LAS VEGAS – Adult Video News staged its 25th anniversary awards show last night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center with a maximum of good feeling and an absence of the self-congratulatory hype that might be expected to accompany such a milestone.
The show was swiftly paced and simply designed, with plenty of cable-TV-friendly movie clips, due perhaps to the fact that it will air on the Showtime network, “another giant step” for the awards, as co-host Tera Patrick pointed out.
The big winners were two heavily nominated features, the film Layout (Vivid) and the video Upload (Sex Z Pictures). Each won eight awards. Vivid won 15 awards (not including the three for the lines they
distribute) and Evil Angel won 6 plus another 12 for the producers it distributes.
The show got off to a sexy start with the gyrations of a trio of pole dancers led by Nikita Kash. Comedian Greg Fitzsimmons, co-hosting for the second time in three years, rattled off a monologue that was heavy on jokes about sex, private parts and bodily functions.
He and Patrick, who looked spectacular in a low-cut fuchsia gown, got right to the job at hand, with a minimum of self-conscious chitchat.
The entertainment highlight was a specially staged number by John Stagliano with his Fashionistas dance troupe, aerial artists and all, a lavish treatment of a serious theme, governmental encroachment on civil liberties.
The spaces between awards groups were filled with nostalgic clips from past AVN awards, arranged thematically: musical entertainment (including rocking moments by Randy West and Dyanna Lauren), memorable acceptance lines, comedians, etc.
The glamorous presenters were well rehearsed and acceptance speeches were mostly brief and to the point—something cable viewers used to Hollywood award shows are bound to appreciate.
The evening’s most unusual moment, perhaps, was Jenna Jameson’s rambling introduction to the presentation of the Crossover award named after her. After detailing her “rough year” and proclaiming Club Jenna “one of the biggest forces in the industry, she closed with the promise, “I will never spread my legs in this industry again.”
The winner. Stormy Daniels, thanked all the mainstream people who had hired her despite “my being a dirty pornstar,” and said sweetly, “I love you Jenna, but I’m going to spread my legs a little longer.”
Daniels also won Best Sex Comedy for her big-budget Operation Desert Stormy (Wicked Pictures). Three of the actors came on stage to share the honors. “The reason we’re all up is that I could not do this all by myself,” she said, also thanking her crew and the rest of the cast.
It was Daniels, along with Jenna Haze and radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, who made the evening’s first presentations, including Best Oral Sex Scene, Video.
“The biggest cocksucker?” Bubba asked. “That’s the guy in the White House.”
“Most artistic cocksucker,” Haze corrected, and it turned out to be Sasha Grey in Digital Playground’s Babysitters.
Haze was back on stage for the unusual result of Best Interactive Video. It was a tie—something very rare at the AVN Awards—between InTERActive (Teravision/Hustler) and Interactive Sex with Jenna Haze (Zero Tolerance). The win for Hustler brought Larry Flynt to the stage, eclipsing Patrick and Haze. He called InTERActive “our most profitable release of the year.” Jenna accepted for her half of the tie with, “All you perverts out there who jerk off to it, thank you so much.”
The award for Best Girl-Girl Sex Scene, Video, went to a group scene from Babysitters, while the Best Threeway Sex Scene went to Katsuni, Melissa Lauren and Rocco Siffredi in Evil Angel’s Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, accepted by the women, both of whom drooled over their still in Italy co-star.
Jenna Haze once again took the stage, winning for Best Couples Sex Scene with Manuel Ferrara in Evil Anal 2. “This is what I really hoped I was going to win,” she said. “He made me come really hard.” Ferrara said, “Thank you Jenna,” and she finished his sentence, “for taking your enormously long cock in my ass.”
Best Anal Sex Scene, Video, went to Bree Olson and Brandon Iron in Elegant Angel’s Big Wet Asses 3. “I’d like to thank Brandon’s cock and all the vegetable oil that was involved,” she said.
Oil and asses also figured in T. T. Boy’s acceptance for Best Ethnic Release, Black, won by Evasive Angle’s Big Phat Black Wet Butts 7. “Have you ever seen a beautiful dark-skinned ass with oil all over it,” he asked, “makin’ you horny, makin’ you want to fuck it?”
Olson, looking gorgeous in yellow, was back on stage to accept the coveted Best New Starlet award, which appropriate thanks to her contract company, Adam & Eve.
Special attention this year was given to the nominees for Female Performer of the Year, all 15 of whom were profiled in short video segments. Both male and female performers of the year got something extra this year, a Rolex watch for him a Tiffany pendant for her, courtesy of the website IMLive.com.
Male Performer went to Evan Stone, the second time he’s won it (first time was 2001). He thanked his “beautiful girlfriend Syren” and Ron Jeremy, “I’m not sure for what reason.”
The female performer nominees were all lined up on chairs in front of the stage for the presentation of the winner, who turned out to be Sasha Grey. The supercool 19 year-old from Sacramento fought back tears as she thanked John and Karen Stagliano for getting her started (in Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge) and Belladonna for her encouragement.
The serious-themed Fashionistas dance number segued appropriately into the presentation of the Reuben Sturman Award by AVN President Paul Fishbein, who greeted the audience with, “Most of you weren’t even born when AVN was started” and dedicated the show to New Beginnings founder Lenny Friedlander.
The dance number, he said, was futuristic, “but the future is now,” pointing out the myriad abridgements of First Amendment rights in the adult area over the past 25 years. He presented the first of two Reuben Sturman awards to Jeff Steward of JM Productions, who battled Federal obscenity prosecution head-on and won. Steward’s attorney, Lou Sirkin, accepted the award.
The second Sturman award went to Rondee Kamins of GVA/TWA, presented by her attorney, J. Michael Murray of Cleveland, for her appeals court victory striking down 2257 regulations as unconstitutional. Kamins warned that “freedom isn’t free” and that all 50 states have some kind of onerous restrictions on adult entertainment.
She asked her father Mel Kamins, a GVA colleague of Sturman, to stand in the audience and share the award with her.
The award for Best Film to Vivid’s Layout was accepted by star Briana Banks, producer Steve Hirsch, and director, Paul Thomas.
Hirsch said he knew this was the last year for AVN’s awards in Film categories, many of which have been won by Vivid over the years. Thomas proclaimed, “Film is dead, long live film,” adding, “But we can shoot video too.”
The awards for Upload included Best Actress, to Eva Angelina (“I’ve waited four and a half years for this moment,” she said), Best Supporting Actress (Hillary Scott) as well as Best Video.
Eli Cross, Upload’s director and co-writer, said, “We didn’t think there was any way in hell we’d get this two years in a row [after winning for Corruption last year]. He was joined on stage by Sex Z Pictures owner Bo Kenney, partner and co-producer Kylie Ireland and several members of the cast.
But Best Director this year went to John Stagliano for Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, who said, cryptically, “This was the hardest one ever” and thanked his wife Karen for making him always feel that “I have to do better with my life.”
The evening came to a climax of sorts with a montage of Chi Chi Larue’s once traditional “Dance of the Starlets,” followed by a new edition of it, with Larue bellowing “Porn Girls Rock” as about 50 starlets crowded the stage and danced.
Anything after that would have been anticlimactic, so the show ended with the remainder of the awards announced on a video crawl. Some highlights: Best New Production Company: Silver Sinema. Best Music: Afrodite Superstar (Femme Chocolat/Adam & Eve); Best High End All-Sex Release: Dave Navarro’s Broken (Teravision), Director of the Year: Jules Jordan.
A complete listing of the awards is below.
Best Actor, Film- Tom Byron, Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Actor, Video- Brad Armstrong, Coming Home, Wicked Pictures
Best Actress, Film- Penny Flame, Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Actress, Video- Eva Angelina, Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best All-Girl Release- Girlvana 3, Zero Tolerance Entertainment
Best All-Girl Series- Women Seeking Women, Girlfriends Films
Best All-Girl Sex Scene, Film- Sex & Violins, Vivid Entertainment Group, Faith Leon, Monique Alexander & Stefani Morgan
Best All-Girl Sex Scene, Video- Babysitters, Digital Playground, Sophia Santi, Alektra Blue, Sammie Rhodes, Angie Savage & Lexxi Tyler
Best All-Sex Release- G for Gianna, Jonni Darkko/Evil Angel
Best Alternative Release- Buttman at Nudes a Poppin' 20, Evil Angel Productions
Best Amateur Release- Cherries 56, Homegrown Select/Pure Play Media
Best Amateur Series- Abbywinters.com Intimate Moments, Abbywinters.com
Best Anal Sex Scene, Film- The Craving, Wicked Pictures, Chelsie Rae & Tyler Knight
Best Anal Sex Scene, Video- Big Wet Asses 10, Elegant Angel Productions, Bree Olson & Brandon Iron
Best Anal-Themed Release- Ass Worship 10, Jules Jordan Video
Best Anal-Themed Series- Big Wet Asses, Elegant Angel Productions
Best Animated Release- Night Shift Nurses: Experiment 1 & 2, Adult Source Media
Best Art Direction, Film- The Craving, Wicked Pictures
Best Art Direction, Video- Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel
Best BDSM Release- Bondage Thoughts, Daring Media Group
Best Big Bust Release- Gina Lynn's DD's and Derrieres 2, Gina Lynn Distribution
Best Big Bust Series- Big Natural Breasts, New Sensations
Best Cinematography- Fashion Underground, Teravision/Vivid,
Best Classic DVD- Debbie Does Dallas, Definitive Collector's Edition, VCX
Best Continuing Video Series- Belladonna: Manhandled, Belladonna/Evil Angel
Best Couples Sex Scene, Film- Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group, Penny Flame & Tom Byron
Best Couples Sex Scene, Video- Evil Anal 2, Manuel Ferrara/Evil Angel, Jenna Haze & Manuel Ferrara
Best Director, Film- Paul Thomas, Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Director, Foreign Release- Alessandro Del Mar, Dangerous Sex, Private U.S.A./Pure Play Media
Best Director, Non-Feature-Belladonna, Belladonna: Manhandled 2, Belladonna/Evil Angel
Best Director, Video- John Stagliano, Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel
Best DVD Extras- Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best DVD Menus- Not the Bradys XXX, X-Play/Hustler
Best Editing, Film- X, Studio A Entertainment, Andrew Blake
Best Editing, Video- Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel, John Stagliano
Best Ethnic-Themed Release, Asian- Anabolic Asians 5, Anabolic Video
Best Ethnic-Themed Release, Black- Big Black Wet Butts 7, Evasive Angles Entertainment
Best Ethnic-Themed Release, Latin- Big Latin Wet Butts 5, Evasive Angles Entertainment
Best Ethnic-Themed Series, Asian- Asian 1 on 1, Naughty America/Pure Play Media
Best Ethnic-Themed Series, Black- Black Reign, Mercenary Pictures
Best Ethnic-Themed Series, Latin- Chicks & Salsa, Third Degree Films
Best Fem-Dom Strap-On Release- Babes Ballin' Boys 17, Pleasure Productions
Best Film- Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Foot Fetish Release- Stiletto, Penthouse Digital Media/Pulse
Best Foreign All-Sex Release- Angel Perverse 8, Clark Euro Angel/Evil Angel
Best Foreign All-Sex Series- Ass Jazz, Buttman Magazine Choice/Evil Angel
Best Foreign Feature- Furious Fuckers: Final Race, Evil Angel/Rocco Siffredi
Best Gonzo Release- Brianna Love Is Buttwoman, Elegant Angel Productions
Best Gonzo Series- Bang Bus, Bang Productions
Best Group Sex Scene, Film- Debbie Does Dallas ... Again, Vivid Entertainment Group, Stefani Morgan, Savanna Samson, Monique Alexander, Evan Stone, Christian & Jay Huntington
Best Group Sex Scene, Video- Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel, Annette Schwartz, Sintia Stone, Judith Fox, Vanessa Hill & Rocco Siffredi
Best High-Definition Production- Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel
Best High End All-Sex Release- Broken, Teravision/Vivid
Best Internal Release- All Internal 5, Cruel Media/ Jules Jordan Video
Best Internal Series- 5 Guy Cream Pie, Kick Ass Pictures
Best Interactive DVD- (tie) InTERActive, Teravision/Hustler Video & Interactive Sex with Jenna Haze, Zero Tolerance Entertainment
Best Interracial Release- Black Owned 2, Jules Jordan Video
Best Interracial Series- My Daughter's Fucking Blackzilla, Hush Hush Entertainment
Best Male Newcomer- Alan Stafford
Best MILF Release- It's a Mommy Thing, Elegant Angel Productions
Best MILF Series- Momma Knows Best, Red Light District
Best Music- Afrodite Superstar, Femme Chocolat/Adam & Eve Pictures
Best New Starlet- Bree Olson
Best New Video Production Company- Silver Sinema
Best Non-Sex Performance- Bryn Pryor, Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best On-Line Marketing Campaign, Individual Project- Debbie Does Dallas...Again, World of Wonder/Vivid Entertainment Group
Best On-Line Marketing Campaign, Company Image- ClubJennamovies.com, Club Jenna
Best Oral Sex Scene, Film- Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group, Kylie Ireland
Best Oral Sex Scene, Video- Babysitters, Digital Playground, Sasha Grey
Best Oral-Themed Release- Face Full of Diesel, Digital Sin
Best Oral-Themed Series- Feeding Frenzy, Jules Jordan Video
Best Overall Marketing Campaign, Company Image- Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Overall Marketing Campaign, Individual Project- Coming Home, Wicked Pictures
Best Packaging- Janine Loves Jenna, Club Jenna/Vivid
Best Packaging Innovation- The Exquisite Multimedia Lighted Boxes, Exquisite Multimedia
Best POV Release- Fucked on Sight 2, Manuel Ferrara/Evil Angel
Best POV Series- Fucked on Sight, Manuel Ferrara/Evil Angel
Best POV Sex Scene- Goo Girls 26, Rodnievision/Exquisite, Sunny Lane
Best Pro-Am Release- Breakin' 'em In 11, Vouyer Media
Best Pro-Am Series- Filthy's First Taste, Club Jenna/Vivid
Best Retail Website, Rentals- SugarDVD
Best Retail Website, Sales- Adult DVD Empire
Best Screenplay, Film- Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group, Phil Noir
Best Screenplay, Video- Upload, SexZ Pictures, Alvin Edwards & Eli Cross
Best Sex Comedy- Operation: Desert Stormy, Wicked Pictures
Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production- Furious Fuckers Final Race, Rocco Siffredi/Evil Angel, Gianna, Vanessa Hill, Sarah James, Marsha Lord, Poppy Morgan, Kelly Stafford, Jazz Duro, Omar Galanti, Kid Jamaica & Joachim Kessef
Best Solo Sex Scene- Upload, SexZ Pictures, Eva Angelina
Best Solo Release- Extreme Holly Goes Solo, Pink Visual Productions
Best Spanking Release- Baltimore Brat 2, Kelly Payne Productions
Best Special Effects- Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best Specialty Release, Other Genre- Cum on My Tattoo 3, Burning Angel Entertainment/Pulse
Best Specialty Series, Other Genre- Jack's Leg Show, Digital Playground
+Best Squirting Release- Flower's Squirt Shower 4, Elegant Angel Productions
Best Squirting Series- Jada Fire Is Squirtwoman, Elegant Angel Productions
Best Supporting Actor, Film- Randy Spears, Flasher, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Supporting Actor, Video- Barrett Blade, Coming Home, Wicked Pictures
Best Supporting Actress, Film- Kylie Ireland, Layout, Vivid Entertainment Group
Best Supporting Actress, Video- Hillary Scott, Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best Tease Performance- Brianna Love: Her Fine Sexy Self, John Leslie/Evil Angel, Brianna Love
Best Three-way Sex Scene- Fashionistas Safado: Berlin, Evil Angel, Katsuni, Melissa Lauren & Rocco Siffredi
Best Transsexual Release- Transsexual Babysitters 2, Devil's Film
Best Transsexual Series- Transsexual Prostitutes, Devil's Film
Best Video Feature- Upload, SexZ Pictures
Best Videography- Black Worm, Pulpo, Mandril
Best Vignette Release- Babysitters, Digital Playground
Best Vignette Series- Barely Legal School Girls, Hustler Video
The Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year- Stormy Daniels
Director of the Year (Body of Work)- Jules Jordan
Female Foreign Performer of the Year- Monica Mattos
Female Performer of the Year- Sasha Grey
Hall of Fame:
Brittany Andrews
Jay Ashley
Skye Blue
Jake Jacobs
Angel Kelly
Dyanna Lauren
Michael Raven
Raylene
Ruby
Alexandra Silk
Angela Summers
Tasha Voux
Hall of Fame - Founders Branch:
Martin Rothstein, Model Distributors
Teddy Rothstein, Star Distributors
Kenneth Guarino, Metro Home Video
Male Foreign Performer of the Year- David Perry
Male Performer of the Year- Evan Stone
Most Outrageous Sex Scene- Ass Blasting Felching Anal Whores, Powersville/JM, "There are Some Things Even an Asshole Shouldn't Attempt" w/ Cindy Crawford, Rick Masters & Audrey Hollander
Reuben Sturman Awards- Jeff Steward, JM Productions, Rondee Kamins, General Video of America
Top Renting Title of the Year – 2007 - Debbie Does Dallas...Again, Vivid Entertainment Group
Top Selling Title of the Year – 2007 - Pirates, Digital Playground/Adam & Eve
Transsexual Performer of the Year- Allanah Starr
Unsung Starlet of the Year- Gianna
