James Avalon - Mormon Missionary

A former Mormon missionary with a degree in film from Brigham Young university, Kent Smith now makes movies for Metro under the name James Avalon. He's worked in the industry for over 20 years in various capacities.

Avalon is an accomplished rock climber and writes bizarre science fiction.

Kent Smith worked at Adam for four years. Then he became a freelance writer and photographer.

8/26/03

At 10:46AM Tuesday, I got an email from Jeff Mullen, publicist at New Sensations, alerting me to a shoot today. I put my stuff together and made it to the set in Sherman Oaks at 11:30AM.

I wear my black shoes, black socks, black holey shorts and black t-shirt.

I don't recognize most of the crew. I've never met the director James Avalon (Kent Smith). I do recognize Chef Jeff from KSEXradio and we hang out for the next two hours. He's an amiable chap, good company.

After two hours of flirting with Aria, Chef Jeff finally introduces himself to Aria.

Aria: "Oh, I know who you are."

Jeff: "I know. I'm more handsome in person."

Cheff Jeff is off at 1:30PM for an audition for Playboy TV with his cohost Cynarea. Jeff lives with ingenue porn star Sassy.

Chef Jeff's Mom was going to be a nun. She lived in a convent in Mexico.

Aria and Julian compare different diets. Julian has just gone on the Zone and dropped ten pounds in as many days.

I sit outside in the shade and ready the novel Mohwawk by Richard Russo. Aria, topless, shows me her new do-it-all cell phone.

Luke: "Put something on."

Aria: "Why? Does it make your dick hard?"

Luke: "I'm too professional to get an erection."

Aria: "You have wood problems or are you gay? There's Viagra."

The makeup artist and mother (ten years in porn) struggles by with a pushcart. She strains to put it up a step to the door.

Makeup girl to Luke: "No, no. Don't bother."

I chat with Stephanie, in porn ten years, who's designed dresses for Houston for ten years. I wonder how old Houston really is. Julian says she is younger than him. He's 33. She's 31.

Stephanie is the art decorator on the shoot and designs outfits for many of the girls for their big occasions, like the AVN Awards and Howard Stern Show.

A nude model kept blowing her lines during yesterday's shoot, extending it to 14 hours.

I hear about a new porn star, Kitty, who weighs 80 pounds and looks nine years old. Some guys won't work with her because she looks too young.

DUC to Aria: "Do you have gonorrhea? Tell me about your STDs"

Aria: "Somebody called me. Said he had chlamydia. We'd had sex. I got tested. I was negative. And then I got a positive chlamydia test from AIM. I hadn't worked with anyone in two weeks. I got an immediate retest. It came back negative. The same thing with gonorrhea. At least they're cautious. AIM says the lab sends it back as positive if it is within a certain percentage... I took my medicine anyway."

2PM: I walk by James Avalon (aka Kent Smith).

James: "Who are you?"

Luke: "I'm [DUC]."

James: "Oh, I know who you are."

Luke: "I'm a friend of Lewis Perdue."

That breaks the ice. James and Lewis worked at Knight Publishing (Adam Film World) together in the early 1980s. Then Kent Smith got into writing porn scripts, and editing for at Axis Pictures for Greg Dark.

James: "In 1996, I told him [Metro] that I'd come on as an editor if I could get on as an in-house director. I did Blue Dahlia, Red Light Diaries in 1997.

"When they turned in the footage on Giselle, I changed the whole project. I changed the music. I conceived the whole editing style. There was no script. There was no story. He's a still photographer who shot all these vignettes, with incredible costumes, art direction, lighting. The girls looked phenomenal.

"I'd take camera bobs and take bits and slow it down so it looks like the camera is floating. It took me three months to cut the show."

Luke: "You're like the real Orgazmo?"

James: "I met those guys when they were shooting a trailer trying to get the project off ground. Farrell Timlake told them, 'This guy [Kent Smith] did go to BYU and he did wind up in porn.'"

Kent Smith graduated BYU with a degree in film, stage direction, and photography. He'd served two years as a missionary in France. He went to Oregon for a year and hung out with hippies, losing his religion.

James: "One of my college roommmates came here as an actor and stayed for a few years. When I came here, I didn't have any place to stay, so I stayed at his place. His friend got a job at Adam Film World as an assistant editor. When he left, my friend took over for a month or two. Then he left for New York and asked me if I wanted the job. I said yeah. I was struggling as a still photographer.

"One of their editors was incompetent. They canned him and put me into his position. I worked at Knight Publications from 1980-86.

"They were struggling for sales. I got laid off. Jim Holliday had done a special handbook for them but turned it in a month behind deadline. They decided they wanted to get someone who was going to hit the deadline. I did the second one.

"Someone from Chicago called up and wanted someone to do a review book on the adult industry. It was released by Pocket Book and it was called Adult Films.

"Then the guys at Adam Film World found out about that. So I developed the AFW Directory, which took off. They sold out. After that, we started the pictorial porn star annual.

"At that point, I was writing a video column for Hustler and I was doing interviews for most of the magazines from Velvet to Club to Chic. I published a couple of short stories in Chic.

"Then I met Greg Dark and I started working with him. I worked for him for ten years. Then when I started directing, he thought that was too much of a conflict of interest."

Kent Smith aka James Avalon looks like an aging surfer dude, an old hippie.

Avalon had a similar experience with Metro to many people.

"I was working on this show and (in May, 2003) I stopped get paychecks. One week went by. Two weeks went by. They said it was a mistake. They would fix it. I found out no, it wasn't. I agreed to finish editing the show (Skin on Skin) if they paid me in advance. It's a fetish avant garde film. It has six weeks of editing left."

Luke: "Why couldn't someone else finish it?"

James: "Let's say you took a Picasso that is cubistic and modern. You don't know what the original painting looks like. You have a giant jigsaw puzzle. Then you try to get someone to piece it together. You need the plan, the original painting. Without me, that's what they've got.

"I was going to have Belladonna do some bizarre stuff. Have strobe light come across her body and have earthworms come crawling up.

"Ann Marie was the lead on Skin on Skin."

Metro wanted to tear up its contract with James Avalon and pay him less money. He said fine, but I'm no longer exclusive with you. Julian says he's missing two paychecks from Ann Marie.

How was it working with Kelli Erikson?"

Julian: "She's cool."

Luke: "Was she cool enough that it was worth doing it for free?"

Julian laughs. I know many men who would pay money to have sex with Kelly.

DUC to Aria: "Are there guys in the industry you'd do for free on camera?"

Aria: "There's lots of footage of me doing guys at times I shouldn't be doing. There's an unpaid sex scene (during Phoenix Rising) of Julian and me just saying hello. And another one.

"I had a two hour break from the set on Satsuma. I stopped by to say hello. I was working nearby. Julian grabbed me and we had sex around the corner on a broken chair."

Luke: "Tuck your robe in so you can be more modest."

Aria: "Would you like me to have sex with all my clothes on as well?"

Luke: "Yes. And underneath the sheets, so they can't see anything."

Leo, a hulking black male PA, says he got false positive on a gonorrhea test at AIM. He says he loves Sharon Mitchell but he doesn't think AIM should have a monopoly on testing.

Leo used to be married to porn star Mikki Taylor. He says she became a speed freak, stole his kids and took off with much of his money. He says he had to spend $50,000 to regain custody of his son. He says Mikki Taylor now weighs 180 pounds.

She served jail time for possession of methamphetamine.

Leo says he charges $500 a scene to work as male talent, among the highest rates in the biz.

New Sensations owner Scott Taylor wrote two of the scenes in this movie and sketched out the others. Avalon filled them in. It's a 72-page script for two movies.

Nude model MacKenzie Mack is the hostess of the show. She repeatedly flubbed her lines Monday, extending production time to 14 hours.

Avalon: "Usually, in rehearsal, she didn't."

James Avalon shot one sex scene yesterday and one today, but lots of dialogue.

Lezley Zen comes by to cuddle with her husband Trevor.

Reuben Sturman's ex-wife, Naomi Delgado, used to live a mile down the street. She was all set to marry the father of the owner of today's shooting house when she was arrested and charged with jury tampering in Cleveland. She eventually married Reuben's enemy Ron Braverman. They live a few miles away. Naomi and Reuben's daughter is 14.

I'm just a poor country boy from Australia. The Internet is my way of communicating to the world. I come to porn sets so I can receive back all the love that I have given.

The sweet innocent mother of two makeup artist is preyed upon by the big bad gossip monster.

"You'll never get anything out of me," she cries as I hunt her down.

I'm asked for my sign. I say Gemini.

Porner: You're more of the evil twin.

Trevor: When he's away from his wife, he's more of his evil twin. When he's with her, he's sweet and nice.

This guy Jordan, a male talent, said on another set he used to give lapdances. It was a while before people realized he meant he gave lapdances to men. He also gave and received other things on the job. Jordan proclaims he's straight.

He walked around on the set stroking his penis. After rubbing himself in his private place, he extends his hand to a male visitor and said, "Hi, I'm Jordan."

Then there was male talent Matt Bicksell who was looking through AVN. He saw himself on the cover of a big homosexual video.

Aria: "I was approach to work with him and I refused."

Luke: "Are you a homophobe?"

Aria: "No. I'm not going to work with someone who does gay porn."

Luke: "Why can't you be more open-minded?"

Aria has just finished her sex scene with Julian.

Luke: "What do you like to eat after a refreshing fornication?"

Aria: "A thick juicy rare steak but not I'm eating salad."

Luke: "I can't believe I walked in on you and you had another man's peepee in you."

Aria: "Shocking."

She munches her salad. She weighs about 20 more pounds now than when I met her. She's appeared in about 300 scenes.

Luke: "I was morally opposed."

Aria: "It took every fibre of your being to stop from screaming out in horror. You ran from the room to save your soul. I appreciated that."

Luke: "I wanted to beat up Julian, throw you over my shoulder, and carry you away."

Aria has yet to shower.

Luke: "If I gave you a hug right now, I'd be hugging Julian."

Aria: "No, you'd be hugging his sperm."

Luke: "Do you find that it helps guys to bond to double penetrate you?"

Aria: "It helps them to get in touch with their gay side."

Luke: "Aria, you have heavy burdens on your soul. You are greatly weighed down. You are torn and tormented. You have things that you want to tell me. You need release. You need exorcism. You need to tell me about all your sins..."

Aria: "So you can tell them to the rest of the world so that I am doubly cleansed. Because the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem."

Luke: "No, I want to hear about other people's troubles."

Aria: "I could give you lots of stories."

Luke: "Just give me a tiny morsel to carry away to my readers."

Sabrina Snow and Monica Sweetheart did Lee Stone Monday night.

I sit down and realize I made a mistake. Aria was here before me. "Julian's DNA is all over this chair and I'm sitting in it."

James Avalon eats an early dinner.

James: "The two scenes look gay. I mean great. I'm eating.

"I've tried to shoot too much in too little time before.

"Some of the scenes will have a little solo. We shot one where the girl was screwing her love. The father comes in. I mean her husband comes in. I'm a little tired. We had to cut the wordage on that one. Originally it was, 'Who's your daddy?' type thing. The lawyers at a couple of companies objected to that. 'Suck Daddy's dick.' Those sort of lines they tended to frown on."

Luke: "Does it ruin you as an artist that you can't do that?"

James: "Depends on what sort of story you set out to do. We're not doing 'Who's your daddy?' on this show."

Luke: "There seems to be a Mormon slant to some of your movies."

James: "I don't think there's even been."

Luke: "You don't want to do a porno story of the Mormons?"

James: "Not really."

Trevor: "Sodomy and Gomorrah."

Luke: "Did pornography poison your marriage and cause your divorce?"

James: "It probably did."

I go to the bathroom, leaving my recorder on, but hidden behind water bottles.

James: "So DUC is interested in young asian boys?"

I return.

"I don't know why you are so obsessed on this Mormon thing? I quit by the time I was 21."

Trevor to James: "Do you own a planet?"

James: "Mormons are not big on evolution. They believe there were other worlds."

Luke: "Do you still wear the special underwear?"

James: "No. I told you..."

Aria: "They have special underwear?"

DUC yells: "Show them your special underwear. Don't be ashamed James Avalon. Be who you are and be proud. Down with your shorts."

James: "I always thought they were stripped down versions of the old western longjohns."

Luke: "If you are so completely out of it, why do you always insist on lime jello on your every set?"

James, mystified: "I have never insisted on any colored jello."

Luke: "Do your two earrings have any satanic overtones?"

James: "They're just gold earrings. They have no meaning whatsoever. The first one. Greg Dark and I were downtown. I was married. He was with Cherise. We were standing around joking. I said, I think I'll get my ear pierced. He said, No, you won't. So I pierced it. Two weeks later, he got his ear pierced.

"Second one. I was in Santa Barbara with a girl I was going out with a few years ago. I said, Oh, it would be a good idea if I got a second one."

Luke: "There's a rumor that you have another piercing."

James: "There is? Who told you?"

Luke: "Why this wall of silence about your third piercing?"

Aria offers to show me her hidden piercing. I say no.

Make-up artist: "I've never paid attention before but I'm enjoying this."

James Avalon wrote three novels under his real name of Kent Smith. He published one.

"Bantam Books was accepted by one editor but they had a problem with marketing its slant on erotic fantasy, between two genres, and never published it. Minority Report basically took the concept of one of my [unpublished] novels."

It's time for Trevor Zen's scene. He needs to sit on the toilet and look like a dork.

Trevor: "This is what you get for not reading the script before agreeing to do a part."

Trevor asks the cinematographer: "Now what am I doing?"

C: "You're just taking a s---. That's all."

Avalon auditioned all his actors before this film.

James: "I didn't tell him he was like a dorky yuppie guy on the part."

Luke: "Typecasting?"

James: "Yes. That's why I got Trevor for it."

Luke: "Do you have story meetings?"

James: "Yes, all the guys involved in writing the script, me, go to lunch and we talk to each other for 90-minutes.

"I do a lot of my thinking for my stories while I'm surfing. Get out there, get relaxed, start thinking. When you're out there, you can't write anything down, so it all goes into your head."

Luke: "What does your body of work say about you?"

James: "I've never thought about that. Ummm."

He's called off to direct the scene.