It's sad to find out that on his 55th birthday director Kevin Clarke announced his retirement, fed up because of the encroaching pressure to go bareback in gay video. Clarke says, "The disconnect in this business between HIV and what we do has, to me, become unbearable. If one woman gets HIV the straight industry gets shut down for weeks. On the gay side bareback gets bigger every day even as we die." After a frustrating conversation with international distributors who said they would only by bareback videos — and some resistance from even the young twink models to using condoms — Clarke said he had enough. "I will not spend any energy showing young men how to kill themselves," he said.
An addendum to last month's announcement about psychotherapist and AIDS activist Stuart Altschuler's leaving L.A.: The remaining Red, Hot and Safe DVDs are being sold on the Internet. Altschuler formed the International AIDS Project with the late Geoffrey Karen Dior and a few other porn stars, and then put together Red, Hot and Safe with award winners such as Wash West, Sam Abdul, Mike Donner, and Jamie Hendrix. Altschuler, who worked in drug counseling behind the scenes with many stars, said that he was disillusioned over the amount of barebacking going on in the industry, and how many of the people he counseled and befriended are now directing and starring in no-condom videos. "The importance of adult video as an educational tool is being overlooked," Altschuler said. "Kids will mimic what they see, whether it's smoking, drug abuse, or barebacking. If their idols do it, so will they, and we're teaching a generation now to ignore condom use. It's sad."
Hot House Entertainment is going to heat up the house this year by utilizing Josh Weston to the max. Director Steven Scarborough says the company debut of the legendary Weston in the third installment of the sizzling Trunks series has already assured that they're going to do a lot more with Weston. He's paired up with their international exclusive Francesco D'Macho in a Palm Springs setting and Scarborough says, "We have big plans for Josh in our upcoming major releases."
Another reason for excitement at Hot House is new director Michael Clift, who's moving from cameraman and assistant director to director. Clift's first movie, Private Lowlife, stars D'Macho. Says Scarborough, "Michael has an excellent eye, an easygoing demeanor, and a sexual energy that plays well with both the crew and the models."
COLT Studio Group's behind-the-scenes looks have given a different audience a peek into the porn world. Film festival viewers who were too embarrassed to admit seeing a porn movie were thrilled with the-making-of-BuckleRoos movie eXposed. Now Gus Mattox is back in a documentary on the making of Big Rig, the company's trucker extravaganza. This "Extended Cab Premium Edition" will also have deleted scenes and extended scenes of the John Rutherford hit that was inspired by Cowboy Clay and Derek Hartley from Sirius Q radio.
Pitbull Productions director Jalin Fuentes is working on more Love of the Dick titles this year featuring 10 1/2-incher Supreme…
Roman Heart did such a good job at Chicago's Man's Country ringing in the new year that the Falcon exclusive has been asked back pronto…
It's impossible to keep up with Chad Donovan, who's now at Falcon, but before he left Studio 2000 he was directing Ari's Place, starring very seductive Ari Bond, who's going to be a name to watch…
Video 10 is releasing a whole bunch of classics on DVD again and the most interesting of the bunch is Briefs: The Best of John Summers, another pioneer producer/ director in the gayporn world…
New Mustang model Ryann Wood has a boyfriend in the friendly city of Philly who helped convince him to get into porn. See him in the new title Ranger and an upcoming Falcon movie…
It was always great to sit down and talk about porn history with Matt Sterling, who died last December. One of the last times I talked to him, about two years ago, I asked him how he wanted to be remembered. The legendary director laughed and said, "I know I'll be remembered for making money for other people." He always had a dry wit and a great deal of sarcasm, despite being confined to a wheelchair for the last 18 years.
Francesco D'Macho photo courtesy of HotHouse.com
