Tony Montana tested HIV positive last week. He and Laurie Holmes came into the AVN offices Tuesday afternoon to talk about it. Holmes, wearing a lavender outfit, looked sleek, tan, business-like and pretty. Tony was pure Latin chic, macho-bravado, with the silver accessories, the only thing missing being the sombrero to complete the picture of a modern day Cisco Kid. As upbeat as he was, Montana could have been discussing a trip to Mardi Gras, not AIDS Research. Then, again, maybe he's a better actor than anyone in this business ever gave him credit for. Montana quipped right out the gate, "I thought of a new company, but it might not go over too well - HIV Productions, private sex for private people. We can use all the proper protection."
Montana and Holmes have been seeing one another for eight months. Ironically, this is the second time Holmes is dealing with the situation having gone through it with her late husband John Holmes. Laurie Holmes calls Montana, "The Matador of Porn."
"The Matador of Porn is becoming the guinea pig of porn," she says. "He's the perfect candidate for AIDS Research." Montana has literally volunteered his body to AIDS Research and will allow them to monitor the affects of various cocktail combinations and the side effects, 24 hours a day, on his body in the weeks to come. "Usually they give you a psychological profile to see if you're a candidate for research. I bypassed the redtape. They said let's go on with this."
Prior to the news last week, Montana, who turns 40 October 20, said he'd been HIV testing consistently on a monthly basis. "I'd get a scene here, a scene there, so I didn't miss my tests," he says. Montana says when he went to test on October 4, Sharon Mitchell called him saying, 'I think you better come in, we have problems.'
"I went in," said Montana. "By then every major thing that was to be said was on the Internet. I really don't care much about what people want to say. That's fine. Everybody wants to find the excuse to say he got it because he's a drug user or that he's bisexual. He's a fucking junkie. But everybody has to realize one thing. This is something that you live with in this business, that there might be a slim chance of catching it. Most people in this industry think if I take my test, I'm not going to catch it. If I do my thing, I'm not going to catch it. That's not true. There's so many ways, there's so many things that can happen."
Montana: "There are girls that come into this industry that take one fucking test. Everybody fucks them, then the girl disappears. Okay, what's the guarantee with that one test. Maybe next month she's positive. I mean I've done it a thousand times myself. There's a new girl, I'm the first one that wants to fuck her. How do we know that she has enough tests to back up the first day that she comes into the business?
Holmes: "At least he's doing something positive about this. He's not going to let this get him down. When John got the news back in 1986, and I went through it with him, it was different. It was dark, destruction, despair, depression. Not knowing what to do. It was like a death sentence. It's not know, but John literally starved himself to death in the hospital bed. He wanted to die. Here, Tony's already been in with AIDS Research. He's already donated himself, he's already begun the procedure. And we can still have sex. It's not the end of his life."
Holmes says when she first heard the news about Montana, she thought there might be a mistake.
Montana: "At the AIDS Research place they said if you had come in here six years ago, we would have told you you have three years; 14 years ago it would have been a death sentence.
Montana: "I got a job offer to become a counselor. I went Tuesday to AIDS Research. I filled out the paperwork. I signed all the papers. I gave them my medical history. Now they know where we're coming from. I'm going to start medication on the 19th. They told me I had 75,000 motherfuckers living in me that are not supposed to be living there. Which is nothing. According to them if I had a million, I'd still be okay. Wallice had 500,000.
"I went to Jim South to tell him who I was working with. Nobody can say I was hiding something or had a shady past. I told him everybody I worked with. Nobody knew that girl Aurora until I mentioned to Jim I worked with her. Now everybody knows who she is. She's going through a bad time with this shit. Everybody's been canceling her. Even though she's negative, everybody's pushed her aside. Look at Barbara Doll, she went through hell before she could prove she was negative."
[Montana mentions that Sabrina Johnson, one of the three girls who worked with him recently, gave him a blowjob - "It was ten minutes and she sucked at it, anyway."]
Holmes: "The important thing, despite all this bullshit that's being put on the Internet, like Diablo who says Tony has such a tight bunghole..somewhere out there is a girl who gave him this disease this summer. It takes 4 to 16 weeks for the HIV antibodies to show up in your blood. Tony was negative on his last test. Sharon [Mitchell] and I have had this conversation. What they really need to do is go all the way back to June."
Montana reemphasizes the fact that he doesn't care what people have to say about him on the Internet.
G. Ross: "But they're going to say you did time in jail.."
Montana: "Definitely, yes I did." [Montana did time in 1990.]
G. Ross: "They can say maybe it was there that he got it."
Montana: "I was what you call a K-6 security level. That means I was on million dollar row. Million dollar row is for what they call a flyaway risk inmates - Colombians, drug cartel. They have you in tiny cells with one other person. They monitor you 24 fucking hours a day. You spit on the floor, they'll know. If you play with yourself, they'll give you more time someplace else. All that bullshit you hear about jail about dropping your soap in the shower, that's so much bullshit. You look at another person the wrong way in a shower, somebody's going to knock you the fuck out.
"I was in there for kidnapping. I was arrested for kidnapping, ransom. I used to hang out with the wrong people. I'll take the fifth on all that. I've been acquitted for everything I've been arrested for. I had a 20 million dollar bail. I couldn't afford to get out so I had to stay in jail. How was I going to bail out at 20 million? I needed $200,000 plus 18 million in property. I didn't have any of that. I sat there for 27 months until I was proved not guilty. Ron Miller was my preliminary hearing attorney. Because of him I got out."
G. Ross: "Sandra Sommers said you 'fessed up that you had male lovers. She says there was this guy named Chuck..."
[Laurie Holmes breaks out in laughter.]
G. Ross: "Chuck supposedly accompanied you on your honeymoon."
Montana: "If you call a honeymoon one night snorting cocaine with her...if she wants to say this, that's fine. Do you work out with anybody? Do you go to the gym with anybody? People want to say Mark Carriere's my lover because he lets me work out in his gym. Is he my gay lover? People say Mark Carriere's bisexual. I've known that man for 18 years, and I've never seen anything but only the most beautiful fucking women hanging around his ass...No matter what answer I give you, no matter what I say, they'll find something around it. Chuck was a bodybuilder I used to train with along with Dan Steele. We used to work out together. So does that mean we're all gay because we're all bodybuilders? People used to say Sandra Sommers' name was George because she looked so much like a fucking man. People used to say, 'Tony, why did you marry that sex change?' "
G. Ross: "Okay, why did you? She said it was all about a green card."
Montana: "This is why I married that bitch to tell you the truth. I was heartbroken over Crystal Gold. She [Sommers] came along and said, 'Hey, you want to hang out? I got money.' And then people said I paid HER to marry me. Actually, I didn't know where she got money from but she had a lot of money when I met her. She paid the rent. We partied. That's what broke us up. From 150 pounds, one day all I saw was an asshole and 44's hanging there. She went to 105 pounds. I did more drugs with her than I did with Crystal Gold."
G. Ross: "She said that she and Crystal shared something in common, that you stalked both of them and that you abused both of them."
Montana: "If you notice this cheekbone is a little off. [Montana points to the right side of his face.] We were on the 101 and she turned around and clocked me. I had a black eye this big. She was always trying to box. This is one of those things where you ask why did I do it? I have no idea."
[Several years ago, Montana wanted to be an AVN awards presenter in the worst way. Gene Ross told Montana that if he signed an affidavit swearing to keep out of trouble and out of jail for a year, then he'd be allowed to present an award. Tony's big night to present was set for the year the AVN awards show was held at the Aladin Theatre of Performing Arts. Except, Montana got into an altercation with Chuck Martino at the Aladin, prompting the cops to step in. Tony never got to present.]
Montana: "Here's what happened. You told me to be there [at the Aladin]. Jay Shanahan told me to wait. I sat there with Crystal Gold. I said to her we got to wait here because Jay Shanahan knows I'm here. I got there early. We were both dressed up. I had my black cane and all of that. Crystal said I want a drink. I said, wait, Shanahan's coming. She said, 'I don't care. I want a drink. I said wait.' She takes off. Then I see Jay. 'Wait one second.' I ran to get Crystal Gold. In the meantime here comes Chuck Martino. 'Give me some coke. Give me some coke.' At that time I was on probation in Nevada. I said Chuck, 'Don't talk to me about drugs. Please, get out of my face. He's saying. 'I know you got coke. Give me some coke.' I said Chuck, please, move the fuck away from me. Finally, he pissed me off. I grabbed him, I stuck my cane in his throat. 'Leave me the fuck alone.' Then I tossed him. Crystal's going what are people going to say? I said let's go. By then I'm surrounded by the biggest fucking bodybuilders I've ever seen in my life. One guy comes up to me. 'You want some of this, motherfucker?' I go holy shit. I grab my cane, I take off running and fall on my ass. The cops came. They knew my name. 'Oh, we're not going through this with you, Mr. Montana.' I go holy shit. So I left the place with Crystal. We got out of there. And this was the year I was nominated for best supporting actor in Borderline."
Montana: "So I went to the AIDS Research place. This thing ain't going to keep me down. I am going to go to school. I have the knowledge to help people make the right decision as far as this industry goes. Because let's face it, there's companies out there who only care about one thing - product. Why did they hire me? Because I can eat an ass and fuck an ass and go crazy on a woman. If you want a rubber, I can wear a rubber. When I worked with Brittany Andrews she wanted me to put on a rubber. That was no problem. But then I should have kept using them. But I figured it's one of those things. I'm not going to catch it. If I didn't catch it in the 80's there was no fucking way it was going to take me now. It's my boat, but, at the same time, I have a very positive attitude towards all of this.
"I'm going to be in the public eye a lot more than I used to be. The moment I disappear a little bit, rumors fly. I want to slap everyone in the fucking face with this. Because the one thing I hate is when people try to ride somebody. It's true. I'm arrogant. I'm cocky. In the old days I was flamboyant. I was the fashion statement of every CES show. It was a question of who was going to outdress who.
"I'll still be here, and, hopefully, it will make a difference on everybody else that comes aboard. I'll keep you updated with my medication and how the [viral] count is going and how many people I evict out of my body."
Holmes: "I didn't jump John over this, and I'm not going to dump him over it."
Asked how they met, Holmes commented, "I was bending over this kitchen sink and he came in and stuck his tongue up my ass. I went, whoo, whoo, whoo."
Montana: "I said I'm Tony Montana, and you're ass is mine. I have seven dogs, and I always see the way dogs smell ass, so I figured out the way of saying hello."
G. Ross: "There's no better way of getting acquainted."
Holmes: "I liked the intro."
G. Ross: "Was his nose cold or wet?"
Holmes: "I don't know but his tongue felt really good."
Montana: "Like I said, I'm not going to lie about things and say I never did this or did that. What am I going to gain by lying. In the old days, Billy Dee was one of my smoking buddies, Shawn Taylor...Buddy Love...the old clan. Anybody who says they never did that shit is going to lie to you. I know right now there's certain people who don't have the balls to come forward and say what they do. That's their problem. But one thing's for sure, if that name needs to come up, I will mention names. Need it be."
Montana bristles at the thought of how the gun was jumped when news about him hit the Internet last week. He had to test twice before there was definite confirmation of his status. The first results suggested that re-testing be in order.
Montana: "It [the second test] was positive, fine. What if it had been negative? They jumped the gun before the second set of tests came in. One test came fucked up. They said let's re-test the whole thing. But before the second one came in, they want HIV positive, 100% sure. If it was negative, there would be people right now writing left and right to apologize. They jumped the gun and had Ron Jeremy involved. Let's be really serious with this before we start giving people heart attacks. You never know how people are. There are some people who go around like nothing can touch me. But when they're not in public, they could be manic-depressive and hurt someone to the point where we regret it. Someone might kill themselves thinking they're going to die. Nobody ever thinks whether this person can handle it."
Holmes: "They don't care. You think Luke Ford really cares?
Montana: "You have to be in our shoes to really care.The psychological damage can be great. Aurora called me up about midnight. She can't sleep. She can't deal with people pushing her away like she's a leper. This girl was getting booked for this and that, now she's getting kicked in the ass. Psychologically, she's not as strong enough to deal with it as I am. How you doing today, Tony. I say, 'Very positive.'
"I like the old timers like Ron Sullivan, John Leslie, they're really good, and they cared what you did."
Holmes: "New talent has to be aware that just because they get a new test every month, that's not a guarantee. There's a lot of diseases out there. Condom use should be practiced in this day and age. I liked the good old days, too. There was nothing better than the orgies we used to have on sets."
Montana: "We did an orgy for Elegant Angel the first part of July. Patrick Collins had all these beautiful people - Spanish people, French girls. That was one fucking hot orgy. Just like the old days. Today it's two sexual positions, give me my money, goodbye. Girls just lay there. There's very few who get into it. In the old movies we used to see sexual hunger. That's gone. To find a movie these days where people are really enjoying themselves is so hard to find. Patrick Collins is one of the few who has a way of pairing people together to get a very hot thing."
