CYBERSPACE—Gossip/entertainment news site Jezebel.com sent a reporter to the Adult Entertainment Expo, apparently specifically to interview the team behind LeWood Productions, Francesca Le and Mark Wood—and in the process, managed to speak to several others as well, making for one of the better mainstream coverages of the event that we've seen.
Journalist Mark Shrayber first expresses a bit of pique that he isn't able to meet with the couple at the appointed time, but once things get rolling, it's a talk that he describes as "one of the weirdest interviews I do at the convention. It's also one of the best."
"Le is clearly the star of this show," Shrayber decides. "She and Wood interview as a couple, but when we ask to take pictures, Wood asks, 'Me too?' deferentially. He looks to her first when we ask questions, appearing as if he's just kind of there for the ride. Wood is an integral part of the business, but we all know: Le is the real moneymaker here."
Well, sort of. From what we know, the pair make most of their decisions together, and both take part in the LeWood productions, usually with one behind the camera and the other in front of it, switching off roles depending on what title is being shot.
But Shrayber seems happy to report the power of women in the industry—something that certainly doesn't get enough mainstream coverage.
"This thought of women running things is echoed in an interview I conduct with James Deen earlier in the week," he reports, then quotes Deen to say, "The women get paid more because they're the ones selling the film. Say I'm in MILFmania #6. The real star is the MILF on the cover, not me. I'm just some guy. I can be replaced."
The piece continues with Shrayber musing on his ideas about MILFdom—and gets a few things wrong. For example, he writes, "For me, and probably many of you, a MILF is someone with a kid of around high school age, at least. A MILF is not someone who delivered three days ago."
Nope; sorry, but while "not someone who delivered three days ago" might be accurate, we've seen MILFs in their early to mid-20s. Even the requirement that the woman be a mother (as in "mothers I'd like to fuck") is given short shrift if the actress is hot enough and/or old enough.
Still, Shrayber should have gotten the point from Julia Ann, to whom he also spoke.
"But in the heterosexual porn industry, a woman becomes a MILF when she's no longer young enough to be a 'starlet'," he writes. "And that age is somewhere between 27 and whenever 'they can market you as a MILF,' according to Julia Ann... Julia Ann doesn't mind being called a MILF as long as the label is getting her work."
Returning star Karen Summer is similarly quoted, saying she doesn't mind being a "MILF or a GILF as long as I'm working."
Still, most of the article is about Le and Wood, with comments on everything from Le's age to the amount of eye makeup she uses ("Le is tiny and glamorous, wears enough mascara for two, and more impressively, makes it work."), though he seems impressed by her acting ability, notably in some of LeWood's b.j. scenes.
"When I watch one of Le's gonzo scenes later, the person who's crying and spitting up while swearing at the camera is a completely different one than the woman who gives me a hug and calls me honey every time she sees me around after our interview," he writes. "It's living, regurgitating proof that there really is acting in porn, not in terms of reading lines but in terms of the acts and reactions each scene requires."
But despite the fact that Shrayber quotes a fairly misleading section from Jenna Jameson's book, he genuinely seems interested in the "real life" of adult performers, and the industry in general, making the Jezebel article a fairly good read. It can be found here.
