LOS ANGELES—Earlier this week, rumor swirled by way of a report from the New York Post's Page Six that recording artist/apparel mogul Kanye West was in "insane negotiations" to serve as the creative director for Thursday night's first annual Pornhub Awards. That rumor was confirmed to AVN by a number of attendees once the event was underway, and late Thursday evening it went public with a story published by Vanity Fair that also revealed West would be debuting a new song with Lil Pump called "I Love It" at the ceremony, accompanied by a Spike Jonze-directed video.
"What we know about the awards—set in the year 6918—suggests that West spent considerable time on the details," the Vanity Fair story noted. "Each of the statuettes are custom, and he individually styled all the presenters."
The story also disclosed that West's longtime collaborator Willo Perron was serving as his co-creative chief for the event, and that artist Teyana Taylor of his G.O.O.D. Music label would be performing as well. [Ed. note: AVN was told following the ceremony that West was only on stage "for about 30 seconds" to join Taylor during one of her songs.] What's more, Vanity Fair reported, interstitials were to be provided by renowned photographer Richard Kern.
West's collaboration with Pornhub on Thursday night's gala may or may not have come about as a result of his casual admission during a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that he regularly partakes of the site's offerings. Whether or not that's the case, he broadcast the awards show on his website wegotlove.com simultaneously with Pornhub.com's own live stream.
More on the inaugural Pornhub Awards will be reported here shortly.
