NORTH HOLLYWOOD, Calif.—To many, adult talent agent Mark Spiegler is a living legend of the industry. And while he's appeared in numerous documentaries about the business, now he has been made the primary subject of one.
Patron of the Tarts: The Story of Mark Spiegler makes its worldwide debut by way of a special screening for industry friends and associates one week from today, on the evening of Tuesday, October 8 at the Laemmle NoHo 7 theater in North Hollywood. The screening takes place at 7 p.m. and is free to attend with RSVP for all industry members and guests.
Taking its title from the widely known slogan printed on Spiegler's business cards, Patron of the Tarts was directed and produced by New York-based actor and independent moviemaker Dino Roscigno, a longtime acquaintance of Spiegler's who says he hounded the AVN Hall of Famer for many years with the idea before the agent finally capitulated.
"I originally met Mark back in 2000 through a mutual friend, [adult director] Rob Spallone," Roscigno told AVN. "I had moved out to California, I was pursuing my acting and writing back then. So while I was out there, I was staying with Rob, and I had met Mark, and we just became friends. And then after staying in California for about a year, I moved back to New York. But all the while, I always kept in touch, we always dropped a line to one another."
He explained that on a number of occasions he came across the broadcast of the AVN Awards while watching late-night TV after work, "and invariably you'd see these girls dedicating their awards to Mark Spiegler. ... And it would be three in the morning and I'd call him up as a goof, and of course Mark being Mark, he'd pick up on the first ring, and it got to the point where it would be like, 'Let me guess, you're watching the AVN Awards.'"
Roscigno continued, "I had been pestering him for years; I said, 'You know, I'd love to do a documentary about you.'" Spiegler's response, he said, would always be, "Oh, I'm boring, my life isn't interesting." But Roscigno persisted. "I said, 'Listen, I've met a lot of people in this world ... I've never met anyone like you.'"
For his part, Spiegler maintains his trademark cynicism. "Listen, none of these things, I never think they're gonna go anywhere," he averred. "I grew up in Hollywood—99 percent of the stuff never goes anywhere. So I'll go along, but I'm not gonna go out of my way. But you know, you can interview me and try to put something together."
Be that as it may, this is not the only Spiegler-centric project on the horizon: The Swedish-produced drama Jessica from director Ninja Thyberg—in which he has a major role playing himself—is due for release next spring.
As to his finally agreeing to go along with Patron of the Tarts, Roscigno recounted, "[Spiegler] said, 'All right, if you want to do it go ahead, but I'm not gonna give you any money to do it.' I said, 'Don't worry, I'll take care of it myself, it's on me.'"
And so, he went on, "In January of 2018, I met him at the AVN Awards in Vegas and spent time with him there ... I brought a cameraman along with me and he was shooting everything, and so we started the documentary there. And then we drove back to L.A. together and then for the next three weeks we proceeded to do interviews and meet people in the business and so on and so forth, and then after I gathered somewhere between 30, 35 hours worth of footage, I came back to New York and began the editing process."
Roscigno explained that he saw Spiegler as a particularly ripe documentary subject because "when you think of the adult industry, you always think of the seedy underbelly of it, whereas this is a guy whose reputation is absolutely impeccable. And his motivations are not what most guys' motivations would be. You know, a lot of the guys in the business, they're either trying to get laid and screw the girls or screw the girls out of money. And that's not Mark. Mark is the guy that doesn't try to take advantage of his women sexually and doesn't screw them out of money, and he's kind of like a father figure. And so his reputation is absolutely impeccable, and that runs contrary to what you would think the typical porn agent would be, and that's why I figured he'd be absolutely fascinating."
He added, "As I interviewed people, believe me, I tried to find people that would say something bad about him or negative. I tried. And I just couldn't do it. And you know, you ask everyone, 'What do you think his motivation is?' and no one could really give you a straight answer. I think he's got this daddy complex."
That said, he offered the slight disclaimer that "I told [Spiegler] on the onset, I said, 'You know, this isn't going to be a powderpuff piece, I'm gonna be honest and fair straight down the line. We'll talk about the good and we'll talk about the bad and we gotta throw it all in there, because if I'm not being totally honest and objective, then it's gonna be a crap piece.' And he goes, 'Well, as long as you tell the truth.' So I said, 'That's what I will do, you have my word on it.'"
Spiegler, who's seen a rough cut of the doc, conveyed, "It's pretty good. You know, I hate seeing myself. And also, I think it's kind of unseemly watching all these people go, 'Oh yeah, he's the greatest.' That's kind of tough to watch, too. To me it seems like bragging."
Roscigno plans to have a second screening soon in New York, and hopes to attract the interest of perhaps a streaming service or other distributor between the two, and/or parlay the movie into an expanded venture. "This documentary would be perfect for something like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, maybe Showtime," he said. "I actually believe that this has a reality series written all over it. I think you could have the making of a Spiegler Girl."
He concluded, "January will be 20 years since we met, so it's kind of funny how all these years later this has finally come to fruition. I'm very, very pleased with it."
Those interested in attending the L.A. screening of Patron of the Tarts: The Story of Mark Spiegler are asked to RSVP to [email protected].
The Laemmle NoHo 7 is located at 5240 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood, CA 91601.
Pictured: Gina Valentina, Mark Spiegler
