assistant (Tony) screwed over by him, decided we would go to Legend. I wanted copies of all the stuff I worked on. I go to Legend and the guys at the counter won't help me. 'You're not even supposed to be here. You're supposed to go through Adrian Gold to get copies.' I threw a small fit. I said, 'I shot these movies. I saw them through the viewfinder in the first place. Why can't I buy my own movies that I'm either acting in or I shot? All I want are the soft version.'

"Gary was telling people that my shooting sucked, he couldn't use my footage. So I started getting this complex, thinking, 'My stuff must suck.' Well, I've shot three movies on my own, not for him, and those movies are doing well. And all the people I shot for say that my work is great. I spoke to his editor. He says my stuff is simple to edit.

"All I want is to be vindicated. To let people know that this guy repeatedly lies. He systematically uses people for what he needs and then he discards them when he's done. Truth is, yeah, I'm hurt. I feel like I was f---ed over by a friend. Because I admired this guy. But he's burning quite a few people and getting away with it. And I think that people should realize what they're playing with.

"Adrian Gold fills his title sequences with all these fake names so it looks like he has these big production movies. I saw two of his movies reviewed in this month's AVN that I shot, including Tramp and Fling.

"We would shoot for Playboy's Naughty Home Amateur Videos. The first time I shot camera for it, I asked him, 'How do I get proof that I did this and credit?' And he got very weird. That told me upfront that there was something more going on. Because over and over, like a broken record, he would say, 'You must be silent about this. You can't tell people about this.'

"When you meet people, the first question out of their mouth is, 'Who do you shoot for? What do you shoot?' Not, 'How are you? What's up?'

"It got to the point that I could not even tell people that I shot for Legend. Because the people at Legend don't even know who I am. Now I'm sure they do because every time I go in there and say that I am Wayne Crews, I feel like the damn Christians going into the lions."

Luke: "Why does Legend have anything against you?"

Wayne: "I speculate that he went and gave them some spiel against me. They think to this very day that he was shooting all of his stuff. They don't realize that I was.

"Adrian Gold started paying me $400 a day but as we went along, it went down in price. He said my shooting was hard to work with."

Luke says: Next I talked with Tyson Fontaine, a makeup artist who's known Gary for six years.

Luke: "What ended your friendship?"

Tyson: "His wife [Lauren Hays]. He's just as guilty. He plays along with it and falls into her manipulations. She's been talking to me. She's been making fun of my beliefs about my psychic ability. I talked to some of our mutual friends and we've been finding out the things she's been saying... She was only my friend if I had something to offer.

"I do a lot of body painting. She'd get free body painting from me. I charge $1500-$2000 for body painting. She went to all the Playboy parties and I painted her for free because she was my friend. She started sneaking people into the Playboy parties on my list [of assistants] and not telling me.

"I was hired by Playboy because I had painted her for a Playboy party. Hef wanted me to body paint for his parties. She offered to help me out and fax Playboy my list of assistants and in doing so she would add my friends to her list. Then some of them she would charge to get on my list.

"They're threatening to sue me for defamation."

Luke: "So long as what you say is true, you don't have a problem."

Tyson: "Gary was not shooting the content he said he was shooting. I know that because I was on set with Wayne who shot about 70%... The talent has seen it. And the still photographers know it.

"They also threatened to sue me for an incident in Las Vegas. I believe, though I do not know, that she told Playboy something that caused them to stop hiring me.

"I saw her in Vegas and I mentioned to her friends that they [Gary and Laura Oden] had been shooting porno for two-and-a-half years. And they made a statement to their lawyer that I had said that they had been in porno for two-and-a-half years. But they have been shooting porno. Laura was in one of them. She does not perform sexually but she is nude. She dances around. Her character's name is Madam Butterfly. The movie is Lips Wide Shut for Kevin Beecham's Erotic Angel. Gary uses the name Billy Moon.

"Laura uses the stage names Lori Baker for casting calls. Her real name is Laura L. Thorsen. She also uses Leona. That's her singing name. Laura L. Dean is her new acting name to get away from her softcore credits.

"She used to put down adult actors and say, 'I can't believe they do this and that.' And she does softcore porn herself.

"His porno company is Pana Entertainment. His mainstream company is Great Iguana Filmworks.

"They act as though they're doing you a favor by hiring you. They hired me for $100 a day and took advantage of my skills. And for thrills he'd say, 'You were paid most of anybody on that set.' I worked all day long, with maybe three hours of sleep each night. My assistant had been up so long that she fell asleep at the wheel and rear-ended somebody. I passed out and fell into the wall while painting. I hurt my foot and had to go to the emergency room.

"He apologized on the phone to me for everything and then they turned around and served me papers that they were going to sue me."

Luke: "What beliefs did she she ridicule?"

Tyson: "My psychic ability. I was driving on the freeway behind this truck. And I said to my friend, 'Those crates are going to fall off the back of this truck.' And as I went into the other lane, these two crates fell off the back off the truck into the freeway.

Tyson played a couple of message from Gary:

"Hi Tyse, it's Gary. I just want you to know that I'm really upset about this whole [Playboy] party thing. It's because of Laura's actions that girls are getting added. And no f---ing person is acknowledging Laura's help with this thing. She's getting nothing for this s--- and they're s---ting on her right now. They're not letting people that she wants to get into the party. Nobody's even thanking her for all the f---ing s--- she's done for everybody. I'm sick of it. I think you guys are all pathetic. And I don't want a phone call back because I am not going to take any messages. She doesn't know that I've called. So don't call her and tell her this. But I think you guys are all a bunch of f----up LA s---heads."

Makeup artist Tyson Fontaine says about Legend director Adrian Gold: His wife Lauren Hays would book the talent and she'd usually try to talk them down to the lowest rates. They'd pay me $200 a day.

In Lips Wide Shut, Lauren kisses Teri Weigel in the scene. Lauren plays the butterfly girl getting the lube for the sex. She fluttered around and rubbed her hand across the girl's thigh and then take off again and run around naked.

They'd say they tried to train Wayne to shoot in Adrian's style but that he just couldn't get it. Yet they happily used all of Wayne's footage. I remember being on set while Adrian was editing and Wayne and Rick were shooting the movie.

Luke says: Tyson played me an angry phone message from Adrian Gold to Tyson:

"So call the IRS. I have advice for you. I don't have time to be dicking around with this s--- just because you're an asshole. Next time you see, run."

Next I talked to Tony, a former producer and assistant to Adrian Gold and his wife Lauren Hays.

Tony says: Wayne, Tyson and I were friends. And it just seems that every time Adrian and Lauren get someone new in their life, they give them an opportunity. And that's how you look at it initially. Then as things get going, you get taken advantage of. And it went from there.

Adrian Gold always give you his word. And if you question his word, he'll go off on you. 'We're friends. I've done this and that for you and you're questioning my integrity.' Then he'll turn around a week later and screw you over on his word. Then he'll come up with excuses. It hurt me financially for four months because I put so much time and effort into their company. I was a freelancer for them, in a sense.

I met Adrian a year and a half ago at a party. Once he knew that I didn't have a problem with the adult business, he offered me some work. And I helped him get more work. And the thanks I got for it was, 'Well, things aren't working out. We've got to let you go.' It shouldn't have been that way.

I think he's a talented director. I helped pitch his projects and get him contracts...

I was his production manager. And one day I had to sit him down and tell him why things weren't working. And he replied, 'You originally didn't want to go into production. You were just my salesman. So why don't you just stay in sales and we'll let this go?' I said 'Fine.'

I just thought that for the first time in my life I was being very honest and professional in saying that I didn't like the working conditions. He agreed with me. We actually hugged and said everything was going to be better and then I got a phone call saying, 'We're going to let you go.'

I hear they're doing well financially so I don't know why they couldn't keep me around. I guess they found somebody they could pay less money to. That's what they do. Every year or two, they find someone who will work cheaper and hire them. Then they f--- them over and hire someone who will work cheaper.

I put so much time into pushing him that I ignored other job opportunities. Because I believed in him. But once you start living that lifestyle in the adult business... As long as you have a good head on your shoulders, it is a fantastic business. Maybe I was spoiled... I had the money coming in on a regular basis, then I had to find something new to do. Was I going to get a regular job or was I going to remain with the connections I had, and start over and build my own [porn production] company? And that's what I've done. I've taken my $15,000 in savings and bought equipment for Newton Productions. We have three productions going right now.

I thank him for teaching me enough to get where I am at...

5/21/01

I talked Monday morning to male performer Adam Wilde, in the porn industry for seven years.

Adam says: "At first, everything [with director Adran Gold] was fine. But he has a real pushy wife [Lauren Hays]. At first Gary [Adrian Gold] ran the whole show. And then he brought her into the scenario and she started running anything. And Gary just put his head between his legs and she took over. He played the role of the little bitch and he stayed quiet and let her run around. She started pissing talent off. She has a bad attitude in general. And people didn't want to work for him because she was running the show.

"I always gave him 100% in my scenes and I always hooked him up on rates, gave him rockin' scenes. Until some woman named Stephanie took over [as talent coordinator for Adrian Gold] for booking the talent. She was another bitch that all the talent hate. And then he keeps cutting all the talent's pay, even though they weren't getting the full rate in the beginning.

"My rate is $500 a scene. I started doing boy-girls for him for $450. I cut him a break and he promised and promised that I would go up to my regular rate and more. It never happened. Then, about six months, he stopped using me. And I kept calling and calling, leaving emails and messages, and he never returned my calls.

"Then I talked to a photographer friend of mine who does stills for him [Adrian Gold]. And he says that the reason he [Adrian] doesn't hire me anymore is that one day there was a shoot and they wanted me to bring a specific pair of pants and when I got there, I told them that I didn't have them. I could go home and get something else. And he thought I snapped at him. Did I raise my voice and hurt your feelings big guy? And another one was that he was trying to say that a bunch of girls that I was working with were coming up to Stephanie and complaining that I was trying to pick them up off the set. Number one, all the girls that I ever worked with, I referred. I brought them in. A lot of them are already married. And if I'm going to do them in the business, why would I want to do them outside the business.

"If I had a professional relationship with the hottest porn star girlfriend where I'm having sex with her all the time off camera, why would I want to have sex with her on camera? Because that animal hunger isn't going to be there. If you have cheese and crackers every day, you're going to get bored with it.

"I've called some of these girls that I've worked with and asked, 'Did you say this?' And they say, 'No, you're the best. I would never say that about you. I love working with you.' I called every girl that I worked with for him [Adrian Gold] and nobody said a thing.

"He had a camera guy [Wayne Crews] who worked for him for about three years when all of a sudden Gary said, 'I can't use you anymore.' This camera guy was completely loyal, busted his ass, and went way out of his way to make everything work. Whatever Gary needed, he'd do it. And then Gary just turned his back on him one day.

"What the f---? I show you loyalty for three years and now you just tell me that you don't need me anymore. You don't call me. You don't explain why. Gary does that to everybody. He stops calling people. He won't return phone calls, emails, nothing.

"Gary's wife Lauren Hayes has a bad attitude. Always high strung. A bitch all the time, pissing off the talent. When the talent wants to talk to Gary, she steps in and pisses off the talent. As soon as his wife came around the scene, he put his tail between his legs and turned into Mr. Quiet. A role reversal with him becoming the bitch and her becoming the man. Pathetic.

"Tony [Gary's salesman] is another case. Tony is a super nice guy who busted his back and Gary turned his back on him.

"Gary's wife and Stephanie are total cunts. When Stephanie comes around, she should put a strap-on on and do Gary. Because he becomes the bitch and she's the husband. They wanted to cut talent's rates even lower. Baby, you get what you pay for.

"I did scenes for below my normal rate as a favor to Tony. Because I knew that I would be taken care of down the road. Then he got fired [by Adrian Gold]. They screw everybody over and all their promises are empty."

Luke talked Monday night to Wayne Crews and his girlfriend Tanya.

Luke: "How long have you been in this industry?"

Tanya: "I'm really not in the adult industry. I work with models. I've been in the modeling industry for 23 years and working with commercial accounts. Since I met Wayne, in the last year I've done a couple of makeup jobs with him [in porn] and gone on the sets to help out.

"I worked for Laura [Hays] one day. And she found out who I worked for before - a mainstream photographer. And then she said, 'Oh, don't tell John you met me here.' And she got all freaked out that I was going to tell him. And I was like, 'I wouldn't even mention your name to begin with. It's not that eventful meeting you.'

"She made such a big stink about it and then they [Laura and Gary Dean] were so mean to Wayne, spreading gossip that he had a horrendous drug habit and he was unreliable and his work sucked. And all the talent is calling him at home and going, 'How come they said this?'

"I thought that was not nice. So I told John, 'Guess who I saw on a porno shoot the other day?' He doesn't really care anyway."