Features

Everybody’s got an inner porn star’

Notes from the Adult Video News convention

By Adrian Zupp and Jennifer Grafiada

Held annually in Las Vegas, the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, the porn industry’s pinnacle event, is more than just a bunch of sex-device booths and half-naked adult-film stars. Indeed, AVN is like one big movie in itself—and its cast of characters would make Fellini swoon.

Taylor Wane, 30s, Los Angeles

Trained to be a kindergarten teacher in her native England, Taylor Wane ended up on a very different career path.

“I’m good at sex. I really am a very highly sexual person. It’s kind of convenient for me to do movies, because I need sex all the time, every day. The pay is good, and they even have food on the set. I eat, I f--k, and I make money.”

An AVN Hall of Famer, Wane—who calls herself “an overachiever”—is in town promoting her line of sex toys.

“I test them before I put my name on them, because I don’t want someone buying the product and it’s not good. You don’t want to buy a sex toy, throw it away and then use your fingers again.”

Dave Navarro, 40, Los Angeles

Best known as the guitarist for Jane’s Addiction and the Red Hot Chili Peppers—and boyfriend to the porn stars—Dave Navarro is happy to be back on the edge. He’s just made his adult-film directorial debut with the movie Broken, and received an AVN Award nomination the first time out of the gate.

“What I really love about this film is that Teravision allowed me to be as creative as I wanted to be and as avant-garde as I wanted to be,” says the rocker from behind his signature big-panel shades.

Maxine X, 20s, Toronto, Canada

Ms. X is a relative newcomer to the ranks of porn starlets and recently signed with Lighthouse Talent Agency in LA. But “relative” is the operative word.

“We have our own production company called Maxine X Productions that’s made over 15 movies—and I’ve been in all of them. I started off doing a lot of fetish and bondage videos and then started going mainstream. Now we’re being followed by a reality-TV show called Webdreams. They’re filming us going from fetish to mainstream.”

Man in Bondage Hood, age unknown, from parts unknown

After being soundly whipped while on hands and knees in front of a sizeable gaggle of onlookers, Man in Bondage Hood was heard to say “Mmf, mmf, mmf”—one of AVN’s more poignant pronouncements.

Ted Johnson, 46, Palm Springs

Weekly: “What’s your favorite part of AVN?”

Johnson [without irony]: “I don’t know. There are so many good parts around here.”

Steve Joyner, 37, San Francisco; Patricia Cram, 30, Oakland

“We’re here to assist [porn director/rock singer] Matt Zane do a flesh suspension to break a Guinness Book of World Records. He’s going to try for six hours. We help with the piercing and rigging.”

But why would anyone want to emulate Richard Harris in A Man Called Horse in front of thousands of horny AVN fans?

“It’s something in his private life that he wants to share publicly.”

Richard Woodson, 49, Las Vegas; Chris Fetner, 42, Virginia

A couple of average guys plowing through a bounty of hot chicks. But with so many to ogle, a man has to zero in on his type. Fellas?

Woodson: “I like them small, but I’m not picky.”

Fetner: “The Asians. No doubt.”

Shelly, 41, and Steve, 53, California

Shelly: “We’re in the swinger lifestyle. We’re trysexual: We’ll try anything once.”

Steve: “The funny thing is, I used to go to church for years. Now half the people from that church are divorced. In the last four years we’ve attended countless swinger parties with hundreds of people, and I haven’t seen one divorce yet.”

The happily married couple plans to go to some swinger afterparties while in Vegas.

Jesse Santana, 21, and Guy Parker, 25, Dallas

Jesse and Guy are gay porn stars who are also boyfriends in real life.

“There’s no downside to being in the porn industry,” says Jesse, teeing up a one-liner. “It’s all up.”

Adds Guy: “Everybody’s got an inner porn star.”

Mirai Haneda, 22, Tokyo, Japan

A lack of English doesn’t prevent a young Japanese girl from realizing her dream of becoming an international porn star. Watch out for Haneda in the soon-to-be-released Hello Titty 3.

Steve Scott, president of Third World Media, which produced Hello Titty 3, is happy to bridge the language gap. “As a company that’s built our reputation on authentic ethnic adult entertainment with performers entirely from outside of the U.S., we’ve imported two of our hottest and most recent starlets, Junko and Mirai Haneda. These girls may not speak a lick of English, but they have no problems communicating with our fans at the show.”

Ron Jeremy, 54, Los Angeles

One of the most recognizable names—and appendages—in all of porn, Ron Jeremy is not only a shagging legend, but he’s also the great white hope for every not-so-good-looking guy who dreams of bagging gorgeous babes.

“AVN is much more crowded, commercial and corporate than it used to be,” reflects the well-hung one as he gropes the female co-author of this piece. “It’s not so cultish, sexual-revolution, hippy-dippy.” As he moves the flustered reporter’s hand down to his thinly veiled trouser snake, the benevolent bonker asks: “Would you like me to write ‘RJ’ on your boobs?”

Bunny De La Cruz, 23, California

In the sex industry, size often matters. In the case of the buxom-plus Bunny De La Cruz, it’s obvious that size doesn’t have to matter.

“This is only my third month in the business. I danced in California, and I had a couple of friends in movies, and they were like, ‘You should try it!’ I’m here to go around to different companies and promote myself.”

Randy West, 60, Las Vegas

t’s hard to believe Randy West has hit the big 6-0.

“I started in porn in 1978, and I think AVN started in 1983. It’s gotten kinkier over the years. I see a lot of stuff now I never even thought of back then.”

West, who retired from the biz a couple of years ago, is listed at No. 29 in the AVN magazine’s “Top 50 Porn Stars of All Time.” He’s also hosted the AVN Awards three times.

“I’m the guy who got Jenna Jameson started in the business,” says the never-married West proudly. “She did her first boy-girl scene with me and was quite excellent.”

And his general impression of AVN?

“Obviously it’s going downhill because everything’s going on the Internet. There’s not as much hard product to sell anymore. And I’m a little pissed off that every year they make it more difficult for the fans to get in and more expensive. And without the fans, you’re out of business.”

Adrian Zupp is the Weekly’s web content editor. Jennifer Grafiada is a Weekly online editorial assistant.

  • Get More Stories from Wed, Jan 16, 2008
Top of Story