In a rare public appearance, AVN founder and president Paul Fishbein chatted with Cytherea on her KSEX Radio show Cytherea’s Goddess of Gush, Thursday night.
Fishbein appeared as a favor to the host, who earlier appeared with him and Teagan Presley on the Howard Stern show. After Cytherea finished gushing over her AVN Best New Starlet award, she and co-hosts Plus One and Harry Weiss addressed the AVN awards, the Adult Entertainment Expo (AEE) and the industry itself with the man Plus One described as “almost as reclusive as (Howard) Hughes.”
Although the Hughes comparison may not really be the case, Fishbein did speak to his low-key lifestyle. “I do TV appearances and stuff, but I live a very private life,” he said. “I don’t want to be in the limelight. I want my staff to be in the limelight.”
Talk centered heavily on the AVN Awards. Besides explaining the voting process, Fishbein discussed the impact the HIV scare had on this year’s AVN Awards.
“During the nominations it came up. Everybody was very sensitive to the cream pie movies,” Fishbein said.
“What we said, was we have to review the movies as the movies. It’s not the only dangerous behavior in the business.”
The other hot topic was AEE, and in particular, the number of fans that attended this year’s show. Next year’s show will likely be expanded to two halls, Fishbein said, but the fans will still be a part of it.
“I think we’ll have to go with more business hours. We’ve done a pretty good job of bringing business from all over the world. We’ll probably cut the fan's hours next year or add more time.”
Of course, while the chatter was AVN-centric, the hosts also philosophized about the adult industry with Fishbein, who has been publishing AVN since 1982. “We talk about the mainstreaming now like it’s almost a cliché. (The industry) is more of a real business now, not a back-room business,” he said.
“Remember, a whole generation grew up with a VCR. We’re part of the cultural subtext now.”
