Wow, what a huge day for news. Bad time for my computer to go bad and to have tickets to the Angels’ home opener. I think I can hit the main points pretty quickly.
Darren James has come back with an HIV positive test, sending the business into a bit of a lock down mode. Gene Ross on www.adultfyi.com had the story this morning and reports that AIM is working up a list of performers who have come in contact with Darren. He is a good performer and seems to be quite a good guy. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I wish him well. You are in our prayers Darren.
In less shocking news, Guy Capo is a free agent. After stirring things up with “American Gunk” and adding some feature cred to Tom Byron’s Evolution Erotica, Capo has moved on. Apparently it was an amicable split and he has been speaking to a number of companies. Guy is a very talented young film maker and I know he will end up doing great things somewhere. The question is where? Mayhem? Private? Hustler? The other question is who will fill Capo’s spot at Evolution? Zupko? Skeeter? No, both are happily in place with other companies. What about Rob Black? Could be.
It was an April Fool’s joke that Janine was going to work with Lex, but Mike South confirmed what has been floating around (and what I dropped in the April Pipeline) ever since. Janine is coming back and she is doing boys. Not Lex of course, but she will be taking cock in three movies for Vivid. South reported that Nick Manning will be one of the guys and that Janine has a list of others that apparently doesn’t include Mike or myself.
A lot of people are following the Rob Black obscenity trial, but now it has spilled over and become a good old fashioned porn feud. In a recent interview, porn pioneer and my future boss Larry Flynt took a few shots at Black and added that he didn’t feel the need to help defend his inflammatory product. Rob fired back on AVN, sending an open and unedited (and people say I need a proofreader?) letter that slammed Flynt as, among other things a “right wing pornographer.” I really wish I weren’t up to my ass in computer problems this week because there is a great story here. Flynt took on the powers that be for years and fought with everything he had for free speech and for his right to make millions. On the one hand it may look as if he is turning his back on the very issue he once championed. On the other hand, he has every right not to take kindly to someone standing up and shouting “come and get me” and then expecting people to hide him behind their checkbooks. I can see both sides and with any luck I will fix this computer and add a few words of my own.
In related news, the FTC ruled that adult spam must be easier to weed out. In a move to prevent adult spam emails from flooding our inboxes, FTC laid down the following ground rules. Beginning May 19, all sexually explicit e-mail must bear a label reading “Sexually Explicit” in order for spam filters to be able to weed out such e-mail. The FTC also ruled that such e-mail could not contain explicit material. (Yeah, right.) I know that I’m supposed to stand in line with the rest of the industry and shake my fist at the violation of our “freedom” but I’m going to applaud this decision and hope it sticks. The industry has not done enough to police itself on this issue. I have an email account that I never use, I have never given it to anyone, never visited any web sites, adult or otherwise, never been into a chat room or done anything with the account. There is no age indication on the email address and still I have to clean it out twice a week because of the mounds of spam I get. Not all of it is porn I’ll grant you that. However, the number of sexually explicit emails I get at this account is ridiculous. That kind of in your face marketing is bound to end up putting the adult industry in a very bad light. It is hard to defend the industry when some working mother in Idaho has to worry about her nine year old getting bombarded with the latest Bangcooter.com or “Young Trannies Butt Fucked by Horse Cock” ads. Adult material is for adults who want to view it. This kind of spam is forcing it on adults and exposing children to porn. I think that is a line that had to be drawn and I am upset that the industry let the FTC beat us to it. Oh I can hear the response already. It’s so much easier to blame big bad John Ashcroft than to look at areas where the business really should behave. Yes, the industry might be in Ashcroft’s cross-hairs, but why should we be so ready to load the gun for him?
