It was called "Rita Cosby: Live & Direct," but on Wednesday evening, the more appropriate title would have been "The Vivid Show." The company was described during the telecast as "the largest adult film company in the world." Until the last 10 minutes, every guest was either a Vivid owner, a Vivid employee or a Vivid contractor, and nearly every location shot was on a Vivid set, or featured a Vivid contract girl doing a Web-cam show. What can we say but, "Kudos to Vivid's publicity department!"?
"I'm coming to you live and direct from the west coast, in Los Angeles, and just a short drive away from a place many call Porn Valley," Cosby began. "Tonight we're going to take you into the epicenter of the multi-billion dollar porn industry that is booming in the digital age, in ways that you may not even know... We want to emphasize tonight that like any industry, there are good and bad elements. We're not passing judgment on the merits of porn tonight – that's a whole other topic – but instead we're reporting to you on just how pervasive it is becoming in our modern-day society."
Wow! Who've guessed?
The show continued pretty much in that vein for the next 50 minutes, with Cosby's camerapeople (though apparently not Cosby herself) visiting a Chi Chi LaRue set featuring new Vivid girl Stefani Morgan preparing to do a scene with Randy Spears, occasionally intercut with shots of Mercedez and Lacey about to engage in some girl/girl action for Web-cams. Stephanie chats about the business and her feelings about it as two Vivid make-up artists work on her hair; Spears reflects on his 16 years of performing as well as what he sees his job as requiring; and Mercedez assures viewers that her website is "something that I own and personally update."
"It's our responsibility to give a show, a sex show that's being filmed," Spears explains, "so it's our responsibility, even if we're not completely compatible or feeling the heat or whatever, that you make it appear that way without being fake, because people spot that a mile away, and how boring is that, watching a fake sex scene? I think that's the biggest misconception, that we're walking around with our tongues out of our mouths 24 hours a day. It's just not like that."
Cosby got a kick out of the fact that, in the middle of their scene, Randy and Stefani pause, mid-insertion (blurred out on screen, of course), to order lunch.
"Stefani wouldn't tell us how much she makes," Cosby voiced-over, "but porn stars like Jenna Jameson are pulling in millions of dollars a year." Later, Vivid co-owner Steve Hirsch opined that a Vivid girl could easily make upwards of $200,000 per year, and when questioned during her own segment, Vivid girl Monique Alexander more-or-less agreed that that's her income – admissions that are sure to produce some mouth-froth at the major pro-censorship organizations as well as the Department of Justice.
Which isn't to say the show was without its humor. For instance, we hadn't heard Chi Chi described, until Cosby did so, as "the Steven Spielberg of porn," and in fact, he didn't seem overly comfortable with the appellation.
"I'd rather be the John Waters of porn," he replied, but when pressed, he added, "I think it's because I work really well with the actors and I have the utmost respect for my talent."
"I always say, if America could see what goes on on a set, they're actually here and walked in, they'd be pretty damned bored," LaRue assessed. "I mean, the sex scenes are fun to a point, but sometimes in can kind of ruin the fantasy if you're actually on the set and you actually see what we go through to prepare for a scene."
And then there was Cosby's question to Hirsch, "What do you say to folks who say you are degradating [sic] society; it is too easy to get porn; a kid could somehow get on line, get on the cell phone, watch it, catch it – do you feel a moral sort of responsibility?"
"We believe that adults are able to make decisions," Hirsch replied, "and that adults should be able to make decisions as what they watch in the privacy of their own homes."
However, in response to Cosby's query regarding how Vivid prevents minors from accessing its content, Hirsch says, "At vivid.com, you have to show us a credit card before you can get in, before you can see any nudity. That way, we're sure that acts as age verification. You have to be over the age of 18 to get a credit card."
Um ... Steve? Hope this isn't too much of a shock, but minors have credit cards these days.
Sometimes the dialog was somewhat embarrassing, even if true, such as when Cosby asks Chi Chi," What makes a good porn star?"
"Well, bodies, faces and all the right equipment," LaRue replied.
"And do they have to be good actors?" Cosby followed up. "Is there anything that ever happens with the lines?"
We were hoping for a response like, "Sure, acting ability is what sets our players at least a cut above most of the other performers out there."
No such luck.
"You know what? Actually, at Vivid, that is a big plus," LaRue answered, and Hirsch rejoined with, "Our movies are very story-intensive, and our movies, we cater to couples [who] watch our movies, so it's important for us that we have movies with storyline character development, but when a girl comes in, she has to have something special. You know, you look at her and you can tell: It's her eyes; it's the way she moves, the way she talks. So we send her to our photographer and we see all the different looks we can get from her, and if she sort of passes that test, then ultimately, we shoot a movie with her."
Of course, it was inevitable that Cosby would ask, "What do you say to the folks that feel like you're degrading society?"
"Well, I don't want anybody to do anything on one of my sets that they don't want to do, and they don't have to," LaRue answered. "They're in control, absolutely in control, 100 percent. I am not in control of what people do on my sets."
Um ... Chi Chi? You're the director, and an award-nominated one at that. We're thinking you do control at least some of what people do on your sets.
"But aren't you still promoting bad behavior, lascivious behavior?" Cosby pressed.
"I don't think so," Hirsch replied. "I think we're talking about people who make decisions for themselves. People are adults, and if they're able to make those decisions, we have to respect that. People can't tell other people what's right for them. There are certainly the moralists out there, the morality priests out there, who want to stop all sorts of adult entertainment, but that's not right; adults should be able to make adult decisions."
Vivid girl Monique Alexander put in an appearance, and Cosby's first question was, "How much do you make?"
"I would rather not say, because I don't think it's fair to other girls," Monique puzzlingly answered, but she did agree that she made "several hundred thousand a year."
"I love what I do," Monique assured. "I love feeling sexy and being in front of the camera and Doing It. I think sex is a very natural thing to do, and why not celebrate it?"
Also slicing off a chunk of their 15 minutes of fame were Katya and Grant, a real-life couple that were working together for the first time ... sure enough, in the same Vivid movie as Stefani and Randy.
"It's my first shoot," noted Katya. "I've chosen to do it. I'm not quite sure if I want to do it because I do have a corporate job and I do have another job on the side, which has been my primary job for six years; I'm a professional belly-dancer, so for it's more about, do I want to do this and do I want people to see me?"
Turns out Grant didn't tell Katya about his porn career; she found out by Googling him "because he was too good in bed."
Also mini-profiled were What Media, which produces video clips of varying 'core for mobile TV channels 'cast to cell phones worldwide; Xobile, which markets clips for use in phones, iPods, PDAs and Sony's Playstation Portable, and which currently offers 50,000 movies on their site; as well as Vivid's own Web-cam operation which, Cosby assures, will soon be viewable – and interact-able – on cell phones.
The show's final minutes brought on two Ph.D.s, Dr. Laura Berman and Dr. Gail Dines ... and Dines, who co-authored the anti-porn "Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality," was none too happy with what had gone before.
"I'd like to talk about what's just passed for a news program," the Cockney-accented Dines began. "It's actually been a 50-minute promotion for the pornography industry ... in that you did not really get at what the industry's about, the reality of women's lives in the industry. Instead, you brought on a few people from Vivid, which is the elite directors of the industry. The reality of women's lives, if you're talking about women who are trafficked into pornography; you're talking about poor women; you're talking about abused women, drug-addicted women – all the research reveals this, and for you to focus on such a small percentage and to not have any serious analysis of the industry, and to let these directors promote it in this I think is shoddy reporting on your part, at the very worst."
Berman, however, was significantly more upbeat, and Cosby returned to her as soon as she could.
"It isn't all glamour, right, Dr. Berman?" Cosby asked.
"It's certainly not all glamour, and I think that's been made clear," Berman replied, 'but what's really important to remember is that pornography, in and of itself, is not all bad, and we tend to look at these things in black and white."
"I often recommend [porn] to my patients who are looking for ways to spice up their sex lives or looking for ways to feed fantasy," said Berman, who's on the foundation board of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality and a member of the American Association of Sex Educators Counselors and Therapists. "There's lots of pornography that is made by women, for women, that is very respectful of women, so it's not all this stereotype of this female disrespectful, horrible images. Some of them actually, women enjoy and couples enjoy together."
Cosby let Dines, a founding member of the National Feminist Anti-Pornography Movement, have the last word on what the industry meant to her.
"What you're doing in this industry is, you're mainstreaming and sexualizing cruelty to women," Dines quickly ranted, "and the mainstream of pornography today is not what it was 10, even five years ago. What passes for mainstream today is consistent violence against women – covert violence; we're not talking about physical violence, but emotional and sexual violence that's passed off as everyday sex, and the younger the males who watch this – and increasingly, males are beginning to download this at ages 10 to 12, is, what you're doing is socializing them into believing that this is a way treat women, and women are going to have to pay the price for this multi-billion dollar ..."
... at which point, Cosby cut her off with promises that both guests would be invited back another time.
We can't wait.
