It certainly was special. Vivid Entertainment, home to Vivid Video, Vivid Interactive, and the Califa Entertainment Group, was profiled on MSNBC's Special Edition Thursday night and got about nine minutes worth of a great commercial to go along with it.
Hosted by Ann Curry, there were interviews with Steven Hirsch - President of Vivid Video, Marci Hirsch - Head of Production at Vivid Video, and Janine. The segment gave viewers and inside look at Vivid, as well as behind the scenes footage at a movie shoot along with a variety of clips from the Vivid film library
The segment repeats again on Friday, October 1st at 8:00 am (Pacific Time).
According to MSNBC, adult films are no longer the taboo they once were. "Sales have doubled more than the last eight years an account for 25% of all video revenue," said the report. Adult entertainment was described as the "hidden half of Hollywood bursting its way into mainstream, trying to prove how seemingly normal it all is."
"San Fernando Valley has become the word capitol of adult entertainment," the report proclaimed. Using the porn industry is a "black eye" quote from Mayor Riordan, it was fairly obvious that MSNBC was using the recent front page article in the LA Times about the porn industry as the factual basis for its story, even interviewing the reporter.
"Part of what Vivid is known for is having the best girls in the best movies," said Vivid's Steve Hirsch, who, according to MSNBC has "reinstated the old studio star system of the 90's."
"This is a business where women have more say so than the men - women decide who they want to work with and make more money," Marci Hirsch adds. The MSNBC report went on to state that top contract stars can make more than $100,000 a year for doing six pictures. "And their film work catapults them onto the stripping circuit where they can earn anywhere between $5,000 and $25,000 a week.
In her lengthy interview segment, Janine said her motivation to come into the business came at an early age. "There's stuff that I had seen that plays a part in why I choose this," she said. "At the time growing up, my mom had no control, no say so in anything. That's why I was so adamant about this. This is my life and this is what I choose to be...if it's my choice and I want to do it, what's the harm? I pride myself on being a single working mom, and I think this is a good, wholesome adult company."
MSNBC: "Janine has worked for Vivid well past the shelf life of most adult movie stars. She's 30 and has been in the skin trade since she was 18. She said it wasn't her mother's first choice of careers for her, but mom wasn't surprised."
"She just knew that I was highly sexually charged," Janine comments.
MSNBC: "Janine says the rest of her family doesn't want to know anything about her professional life. But she has found comfort in her colleagues.
Janine: "I am a very highly sexual person. To have access to these beautiful women, in which we can play and have fun together, and bond - actually there's a lot of female bonding.
"I want to prove even though I am a porn star, I'm not a drug addict. I am a responsible, tax-paying mother. I want to prove that I'm not this out of control, unreliable person. If I wanted to stop this right now go to school and get my ECU units, and be a kindergarten teacher, I couldn't do it. I'm screwed. Some mother would say how dare you think you can teach my child be this horrible/prostitute porn star."
Reporter Gregg Jarrett: "Most adult film stars say the lifelong stigma attached to pornography is the hardest part. They have the wealth, they have the fame, but they never gain the acceptance.
"Janine and many of her female colleagues flatly deny the age-old argument that their business degrades women. In fact, Vivid claims they've made it a priority to make films that are more appealing to women - films with more nuance, more emotion. They also found women to be a serious factor in the video rental market, comprising nearly 30% of the 686 million tapes rented last year. But that's not the only burgeoning segment of the business - the explosion of the Internet has been revolutionary. It has taken away the biggest obstacle to selling adult entertainment - the shame - no more seedy movie theaters or raunchy sex shops. Some claim pornography is mainstream's final frontier with the boundaries quickly fading. Just look at the advertising. It's difficult these days to distinguish between a Vivid ad and one say for Calvin Klein. It's the same titillation with none of the embarrassment."
"I would like to try my hand at mainstream one more time," Janine said presaging her blockbuster announcement made last week when she said she was leaving the adult business. "Getting in is much easier than getting out," the report conceded
Regarding her son, Janine had this to say. "Am I hurting him by doing this? If I was to do it over, would I? That's tough." Subject:
Janine, by the way, has been named Babe of the Day on http://formen.ign.com/news/10878.html
