THE PIPELINE: DECEMBER 2004
Can you believe it my friends; it’s time for the final Pipeline of 04 already. It is amazing how quickly the time passes when you’re watching porn. It seems like just yesterday we were saying good-bye to 2003 and wondering who the hot new girls would be in the New Year. Turn the calendar ahead twelve pages and we are saying good-bye to 04 and wondering if there is another Teagan waiting just around the corner to set the porn world on its ear. While I wouldn’t count on anything quite that special, I am sure that the end of this year is nothing compared to the news that we’ll have coming out of Vegas in just four short weeks.
With everyone packing for the big show and clearing space on their shelves for awards, the sun sets on a rather uneventful year in Porn Valley. It seems that so much industry attention had been focused on the election that no one really knows what to do now that it’s over. Expect a lot of “sky is falling” articles to come our way soon and I suppose we can watch as the Extreme court case moves forward. (Unless they choose to settle now that there won’t be a change in the administration.) At least Mr. Ashcroft has decided to call it quits and one would think that the powers that be in Porn Valley would at least be pleased about that. Whoever comes next and whatever steps they take, it is clear that the new Attorney General will be dealing with a still-defiant Extreme Associates. They are back and still pushing every limit known to porn.
Once a year AVN gathers their top people, locks them in a room for a week and makes them watch more porn than any human should ever sit through. The results are bloodshot eyes, over-stressed porn critics, a huge take out tab and the annual list of AVN Awards nominees. It has been a tradition for people like me to put these selections under a microscope, poke at them and remind everyone of people who were left off the list. I’m going to do that again this year, but not before I point out that these people have a job that is freaking impossible. These nominations are an amazing achievement and as I poke gentle fun the lists, I am not in any way, shape or form saying that I could do better. In fact, I’m just pointing out that we all have our favorites and the second-guessing any list is half the fun. Disclaimer over, on to the nominees.
As usual, the list of nominations grew this year. There are so many categories now that it would take all day to cover them all. Let’s just hit the highlights. Vivid, Wicked and Digital Playground scored well with nominations in the feature categories. I haven’t finished watching all of the yet, but I’m pretty happy to see Wicked’s “Eye of the Beholder” nominated. It’s a great flick and I encourage you all to check it out. Jules Jordan had another great year with a truckload of nominations. Many of them are for “Gina Lynn’s Dark Side” which is also a hot DVD. I’m not sure it was my favorite Jordan effort from 04, but it’s damn good anyway. As the awards expand we have a handful of “best ethnic” lines. It is getting to the point where I expect them to nominate movies in the “Best Ethnic Series: Caucasians Pretending to be Latin/Asian” category. This year there is even an award for “Best POV Release.” Just a few years ago, point-of-view shots were rare and complete movies featuring this eye-pleasing angle were unheard of. Now there are so many lines that AVN has added it as a complete category. I haven’t watched all of the nominees here yet either, but I still say you can’t go wrong with Mike John in any POV release.)
Some of the most fun categories involve individual performers. This year the Best New Starlet category is packed with great girls and is going to be tough to call. Cytherea is nominated for Best Starlet and Female Performer so she might be the favorite, but my money is on Teagan Presley. Beyond these two, check out some of the hotties nominated. We have Audrey Hollander, Lucy Thai, Jennifer Luv, Nautica Thorn, Dana Vespoli and Vicky Vette among others. How would you like to dive naked into a pile of the runners-up. The Male and Female Performer lists aren’t quite as strong and leave plenty of room for controversy. On the men’s side two major names are missing. Lexington Steele and Erik Everhard are widely considered to be the two best dudes working today and they are both missing from the list. There are some great guys who did get nominated, but one has to wonder why the dynamic duo was left off. (Lex did cut way back this year so that could explain half of the super snub.) On the female side, there are some interesting names including last year’s winner Ashley Blue, Cytherea, Alicia Rhodes, Cindy Crawford and Taylor Rain. I can’t even begin to guess who might come out on top of this lot. I also can’t imagine how Aurora Snow, Stormy or Teagan didn’t make it onto the list. It’s kind of a strange year, because I don’t think that there was a female performer who had a monster year. There was no Belladonna or Aurora or Jenna to capture our imagination. Nothing against the women who were nominated, but I think that this year just lacked the kind of stand out performances that we have seen in the past.
This year’s Hall of Fame inductees include Serenity, Shane, Seymore Butts, Kylie Ireland and the vastly under-rated Jim Powers. It is an interesting group of inductees, but no one can argue those five names. They are all quite deserving. Sorry though, still no Pete Rose on the list. Rather than comment on all the sex scene nominations, I will just say again what a freaking huge task it is to boil several thousand movies down to a handful of best scenes. Hats off to everyone who had to weed through all those movies to give us the nominations and congratulations to all who were nominated.
Red Light District is going to be picking up some awards in Vegas for their hot release “One Night in Paris.” The movie was the top renting and top selling of the year and really helped drive sales for RLD in 04. It seems as if they might be able to follow up that celebrity sex movie with another in 2005. A sex tape featuring former WWE personalities Chynna and X-Pac has surfaced. Word is that Red Light has the distribution rights and will be releasing “One Night in China” sometime next year. I know this won’t be quite a hot as the Paris movie, but I’m all for more celebrity sex movies coming out and will be first in line to pick one up when it comes out.
In addition to the big AVN nominations, the annual Rog Reviews Fan Faves voting is about halfway done. We have whittled our way from fields of 64 down to the elite eight. The women vying for Best Female are Melissa Lauren, Jayna Oso, Lauren Phoenix, Teagan Presley, Taylor Rain (Who won last year), Avy Scott, Aurora Snow and Monica Sweetheart. Full results for this race as well as the other five fan fave awards will be in next month’s Pipeline. (As will the RRCC nominees.)
Other than award talk, it has been fairly quiet as usual at this time of year. We did get some talent movement. Most notably, Vivid has signed a new girl. Lexi Marie is her name and she is an eighteen year old blonde. A former gymnast now sports a pair of 34d’s and is set to make her first feature for Vivid sometime after the new year. I would say that I hope to interview her in Vegas, but let’s get real. I doubt Vivid is going to grant me access to their girls any time soon. Oh, and yes she will be working with men. In fact, she will be working with Rocco Siffredi and another new Vivid Girl in her first project.
Kylie Ireland has been working with men for a long time, but her upcoming release, “The Whore Next Door” will feature the new hall of fame inductee doing all kinds of things we haven’t seen her doing before. The movie, set to be released by Platinum X Pictures will feature Kylie’s first on screen DP, some double vag and her very first gang bang. This one is sure to be a red-hot seller.
A few directors have found new places to hang their hats as well. Steve Drake is gone at DVSX, but is now inked with Mayhem. Lee Stone is the latest addition to the Madness team and Vanessa Blue has left Mercenary for a deal with Hustler. I will try to talk with all three of these directors about their new deals in Vegas next month.
As this year comes to a close and the holidays approach I want to wish you all a healthy and happy season. I appreciate the support you have shown me throughout this, as every year and would to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Happy Holidays everyone. Now go out and get something nice for the people you love, do something kind for those who need it and spend whatever is left on some good porn.
