CHATSWORTH, Calif. - In the mountains to the north of San Fernando Valley, one of porn's most prolific trendsetters is about to introduce a new term into the pornographic lexicon. Jim Powers, the man who popularized bukkake in America, is busy prepping Brooke Scott and Kris Slater for their hardcore scene in his latest opus, Muffin Tops.
Powers' right-hand man Johnny Thrust is walking me through the backyard of the Porn Valley home where Powers will be shooting four scenes over the course of the day, down the steps and past the swimming pool that's dark-green with algae, into an car-less garage. As the door to the garage swings open, out pops Brooke Scott, completely naked, her cherubic figure jiggling as she urgently tells Thrust she needs to get something out of her car.
"Can I go out there naked?" she asks Thrust. "Out there" is in front of the house, onto the street and into a neighborhood full of civilians. Thrust laughs and replies, "No. What do you need?"
Inside the garage, Powers sits with video camera in hand, ready to give Scott and Slater their motivation for the scene. But before he begins, Powers explains what this whole "muffin top" thing is.
"This is a story about women who have meat on them," Powers says. "Muffin tops are girls who wear tight jeans and their gut spills over the top - like a muffin."
If Powers wasn't booked solid directing porn movies and slamming the bass guitar in his punk band Killroy, he could be a comedian.
"Although meth is popular and prevalent in porno, this is not a meth series," Powers continues. "In fact, this is probably the first time a drug-free porn has been shot." In order to keep their weight up, "all of the girls have promised not to do any meth."
"The story so far is this," continues Powers. "Kris is hanging out on Ventura Boulevard when he sees a couple of muffin tops - Brooke Scott and Marley Mason - so he roofies their drinks and brings them home. Brooke wakes up naked, not knowing where her clothes are.
"Did you meet Marley?" Powers asks me. "She's a major muffin top." As I head upstairs to find Marley Mason, Powers continues giving pre-scene direction to his cast, instructing them what to say, what to do and how to act like true Powersville Inc. perverts once the camera starts rolling.
Upstairs, 21-year-old Mason is smoking a cigarette with Rucca Page on the balcony that overlooks the algae-green pool and she's eager to tell her story to the press. Only a couple of weeks into the business, she is, in a sense, living the dream.
"I never really watched porn," Mason says, "but my neighbor, who likes white girls, had lots of interracial porn. And when his girlfriend made him throw out his collection, he gave them to me. I watched them and I started to really admire the girls.
"I was 15-20 pounds heavier two months ago when I started shooting photos." Mason lifts her dress to show off her belly, and then mentions to Page, "You barely have a muffin top at all."
"It's about time I'm making money off of it," Page says with good humor. "I had to eat a lot before my scene today."
"It's funny," Page continues, "because usually you try at all cost to avoid that style of clothing."
Mason laughs and starts telling a story about shopping for super-tight clothes to enhance her muffin top. "The clerks were a little shocked: 'Are you sure you want that look?'"
Mason then goes on about how she and Scott were walking down Ventura Boulevard, Mason with her gut hanging out and Scott walking around with her ass hanging out. The girls both start laughing, almost uncontrollably, and covering their mouths. As they catch their breath, Dave Hardman walks out onto the balcony.
Hardman mysteriously disappeared from the biz years ago but has recently been making a comeback, driving in from his home in northern New Mexico to shoot periodically for Powers, Mike John, Stoney Curtis, Brandon Iron and other directors.
"It's the land that time forgot," Hardman says about his New Mexico town. "There's no traffic congestion, no cops, no laws, no rules. It's the Old West."
He takes out his license and shows us the name of his street. The street name isn't written in English, but it loosely translates into "the street without a name."
Then Powers re-emerges from the garage ready to move on to the next stage of the shoot. "I need a girl for dancing!" he shouts on his way up the stairs. In moments, Claudia Downs and Rucca Page are dressed to the nines in tight-fitting slutwear that does ample justice to their healthy curves.
Powers shoots the girls dancing one at a time on the balcony. He revolves around them with the video camera, capturing a full 360 as the girls shake their hips and jiggle their muffin tops.
Muffin Tops streets in September through JM Productions.
