pornochromatic

After all the debates and hand-wringing, L.A. County has announced that it can not and will not enforce mandatory condom use in porn production in California. According to the Chief of the county’s Public Health Department, it would just be too difficult and expensive to try to police an industry that’s so fragmented. Public Health officials passed the buck to the state legislature, but as the L.A. Times notes, “not a single California lawmaker has been willing to sponsor such legislation.”

While interviewing Belladonna at the Adult Entertainment Expo, I asked her what she thought about the idea of condom mandates and her answer captured the ambivalence many performers and producers feel about the topic.

Lovely as always, Belladonna talks to me about first impressions, how she chooses scene partners, what she does in her free time, and more.

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociology department released the results of surveys conducted during the 2008 and 2009 AEEs. They asked both fan and trade participants about their demographics and attitudes on various topics. The results are pretty much what I would have expected, but there were a few pieces of info that I found interesting.

Only about 20% of the trade attendees were female.
This seems incorrect to me. Even if you don’t count the performers (although I’m not sure why you wouldn’t), I’d guess that 30-40% of the people I saw or met while working the show were female. In my experience, most companies are owned by men, but have a good number of female employees.

Click images to enlarge

Most companies report business is flat or down
We’re in a recession and battling the biggest threat (piracy) that porn has ever seen. That 67% of companies are seeing flat or reduced sales is unsurprising. What is surprising is that almost no one at the show seemed to be talking about what to do about that.


More than half of respondents watch free porn online
One star I interviewed told me that when she has tried to sell her movies at conventions, fans will actually say that they’re just going to download her movies for free online. It seems insane to me that people could be this insensitive, but the numbers don’t lie.


If you’re interested, you can read the report here.

Friday was the day of Digital Playground. I interviewed all of their contract girls (except for Kayden Kross for some reason) and I really enjoyed talking to Katsuni. I loved that she was able to laugh about her arrest in Mexico in 2004 while acknowledging that she definitely wasn’t laughing at the time.

It was also nice to finally meet Jesse Jane. She’s so effervescent and friendly – admittedly refreshing after talking to some of her fellow contract stars. Our legs were touching during the interview. I wanted to put her in my pocket – the one I’m not already using to hold Belladonna.

I headed back to the Evil Angel booth in the afternoon and talked to Kelly Divine and Angela Summers. I was struck by how authentic and almost vulnerable Kelly is. She’s faced a lot of disrespect and outright meanness because of her choice of career and it clearly hurts her deeply. I really enjoyed talking with her.

Angela Summers was a fun interview to do because she’s been out of the business for 10 years. She came to the show to promote the DVD release of her first movie, Wild Goose Chase. She didn’t stay in the booth very long – she felt that the younger girls were who the fans were there to see – but when I asked about the possibility of a comeback, she said “never say never.”

It was a good day and I got to hang out with America’s Beloved Porn Journalist, Gram Ponante, later that evening. We talked a little bit about the amount of “mainstream” media at the show this year. It seems like a lot. It’s great that the girls get the exposure, but we wondered how they’d end up being portrayed. I think once you start meeting and getting to know these girls you develop a protectiveness of them. They’re real people and that’s easy to forget sometimes.

In my life, the passing of another year is most noticeably marked by the Adult Entertainment Expo (everyone still calls it AVN), which occurs in early January. As I sit here preparing my interview questions for this year’s show, I’m thinking over last year’s show; how to improve, what people really want to know about these girls, what’s happened since the last AVN?

How can I Improve?

• I should be picking up my video camera today. I have two different microphones that I’ll be testing for performance in ridiculously loud situations.
• I’ve scheduled 17 (!!!) interviews so far and I don’t think there’s any way to get through all of them without pre-written questions. So I’m writing those.
• I think the best thing I can do (for myself at least) is to be a little less nervous throughout the whole process. Maybe Xanax = better interviews?

What Questions to Ask?

• Researching and writing questions for all of these girls is more difficult than it probably sounds. I also wonder if what I consider an interesting question is really interesting to the people who will eventually watch the interviews.
• I’ve gone and watched/read other peoples’ interviews with porn stars. Most are bad/boring. The blame for this is shared by all parties involved. There are questions that I simply won’t ask this year (ex: What’s your favorite position?)
• Seriously, what do you guys want to know about these girls? Please tell me.

What’s Happened this Year?

• After my employment transition (is that even a phrase?) in March, I’ve been writing, taking classes and working on my own projects, including this blog.
• It’s been a pretty good year, and without getting too sappy, I just want to thank you guys for sticking with me. Having readers is a good thing for any blogger, but having awesome ones who make me laugh, make me think about a variety of perspectives and put up with my erratic posting schedule is an honor that I am very grateful for.

The show starts in a week. I won’t specifically be covering the convention for VideoBox this year (although I’ll probably write about it once or twice while I’m there), so I’ll be posting my updates and pictures here just for you. Happy New Year!

I had the chance to interview Belladonna at the Adult Entertainment Expo in 2009. If you love her movies, you’ll be glad to hear that she’s even more charming, beautiful and intelligent in person. Even I will admit that I was a little starstruck by her.

Bella and I talked about her herpes scare, her upcoming autobiography, how she feels about the “fucked up” things she did when she was younger, rape fantasies and more. Read on for the full interview.

Alison: I actually heard that you were working on an autobiography…

Belladonna: I am, actually, yes. [laughs] It was one of those things I didn’t want to do for a long time because I thought, I don’t want to just write a book about, for example, when I read Jenna’s book, it was like I thought there was going to be so much more in there, you know? And I don’t want to leave anything out. So it might become – I don’t even know if this exists – an autobiography in different volumes, yes, because I think there needs to be a certain volume for each part of my life.

Alison: Sure, I mean, and you’re not dead, so you’ve got a lot left to go.

Belladonna: Right. [laughs] Is it weird doing an autobiography at 27?

Alison: I don’t think so. You’ve lived what seems to me to be a pretty exciting life.

Belladonna: Really, my age should be sixty, because I’ve done it all. And I did it at a young age, so maybe that makes up for it.

Alison: Do you think that having done it so young, are there things you would go back and redo?

Belladonna: Yes and no, because you think “Oh, you know, I would’ve done it differently.” But would I be the same person I am today? And I don’t want to not be the same person I am today, so no, I guess.

(more…)

This is my interview with Jenna Haze at the Adult Entertainment Expo in January. She’s extremely nice and just as beautiful in person as she is in her movies. We talked about her busy life, who she does her best scenes with, how her directing career is coming along and more.

Alison: How’s the convention going so far, Jenna?

Jenna: It’s good, it’s really good.

A: Have you done a lot of signings, met a lot of fans?

J: Yes, I signed for six hours yesterday and I’ve already signed for almost four hours today and I’ve got another three, so…

A: You must be pretty tired.

J: No, I’m used to it.

A: You really seem like the consummate porn star. You bring everything to your scenes every time. How do you do it?

J: [laughs] It just comes naturally. I like my job and when the camera rolls I do my thing.

A: What are your favorite things to do in your scenes?

J: Since I was under contract for so long doing only girls, now doing guys is the best. Of course, sucking cock. Anal scenes are probably my little niche – my favorite thing to do, besides blowjobs.

A: Who do you really like to work with?

J: Guys or girls?

A: Hmm. Guys.

J: James Deen, Johnny Sins, Manuel Ferrara, all yummy yummies.

A: Basically, the guys with the biggest dicks.

J: Pretty much [laughs]. I like the big ones. And Scott Nails, how could I forget Scott Nails?

A: How about girls?

J: Belladonna. Monique Alexander is my ex-girlfriend and she was awesome to work with. They’re both two of my favorite girls. Joanna Angel is my best friend, she’s always fun to work with.

I did a great scene with Gianna years ago for Fashionistas. That was amazing, with Gianna and Rocco. She’s an amazing performer and I love her a lot.

Alexis Texas, I just did an all-girl scene with her and she was fucking awesome. Slammin.

A: She has a great ass

J: Beautiful ass. I just buried my face in it. You couldn’t even see it. It was gone.

A: When doing a girl-girl scene, some performers really get into their scenes and get wet and some don’t. Is it important to you that your partner likes women?

J: Yeah, definitely. It’s always good to see that they’re really excited and really into it. Wetness is always a plus, right? Dry is not sexy.

A: How many years have you been doing porn now?

J: Seven and a half

A: And you’re not sick of it at all?

J: I have my times when I get a little burned out on work in general, not necessarily the work I’m doing. Just because I’m directing now and doing my own stuff, I’m also working for other people, I’m also feature dancing, I’m also doing my website and doing signings and stuff.

A: When do you sleep??

J: I don’t! I’ve been trying to be good and get like six hours sleep every night while I’m here, you know, but you know Vegas.

A: How do you like directing so far?

J: It’s hard. It’s really hard. A lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. It’s definitely going to be a learning process for me.

A: Do you think that since you’ve been performing for so long, you bring something special to directing?

J: I’m hoping to bring something special to directing. Once I get all my nervousness and second-guessing myself out of the way, you know. In the first movie I directed there was a lot of, “Is this hot? I don’t know. Should I shoot that? Is that good enough? Are they gonna like that? I don’t know What should I do?” So the first one was definitely very good for my first one, but I expect it to just get better and better.

A: What kind of movies do you really want to make?

J: Just hot movies. Movies of people having real sex. You know, I don’t want fake orgasms and all that stuff, I just want real sex. Gonzo, you know. Just get to the point.

I want to do a variety of stuff though. I want to do gonzo stuff, I want to do vignettes, I’ll probably never do features, it’s just not my thing. But I also want to do stuff that’s really different, really arty, really edgy.

A: When do you think you want to start getting into the really arty stuff?

J: Hopefully soon. “Cum-Spoiled Sluts” was my first movie and will be my signature series, I think. And then I’m doing my anal movie second, and then my next one will be the arty movie.

A: That sounds like fun. Is it fun getting to come up with your own ideas for movies?

J: It’s fun, but it’s also very expensive and so much work! I never realized there was so much to directing. I thought, “Oh you turn the camera on and you just tell them what you want to see and they go.” But there’s really a technique to it and I feel lucky because I have my boyfriend Jules [Jordan] to teach me. Hopefully he’ll teach me everything he knows and I’ll become the best female director in the business. [laughs]

A: I have no doubt that if that’s your goal, you’ll do it. Is it nice being with someone who’s also in the industry who understands what it’s like?

J: I would definitely never date anyone outside the business because there’s too much drama, too much headache, too much difficulty and I’m not changing what I do for anybody.

A: That’s great. You know, after this long in the business, you have a lot of devoted fans who probably know a lot about you. Is there anything you think they’d be surprised to find out?

J: I don’t know. People ask me this question a lot and I’m so much “me” on camera that I feel like I’m known to all of my fans. I always just say that I’m a dork. People don’t realize what a nerd I really am and how clumsy I really am. I fell down some stairs, actually, before I came here. So yeah, I have my moments. [laughs]

A: Well, Jenna, it was so nice talking to you. Enjoy the rest of the show.

J: Thanks, you too.