Some pundit dubbed it "The Night of the Disenfranchised." It was the 15th Anniversary of the XRCO Awards, and it was a gathering of porn people that you don't ordinarily see at other porn gatherings. Tony Montana is very visible. Montana says he's becoming a big Internet player.
With all due respect to Tony, the buzz in the crowd at the Century Club was more about the Internet wars pitting Kid Vegas vs. Kid Sparkle, as though a pay-per-view event was actually somewhere in the cards right below Oscar De La Hoya's name. The money seems to be on the new Internet icon, Kid Sparkle, because a lot of people are still asking, "Who the fuck is Kid Vegas?'
"Oh, Kid Vegas is the next Rob Black," one producer said. "Kid Vegas is a loose cannon. The industry needs more of those. It makes life interesting."
Vegas is seen talking with Jeff Mike. Mike gets very nervous because Gene Ross sees him after Mike just went with this dissertation, only moments before, about how he [Mike] was distancing himself from the Kid Vegas-connection on the Internet. Mike said he was going cold turkey from e-mail, that he wasn't going to get involved in petty website squabbles.
Rob Black and Tom Byron are hanging out at the entrance of the Century Club about a half-hour before the XRCO show gets under way. Black, who's still wearing the Buckwheat hairdo, checks out Max Hardcore's attire and says he wants to hang out with Max who's decked out in yet another Roy Rogers ensemble.
Black: "He's [Max] a very cool guy, but I don't want to walk into the ceremony because I have to walk past Jonathon Morgan and Stephanie Swift. [Morgan and Swift were doing pre-show interviews for the videotape broadcast.] And I'm very scared."
Tom Byron: "Jonathon Morgan dyed his hair. It looks good. It's very dark."
Black said it was finally nice to see some positive press for his company on the Internet. Black was told he may change that opinion when he sees the Kid Sparkle interview.
Black: "What does he do? Dump on us? Hear that? [Black addresses his entourage.] Kid Sparkle's doing an interview. He says he knows the real story about Chandler and Tiffany, how we sent 'goons' over to the house to roust them. Hear that? They're calling "The G-Man" [Dave, the 'warehouse guy' ] a goon? That's the G-Man! You know the G-Man. A goon!!?? When's this story coming out? Why did he [Sparkle] say, that I threw Tiffany out?"
Jon Dough is back. He's just signed a deal with Extreme Associates. Dough is squiring Monique DeMoan. Wasn't Dough supposed to have beaten the shit out of her sometime ago? DeMoan looks sensational for someone who was supposed to have had the shit beaten out of them. Dough says he's got a story about that one. Seems as though it's turned into a big civil suit, and Dough is going after some cops on this one. He seems pretty happy about it, though DeMoan's Rottweiler got shot in the mouth during the incident. Dough got Rodney King'ed during the domestic scuffle which got him arrested. Dough then makes a very interesting fashion observation. All the guys at the Extreme table are wearing 3/4-length black leather jackets and burgundy shirts. Hmmm. "Gang colors," says Dough.
Gloria Leonard says the Century Club used to go under another name. It was supposed to have been a good hangout for "old farts," according to her. She's looking directly in my eyes when she says this. I tell her I'm looking for an old farts' hangout.
[Inari Vachs said she had a lengthy phone conversation with her idol, writer Andrew Vachss [for whom she named herself]. The two got in contact with each other after AVN passed along an e-mail from Vachss' lawyer, asking to get in contact with the porn star.]
Jenna Jameson's the evening's co-hostess and, speaking of old farts, Jim Holliday's the emcee. Holliday's opening words for the evening were, again, populated with the usual arcane Holliday references. This time Arthur Cantrell and Robert Hudson, whoever they are, manage to get dragged into Holliday's speech. People at my table look around wondering who the fuck are these guys? Holliday then tells the crowd he's Nina Hartley giving them greetings from the Gulf of Mexico. Now it registers. Holliday's become a medium at a seance. Next, he'll be doing the Hindu Rope trick.
Another pundit, who sounds more like a racetrack tout, whispers in my ear. "Steve Hirsch and Russ Hamsphire are here. That means something." I suppose it did because Vivid's Masseuse 3 goes on to win the XRCO's Best Film award. VCA's Café Flesh 2 gets it for the Best Video award. Good call by the racetrack tout. Hampshire and Hirsch wouldn't have been out on a school night just for their health. The evening goes fairly briskly, and the other awards pretty much shape up this way:
Unsung Siren: Katie Gold. [VCA's Russ Hampshire is yelling out, "Hollywood Hirsh! Hollywood Hirsch!" Steve Hirsch, unfortunately, didn't win this award.]
Unsung Woodsman: Luciano. [Luciano's home nursing a broken prick, according to his urologist, Rob Black. Tom Byron accepts with a stirring "Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah" speech. Very well thought out.
Best Girl-Girl Sex Scene: Seymore Butts' Tampa Tushy Fest 1 with Alisha Klass and Chloe. [People at the table are hoping that Klass makes more fisting references like she did at the AVN show, but she disappoints.]
Best Group Scene: Extreme Associate's Asswoman in Wonderland with Iroc, Tiffany Mynx, Stryc-9, Van Damage and Luciano. [Three of those performers are headliners in the Rob Black obituary column. The other is home nursing a broken prick, according to his urologist, Rob Black.]
Best Gonzo Series: Tom Byron's Whack Attack. [Black must really be feeling his oats what with three wins in the first five awards.]
Best Actor [Single Performance]: James Bonn in Masseuse 3.
Best Actress [Single Performance]: Jeanna Fine, Café Flesh 2.
Best Anal or D.P. Scene: Tushy Heaven with Alisha Klass, Samantha Stylle and Sean Michaels.
Best Male-Female Sex Scene: Pink Hotel on Butt Row with Elena and T.T. Boy and Elena. [Luke Ford's site refers to her as "Helena."
The Loretta Sterling Award for Worst Movie of the Year: The World's Biggest Anal Gangbang. {Inside word was that Hit 'Er in the Shitter was going to be the winner. What happened here?]
XRCO Hall of Fame Inductees: Ed Powers, Juliet Anderson, Kelly Nichols, Steve Drake, Jesie St. James, Barbara Dare, Linda Wong, Shauna Grant, director Roy Karch, Bobby Astyr, George Payne and director Jim Malibu.
Starlet of the Year: Raylene
Best Amateur or Pro-Am Series: Real Sex Magazine
Director of the Year: John Leslie
Female Performer of the Year: Stacy Valentine
Male Performer of the Year: Mr. Marcus
Best Video Feature: Café Flesh 2 from VCA
Best Film Feature: Masseuse 3 from Vivid
Steve Hirsch had this to say about fan choices versus critcs' voting.
Hirsch: "There's some people who are of the opinion that condom features aren't nasty enough. Then there's the adult critics who really watch everything out there. They voted for Masseuse 3. It seems to be that there's a group of people out there who don't really understand what a good adult movie consists of. The fact is that it's a combination of not only good sex but interesting storyline, character development and plot. You put that all together and you can make a movie that is accepted by all different groups of people. That fact that Masseuse 3 was a condom-only movie had no bearing whatsoever with the adult critics. I think it's great that the adult critics, the people who supposedly have this reputation of the-harder-the-better, they really don't. What they're looking for is the best overall production. And it's not about a little piece of rubber that somebody wears. It's my redemption. It's significant - Best Film - all critics - condom. The fact that Vivid won, does this now mean that the XRCO awards are fixed? People should stop worrying about who's fixing what awards."
Jon Dough talked about a music video he directed in March, 1998 and the bizarre police incident involving himself and Monique DeMoan. Dough is sporting sideburns the size of boat rudders. Dough said he's thinking about bleaching his hair like Kid Vegas.
Dough: "It was a good video. Monique was in it. We reconciled our differences. I think I was getting a little too crazy out there. I wasn't a nice guy sometimes. I walked away from Vivid. I was an asshole to too many people. I'm still that way sometimes, but I don't know. The Extreme deal feels good. I don't know about taking over someone else's thing that they started [Van Damage's Lewd Behavior]. Jail was good. It was the highlight of the year."
Dough said he was sentenced for six months for probation violation. "The judge said, 'I think you're full of it, mister.' That's what he said. I did three months, 20 days. I was on probation from domestic violence. They don't dig that shit, so don't do it. Keep your hands to your side. Take the blows to the head. It's much better and a lot cheaper. But it was good going in there [jail] for awhile. It was a little slice of humble pie. It was like being in the military and shit." Dough said he didn't meet a "Bubba" but met a lot of Latino gang members that reminded him of the Seven Dwarfs. "They're all small, and they all shave their heads and their names are like 'Sleepy' and 'Dopey'. They really have names like that."
Dough recalls some of the events that lead to his arrest.
Dough: "There's a lot of LAPD out there. There were a lot of those guys in my yard. Thirty deep. They were calling me Jon Dough when they had me hogtied and kicking on the ground. The supervisor got a little pissed at them because they didn't want another Rodney King incident. I was punching a bag in the garage, and the Rottweiler [DeMoan's] snuck out of the garage. It went to bite a cop in the throat, and he turned and shot the dog in the mouth. They wouldn't take him to the vet. They kept me in the garage for two hours. They couldn't find anything. I had no guns. I had no weapons. They had no warrant, and they took me in for a traffic ticket. They went through my house. Me and my lawyer can't figure out why all those cops were creeping on my garage, but we got a good civil suit. They [the police] had no warrant. They hogtie you. They still do that shit. It's all in the police report. It's a bunch of lies, but it's funny to read. They didn't mean for it to go down that way. I came out with punching gloves. I was trying to get back in shape. But it turned out good. The dog didn't die. I could have been shitting out of a bag, but I'm alright. Those are real bullets when they come in there, man. But they really did fuck up. I was laughing and crying at the same time.
