Cindi,
There seems to be some confusion about how we choose our nominees for the Best New Starlet category, and I’d like to clear that up if possible.
Best New Starlet is one of the few — and possibly the only — category that doesn’t adhere to the restriction that the work be done between Oct. 1 of one year and Sept. 30 of the next. Generally speaking, a person is eligible for a Best New Starlet nomination if she did little or no video (as opposed to internet) work more than 18 months before that year’s nominations cut-off, and it’s rare that we choose a nominee whose body of work is less than six months old, unless we determine that she’s made quite a splash within that six-month period. Indeed, media profile is one of the factors we take into consideration, and some candidates have been accepted while others rejected because they’ve gotten more or better media exposure during the eligibility period. I can recall a few instances over the years where the discussion in nominations meetings broke down between one faction claiming that a particular candidate (often someone contracted with a particular studio) hadn’t done enough work to qualify, while another faction pointed out that she’d gotten a ton of positive publicity and was well-known with the viewing public as a result.
I hope this answers some questions.
Mark Kernes, AVN