The VideoBox Blog

For the last two days, I’ve been in Vegas for the annual Adult Entertainment Expo. The convention seems a lot smaller to me than years past, but thankfully that doesn’t mean there’s been a big reduction in opportunities to see and talk to the hottest stars in the business.

Some of the highlights of my trip so far have been:

• Meeting and developing a huge crush on Asa Akira
• Finding out, a bit to my surprise, that a lot of stars are really proud of the AVN Awards they’ve won
• Watching Ashley Fires’ fembot impression.
• Talking to Katsuni about how she ended up in Mexican prison in 2004
• Learning that everyone in the Evil Angel booth thinks I look like that chick from Twilight.
• Getting to meet the legendary and retired Angela Summers. She didn’t rule out making a comeback as a cougar!
• Talking football with Jesse Jane.
• Hearing about Belladonna’s love of birdwatching and the Scrub-Jays in her backyard.

Here are a few pictures I’ve taken while I’ve been here:



If you’d like to see more, check out my Flickr page and my Twitpics. I’ll be updating them both (as well as Twitter) through Sunday. I’m also hoping to get a pass to photograph the red carpet at the AVN Awards, so keep an eye out!

Here’s a little update for folks who may not have the time or desire to read all the industry “news” and gossip blogs out there.

Tera Patrick Retires from Porn
After filing for divorce from husband Evan Seinfeld (Spyder Jonez), Tera Patrick has told industry blogger Cindi Loftus that she is finished with porn. She has a memoir coming out soon that she claims gets into the scandalous details of her life in porn. I’ll let you guys know if it’s any good.

Katja Kassin Also Calls it Quits
Katja Kassin wrote a message to her fans on the Adult DVD Talk message board that broke the news that she is retiring from porn. She simply seems to have gotten to the end of the road and is looking for something else to do. Luckily for her fans, she shot over 450 movies in her career, hopefully leaving even die hard fans plenty of viewing material for the foreseeable future.

Former UFC Fighter Ruins Birthday Party
At a recent birthday party for Brooke Haven, ex-fighter and current porn “star” War Machine attacked five men, sending two to the hospital. It’s not entirely clear what happened, but it seems that the men were alerted that Mr. Machine had just hit girl/friend Alanah Rae in the face and verbally confronted him about it. (Alanah says she was not hit.) WM claims self-defense, but all witnesses who have come forward thus far said the attack was unprovoked. War Machine is also currently facing charges for attacking a doorman at a gay club in Las Vegas.

New Study: Porn is Okay After All
The University of Montreal School of Social work has released results from a study examining the effects of pornography on men’s attitudes about women and relationships. A sample of 20 hetersexual men revealed that almost all men watch porn at times and that viewing porn has no bearing on their ability to respect women and function normally in society. While 20 is not even close to a reasonable sample size, it comes as no surprise to me that most men don’t want to date girls who look like porn stars, they merely want to jerk off to (on?) them.

Penny Flame Gets Blog on Huffington Post
The Huffington Post, a liberal news and opinion site, has secured Jennifer Ketcham (aka Penny Flame) as a contributing writer. Jennifer/Penny is featured on the current season of Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew seeking treatment for sex addiction. In my opinion, she’s the only tolerable person on the show, so while her first blog entry on HuffPost is a little weird, let’s give her the benefit of the doubt and assume it’ll get better from there.

2010 AVN Award Nominations Announced
Here’s the list. Tell me the truth, guys – does anyone care about this? My gut says no, but I’ve been wrong about these sorts of things before.

At long last, I present to you my Jada Fire interview from the AVN show this year. I personally think it was worth the wait. Jada was without a doubt the most candid porn star I’ve ever spoken to. She told me about her favorite types of scenes, her first experience with the powerhouse that is Annette Schwarz and the worst thing that’s ever happened to her on a porn set. If you’ve recently eaten, I’d suggest waiting on this one (don’t say I didn’t warn you!).



I subtitled the video *and* transcribed it (not too hard to do once you’ve done the other bit), so for those of you who’d prefer to read it, the full text is available below:

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Walking down the hallway out of the convention center, we spotted Evan Stone chatting with fans. As soon as he realized the camera was on him, he launched into this:

I had the opportunity to interview Jenna Haze at the show this year and I found her to be delightful, though very very business-minded. This is a quality that can go either way (too much: boring performer, not enough: broke), but I think Jenna has a great balance. She does her best 100% of the time and really views this as a fun career, not just a job.

After Jenna Jameson’s shameful performance at last year’s AVN awards, Jenna’s proclamation on Saturday that she is going to “spread my legs forever for this business” made me smile. I think that’s because I really believe her.

I had the enormous pleasure of interviewing Jada Fire this morning. She’s probably the funniest porn star I’ve ever interviewed, and maybe the most candid. She told me a story about a scene she did with Annette Schwarz that you are seriously not ready for.



I do realize that I’m not laughing in this picture, but every other one that was taken is of me cracking up while she talks. And blurry.

Belladonna is not only cute and pixie-sized, she’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.



Full recap of the day later, but I’ll say it was lots of fun and I got to hug Jenna Haze.

I happened to bump into Penny Flame outside the convention, who was carrying a bullhorn, wearing a bathrobe and causing a huge ruckus. I love Penny.

The nominees for the 2009 AVN Awards were published last week and I’m very proud to announce that VideoBox has been nominated for Best Adult Website!

This is the first time we’ve been nominated for an AVN award and everyone here is very happy. The AVN website says that the judging “will be based on content quality, quantity and originality, site design, usability and features.”

I think we do well on most of those criteria, but I’m probably biased. I guess we’ll see if the judges agree with me next month. The award show is happening on January 10th at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas.

Last night, I was browsing the site and started thinking about Keri Sable. Quick background story for those who aren’t familiar: young Keri entered the business in 2004 when she was just 18. She did a bunch of gonzo movies and got noticed by the president/owner of Wicked Pictures, Steven Orenstein, who offered her a contract. In early 2006, word was she quit the business and left her Wicked contract unfulfilled. No one really seemed to know what happened, but when she didn’t show up at AVN, it was pretty much confirmed.

My Story
I had the great pleasure to be at a dinner with Steve Orenstein that year at AVN. Everyone wanted to know what happened with Keri, why she was worth all the trouble, etc. What I remember of his answer is that she had that special thing, that je nes sais quoi, that you just know when you see it. He didn’t get into why she left, but had very kind words about her – she was a very nice girl, but very young. If she didn’t want to be in porn, who was he to try to change her mind?

Investigating the Claim
So I went back and watched a few of Keri’s scenes last night. Notably, Teen Fuck Holes #1, scene 5, Sex Fiends #1, scene 1, and Finders Keepers, scene 1. I wanted to see if I agreed that she was something special (why it took me 3 years to have the inclination to do so, I don’t know).

Maybe Steve Was Right
I watched her in a 1-on-1 scene, a scene with another girl and a guy and a DP. After all that, my thoughts were that she really seemed that she was in the moment. The main evidence was that her sex noises didn’t seem bored or forced, she smiled, got flushed, and above all, she moved her hips. Porn girls never seem to move their hips when they fuck. They just kinda lie there or bounce around or kneel passively. But Keri actually moved. So while skinny bleach blonde teen girls with fake nails are not usually my thing, I had to admit that I liked her. I think that’s the mark of a good porn star – they don’t fit with your usual aesthetic, but you don’t care because they manage to be hot anyway.


What about you? What’s the difference between an average porn girl and a porn star? What gets every one of a girl’s scenes on your favorites list?