Rog Blog: 12/7 Reader Email, Too Many Categories?
Questions about Jenna Haze, Justine Romee and a closer look at how the new categories might affect the hierarchy of best female awards.
Stuff: Lots of reader email to get to today. Some of you already saw that I have started posting some video clips to my YouTube account. So far I have clips from Justine Romee and Brooke Skye. I have one more from Faith Belle that I will be putting up later in the week. After that I am going to have to find some more clips. The one I have with Brooke, Faith and Kat Young is a bit too grown up for YouTube. Anyone reading this who thinks they might like to shoot a short clip, let me know. I’ve got new T shirts on order so we can add some video the popular Rog Rules T-Shirt Galleries. And yes, this offer is out there to fans and “real girls” as well. It isn’t just for porn stars.
Eye Candy: Since we’re talking about Brooke, how about this gallery of Brooke being naughty while doing her homework.
Reader Email #1: Regarding the video clip of Justine Romee
JoeBloggs Writes:
hey whats up rog, I was just wondering if the justine romee clip on your site was made recently (is she back in the biz)?, from what I’ve heard she’s been out of the business for a while. What a hottie though.
Rog Replies:
I’m afraid this video clip is a few years old. Justine sent it over to me when she was still in the business. I always liked it, but the site wasn’t set up for video clips. As far as I know, Justine I out of the business and no one has heard from her in a while. Too bad, because I really liked her on screen and she was a lot of fun to interview. I’ve had lots of girls do pictures in the Rog Gear, but Justine was the first industry girl to go video. Hopefully she won’t be the last.
Eye Candy: And speaking of Justine Romee, here is a fantastic gallery of Justine in Jules Jordan’s Space Invaderz. (Space Invaderz Review)
Award Categories: With the AVN nominations now out for all to see, there are a few rhetorical questions I have about dividing performers and movies into so many sub-categories. Keep in mind that these are AVN’s Awards and they should separate performers and movies into any categories they like using any criteria they choose. Many of these questions might have simple answers, but I’m offering them here only as a topic for discussion among fans like me. Feel free to weigh in, but don’t take any of this as a slam against the categories, the nominees or the process.
So we have always had Performer of the Year and Best New Starlet. These have been like the MVP and Rookie of the Year awards for years. I can’t recall anyone winning both in the same year, but I also don’t know if someone is eligible for both awards. Could a hot rookie be nominated for Starlet and Performer? If so, can they be up for both at the same time? Or does being nominated for Performer take you out of the running for Starlet? A few years later they added the Best Foreign Female Performer to the list. This category is considerably easier to figure out than the male equivalent that often features Canadian, French and Italian guys on the non-foreign side, but still, it’s a bit confusing. Does being nominated for BFR take one out of the running for PoY? This year there are two more awards to consider. Contract Star of the Year and a special award for unrecognized excellence. Let’s throw that one out of these discussions, because if you are nominated for one of the other awards, when you are hardly unrecognized. (Though let’s face it, many of my favorite performers fall into this category including the always awesome Mika Tan.)
So we have Performer, Foreign Performer, New Starlet and Contract Star to deal with. What is the hierarchy? Is one ‘better’ than the other? Can someone be nominated for both? If not, which one would one want to be nominated for? All rhetorical questions and certainly not as confusing as the BCS, but interesting to me nonetheless. For example, Jessica drake is up for Contract Star of the Year, but not Female Performer. Is she ineligible for Performer because she is a contract girl, or was selected there because she wasn’t considered on par with the Performer nominees? Let’s say she wins Contract Star and Belladonna wins Performer. Are they considered equal? What is someone happens to be a contract girl, but is clearly the best in the business? Can she win both? Or can she be nominated for Performer? But then what is she comes in second as Performer and is therefore robbed of an easy win as Contract Star? I’m sure that you’re all wondering why I am getting bogged down in all of this. It’s just interesting to me. A few years ago it would have been hard for anyone to argue against Silvia Saint as the hottest performer in all of porn. Would she have been taken out of Foreign Performer to take her rightful trophy? How much control do the computer rankings have on these votes? Does margain of victory factor in? What about the mid-majors? Are they punished for not playing top teams? Do we take the winners of all of these awards and then have a playoff to see who really is the true champion? (You know this would have been a lot funnier if there was more controversy over the BCS title game. Right now, only a few real college football fans are laughing.) At any rate, you can probably see that I think that there might be a hierarchy in the awards. I see Performer as kind of the pinnacle. Starlet is great for new girls though we have seen a few rookies over the last few years who probably deserved top honors. I guess that leaves us with Performer, Contract Star and Foreign Performer as sort of a “separate but equal” situation. Let’s not even talk about what might happen if they ever decide that we need a Best Ethnic Performer.
Eye Candy: Speaking of Performer of the Year contenders, here is Sunny Lane looking hot!
Reader Email #2: Regarding Jenna Haze Darkside Review
MMac Writes:
Hi there senor Pipe, I’m a casual reader of your reviews and one of your recent ones piqued my curiosity. In your review of Jenna Haze’s Darkside, you say the following:
“Jenna shows off as the naughty wife to be in white lace. Jules has a surprise for her. Gasp, a black cock. (Hear that scratching sound? It’s people scribbling her name off of certain lists.)”
What lists would those be, exactly? Would this have anything to do with the rumor I heard on a forum that a girl who does an interracial scene instantly loses starpower and is subsequently paid less by most studios? You clearly know the industry, why not write
informative articles about things like that from time to time? Are you worried about pissing industry people off? You wouldn’t have to name names.
Rog Replies:
Thanks for reading the reviews and for taking the time to write to me. Like you, I have heard these rumors about reduced pay and decreases popularity for women who work with black men. It is something I question female talent about in just about every interview. So far I haven’t come up with anyone who can say that it is true in any definitive manner. Most of the women I have interviewed have denied that any such problems and there is plenty of evidence to show that interracial sex doesn’t hurt a damn bit. (Belladonna, Aurora Snow, Ashley Blue, Hillary Scott and the list goes on.) The “lists” I was referring to in the review actually have more to do with certain people who keep lists of women they feel “dodge” scenes with black male talent. One such person even mis-quoted my interview with Jenna from years ago. Here is what she said. (Read Full Interview Here)
Rog: Is there anything you won’t do on camera?
Jenna: I don’t do interracial and I won’t do ATM’s. (Ass to Mouth)
Rog: Why not?
Jenna: PTM’s are fine, but ATM’s, I’m not down with. It doesn’t turn me on and if something doesn’t turn me on, I don’t do it.
Rog: And the interracial, why haven’t you don’t that?
Jenna: I just haven’t found a black guy I’m attracted to yet. I really like white guys. A lot of my friends are black; I just haven’t been turned on by one in the business yet.
Rog: So that’s a no for now, or a no at all?
Jenna: It’s a not yet. If I found a guy I was attracted to, no matter what his race, I would do a scene with him.
As anyone who bothers to read the interview (from back in 2001 when Jenna had done about four movies) can see that she uses the word “don’t” about IR and “won’t” about ATM. Shortly after this interview Jenna stopped doing guy altogether until the Darkside movie. Still there were people who insisted (Even when I reminded them of the above quote) that Jenna told me she wouldn’t do interracial. So, to make a long story short, the lists mentioned in the review are the “won’t do IR” lists. Since people have been waiting so long for her to do it, they must have been very happy to see Marcus finally get her crossed off those lists. (Incidentally, I don’t think anyone can say that this scene hurt her career at all. In fact, she just might take home the AVN Award for Female Performer of the Year.)
To your final question, why don’t I write articles like that from time to time. Well, I do. I’m certainly not afraid of pissing people off. I do that all the time. If you mean an article specifically about the affect of interracial on a career, I think I’ve covered that for years. I keep asking questions of female talent about the subject and as you can see above, ask follow ups as well. But hey, I’m always up for further discussion. Shoot me over a topic and I’ll write about it. I’ll be honest, fair and do my best to cover it.
Final Thing: One last thing. A day late, but a happy 50th birthday to Larry Bird. It’s been twenty years, but he is still the last NBA player to win 3 MVP awards in a row. As much I loved Bird, how the HELL did MJ not win three in a row? Anyway, happy birthday Larry. Celtic Nation still misses you.
