Gossip with Mickey Skee - Feb 2008

The beginning of the year was a time for new promotions, and one of the great promotions was how Falcon Entertainment celebrated its 35 years by offering a 35th anniversary special box collection. It has 11 hours of the company's finest films, 35 scenes on five discs. Now that's a collectors' item...

The new year also rang in a lot of new dildos! Ben Andrews' jaw-dropper from Lucas Entertainment is spectacular, and Falcon has supercocks made of the real likenesses of Erik Rhodes, Cort Donovan and Jason Adonis...

Raging Stallion has teamed up with Gavin Lowe, the big tall guy who used to produce with Matt Sterling, and they've started a Latino line. Ironically, the big tall guy released Tall, Dark and Latin for Raging Stallion's new line, Bang Bang Boys. BangBangBoys.com shows the kind of studs they've been using and will use in upcoming titles....

I had to call up Paul Barresi (pictured) after I picked up the In Touch Weekly that touted Tom Cruise's heterosexuality. Paul's porn past was in the article, and he discusses interviewing three guys from the porn world who've supposedly fooled around with the superstar actor, but he "didn't find a shred of truth" and in fact discredited their accounts. "I didn't get paid to give an interview to the magazine," Paul told me, "and I think it was a bunch of disgruntled Scientologists who have perpetuated this rumor over the Internet and continue to do so." Anyway, there's a great photo of Barresi showing how good he looks today, and a few dorky shots of Cruise. Meanwhile, Barresi is doing his third Mustang title, this time centering on construction workers. He says, "I'm not sure what the title will be." He has Greased already out, and just recently completed Stomping Grounds, about some rough guys who meet at a Palm Springs retreat for fun.

X-Factor's Onan the Vulgarian got an interview with 29-year-old Hungarian bisexual stud Lucio Maverick, who was first noticed big time as the long-haired doe-eyed stud in Temptation at the Baths in 2003. He told Onan that he wants to win a porn award and that he first decided to bottom for Michael Lucas in the recent Cruising Budapest 3 because "it turned me on that such a famous guy would get excited by me." Though that was the first time he bottomed on film, in his real life Maverick has spread his butt before "if the guy has a powerful personality." Taking notes?....

How great it is to see Daddy Zeus back in the swing of things! After semi-retiring in Palm Springs, the GAYVN Hall of Fame director put together a Purgatory Charity Fetish Ball, which benefits prostate cancer awareness. Daddy says, "Palm Springs is a great place to live. I've been impressed with the generosity of the community, particularly the leather community, and I'd like to acknowledge that with a contribution of my own." They know him as "D-Z" out in that desert community, and even though it's cold this time of year out there, the DaddyZeus.com website will always keep you up with what's hot out there, too!...

What goes around really does come around, doesn't it? In this case, the old non-storyline video loops that used to play in adult theaters in the 1970s are being put on DVD for the first time by the Athletic Model Guild. Interestingly enough, it's just like what we're seeing on the Internet, although this vintage stuff is shot in a much better style, and on film, and the guys are quite a bit different. AMG's founder, Bob Mizer, collected these "Theatre Film Classics" with titles such as Billy Boy and Why the Wooden Indian Wouldn't. Sometimes these loops had very thin storylines and some acting involved, but mostly it was a set-up for sex. The company's owner, Dennis Bell, explained that Mizer built an empire on still male nude photography and his customers "wanted raw and graphic footage," so eventually Mizer created loops with plots for the theaters. "Having only made posing shorts for the previous 35 years, he couldn't keep up with the new, graphic style, so around 1974 he quit the endeavor altogether, retreated into his studio and went back to creating nude wrestling and anal erotic films for a small number of private customers," Bell said. AMG almost disappeared, and so did those loops, until now. The Wooden Indian title is five 15-20 minute loops, while Billy Boy is a bit more than an hour long, and it hasn't been shown since its short theatrical release 35 years ago. How exciting to witness this porn history....

SINema reviewer and longtime friend and GAYVN judge and contributing writer Robert Patrick is featured in a history book of the living legends of underground theater called Return to the Caffe Cino. It's a big book of 22 plays, 37 memoirs and photos from the Greenwich Village days of off-off-Broadway and gay theater. You can get the book in paperback or hardback and read the recollections of those randy times as told by Bob....