LOS ANGELES—Wednesday, Sasha Grey commented to TMZ on the news that adult studio Assence Films had offered to donate proceeds to the Reading Across America program from its just-released debut feature, Anal Artists, which contains a previously shot scene featuring the former adult performer.
The National Education Association, which runs Reading Across America, said earlier this week that it would not accept the donation from Assence. Grey told TMZ Wednesday that the studio, which she had never heard of, was trying "to capitalize on [the] Read Across America controversy, and my name.”
Mike Kulich, CEO of Assence Films, has issued a response to Grey comments, which is reprinted here in its entirety:
Miss Grey’s response to TMZ is nothing short of alarming.
It seems to be okay for her to further her mainstream career by reading to kids, but if we try to help we are referred to as pathetic.
Seems hypocritical to me.
Just because Miss Grey hasn't heard of Assence Films doesn't mean we don’t exist.
It is not a pathetic attempt to donate money; it is a real attempt to donate money for Reading Across America and help a struggling education system, that just in Los Angeles County, has an appalling consistent 34.9 percent dropout rate.
At no point did my company ever state that Miss Grey was involved or endorsed what we were doing with this campaign.
What is the difference between her helping the NEA and us helping?
In fact, we did not make a big deal about what we were doing. Our charitable efforts only became public once the Huffington Post picked up on it, and here we are being slandered.
We have already received a call from LAUSD saying they would love the donation and they could use all the help anyone is willing to offer.
No one said the scene featuring Miss Grey was newly shoot footage. We clearly state that it was one of her last anal scenes that she shot before her retirement.
We didn't realize we had to clear it with Miss Grey and in fact, we were in no way legally obligated to clear it with Miss Grey.
The bottom line was to help the program and our failing schools.
If Grey was so concerned about education she would have applauded our efforts.
If she has any issues pertaining to us trying to offer a helping hand to one of the most important aspects of our community, I would say to her she needs to take a long look in the mirror and get over herself.
