Okay, we were off by one. Last week we speculated that Wicked Pictures was going to sign three new girls to contracts. However, Wicked president Steve Orenstein, rather than waiting to call a press conference at CES, announced this morning that he is signing four. They are Alexa Rae, Temptress, Devinn Lane and Czech Republic sensation Meridian.
Orenstein joked that it must have been really slow on the pro wrestling front to prompt us to pursue this story so aggressively. Orenstein says he's still negotiating the deal with Lane who's represented by Lucky Smith but feels pretty confident that he will come to an agreement with Lane.
Orenstein: "I really wasn't looking to announce this yet. I was waiting till I got to Vegas."
G. Ross: "Steve, the Ice Age worked faster. I take it the Devinn deal is hush-hush."
Orenstein: "To me, honestly? The one's that are official are hush-hush."
G. Ross: "Steve, the cat's out of the bag. Hear it? Meeeooow."
Orenstein: "The one that came out of the blue is Meridian. You said you did some digging. That was real easy. Dick Mailer told Paul, Paul told you."
G. Ross: "No, actually, Dick Mailer told me."
Orenstein: "I got to explain to Dick how I do things."
G. Ross: "Rumors were rumbling from Czechoslovakia for the longest while..my sources in Prague..."
Orenstein concedes that Meridian living in the Czech Republic presents a very unique situation for him.
G. Ross: "Here's what you're going to do. You're probably going to shoot three movies in Czechoslovakia and three here."
Orenstein: "Is that what Dick said?"
G. Ross: "No, that's what you're going to do."
Orenstein [laughing]: "Am I? Okay, right now I have one in Czechoslovakia that's planned to happen. As far as her coming in...the one thing we sign girls for is to be available for events and publicity. I don't know to what extent I'm going to be able to do that with her."
Orenstein also said he thinks Temptress is "great."
"All the girls are great or we wouldn't have signed them," Orenstein added. "They all standout for different reasons. Temptress is someone who's been doing movies for two years and has been looked over. "I'm very happy with the girls we chose. It's a big move for me. There was a time when it was just one girl, Chasey Lain. Then it was Jenna and it just exploded where there was so much stuff and it was impossible for her to do everything. Then I signed Serenity and Missy and it was the first time I had three girls. Then I signed Stephanie and had four. Now I'm signing four [at one time]. Let's see if we can keep up with it." Orenstein feels all the Wicked choices are really going to "come on strong."
The speculation on Rae signing with Wicked has been running high since September, but Temptress is the surprise move. Meridian hails from a small village outside of Prague in the Czech Republic. A spectacular looking blond beauty, Meridian has already appeared in several European Productions including Christoph Clark's Euro Hardball 6, and a Video Team release titled Girls of Prague. Girls of Prague was directed by Richard Mailer, the AVN Hall of Famer, who discovered Meridian. Mailer said at the time he met Meridian he had a hunch that she could become a big adult film star. Meridian was in town recently to ink the Wicked deal and this past Monday she finished a shoot for Penthouse and will be a Penthouse Pet centerfold in an upcoming issue.
Meridian, who was featured in the November issue of AVN, says she feels wonderful about the developments. Mailer said he will begin producing the first in a series of Meridian films for Wicked. They will be European-based for the most part. "I'm back," Mailer declared. "I've been concentrating on vignettes for a few years but I'm going to do another epic on the order of my old masterpieces like A Taste of Money. Mailer said he's going to work a new format. "I'm going to take a combination of a real story and I'm going to mix it with the performers' relating their real lives and real experiences and going back into their roles in the movie. It's a story within a story. It's going to be one of the most lavish productions people have seen to come out of the Czech Republic," Mailer said.
As far as Lane goes, this is what Risqué Business has to say about her on their website. "We can't tell you how excited we are at a Risqué Business about having this young woman join our family of extraordinary porn stars! Her career in XXX videos has just begun even though her career in the adult world has been underway for several years now. She began to dance in topless & nude bars as soon as she turned 18! She's 27 now & ready to take on the porno biz!
If you haven't bought the October '99 issue of Penthouse, get out there & get it! If they're all gone, find one of your friends who subscribes and look at Devinn's incredible centerfold lay-out! She looks so amazing and so sexy...you're gonna love this girl!
Risqué notes that Lane appeared in the Ashton View Promotions' XXX comedy, Darling, doing a sex scene with Shayla LaVeaux to start the movie. "At the end of the scene, the crew gave them a standing ovation!" Risqué notes. "You don't see that very often from a jaded porno crew, especially after a girl-girl scene, but it was special! Just like Devinn..."
Risqué Business also reports that contract girls Vicca & Nikita are dancing at the Spearmint Rhino in the City of Industry, CA on December 9, 10, & 11th and that Phaedra Alexis travels to LA for several photo shoots planned for December. Julia Ann is now the co-host of Playboy TV's "Naughty Amateur Home Videos" and you can see her there beginning in February, 2000.
