NL- I really admire Mark Kernes, and appreciate anytime he writes me for LIB. I take what he says as FACT.
Mark Writes- I liked your piece on the awards (if not its headline), but you’re incorrect about one thing. You say “Does Paul Fishbein make the final decisions? Yes. He should. They’re his damn AWARDS!” This isn’t correct. Paul tallies up the votes, and whoever gets the most votes wins. His personal preferences have nothing to do with it. In fact, in cases of a tie, he comes to AVN staffers who are very familiar with the particular category and they help resolve the tie, although Paul has allowed some ties to stand in the final results. But it’s not his preference that decides even tie votes.
Beyond that, one thing missing from your article is one particular relationship between advertising and AVN nominations: It should be self-evident (at least, it is to me) that companies that have enough money to advertise also have enough money to put into the movies they produce — often resulting in better performers involved in the project, better sets, better lighting, better art direction, music, etc. It’s the finished project that is judged in all cases, not “Well, they tried hard.” Whether they advertise in AVN is not even considered, and Paul has always gone out of his way to make sure the nominators look at “smaller” releases, because if there’s one thing a high budget feature can’t guarantee over a low budget one, it’s the heat of the sex.
Mark Kernes, AVN
