Tera Hazard

It's not all fun and games here at the AVN Adult Expo you know. Occationally drama erupts in the midst of all the flesh and fetish and this time the drama involved superstar Tera Patrick and Digital Playground, the company to which she is exclusively contracted. rnrn

Midday today word quickly spread throughout the industry on the Expo floor that Patrick was signing at the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) booth instead of her designated spot at the Digital Playground booth and that, as a result, the sparks were a-flying. A quick visit to the AIM booth found Patrick gone, but an AIM volunteer assured AVN.com that she would be back. Not so said Digital Playground.rnrn

"I guess that ended quickly because she's exclusive to us," said Samanatha Lewis, President of Digital Playground, the company that broke Tera into the mainstream. "She was over there for a few minutes but I guess that was put to a stop." According to Lewis, Digital Playground attorney Paul Cambria went over to the AIM booth and ended the signing.rnrn

"I was just trying to volunteer my time to a non-profit organization and if anyone has a problem with that they can talk to my attorney," offered Patrick when asked why she was signing at AIM. "I have been trying to donate my time to AIM. I'm a registered nurse in the state of California. I was donating my time to adult industry medicine which I've been a part of for three years. Sharon Mitchell [AIM founder] is also my sponsor and I was just trying to support her. I wasn't breaking any rules or doing anything unethical and the fans are here to support me and I just want them to know that I'm alive and well."rnrn

Tera's roomate and close friend, Club Magazine photographer Anneli Adolfson, seconded that emotion. "We don't want to step on anyone's toes and that's why Tera wanted to volunteer time to AIM. AIM has nothing to do with video companies, imaging whatsoever. Now I just bumped into Sharon Mitchell in the aisles and she was literally in tears because somebody at Digital Playground had come over and basically threatened her and she had to get on the phone with her lawyers. So now Tera is basically going to walk around instead of trying to promoter her new [Digital Playground] thing. She doesn't want any problems or any headaches." She described the alleged threat as being of the physical nature.rnrn

Lewis, however, had a different spin on the saga. "Tera has recently gotten into a new relationship and I think that they're trying to figure it out. Sometimes when the girls get into a relationship and I don't know if this industry sits pretty with him. We've been down this road with her once or twice before so she has conflicting feelings but we still love her and she's got an exclusive contrac with Digital Playground for the next five years so she's got time to figure it out. She's exclusive so there's not much she can do until she gets out [of it]."rnrn

"They just got very [territorial] since we are still in litigation and emotions are flying which is why people overreacted," elaborated Adolfson, alluding to the rumor that Patrick is leaving Digital Playground to go mainstream. "I'm sure they didn't mean any harm but people react quickly and say, 'you should have been here and you weren't and now you're over there' but I hope everything will be fantastic in the end and they will come to some sort of amicable resolution." rnrn

"I think she wants to be out and do her own thing," commented Adolfson. "She has a new website, www.officialterapatrick.com, and she wants to do her own thing. She doesn't want to do anymore movies, she's getting married, and they still want to do stuff in the industry with promotions and signings, and she has something going with a TV show, so I think she wants to go a little more mainstream and to branch out more."