When AVN’s 2003 Performer of the Year Aurora Snow expressed interest in blogging from John Stagliano’s obscenity trial for AVN.com, we jumped at the chance. We certainly wanted to hear what this talented and intelligent performer had to say—particularly from her perspective as an experienced, award-winning adult performer that's starred in many movies. Below is her first blog entry.
WASHINGTON—Yesterday was the first day of Evil Angel owner John Stagliano’s trial, where I am amazed that the United States of America is attempting to convict and jail him and label some fun Evil Angel material “obscene.”
The fact that Stagliano and his company are being prosecuted for distribution of obscene material seems like a colossal waste of government spending, but what else is new? Apparently, to bring a case against him, the government had to have the movies move over state lines. How sneaky of them, but it was typical of the contrast I saw in the courtroom.
Stagliano was shown to have registered and incorporated in California and to conduct his business in a straightforward manner, down to mailing the movies to the online retailer that sold them to an undercover FBI agent. The FBI used made-up names, undercover addresses and, in all, seemed to be operating in a way that made the government look like they were the ones who were doing things they should be embarrassed by. This prosecution is one of those things.
Opening arguments began yesterday, and as a performer I was stunned by the prosecution’s description of what made the material obscene. From my point of view, the prosecution’s lack of contact and knowledge of what we do in adult entertainment seemed laughable. Oh no, there are close-up shots of pussy? Oh, the horror! If this were not such a serious matter, it would be a pure farce of cardboard bad guys picking on others for having more fun than them in life.
The prosecution began by describing the alleged obscenities that the jury was about to witness—milk enemas, squirting milk from the anus of one girl to another girl’s mouth, the insertion of a penis into a girl’s anus and then into another girl’s mouth and, as mentioned, those scary close-ups of genitalia.
All I could think is that by the prosecution’s standard most porn would be considered obscene. And I guess that is what they are getting at by going after one of the most visually creative companies in the adult business. After performing in hundreds of movies and knowing all that is out there in pornland, I can’t imagine why the cute scene we saw yesterday was selected as being too “over the line.”
But what I do, and what is in our movies, is only meant for adults who want to see us perform. We are entertainers and performers. I know when I make a movie I want my performance to satisfy everyone who sees me. So, watching the jurors “endure” a scene from Jay Sin's Milk Nymphos must’ve been “incredibly painful.”
Of course they knew they were being watched, but a few of the older women on the panel seemed revolted by what they saw. Others did their best to maintain serious expressions.
By the way, it was a good scene—from every aspect from the girls’ matching outfits to the colorfully devised set. How can it be in the land of the free that our First Amendment rights are threatened by a government that seeks to suppress protected speech and stifle the art of talented filmmakers?
