For years, Mike Albo, formerly of Hustler’s Erotic Video Guide, and currently of AVN, has harbored an unhealthy dislike for me. This week I had an amusing e-mail correspondence with a former LFP employee who contacted me concerning an e-mail in my archives attributed to her. She claims she never wrote the e-mail, and it was sent from her LFP address after her departure from the company. She writes:
Unfortunately, the truth is that after I left LFP, Mike Albo used my computer and email address (before [LFP’s] IT [department] disabled my email) to send you an email and pretend that it wasn’t from him (he was never my "friend" as he claims in the email). And I have to say, I find it very ironic and funny that the man who was calling you a coward was too much of a coward to sign his own name to his email.
The text of the e-mail in question, dated September 28, 1999:
Luke, you’re a poser and a coward. In regards to your recent campaign to identify Jews in porn, I was struck by two of your statements. First you give some poorly reasoned explanation that you have a "sensitivity to people’s weak points." Since you aren’t privvy to what people think regarding their own relationships to Judaism, your statement shows an arrogance that is truly disturbing. Or maybe you were just trying to say that being a Jew is a weakness in and of itself. You go on to say that that you "use the word ‘Jew’ to provoke people." I find it interesting that you attempt such a provocation from the safety of your apartment. I seem to recall hearing that when you last met with my friend Michael Louis Albo, which culminated in the ditching of your sorry ass in Boyle Heights, it was all you could do to keep your hands from trembling in abject fear – something to which you yourself allude in your retelling of the incident on your website. It’s easy to play the tough guy when you’re all alone in your apartment. Apparently it’s less so for you when there’s the possibility of receiving a severe beating. You’re a pussy, Luke – and a poor excuse for a wanna-be Jew. You’re an even worse example of a man. In fact, from your writing – which isn’t very good, by the way – it seems that you’re little more emotionally and intellectually than a frustated adolescent. You should take my advice and shoot yourself – immediately.
She also writes, regarding Albo:
The only thing i really do recall is how much you seemed to get under Mike Albo’s skin. He was always ranting and raving about you (my desk was right across from his assistant’s, so he was always nearby, unfortunately), though I don’t remember specifics. I just always thought it was kind of pathetic how obsessed he was with you.
The accusation stands that Albo’s loathing for me caused him to use a former’s colleague’s identity to write hateful things about me. I’m sure the LFP brass wouldn’t like that very much. Do the higher-ups at AVN have concerns about a possible repeat of this alleged activity?