GAYVN Announces 2009 Hall of Fame Inductees

CHATSWORTH, Calif. - GAYVN is proud to announce the class of 2009 inductees into the GAYVN Hall of Fame. Included are an Oscar nominee, a Russian native and the first African-American Falcon exclusive.

As usual Hall of Fame member Gino Colbert will present the inductees with their awards during the GAYVN Awards presented by NakedSword on March 28 at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco. He will also present Roger Earl with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The inductees are:

Dink Flamingo - Flamingo is a pioneer in amateur website content, filming men from nearby military bases for ActiveDuty.com. In 2007, he branched out with a new video line, Dirty Bird Pictures, and recently helped Brent Corrigan launch his own studio, Prodigy Pictures.

Michael Lucas - Lucas swept the GAYVN Awards with his Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita in 2007 and has cemented his stature as an A-list director and performer with both his own studio, Lucas Entertainment, and his own distribution company, Lucas Distribution. He's known for his political views and outspoken personality as well as producing and starring in classic films, including Dangerous Liaisons, The Intern and Gigolo.

TJ Paris - San Francisco native Paris got started in the biz back in 1985 and discovered stars such as Paul Morgan and Rob Steele. With a background in fashion photography, Paris has worked on fashion videos and men's fitness shoots in addition to wardrobe and art direction for mainstream films since leaving the adult industry in 2005.

Dean Phoenix - Phoenix made his debut in 1998 and went on to become a GAYVN Award winner and an icon in the industry. Despite retiring in 2000, he made a triumphant return in the 2004 Buckshot classic BuckleRoos and has continued his hot streak with films like Buckshot's Brotherhood, All Worlds' Forever Young and Jet Set Men's On Fire!

Jack Simmons - Simmons got his start back in 1995 as Buck Stradlin in Jet Set's Marine Code of Silence, directed by Hall of Famer Paul Barresi. He changed his name to Jack Simmons in honor of Robert Mapplethorpe model Joe Simmons, helped name Aron Ridge and Thom Barron, helped John Ross get his start, and was the first African-American to work for major studios, including Falcon (The Freshmen), Titan (Naked Escape) and All Worlds (Animus).

Phil St. John - St. John is an American Film Institute Fellow and an Oscar nominee for a student film, which was broadcast on PBS. He was the first to shoot a double-penetration scene in gay porn, the first to shoot gay porn focused on skate culture and the first to include a behind-the-scenes extra for a DVD. He is best-known for Skateboard Sliders, Getting it at the Rave, Taggers and Double Delights.

Chris Steele - Texas-born Steele started his career as a performer for many studios before segueing into writing, producing and directing. He's a GAYVN- and Grabby Award winner and is currently a head honcho over at Jet Set Men.

Lifetime Achievement Award

Roger Earl - Earl worked as an associate producer on The Dean Martin Show on NBC and then as Martin's road manager when he went on tour. He and Terry LeGrand founded Marathon Films, making 16 mm films for which he was director, writer and editor, before forming the Gay Producers Association of America - also with LeGrand - which presented the first gay porn awards. He worked at the Tom of Finland Foundation until he retired in 2007.

To purchase tickets to the 2009 GAYVN Awards, please go to GAYVNAwards.com.