It's all about websites, and Bridgett Kerkove said she's having problems with one and with LGI, an Internet company who supposedly took it upon themselves to put up an unauthorized Kerkove website, bridgettkerkove.com
Kerkove: There's this guy named Bo from LGI Video. I met him out here once about three months ago. They were shooting one of their movies, and I did a scene for them. The check bounced and everything else. When I met him then, he asked me if I wanted a website. I said no. If I have one, I want it through Seymore Butts. Now he has an entire website up with my name on it. It says live sex feed and live chat and all this stuff about me. It's totally fraudulent. I didn't have anything to do with it, and of course I'm not making any money off of it.
"Cam Smith [a talent agent] called me and asked if I would do a scene for this guy. I did the scene with Brick Majors. That was it. Then, when we were driving home, I thought about it. We were already nervous about the check because he [Bo] said he was going to give cash. We needed cash because he was out of town and we didn't know him. Well, the girl before us he gave cash to. Then he said to us well, we don't have any cash. The check is good, we swear. I left and I go, I never signed a model release. Whatever. I brushed it off. Well, last week Tyce Bune called and said this guy Bo was hounding him to start a website with him. Tyce was uneasy about it and called me. Tyce said this guy Bo says he has your website and he's putty Cherry Mirage's up. I go, 'What!!?'
"I told that guy I did not want a website with him. I talked to him one time on the location. I called up Bo and his wife answered and said, 'If you want your name back, then you're going to need to pay us.' I said I never signed anything. As a matter of fact that movie I did, I never signed a model release for. I said you guys are trying to blackmail me. You can't do that. They said whatever. 'We're going to get our lawyers and you're the one who's going to be in trouble.' I said it's not my fault. I didn't sign anything. You're doing this against my wishes.
"Yesterday, Mike McCormick called me and said this guy Bo called up Metro and told them that he's going to go around to all the companies and tell them not to hire me. I'm so upset. It's horrible."
We caught up with Jim Gunn who was shooting in Ft. Lauderdale. Gunn says he's been shooting movies for LGI, a Virginia-based Internet company.
Gunn: "I'll tell you who Bo is. I don't know if he's going to want to talk. I hired Bridgett for this movie. Bridgett was treated fine; she got paid. In fact, I've seen Bridgett and Skeeter since then and everything's fine. They have no problem with me, per se. Apparently they do take issue with Bo from LGI. Apparently they got into some agreement which I didn't directly negotiate about running her website, then they changed their mind. Bo's got their URL name and they're mad.
"On the other hand, she didn't sign her model release. The upshot is, from what I understand, apparently in the 200 movies she must have done by now, I don't think she's signed any of these model releases. There's a lot of people in the business who might be in for a lot of trauma when they realize that all of those model releases are forged."
G. Ross: "Somebody had to sign them."
Gunn: "It wasn't her, though. We think it was Skeeter. She might have a beef with Bo, whatever that is, it's a misunderstanding, in the meantime, due to this little hassle we've come to learn something about her. Who knows how many movies for all the various companies in the business, it seems to me that maybe they haven't signed any of the releases. I don't really know the upshot of what's going to happen. I shot these movies with Bridgett. As far as that part of it went, it went fine. It seems to me, it looks like she didn't sign a release. If the website's the essence of her beef, that's between her and those guys [LGI].
G. Ross: "So I understand it, you shot this particular movie?"
Gunn: "Right. We shot a movie called Late Nite Network 2 starring this new girl Ashley Hart. I shot it for LGI the last time I was in California. Bridgett worked with Brick Majors in an anal scene. Everything was fine."
G. Ross: The question being this, not so much LGI, but aren't you specifically on the hook if she didn't sign the model release and her husband did?"
Gunn: "I don't know if I'm on the hook. I got paid for my work, already. I don't own the movie. I directed the movie and made sure everything was completed in a proper manner to the best of my ability. They're claiming they didn't sign a release. That's not a defense. That's an admission of committing a crime. If she didn't sign a release and somebody else did..."
G. Ross: "Follow my stupid logic on this. If you shot her, either your production assistant or whoever takes care of it, it was their responsibility to get her to sign a model release. Am I correct?"
Gunn: "Right. Exactly."
G. Ross: "Now, if you're saying she didn't sign a model release, that's like putting it on your shoulders."
Gunn: "Well, no, because it isn't like...you would be right if I didn't have a release at all; but if the release was forged by another person such as her husband, then that's forgery on her part; their part."
G. Ross: "I'm going under the assumption you're not going around with a 10-man entourage where something like this could slip through the cracks. It's you and somebody else. If her husband is signing that model release, how could he have done it without you not knowing it?"
Gunn: "They probably did it when I had my back turned. I never had a problem in a 100 movies. People sign a model release and they get paid. That's that. This is all a bunch of bullshit that's happened since then. They're trying to bad-mouth him because they had some falling out over their website business. Now they're just bad-mouthing and slinging mud.
I had a discussion with Bo last night on this very point of the model release. The model release is in his possession. He owns the movie. I directed it. However, she's right. She didn't sign it. We surmise, based on the penmanship, that her husband signed it. By the way, this has greater ramifications than this petty bullshit. We think, and I don't know this for sure; other people will have to look in their own files, we think, and this is our theory, her and Skeeter go around purposely not signing those releases. Remember, at the time she wasn't mad at us, so she had no reason not to sign it. This all came after-the-fact. We think they do this as common practice, not signing it as some precautionary con or scam. When I shot her, she was very happy. She did a great scene, she got paid. This whole website shebang happened after the fact. I've talked to Skeeter. He's not mad at me, personally. And I'm still working with Bo. So it's between them."
Skeeter Kerkove said he's aware of calls being made to adult companies informing them that Bridgett's model releases may not be genuine.
Skeeter: "Yesterday some of the companies called Bridgett and told her what they {LGI} was doing.
G. Ross: "Theories are being advanced that you're the one signing the model releases."
Skeeter: "Normally, from what we've experienced, someone always witnesses Bridgett sign her signature. Which is what the instructions are to meet the federal guidelines. Another thing is, Bridgett's been in 186 scenes in 11 months and it seems kind of weird that only one time there's been a problem and that every other company speaks so highly of Bridgett and myself- always being on time, never having an attitude, being polite."
G. Ross: "I hear you might have some scam in mind."
Skeeter [laughs]: "The only scam that's going on is that they've started a website with an actual legal last name [Kerkove] without permission and making false claims that you can have live chats with Bridgett. That would be impossible. We're here at our home. We don't even own a computer. Just a $30 cordless cell phone. They wanted to do business with us, but we don't want to do business with them. We met Bo once for less than ten minutes and that was that. I didn't think Jim Gunn was in on this, but now I realize that he is in on it. That's just a real let down with how nice we've been with him. This is awful.
"Here's an example of how good we are on a set. Like an example of workman's comp. Bridgett's doing a scene that I'm directing for Sin City because Chuck Martino was off in never-never land. When Mickey Ray the cameraman, leaned over, the entire battery pack fell off and hit her head. It caused swelling and cut open the top part of her eye a little bit. She didn't complain. She was crying, but she said let's get over this and let me finish the scene. Maybe ten minutes later, the legs of two heavy wrought iron chairs slipped, and the chairs pinched in her pinkie and fractured her pinkie. She didn't yell at anybody. She didn't say you guys should pay medical bills. Or I should be given workman's comp. She said all I need is some ice to take away the pain. I'll take a couple of aspirin and we'll finish the scene. No one's out trying to get any money or suing anybody or anything.
"He [Bo] told me on the phone last week that we can buy our name back and that they have a model release that says they can pretty much do whatever they want. As you already know we're going to do our website with Seymore Butts.
"Bridgett is being victimized here. If somebody can just produce a model release with my signature or hers, but will anybody do that? No. Everybody knows what Bridgett's model release looks like because they see her sign them and they can take her driver's license they have on file and match it with her signature. It's always hers. The only time my signature is going to show up on something is when I performed with Bridgett. But they [LGI] have already called Extreme, Metro, Sin City. It's just a real shame. It's terrible.
"Our neighbor showed me the website and one of the pictures they show of Bridgett is Brick Majors doing her. There is no model release on it. I don't know who signed it and neither does Bridgett.."
G. Ross: "This brings up an issue. You're saying they don't have a model release."
Skeeter: "No. Bridgett never signed one. We were supposed to be paid in cash. They never paid us."
G. Ross: "Jim Gunn says LGI has a model release."
Skeeter: "They might have one but it's not signed by myself or her. They're just trying to blackmail us and we're not going to be blackmailed."
G. Ross: "Why wouldn't you have signed a model release at that time? Isn't it customary right before you shoot to..."
Skeeter: "It's the law before you shoot."
G. Ross: "Why wouldn't you have signed it then?"
Skeeter: "I don't even know. I didn't sign it. I wasn't performing."
G. Ross: "Why wouldn't have Bridgett signed it?"
Skeeter: "What I did witness is her complaining, not in a nagging way, that she wanted to do her paperwork. They said they didn't have it right now, that they needed to do a scene with Brandon Irons and somebody else. It's supposed to be signed before, so it's clearly their responsibility to make sure that it's signed before or they don't film."
G. Ross: "You're saying that she had full intentions to sign before the scene, but they were acting disorganized."
Skeeter: "It was totally disorganized. Totally. He [Bo] was trying to offer her drugs on the set. I directly saw it. Then we got a call about two or three hours later that night from him. He was saying would Bridgett want to go over and meet Kevin Beech, that if she goes over to keep him company for the night he'll [Beech] give her own series. I said her name's not Gina Ryder. She's not going to be his girlfriend for the week or for the month. I'm not her pimp and I can't believe you're trying to pimp her out. Then Mickey Ray heard about it and apologized to me."
Skeeter said he had no personal contact with Beech. "I met him once and he was a super gentleman," Skeeter said. "We were filming at his house and that was it."
Skeeter: "If Bridgett's done 186 scenes without incident, why would there be this one problem with a company that's back east that stole our name and then told us they're doing it to protect us and all we have to do is start giving them scenes and we'll make a whole bunch of money. If you know Tyce Bune, this is how we found out about it. Tyce Bune said he talked to Bo. Bo was trying to sell him a website saying that Skeeter and Brigett were really happy, they're making thousands of dollars a month. He didn't know that Tyce knew us. That's how we found out about all this. We haven't done anything wrong to anybody in this business.
Tyce Bune had this to add:
Bune: "I talked to these guys [LGI] about doing a website. At first I had talked to Jim Gunn and had a nice conversation with him. He recommended these people [LGI]. I called them and talked to them. I liked what they had to say. I told them I'm really interested. And, I'm not lying to you, when I was on line with this guy [Bo] he asked is your name said. I said no it's not at the moment. Why would anybody take it. It's unusual enough. Then he goes, 'Well, it's saved now.' I had not signed any contracts with them. I had no intentions of signing with them. He had mentioned that Bridgett was wanting to do a website with them, and he actually had Bridgett's name. So I thought I'll call Bridgett and see what she has to say about it. When I called she went ballistic and said she never had any intentions of them doing her website, that they had no right to take her name. I agree. I think until you sign a contract, no company has the right to log in your name. If I sent them a contract they have a right to log in my name. But I didn't do that. I didn't like their contract. After talking to Bridgett, I definitely didn't like it because they had already taken her name.
"They pissed away $70 because there's a thousand other directions I can go. To me it's not that big a deal that my website has to be my name. With the Beach Bunny series lines, there's a thousand ways I can go with it. I'm not going to disclose the other alternatives because I don't want those getting snatched up, either."
Bo from LGI comments: "I'll tell you what happened. We met Bridgett and her husband at a shoot that Jim Gunn was doing for us. She's a very pretty girl, so we asked her if she had a website. She said no I don't have one. We asked her if she wanted to do one. That's what we were shooting the movies for - to use on the web and distribute the movies through Midnight Film and Video. She said she was going to do something with Seymore Butts. I said cool, but I'd like to have a lot of pictures of you to use on the web. We paid her like $1200 and had Bill Diehl the photographer shoot extra rolls of film of her to go onto the web. She knew totally upfront that she was going on to the web.
"When we got back east we saw that she was on the cover of AVN [the Sept. issue]. We looked at our model release, and the model release said we could use it, so we opened up a website with her name and we offered her 50% of it. We still will. There's no problem with us. But what happened in the meantime, someone told them the site was up and running. The site's only been up about a week or two. This guy Skeeter called my office and gets my secretary on the phone. He goes, 'Hey, where's this m...f.... at. He drugged my wife and raped her.'
G. Ross: "He claims on the set that you offered her drugs."
Bo: "That's not true."
G. Ross: "He claims he got a phone call from you saying that you can get a series for her if she sleeps with Kevin Beech."
Bo [laughs]: "That's not true either. Kevin Beech doesn't need help getting fucked. I'll put it to you like this. I don't have the power to offer her a series through Kevin Beech. He's a friend of mine, but he has his own contract girls. I've done sites for some of his girls, but I don't have the authority to give out contracts for K. Beech. If I was going to sign Bridgett Kerkove, I'd sign her to a contract to my own company."
G. Ross: "Skeeter says Kerkove is her legal last name and they can't do a site without her permission."
Bo: "I would be happy to fax you a model release, and in the model release she gave us permission to use her name."
G. Ross: "But Jim Gunn is saying that's not a legitimate model release, that Skeeter signed it."
Bo: "That's what Skeeter says. What Skeeter's saying to us is, 'Guess what? You know the model release? She didn't sign it. She don't sign none of her releases.' I said what do you mean? I've been in business 27 years and occasionally you'll run across a livewire. About five or six years ago we ran across one named Pearl Joyce. She was a wacko. But with Bridgett, the thing is, with the website, we can resolve all those issues without any problems. But forging names on model releases is a very serious accusation and we didn't take that lightly. In fact we'll be turning it over to our counsel, Paul Cambria, to resolve for us. It's too bad of a situation. And when you throw in those claims of rape and drugs, this is just nonsense. It's not what happened.
"When I first talked to Skeeter we had no words whatsoever, we felt we could resolve the issue. But what I couldn't resolve is the fact that he said she didn't sign the model release. That puts us in violation of the law. Since then we've asked other companies to fax us copies of her model releases so we can compare the signatures. I'll put it to you like this. You're going to have to decide who the bad guy is. My only defense is this. You can talk to Jim Gunn, you can talk to Jim DiGiorgio, Bill Diehl, Bobby Gallagher, Mark from Take One Lighting, Jimmy the production assistant; you can talk to Brick Majors. You can asked them if she was drugged or raped. If she was, why would she take a check for $1200. She was paid a check for $1200. The model release is there, and I'll be more than happy to send you a copy of it. I'd like to resolve the situation.
G. Ross: "Tyce Bune claims he had a phone converation with you.."
Bo: "I asked him if he owned his name."
G. Ross: "You told him it's saved now."
Bo: "If you go to networksolutions.com, he had us register the name to Dusk Til Dawn Productions. I believe that's what his company is."
G. Ross: "You say he asked you to do this?"
Bo: "Tyce Bune? Yeah. He called my office a week, ten days ago. He called me, I didn't know him from Adam. I think that's how this whole thing got started. He called us and asked what other sites we've done. He explained he was in the same situation as Bridgett Kerkove that they were going to do a site with Seymore and it never got done. With me building websites, I turn them out quickly. Mine aren't messing around. Everything is straight up with us. We do a lot of stuff on the web. Where all these charges are coming from, I don't have the slightest idea. All I know is that Skeeter did make these accusations that are unfounded.
"My only deal with Tyce was if we built him a site and he liked it, we'd enter into a contract. But we were going to build him the site and let him look at it first. If he didn't like it, he agreed to pay me the $100 for registering the name for him."
