Jenna Jameson and Nikki Tyler will be on Howard Stern Monday morning for a dating game segment
\n I received a very interesting phone call from John Bowen last night. Besides age, Bowen and I have something else in common. We've both been stalked, vilified and hounded on the Internet. The price of doing business, er porn business, you might say.
Bowen called to offer support - literally. "What I have is yours," he said. "You're my friend. You can share my house. You can eat my food." John Bowen has been a true friend in this business, and, therein, lie some of the current problems. The man is my friend.
Partly as a result of my association with Bowen, my ethics have been called into question and I'm being branded a "sleaze." If I were operating out of another sector of the adult business, that might be considered a badge of honor. But, because I represent AVN, I'm placed in the unenviable position where I have to answer for every word I say, account for every deed I do. This is my fourteenth year with the magazine, and nothing's changed at all in that time except the playing field where the character assassination scrimmages.
Even when I worked for AVN out of Philadelphia I was branded "corrupt." Over the years I've been accused of being either too distant or too chummy. I've been accused of conducting "vendettas." I've been accused of taking bribes and accepting hookers. I've been said to destroy careers on a whim. I've been accused of bad-mouthing companies. Amusingly, I was once quoted several years ago on "good authority" as saying one of the top video companies in the industry was "going out of business." Obviously, their business thrives, and I never made the ludicrous comment attributed to me. Yet, I still remember having to face those accusations at the time. Through it all, I've never met my accusers in any one of these instances because, what they do, in the final analysis, is hide and deny when the issue's put to them. Cowards, all. Particularly now.
At the end of the day, when you go home beleaguered by this brand of endless guerrilla warfare, the tendency's to gravitate towards various modes of redress. The one I've preferred is pure peace, quiet and contemplation. I do not mess with anyone. I do not infer myself on anyone in this business. I mind my own business.
In my opinion, you cannot make this industry a part of your private existence, or do so risking a certain degree of sanity. That's in the best of all possible worlds, of course. But, more often than not, the demands of being an information source precludes any sense of privacy.
By the same token, my adult industry experience has been one of "I would if I could, but I can't, so I won't." I've been offered enough hypothetical jobs in this business and scripting opportunities to eliminate the nation's unemployment rate. But, in the course of conversation it's always been idle, academic chit-chat with no real substance attached. I've accepted that as such with no pretenses to personal greatness. I've been treated extremely well by AVN, and it's a particularly tough offer to match.
Because he's been my friend, John Bowen has often voiced a desire that we work together. There was even a time when Bowen seemed to be in a position to offer something substantive. I politely listened but with the full knowledge that Bowen was missing the slightly bigger picture. He didn't have the money. Nevertheless, because I listened, I'm accused of taking bribes. There's even supposed to be a "witness" to these so-called back alley transactions.
Assuming for the moment that I did take bribes, which I didn't, would I do so in front of witnesses? Give me credit for some degree of intelligence.
Then, again, it wasn't enough for Kendra Jade to apologize to me for the bribery comments. Because I did not give Jade the rubber glove treatment, break her down and make her confess on the Internet, her words of apology are being construed in other ways. I treated Kendra Jade in a gentlemanly fashion. I invited her to my office. Her saying, "I'm sorry" was enough for me. Case closed. Because of the grace she exhibited in dealing with the circumstances, Kendra Jade will always get a square shake in my boot.
I neither wrote nor had anything to do with Too Hot for Porn 2, yet a certain journalist seems to think performer Tom Chapman holds all the cards in this make-believe scandal. I guess it wasn't enough for Chapman to comment on geneross.com that the whole idea was idiotic. Then, again, no offense to Chapman, he was called in to perform in the video. What possible clue would Chapman have to the inner workings of John Bowen's company? In similar conversations with Paul Fishbein, performer Dave Hardman, who was also in the production, concurs.
I'm also accused of accepting Cassidy, like a piece of meat, in exchange for favorable reviews. Coincidentally, the period in which I'm supposed to have done this is when Bowen enjoyed a string of thoroughly lackluster reviews. Some payoff, huh? Cassidy and I did go to dinner on a couple of occasions, including the Night of the Stars last year. Would I be parading my "love doll" publicly if there was some scurrilous attachment to the relationship? Curiously, a certain website journalist stood no more than five feet away from me and Cassidy, yet "broke" the story as though it were fresh, nine months later. Cassidy and I did not have a sexual relationship. We had a polite, adult one. Cassidy asked me if I would escort her to this year's AVN awards show. I said yes. But, when I found out she came to Vegas with her boyfriend, I did what any sane-thinking man would have done in my position, I backed off. She and her boyfriend could be guests, but I was not going to get in the middle of some potential hot button issue. I'm not crazy. Yet, mountains have been made out of this mole hill as though I'm bent on dissing Cassidy in the aftermath and attempting to destroy her career.
I've also been linked, romantically, to Kristi Myst, Alex Jordan, Taylor Wane and Kim Chambers. Myst and Jordan I know nothing about. Taylor Wane was my neighbor, and I saw Kim Chambers over a period of three weeks. End of story.
I've been accused of beating up hookers. This is absolutely, positively libelous. That Alex Sanders has procured hookers for me is absolutely, positively libelous.
Another curious point seriously troubles me. I'm accused of being a source to a certain writer of anti-AVN stories in December, when the same writer who's now accusing me of graft and corruption, granted me a high ethics ranking only weeks ago. Which is it? Am I a company snitch to be lauded, or a sleaze to be vilified? I stick to what I said paragraphs earlier. I mind my own business and don't mess with the business of others. I detest snitches. To that extent, I challenge any of these snitches to come forth and be recognized. Again, it's academic. I know who all of you are. This is an industry with thin walls.
What can be said of John Bowen can be said of David Christopher. We are friends, with pro wrestling being the common denominator. Nude World Order was Christopher's idea MONTHS before he went to Sin City with it. There was no influence peddling, and certainly no script-writing on my part. To say or infer otherwise, is an insult to Christopher. In fact, when Christopher first ran the idea by me, I was less than enthusiastic with it. I told him that vids with a wrestling theme in adult didn't have a particularly good track record, but AVN would support him in whatever way possible - if he could get the kind of high-profile budget that would justify our making a big splash over it. Christopher did his homework and legwork, I merely covered the story as a wrestling fan because I had some clue to the inside jokes.
On the subject of script-writing - as a script writer, I suck. Plain and simple. I learned this all too well when I wrote Adult Video Nudes as part of AVN's tenth anniversary celebration. For those of you who think writing an adult movie is a day at the beach, think again. Like Clint Eastwood says in Magnum Force, a man's got to know his limitations, and I know mine. Consequently, I tend to avoid that which I struggle with. If I wanted to write scripts, or thought I could, I'd be doing what everyone else in Hollywood does - I'd be out peddling a project. I don't. When Jim Holliday approached me a couple of years after Adult Video Nudes about doing a project for Plush, I had mixed feelings. Holliday would have to realize, of course, that such a feature would, by definition, slip through the cracks of anonymity. There would be no favors. More importantly, I didn't really want to do it because, after all, this is Jim Holliday, a far more accomplished adult scriptwriter than I would ever be. I was intimidated, but I took the project against my gut feeling, more as a mental challenge than anything else. I had to see to see if I was as bad as Adult Video Nudes made me realize. Predictably, the Plush movie was never made because, as I suspect, it was that bad.
Did I ever write scripts when I was in Philadelphia? Considering the fact that I maintained a full-time trophy business besides editing the magazine, I'd like to know where I could possibly have had the time. I worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. There were no scripts, but Paul Fishbein acknowledges where this urban legend sprang from. Paul admits that he dispensed the misinformation in a November interview with a certain website writer, thus prompting the subsequent confusion over time frames.
Because I'm a writer and have a certain degree of knowledge about what makes a good video or film tick, I've been offered opportunities to direct. I've been offered opportunities to write scripts. I avoid both like the plague. I would be good at neither. I don't have the mentality to be a babysitter, which is a prime requirement of directing adult movies; and I seriously lack the motor skills of Jace Rocker, Jonathan Morgan, George Kaplan or a Cash Markman.
In my AVN career, all I've ever done was attempt to promote this industry in the most positive, fairest way possible. No careers were ever destroyed. In the case of controversial subjects, all information has been backed up with authoritative sources, not heresy or anonymous emails. No careers were compromised. No women were compromised. No one was granted special favors. If someone took the initiative [the operative word being "initiative"] to tout a project, they got the consideration they were due. If a movie was given a bad review, chances are it deserved it. There were no hidden agendas. All I ever did was my job, and I've done it well. Perhaps, too well.
On the subject of smear, you might want to consider the following:
Carradine Sues Time Warner \nDate: Tue, 27 Apr 1999 16:17:09 EDT \nFrom: [email protected]
Carradine Sues Time Warner
.c The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- ``Kung Fu'' actor David Carradine and wife Marina Anderson didn't think much of a Jan. 11 write-up in People, so they sued for libel and breach of contract.
The lawsuit accuses People parent Time Warner Inc. of violating a ``gentleman's agreement'' for a ``nice'' story in exchange for the couple dropping a lawsuit against another of Time Warner's subsidiaries, Who Weekly in Australia.
Instead, People wrote of alleged substance abuse and called Carradine ``washed up,'' ``unemployable'' and ``a drunk.'' The story also falsely stated that he was ``court-martialed out of the Army,'' said the couple's attorney, Neville L. Johnson.
Time Warner magazine chief Norman Pearlstine met personally with the couple and ``profusely apologized'' for the Who Weekly piece that called Anderson a porn star, according to the lawsuit filed Monday. He had promised that a nice story on the Carradines would be done for People or Entertainment Weekly, the suit said.
