I talk to him Friday morning about his tenure with Evil Angel.
Jeff began at the company in the last week of 1994. He was fired last August. He now works for Jules Jordan Video.
Jeff: "I was fired. I was told — that’s what Mr. Little Fagliano said to me — I was fired because I did not keep track of the money that Stanley in Brazil was sending us for the movies we send him every month. In the 11 years and eight months I’ve been there, there’s always been the same comptroller — Jose Nunez. He has always kept track of the money. If that company were to lose him, they would not run nearly as well."
Luke: "Why do you think you were fired?"
Jeff: "Karen [Tricia Devereaux] had a lot to do with it. Chris [Norman aka Mr. Nici Sterling] had a lot to do with it. That show of his in Vegas [Fashionistas] had a lot to do with it. I told him one too many times, ‘John, you’re losing your ass on that show. Close it or fix it.’
"He never attempted to fix it. He’s still running it."
"I was in show business for 18 years. It’s unheard of for a show to run at a loss for more than three months. Thirty years ago, they had lounge shows in Vegas. You’d get 200 people who could see a decent show for two drinks ($5 a drink). The hotel backed the show because if people came in to see the show, the chances are they’d stay and gamble. A hotel could own a show as a loss leader.
"John doesn’t own a hotel. He doesn’t have gambling. He doesn’t sell food. It’s ridiculous that that show runs at a loss."
Luke: "It’s an ego thing?"
Jeff: "I never knew that his ego was that fragile. The show sucks. Nobody applauds at the end of a number… It could’ve been a good show. He made it like he edits a movie. Once you’ve edited a movie, you’re done. A show is live. You can change it every day. Every show I was in, we changed it all the time. We put in new numbers."
"He’s only doing one show a night. The place only seats a couple of hundred people."
"Karen is an incredible girl. Her daughter is wonderful. I hate that little prick [John] for separating me from her. It’s the best thing Karen has done in her life.
"Karen has separated John from everybody he’s ever been close to. Anybody who had any influence with the man, she’s gotten between them.
"She’s a much stronger personality than John. If he hadn’t f—ed me so bad, I’d feel sorry for him.
"John and I used to play tennis every Sunday. We’d talk. He’d bitch to me about Karen. I told him that my parents divorced when I was four and I had a great relationship with my dad until the day he died. Stupid me was thinking that he stays in the relationship because of his daughter. But that’s not the reason. He’s selfish. If he kicked out Karen, his life would turn to s—."
"They never got married. I used to tell him that I wished they got married so maybe then he’d make a prenuptial agreement."
Earlier this year, I had an email discussion with Karen aka Tricia.
Tricia Deveraux emails: "I’ve been Mrs. Stagliano for 6 years now. 🙂 But I found that one way too trivial to bother writing you specifically about."
A couple of weeks ago, I posted this:
She [Variety journalist] also repeats the myth that John Stagliano is married to Tricia Devereaux.
They are not married. John values his freedom to much. I’m not sure why John and Tricia perpetuate the lie that they are married.
Tricia emails: "I have to admit your source interests me. He got it partly right, but doesn’t know us well enough to know all the details. We never did a ceremony. We did a legal marriage contract, which makes us legally married in the government’s eyes for things like home ownership, taxes and all that fun stuff. And I changed my last name in court before our daughter was born."
Jeff Marton says: "The story I heard was that they were going to get married and John said I would be the best man and Karen said that if Jeff’s the best man, there’s no marriage."
Luke: "What is Karen’s role at the company?"
Jeff: "She doesn’t do much. She has her fingers in everything. She tries to control everything but she doesn’t do much."
Jeff laughs. "I can’t talk about Karen’s role in the company. To me she doesn’t have a role. She runs John. She runs the company. If you refer to the boss of the company, nobody thinks you’re talking about John."
Luke: "How did John screw you over?"
Jeff: "He told me four years ago, ‘Jeff, you’re my best friend.’ John doesn’t have a lot of friends. We’ve known each other for 25 years. He’s told me on numerous occasions that I am his best employee. He told Paul Fishbein once, ‘Jeff runs the company.’
"I did whatever he needed done whenever he needed it done. I was his gopher. I did a lot of strange things."
"He’s a coward. He wouldn’t talk to me [about the firing]. Karen must’ve had her fist up his ass one night and said, ‘You’re gonna fire him or I’ll never do this for you again.’ That’s how I picture it."
"I love Evil Angel. I feel a kinship with it. I love John. I wouldn’t be anywhere in this business without him. He gave me a job when I was in jail. You can’t hate somebody until you love them first. I don’t hate Karen or Chris. I don’t think much of them. I hate John."
"I cried when John got HIV and he cried on my shoulder when Kristi Lynn died. We were real close."
"The month after he fired me, I was driving back from Vegas. The show I was in for six years in Vegas had closed after 22 years because they weren’t making money anymore.
"My phone rings. It’s John. He asks, ‘Are we ever going to play tennis again?’ All I could say is ‘F— you’ and I hung up on him. I wish I would’ve said a lot more."
"John f—ed me. It would never have happened except for that show. The night it opened, I said, ‘John, it’s five minutes too long.’ He got really pissed at me."
Jeff says that for the past five years, Jules Jordan has been porn’s number one director.
Tricia Devereaux emails: "I do not choose to make public the list of reasons that Jeff was given that led to his termination. Several of the items are things that anyone else would have been terminated for without warning, however, at the time John and Jeff were friends and Jeff was repeatedly given the benefit of the doubt. It was 11 months ago, and Evil Angel has moved on."
Jeff Marton emails: "I was never given a list of reasons why I was fired from EA, either orally or in writing. I think my demise at Evil started when I turned karen down when she offered me , with my little ex buddies express permission, a blow job."
"I must admit it feels good to get this shit off my chest. Do you wonder why the shrew does all the talking? fagliano is a coward, is self centered and he can’t dance. he’s been taking class for 35 years. I also must admit I lied to fagl, I always told him I’d never let him beat me at tennis but if if I hadn’t let him win sporadically he never would have. Mea Culpa."
Chuck Spears posts on XPT: "You guys are some freaks over there at Evil Angel. Can a nigga get a hook up?"
Tricia posts on XPT: "Chuck – sometimes drunk girls say really stupid shit that they don’t mean. He saw that I was drunk and said no. Good thing. It would have been something we both would have regretted."
"Being insecure sometimes doesn’t bother me at all. It allows me to be introspective and hopefully evolve for the better. People that are so arrogant that they never try to look at themselves from a different point of view tend to annoy me."