No one dominated the AVN 2000 Adult Internet Awards Tuesday night, as a variety of adult Internet sites walked away with the prizes and only one site taking more than one award.
That site was Pulp Phantom, which took awards for Most Humorous Site and the People's Choice Award. Otherwise, the variety of winners was at once intriguing and well received by the thousand people who attended the gala dinner and ceremonies at the Venetian Hotel here.
Space Amazones took the prize for Best Overall Site, while Kara's Adult Playground won Best Hardcore Site. There was also one tie - Wet Place and YouHo!, the latter featuring a clever satirizing of the popular Yahoo! Web portal, sharing honors for Best Links Site.
AVN Online's Grace Samsa reminded the crowd that, whether the mainstream Net world likes to admit it or not, it's the adult Net world which provides the bulk of cyberinnovation. "No matter what the mainstream thinks," she said, "all of us, we know - we know it - everyone in here, we are the pioneers of the Internet. And we know it not just because we're all successful, no, but we know it because mainstream has always copied what we do."
Fetish Information Exchange won the prize for Best Educational Site. "Whether it's about sexually transmitted diseases (or) discovering that thousand-and-third special position, the Internet is the single most powerful tool that has ever existed for delivering a message," Samsa said before presenting the award.
"I'm dumbfounded," said Colin Rowntree of Wasteland.com, which runs Fetish Information Exchange. Wasteland.com also picked up a prize for Best Fetish Site.
Four of the biggest adult film stars presented the awards - Misty Rain, Jenna Jameson, Kobe Tai, and Taylor Hayes, all of whom were in high spirits and a few of whom couldn't resist taking potshots at Internet Entertainment Group's embattled leader, Seth Warshavsky.
IEG received a few nominations, which prompted Jameson - alluding to allegations involving chargebacks and non-payments among others - to crack, "Could I get my check, please?" That crack drew the largest and loudest laugh of the night.
Jameson and Tai teamed up to present Best E-zine (to VaVoom), Best Site Design (to BlueKitten), and Best Marketing Awards (to Cybererotica), sustaining good humor throughout, as did Rain and Hayes presenting Best Video Site (to Videosecrets), the People's Choice Award, and Best Overall Site.
The scene shifted to a party at Babies in the Hard Rock Hotel for the winners, nominees, and audience. The drinks flowed freely, the music rippled around the club, and partygoers mingled genially, reveling in their triumphs and near-triumphs.
Following is a complete list of the AVN 2000 Adult Internet Awards winners:
Best Overall Site: Space Amazones. \nPeople's Choice Award: Pulp Phantom. \nBest Video Site: Videosecrets. \nBest Marketing: Cybererotica. \nBest Site Design: BlueKitten. \nBest E-Zine: VaVoom. \nBest Educational Site: Fetish Information Exchange. \nBest Personal Site: Danni's Hard Drive. \nBest Multimedia Site: BoyZone. \nBest Hardcore Site: Kara's Adult Playground. \nBest Community Site: NetPond. \nBest Site Concept: RetroRaunch. \nMost Humorous Site: Pulp Phantom. \nBest Gay Site: Chisel. \nBest Fetish Site: Wasteland.com. \nBest Links Site: Wet Place, YouHo! (tie) \nBest Photography Site: Suze Randall. \nBest Gaming Site: Let's Play Doctor. \nBest Retail Site: DVD Empire.
