LAS VEGAS—The 2015 AVN Awards once again played to a packed house, with attendees swarming in to the spins of DJ Illest Rich—and plenty of alcohol for those old enough to imbibe it. And they were in for a treat. One of the most briskly paced shows in AVN Awards history, it also maintained a high caliber of entertainment throughout, from the first hilarious song-and-dance number by Tommy Pistol to the last set from hip-hop duo Rae Sremmurd, two brothers from Mississippi, who got the crowd on their feet.
But first, showing that adult doesn't forget its forebears, the show's opening video "In Memoriam" honored those members who've left us over the past year, including especially grande dame (in every sense of the word) Gloria Leonard, Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann, Hot Video founder Franck Vardon, renaissance man Tony Lovett (the adult director whose legacy included stints as editor-in-chief of three different AVN Media Network publications), Something Weird Video founder Mike Vraney and photographer Bunny Yeager. The industry also lost Toby Dammit, Cameron Fox, Billy Glide, Heather Joy, Christine Kessler, Armando Malatesta, Jake Malone, Phil Marshak, Shoosh, Paul Snell, Southern Somer and Jim Steel.
A video tribute to this year's AVN Hall of Fame inductees followed, and then came Rae Sremmurd's first number, also featuring the Hustler Club girls dancing in the background.
The evening's comic talent this year, Danielle Stewart, was introduced to the audience via a video clip, where she described being asked to host the Awards as “a wet dream come true”—perhaps literally, because as the camera pulled back, we could see that she was surrounded by hot studs ready for action. But wanting to have the true XXX experience, Stewart decides to go in for STD testing—and comes out with a several-foot-long prescription and a big bag of pills, all presented to her by clinic workers dressed in hazmat suits!
When Stewart finally appeared in person, she exclaimed that this was “such a special night—this is the night that the world gets to celebrate pornography, which deserves some celebrating, by the way.
Stewart also claimed that when she was in eighth grade, she was voted the girl most likely to get into porn. “I've actually never done porn professionally, but I respect anyone who gets paid for doing what they love. It would be like if I were to get paid to snort cocaine.”
The one-liners came quickly.
"But I would love to be a porn actor," she confided. "It would be so amazing to be with a guy with a hard dick and a job, you know what I mean?”
After mourning the loss of Joan Rivers, Stewart blunted the sadness by noting, "I guess the upside is, some lucky squirter can use ‘Joan Rivers’ as a porn name.”
Stewart brought out her co-hosts, Alexis Texas and Tommy Pistol, who himself had been a stand-up comic performing in the New York City area—and as noted from the stage, is the first male performer to host the Awards in over two decades! After some repartee about what chance Tommy would ever have to fuck Alexis, Ms. Texas asked why the awards committee would pick Tommy to host—which was his cue to burst into song, noting in the opening lyric, "Because I get good wood!" Alexis also got to warble a bit, when Tommy asked why she was picked to host, but the answer seemed to consist of her song's only line, "Because I got the booty!"
Later, the hosts discussed how performers' porn names were generated, with Pistol arguing that it should be the person's middle name and the street they grew up on, while Texas held that the name "should sum up who you are. That's why I'm Alexis Texas, ’cause you don't mess with Texas," a line that generated wild applause. Based on that, Stewart decided that her porn name would be "Broke Dick-Garage." ("It's French," she noted.)
Later, between award presentations, Stewart complimented her female co-host by saying what an honor it was to share the stage with “THE Alexis Texas”—and of course, Texas had to repay the compliment: "I'm glad I have the honor to share the stage with THE Sarah Silverman.” But when Stewart corrected Texas by noting, “I’m Danielle Stewart,” Texas's only response was, “Who? Never heard of her.”
The pair also called on audience members to expose their cleavage to the Fleshlight blimp-cam, which once again floated over the assemblage.
This led directly into the first award presentation, for Best Girl/Girl Sex Scene, snagged by Gabriella Paltrova and Remy LaCroix for Gabi Gets Girls, and accepted on stage by Paltrova herself.
"Thank you, Spiegler," Paltrova said, referring to her agent Mark Spiegler, "thank you all my friends that are in here, and God bless Heather Joy, rest in peace; I love you.”
Other presenters for the evening included Brooklyn Chase, August Ames, Scarlet Red, Adriana Chechik, A.J. Applegate, Abigail Mac, Nadia Styles, Asa Akira, Mia Malkova, a bevy of Penthouse Pets (Lexi Belle, Misty Stone, Ryan Ryans, Kenna James, Layla Sin), Karmen Karma, Aiden Starr, Christie Stevens, Jessica Drake, Veruca James, Gabriella Paltrova, Allie Haze, Jesse (formerly Jesse Jane), Jodi West, Kelly des Ch'tis, "Teen Mom" Farrah Abraham, Skin Diamond, Maddy O'Reilly, Brandy Aniston, Amber Lynn and Sunny Megatron. Representing the male side of the talent pool at the podium were Ron Jeremy, Ryan Driller, Tommy Gunn, Lexington Steele and Michael Vegas.
Most of the acceptance speeches were as low-key as Paltrova's, though there were exceptions. Vicki Chase exclaimed, "This is my first AVN Award!" after a win for Best Oral Sex Scene in Elegant Angel's Let Me Suck You 6. And she was even more surprised when her V for Vicki (Jonni Darkko/Evil Angel) was deemed the Best Star Showcase. And when Aidra Fox accepted Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene with Kelly Madison (standing in for husband Ryan), Aidra threw her arms in the air and shouted, “Wow!" while Madison described Ryan as "the hardest working man in porn."
Shortly after, Asa Akira and Ron Jeremy presented the first NiteFlirt Fan Award, for "Best Boobs," but not before the pair talked about how lonely it is being "on the road," and engaged in a little humorous "phone sex" in which Ron talked about using his "schmeckle" to "fuck the furniture." And when Jayden James was announced as the winner, Ron joked that "her tits are so big, when she was born, even her dad had stretch marks."
The Best New Starlet award was presented by last year's winner, Mia Malkova, who told the audience how grateful she had been to have been nominated, and how she hadn't expected to win. She then burst out with the news that her successor to the title would be Carter Cruise—who herself was so flustered at the win that she could barely thank everyone she wanted.
The show's first comedy video was then shown, featuring Alexis Texas in "California Drought," where it turns out that the solution to all of the state's water problems is ... squirting adult actresses! The program's tag line? "Squirt for the dirt!”
Stewart then introduced AVN's 2015 trophy girls, Carmen Caliente and Jillian Janson—and promptly asked them whose dick they had to suck to get the job. But before they could answer, Stewart corrected herself, "Oh, you were supposed to ask me that question. Sorry.”
Best Actor winner Steven St. Croix took the stage dressed in what looked like an Alpine hiker outfit, and confessed, "I'm kind of nervous. ... The new guys in this category, the actors, they're the guys that are going to be around for a while. These guys are good, so I'm humbled that I've won this category." He then proceeded to thank everyone involved in Wetwork, the Vivid movie, directed by Eli Cross, for which he won the acting award.
Best Anal Sex Scene was up next, and presenter Aiden Starr described anal as "the Lamborghini of sex ... you are in for the ride of your life!" When winner Adriana Chechik took the stage to accept, she screamed with happiness, and then profusely thanked her fans, and specifically named Derek Hay at LA Direct, her "LA Direct family" and her scene partner Manuel Ferrara.
In presenting the Best Actress award, Gabriella Paltrova noted, “Acting is not just about sucking dick; it's finding the similarities and differences between yourself and your role." When co-presenter Veruca James opined that someone should invite Meryl Streep to become an AVN Award contender, Paltrova retorted, "Come on, that's ridiculous. Meryl Streep would never win an AVN Award; she's terrible in bed. At least, that's what Mandingo said.”
Carter Cruise picked up her second honor of the evening, for her performance in New Sensations' Second Chances, particularly thanking writer/director Jacky St. James for her "amazing script."
The same trio (Christie Stevens was the third) also presented the Male Performer of the Year award, which, along with a Tag Heuer watch courtesy of ImLive.com, went to Mick Blue, who particularly thanked his wife, Anikka Albrite, who he said "made me a better person."
Speaking of Albrite, she nabbed the next award, Female Performer of the Year, and of course thanked husband Mick, saying he "has been an inspiration to me and the best encouragement." She also thanked her mom, who was in the audience; her agent, Mark Spiegler; her publicists, Rising Star PR; her fans; director Mason and studio Hard X. "You guys are amazing; this is a dream come true," she said. Albrite will also go home with a gift from ImLive.com: a three-carat diamond bracelet.
Mason’s name came up again right away as the winner of the next award, Director of the Year—but of course the enigmatic helmswoman didn't appear on stage. Allie Haze accepted the statuette for her, thanking Mile High Media VP Jon Blitt for creating Hard X, one of the two Mile High studios (along with Erotica X) that Mason shoots for exclusively.
It was then time for another humorous aside, this time a short video starring Tommy Pistol as "Vance Delgado, Location Scout."
"What's better than watching two whores get their freak on?" he asked. “When two whores get their freak on in a classy home, huh? ... My houses put the ass back in class! ... For the past two decades, I've been developing relationships with some of the Valley's most semi-prominent homeowners, because let's face it: Nothing says class like scissoring in an orthodontist's house that hasn't been updated since fuckin’ 1997.”
The next pair of awards were given by an eclectic quartet of presenters: French actress Kelly des Ch'tis; male performer Michael Vegas; Jodi West, co-owner of Forbidden Fruits Films and also one of the studio's biggest stars; and Farrah Abraham, whose adult industry bona fides include two Vivid Celeb titles and a line of toys for Topco Sales (one of which won an "O" Award earlier this week). The quartet presented the Best Sex Scene in a Foreign-Shot Production to Rocco's Perfect Slaves 2, for which star Samantha Bentley accepted the trophy, saying that she was "terrified of crowds," but nonetheless thanked her co-stars, including director Rocco Siffredi, and his releasing company Evil Angel.
Best Parody was the next category to be presented, and in one of the hardest-fought battles of the show, 24 XXX: An Axel Braun Parody took top honors, with Braun bringing both cast and crew members up on stage to accept.
"This is really cool," Braun said. "I want to thank Steve Orenstein of Wicked Pictures for just being honest and tolerating me and allowing me to make the movies that I really enjoy making." He also thanked his "amazing cast," particularly star Kurt Lockwood, Braun's wife, who edited the movie, and "last but not least, I want to thank Kiefer Sutherland for creating a character that was so much fun to parody."
Yet another trio of presenters—Skin Diamond, Maddy O'Reilly and Brandy Aniston—gave out the penultimate pair of awards, the first of which was Best Drama, which went to Brad Armstrong's Aftermath.
"This was definitely an ensemble piece," said Armstrong, after calling the entire cast and crew onstage, "but of course my two leads here, Tyler Nixon, who got overlooked for Best Actor, I want to point out; he did an amazing job; Jessica Drake, incredible job; my cameraman Alex Ladd—and David Lord, both my cameramen—it was a very small group; my man who played the missing father [Ryan Driller], Steve Orenstein, who gives me the luxury of doing the movies that we do; AVN and all our viewers who took the movie and the content as seriously as it deserved."
Transexual Performer of the Year was the trio's second presentation, and it went to Venus Lux, who also received the bonus gift of a three-carat diamond bracelet, also courtesy of ImLive.
"Thank you so much, AVN," Lux said from the stage. "Thank you, all the girls who supported me; thank you, all the girls I've worked with, the guys I've worked with, the transsexuals … to all my fans who voted for me, I promise you another hot year."
Before presenting the evening's final award, for Movie of the Year, Tommy Pistol gave the audience a taste of his Gilbert Gottfried impression. Then, after Rae Sremmurd performed their final two numbers, which involved many of the actresses in the audience joining them onstage, the hosts brought up Amber Lynn and sexpert Sunny Megatron to announce the winner, which turned out to be Braun's 24 XXX. Once again, Braun brought the entire cast and crew onstage, and largely repeated the lauds he'd given in accepting the Best Parody award, as well as "all the people I've worked with over the years."
One of the evening's biggest winners was Jules Jordan Video, whose titles took home a total of 13 awards, including sweeping the anal categories, plus both Best Big Butt and Best Big Bust honors, Best Ethnic Release, Best MILF Release, Best Older Woman/Younger Girl Release, Best Pro-Am Release, Best Continuing Series, and its distributed title Dani Daniels Deeper from Blacked.com took Best Three-Way Sex Scene - Girl/Girl/Boy and Best Interracial Release.
Another top scorer was Braun's 24 XXX: An Axel Braun Parody, which not only took Best Parody and Movie of the Year, but also scored a Best Director-Parody honor for Braun, and a Best Screenplay trophy for himself and co-writer Eli Cross. Veronica Avluv also scored Best Supporting Actress for her role as the stepmother in Braun's Cinderella XXX: An Axel Braun Parody for the newly formed Wicked Fairy Tales line.
While Mile High Media's Hard X line has been around for nearly two years at this point, its most prominent director, Mason (whose face still isn't for public consumption), not only scored Best Director - Non-Feature and Director of the Year, but her movies Anikka 2 and Allie also took home multiple honors.
Another much-honored series over the years, Girlfriends Films’ Women Seeking Women, garnered an award for Best All-Girl Release with its landmark 100th volume. Adam & Eve Pictures' Alexis & Asa—featuring two AVN Awards hostesses, Alexis Texas and Asa Akira—also won for Best All-Girl Release in a rare tie vote. And Girlfriends Films director Tammy Sands’ All Natural Glamour Solos 4 was named Best Solo Release.
But these, however, are just a few of the winners. To see the full list, click here.
The AVN Awards Show was sponsored by ImLive.com, POPPORN, ModelCentro, PornDoe.com, Fleshlight, NiteFlirt, Adult Empire, ArrangementFinders.com and Topco Sales.
Above, photo of Mick Blue and Anikka Albrite by Rick Garcia. For more photos, go to AVN.com/galleries.
