| --Friday, August 29, 2008--
Vicky Vette: When boobs are not enough
 Erotic Scandinavian among erotic Scandinavians Vicky Vette, whose wholesome sauciness evokes the pornstars of the 90's, is in a near dead heat with someone named Tera Patrick over a Best Boobs contest on a site called Booble. At this writing, Vette is ahead.
But there seems to be a Clintonesque backroom campaign designed to snatch that title away from her, Vette thinks, involving the willingness of the adult press, as represented by trade publications AVN and XBiz, to give more press to Patrick, and Patrick's evoking her own (dubious, Vette says) charity work to an appeal for votes.
Me, I'd just be happy to be mamminated.
Having spent time working at adult trade publications, I know that squeaky wheels get the grease, and the squeakiest wheels can get their merest queef printed as a headline article.
I reprint Vette's Open Letter to the Porn Press as an example of how, even (and especially) in the tiny world of porn, boobs don't go as far as you'd like them to.
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PORN PRESS & INDUSTRY FROM VICKY VETTE
Who knows, I may be putting a nail in my own coffin, lol… but sometimes the hypocrisy and bs in this business astounds me.
, Vicky Vette release the following statement regarding Tera Patrick's charity pledge. I challenge 'journalists' to print it unedited since I will be putting it up in all the places I frequent in the new real world of adult - the internet. It is going to get read anyway. I know how to get the word out even if you don’t print it.
I preface this statement by saying that charity is a very important part of life. Doing charity is good for the heart and good for the soul. If the porn industry ever wanted to get behind my charity work, they could have taken the time to ask me about it before splashing the pages of the industry magazines with Tera's charity pledge without even giving me a chance to respond. I’ve been doing it for years. I am booked for the AIDS Walk again in Atlanta October 19, 2008 and I could use the press help for the charity’s sake, not to win Booble. Charity work should be done for the right reasons – not just for press.
I believe in actions, not press releases seeking votes when you are in 2nd place with 3 days to go in a competition. Funny how she never mentioned her intentions while she was in the lead? So we have a Tera Patrick/Booble press release with a 'every vote is a vote for charity' message. I ask the porn press who all have my telephone number (which has not changed in 5 years) the following questions:
1. Why did the porn press not ask why the charity in question is promoting a card playing event that is over one year old and the ticket page http://www.babefoundation.com/ticketstopokertourney.html directs you to a dead end? If the charity doesn’t have the funds to update their website, and needs help, maybe we should all get involved?
2. What happened to my press release I sent you over a week ago about being in Booble?
3. What happened to my press release about Nina Hartley joining forces with me with her website NinaHartley.com that you got yesterday?
4. Why was I not given the courtesy of an emailed copy of the 'charity for votes press release' while it was being prepared?
5. Why did AVN and XBiz, publications I have done stories with before, done interviews for, and always tried to help out, run with a story while I was out for an afternoon doing errands? Quote: “Vicky Vette was not available for comment?” Au Contraire! I have nothing but comments! The press release was posted on xbiz and the once-weekly email sent to the subscribers only hours after they sent me the perfunctory email. I wonder when it was actually thought of and drafted? Not available for comments! What a joke - call me – I’ll give you comments! Gee now there won’t be another newsletter email until after the contest is over. Coincidence?
6. Why not run with a story for the benefit of Nina Hartley a true veteran and staunch supporter of the industry and freedom of speech –who is a legend in her own time?
WHY is the question - my answer you will not like. Perhaps getting press for the sake of press - press because second is not good enough.
This competition is not about Tera Patrick, who is incredibly beautiful by the way. Her boobs are awesome and deserve votes. Some in the porn industry just said to me on Monday that it was incredible I was making a resurgence and that he thought I retired from the world of porn. Incredible. Nothing could be further from the truth and I have news for the world of porn. I flourished 'under the radar' and did things some stars don't seem to like to do - get my hands ‘dirty’ interacting with the fans. For two years I spent time on the internet and learning it. I may not have the global fan base of Tera Patrick by virtue of the reach of DVD sales in general, but I developed 'the people’s vote'. I stopped doing 'box cover movies' to be a trendsetter in the business. It does not take rocket science to see that DVD sales and store sales of DVD's are way down. People are going in droves to buy their adult content online and they are interacting in ways that the industry never anticipated and frankly do not like. The first thing today's "stars" do is hire a publicist/assistant to deal with all that 'horrible' mail in their inbox.
Want to know what a Vicky Vette day looks like? Opening email, going through Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo, and social networks, talking to the people who write, and above all else being interactive with as many people as possible - yes grunting it out. Just compare my myspace page http://www.myspace.com/vickyvette to Tera's myspace page. See all the comments from the folks on the page? I may not have as many 'fans', but I have cultivated 'friends'. Welcome to social networking in the 21st century porn industry - you don't like it, but it is here. Ask the fans on Facebook who have had instant message chats with Vicky Vette at 1.00 in the morning.... I chat, I interact, I do my best to respond, and I do it daily and weekly. I am not 'above' doing camshows weekly, week in week out. For what is is worth I may be one of the first 'major' (whatever that means) pornstars to jump the DVD Titanic ship and interact with fans to this extent. The porn industry is fooling itself if it thinks it can keep packaging up pornstars and throwing them on boxcovers. Fans expect more and they should get more. We are not 'stars' - we are lucky to have people buying porn with all the free porn being given away.
So who has been voting for me? Who has been texting their friends http://www.vote4vette.com (my booble vote link) all over the world? It is the fans I speak to and who have been speaking to on a daily basis, the person in Switzerland who instant messages me out of the blue, or the fan in Denmark who send me a note on Myspace saying 'I don't expect a response but....' Don't believe that the internet is working for me? Take a look at the hits on my website..... my site is now going to pass Tera Patrick's site for popularity - not bragging, just a fact. While the porn world was sleeping I was imming, texting, messaging, and bulletining my fans all over the world, one by one, vote by vote. Those are the people who are voting, those are the very people who buy the dvd's that you have been ignoring, those are the people going to the free sites you despise, and the people who are now going in droves to download rather than hang out at the local DVD store.
If you vote for Tera because of her pledge to charity... then so be it. I expected to lose when this started and I expected the all powerful adult press to give the adult superstar a leg up if she needed it. Second would still be awesome. Win or lose, I will be doing what it did before the contest started - hanging with the fans, running my sites, concentrating on the future of adult, and promoting all over the internet, me, and my boobles and one click at a time.
See you all at the AID's walk guys - hope you have the balls to print this word for word. Vicky
I like Ms. Vette, but the next time I misspell AIDS please remind me to challenge my editor to have the balls to print it.
Previously: Porn stars in my past, nipples in the news; Recovering Vette; No Morals!
See also: Vicky VetteLabels: boobs, business, conflict, philanthropy, sic, tera patrick, trademags, verbatim, vicky vette
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, May 26, 2008--
Cancer benefit for Henri Pachard, veteran porn director
 Donations to Henri Pachard's Cancer Fund are now being accepted. And, for the next 30 days, every adult store order of Not the Bradys XXX results in a percentage donation, as do purchases of Pachard titles from my store on Gamelink.
Like workers in any industry - but perhaps more so than mainstream entertainment, which they are often compared to - Porn personnel work from job to job and, if they're smart and lucky, put money away for rainy days.
Director Henri Pachard (born Ron Sullivan in New York), though responsible for hundreds of porn movies over five decades as well as dozens of Times Square grindhouse movies, is suffering from cancer and, because cancer is expensive and directors do not get residuals, has watched the disease eat through his savings.
Pachard wrote a regular column for AVNInsider called "The Pornographer's Journal" when I edited that website, covering his current projects but mostly talking about Porn's so-called "Golden Age" and before. He was always entertaining, compelling, and the kind of gentleman who would say "fuck" a lot, which made me trust him more than the gentlemen who didn't.
Here is one of his columns about his early days as a director and the making of the classic Babylon Pink.
At my first AVN convention, I asked 100 youngish (ages 18-21) porn performers what "Deep Throat" was and, aside from a number of people telling me it was a style of blowjob, only two knew that it was the standard-bearing porn movie.
Knowing that, it is easy to believe that the porn world and the world at large often forget pioneers in the porn business; there is no real objective journal and its employees are often all too eager to hide their roles in the business once they are done, making for a business with no solid institutional sense of history.
But Pachard is and was a walking history lesson. He is a reminder of a time when people got into porn because they were film fans and fast-talking east coast players and, in a way, radicals. He is a beloved presence to those who have been around long enough to see him at work.
And, like many of the adult world's established behind-the-scenes workers, Pachard got his son a job: Jason Sullivan shoots camera for most of Porn Valley's big productions.
But Pachard and his lovely wife, Delores, are struggling. If you are a porn fan of a certain age, chances are Henri Pachard has helped form some of your earliest impressions of the San Fernando Valley.
Henri Pachard Cancer Fund
Mail: C/o All Media Play
1680 Vine St. #1118
Hollywood, CA. 90028 Ph-323.467.9900
 Babylon Pink
Previously: My Big Fat Gang Bang: Corpulent Converge on Kat Kleevage; Wig-flipping with Nicki Hunter; Don Lemmon dies
See also: Henri Pachard on IAFDLabels: classic, directors, henri pachard, philanthropy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, December 05, 2007--
Surewood pleads not guilty as murder case continues
 Brian Barnes, aka the adult performer Brian Surewood, pleaded not guilty to second degree murder charges Monday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Van Nuys.
His case continues until January 8, at which point his defense team and prosecutors are expected to have gathered enough evidence to try him in the road rage-related death of five-year-old Ayman Arif of Northridge.
Surewood, 44 and also of Northridge, was involved in a moving dispute with 19-year-old Armando Ayon of Pacoima on Tuesday, October 9. Both raced their cars east on Sherman Way, police said, "jockeying for position". Ayon's car lost control and smashed into a parked car on the south side of the street, crushing Arif, his infant sister, and his mother.
Ayman died October 13, his sister Ikra only recently returned from the hospital, and his mother, 31-year-old Syeda Arif, a recent immigrant from Pakistan, lost a leg and is still hospitalized.
Amir Arif is Ayman's father. He has started a foundation in his son's name to create awareness about aggressive driving. He has been quoted as saying the drivers should be hanged. He wrote me recently:
I am in need of fund to take care of heavy hospital and other expenses that I am currently struggling due to this accident. As you know my wife is still in hospital & my daughter came home with special care need. I had to stop working to take care of her. I am in need of your donation. Please help. Donations can be set to:
Amir Arif
19100 Napa St.
Northridge, CA 91324
or
Ayman Arif Memorial Fund
Bank of America
Account # 03326-70877
Previously: Surewood held for murder
See also: Ayman Arif on YoutubeLabels: brian surewood, legal, news, philanthropy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, November 12, 2007--
Adam & Eve's house that porn built
 North Carolina porn concern Adam & Eve joined with a local Habitat for Humanity to build a house for a formerly unlucky family, and they didn't construct it from copies of Tailgunners, either.
I asked A&E public relations director Katy Zvolerin if the Hillsborough family knew that part of their new home was constructed by off-duty porn personnel, and she said, "the family is very sweet and had no problem with us being pornographers and all."
"But does Jimmy Carter know?"
No comment.
Adam & Eve employees spent 16 weeks on the project in the Fairview section of Hillsborough and, while contract girls Carmen Luvana, Bree Olsen, and Ava Rose did not christen the doorstep like a sextuple-breasted George Bailey, there were several references to caulking.
Previously: Porn for the greatest generation; Carmen Luvana's Jueves Gigante; The Whipping Hour; Bree Olsen to Hustler: Please, not on my face
See also: Adam & EveLabels: "adam and eve", Ava Rose, bree olson, carmen luvana, philanthropy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Tuesday, September 11, 2007--
Hookers have no sense of humor
 It is one of life's great ironies that something that should be so much fun - sex for money - is taken so goddamn seriously.
Recently I interviewed the organizer of San Francisco's Back Alley Cat Bike Ride, an event scheduled for next Saturday that in her words will "build connections between communities."
In this case, the communities being linked are Erotic Services Providers and San Francisco's Bike Messengers Union.
You all know me; you know how I earn a living. So you can imagine my excitement to talk further with this person.
Read about the disappointing outcome after the gap.
The Back Alley Cat Bike Ride is a short fundraising cycle that will begin at noon on September 22. Interested parties should meet at the feet of Gandhi's statue at the San Francisco Ferry Terminal. The ride will be followed by a barbecue and entertainment at The Eagle on 12th Street.
"Gandhi symbolizes community building and spirituality," said Maxine Doogan, aka Mistress Max, organizer of the ride and founder of The Erotic Services Providers Union (ESPU). "Like Cesar Chavez, Gandhi embodies community building."
The ESPU was established to address the safety issues, legal hurdles, and double standards sex workers face. To that end Doogan has created an organization that has raised not only awareness but also the funds to send "two prostitutes, a webcam girl, and a dominatrix" to labor organizing school, which is no mean feat.
Unionization has long been a pipe dream among Porn Valley's performers, but it never catches hold because people stay too short a time in the business to make the idea feasible. The money is too good to offset the occasional (but inevitable) pitfalls, such as non-payment, undesirable conditions, and broken contracts. It seems to me that by the time performers have achieved a certain longevity enough to care about the so-called performer community, it is already too late for them to make the living that characterized their early careers.
But prostitutes have a longer life span, and San Francisco (and Las Vegas) are hotbeds of sex worker union activity. {Many people point out that porn performers, because they trade sex for money, are prostitutes. One key element differentiating the two professions is the presence of a recording device. So next time you're with a hooker, make it legal by bringing a stenographer.)
Anyway, Ms. Doogan devised the Back Alley Cat Bike Ride because, she said, "bike messengers and sex workers are always using the back alleys" for their work.
This sounds like a fabulous idea, so naturally I wanted to know if, based on the success of next weekend's ride, bike messengers would turn tricks or provide erotic massage for future fundraising events.
"I don't know what you mean," Doogan said.
"Well, if you've got prostitutes riding bikes this year," I said, "maybe next year bike messengers could, you know, give handjobs."
"We're not having prostitutes become bike messengers, if that's what you mean," she said.
"No, that's not what I mean," I said. "I mean, you've got the prostitutes - sex workers - employing the trappings of the bike messengers for the purpose of this fundraiser. Maybe next time the bike messengers can take on the tools of the sex workers, a quid pro quo role reversal."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean."
"Forget it."
Don't get me wrong; I love hookers. But even though an actual streetwalker will be obtained for the occasional Ghetto Booty, and even though porn performers will often escort, their attitudes on the (w)hole are very different. When one is forced to dodge bike messengers all day in a back alley, whimsy is the first casualty.
Previously: Sex workers gather in Poland; It's not sex work when you're just lying there
See also: Erotic Service Providers Union
Labels: events, philanthropy, prosties, san francisco
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, August 29, 2007--
Meet your bowlers, read the rules
 Porn Star Bowling, like Porn Star anything, is worth the price of admission. Kickass Pictures has fielded a team of bowlers, taking advantage of the summer filming slump to "practice".
Meet your bowlers, and read the code of ethics they'll be bowling for, after the gap.
"Bare Bowling" will take place at some yet to be disclosed alley in Porn Valley on September 2. The event will putatively benefit an organization called Protecting Adult Welfare (PAW), the website of which is adorned with teddy bears.
While porn personalities are often sweet and kind, they are never, ever children. Addressing them with the type of imagery commonly used to attract children is wrongheaded, even if PAW is trying to make the point that porners are "just adult juvenile delinquents", which may have been true in a different generation, but is not now.
 Miss Kitty has been in porn about a month, having moved from Texas. I met her on the set of a Pussy Party recently. Kick Ass prides itself on its "No Implants" (or French tips) rule, but I see it has not gone so far as to ban tattoos.
The bowlers will be playing for a rigid belief system.
The "Ten Commandments of XXX", published on PAW's webpage, are in equal parts logical, random, and self-serving. Number Ten, "Be Loyal to Your Original Agent", clearly reflects the worldview of (former?) PAW trustee Jim South, founder of the late World Modeling, for years the first place hopeful porn talent would go upon disembarking from the Greyhound. What this rule really means is "Don't ever leave World Modeling".
Despite Misti Love's being less bare than her teammates, the coaching staff is confident she'll remove her warmup suit for the competition.
Rule Nine is "Don't Sign a Model Release until You've Been Paid". This is great advice in that no producer can make a sale unless a performer has signed off on his or her appearance in a film. I have never been to a set in which performers have been paid before signing a model release, however. Even in the days of under the table cash transactions the paperwork got signed and the sex got had long before money got paid.
Number Six is my favorite, and I quote it verbatim:
You Are Being Paid To Be Cooperative
Remember that the screenwriter, producer and director have hired you to do a project that they envision. Most of them have spent hours developing a project that you could ruin in minutes by being uncooperative. Although most film-makers will listen to constructive criticism, or ask for some creative input, be very tactful and never forget that they are paying you to be in their project, not the opposite. Also be courteous, friendly and respectful of your co-workers. Prima donna attitudes are not tolerated easily. It can lead to less work simply because nobody wants to be "stuck on a set with a bitch ... Or an asshole". Despite the fact that most porn screenwriters have never done the hiring, I like that this rule mentions that the producers have spent "hours" getting things together, and that the talent should be quiet, respectful, and meek. Extra points for "envision". "Prima donna attitudes are not tolerated easily" has been true on every set I've visited but one.
I don't know anything about Isabella de la Cruz other than she doesn't look like Earl Anthony.
PAW's rules were mostly written by a person who had a big problem with my mentioning to the police that I was assaulted on a porn set. You can read his defense of the fictitious "Family of X" here.
As with all charities, it is important to make sure the money raised by Bare Bowling actually goes to adult performers in distress. Amicably request an accounting from PAW organizers of how your money will be spent while you pray for splits.
Previously: (Pop) Shot in the foot
See also: The Ten Commandments of XXX, Kick Ass PicturesLabels: events, philanthropy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Tuesday, May 08, 2007--
Girls, Girls, Golf
 The Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament raised more than $75,000 this year for cancer-related research with a silent auction following a windy golf tourney over 36 holes.
Any event that auctions a Jagermeister tap machine as well as Iron Maiden's RIAA platinum award for "The Number of the Beast" is all right by me.
Vince Neil, frontman of Motley Crue and father to the event's late namesake, has presided over this tournament for over a decade, raising more than $1 million with this event as well as poker tournaments and cruises.
Charity is made easier by the recognized drawing power of women who become naked in various media.
 As an avid duffer with a handicap of (I can't even finish this sentence because I know so little about golf), I know well the soothing effect porn stars staffing the, er, holes have on weary golfers exhausted by hitting balls across the grass while drunk.
 I have previously only seen golf cart crashes on Jackass. I saw three of them here. No one was hurt. It became clear to me how important golf courses are for the maintenance of our nation's drunk drivers; if they can be kept off the roads and allowed to run free on our golf courses in harmless electric carts, I say tear down affordable housing and build more PGA-rated courses.
The reaction of various golfers to people like the awesome Marie Luv was priceless. At the Red Light District table, attended by Tricia Devereaux, Sasha Grey, and Luv, foursomes approached gingerly, laughing loudly at titles like Gang Bang My Face and trying to take more than one copy.
One guy made the following joke nine times (we counted):
"Hey, this is perfect for my wife for Mother's Day."
Get it? If so, think how funny it must have been the other eight times!
 I was very impressed with the Jagermeister booth. Very impressed. I stayed there for, I think, eleven hours. Cultural difference? What I call a Deer Hunter they call a Jager Bomb. But we learned to live together.
As you can see, where Budweiser employs Clydesdales, Jagermeister uses women with furry shoes. I have nothing against horses, but ...
I was not able to visit all of the tees because the tournament was spread over two massive courses at the Lost Hills Golf Club in Simi Valley but, just like in pioneer times, little pockets of porn talent nestled here and there, keeping each other warm the only way they knew how, and protecting themselves from interlopers and, I guess, French trappers.
 It was a good time for a good cause; all the porn talent donated their time and promoted their companies on an often-blustery day in the windswept desert hills. The loss of Skylar Neil, recounted here, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars of donations to cancer research.
See a gallery here.
Previously: Tees and T&A for Skylar Neil; Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament (2006)
See also: Skylar Neil Memorial Fund, Motley CrueLabels: events, philanthropy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Tuesday, April 24, 2007--
Hunters gather funds, but don't hit lotto at grotto
 "I guess I knew it before," Nicki Hunter said, "but it took cancer for me to realize how many friends I have."
Hunter might unwittingly become a poster girl for lymphoblastic lymphoma, because despite several rounds of chemotherapy, she looks good. How she feels is a different matter. After two benefits held in her honor last week, by Saturday's culminating event at the Playboy Mansion she was looking a little tired.
Money has been pouring in for Hunter from friends in and out of the porn industry. This week Kylie Ireland and Ginger Lynn (I keep saying "Gina Lynn", and I apologize) cash in on a $3,000 double date they auctioned on eBay, there are currently two benefit all-sex DVDs in production or in the works, one of which is a Cousin Stevie's Pussy Party, and random cash comes in via everything from lap dances to autographed DVDs donated by various hot friends.
All of this to combat medical fees deep in the six figures.
The business of charity in the entertainment industry is often ambiguous and confusing. How much money raised goes to the intended recipient? Organizations like PAW (Protecting Adult Welfare) have been criticized for their overhead. People like Asia Carrera, who was widowed last year, was in the days immediately after her husband's death chided for letting her fans know she was broke.
People get sensitive about being asked for money; they forget that famous doesn't always equal rich. Amber Peach received death threats from a spelling-challenged MySpace reader when she encouraged donations to Hunter's charity, HunterCARE.
And sometimes philanthropic efforts break down. Last Saturday HunterCARE was to have been the beneficiary of a party at the Playboy Mansion. The ACE Entertainment Group, which throws upwards of ten events at the Playboy Mansion during its 70-event yearly party season, was contracted by Sacramento's Maddbacker Foundation, a group founded by former Cincinnati Bengal Adrian Ross, to coordinate an event there that would feature a silent auction and other fundraising efforts for everything from HunterCARE to the Make A Wish Foundation.
More than 30 female adult performers, mostly coordinated through Lighthouse Talent, were to roam the Playboy grounds in Holmby Hills selling autograohed DVDs and lap dances to the mostly-football fan crowd, who would also be entertained by Snoop Dogg and VH-1 personality Hal Sparks.
According to people connected with ACE, reps of the Maddbacker Foundation gave away more tickets than they were allotted, and further told celebrity guests to just show up at the Playboy Mansion, whereas other ticket holders, the press, and adult performers waited for shuttles at a UCLA parking structure a mile away.
I was told to arrive at UCLA by 6:45. I did, and was later joined by AVN's Peter Warren, Brian Uptgraft from the Hardcore Source, Tony Batman, and four representatives of XBiz (two of whom were from XFanz; I later found that organizers weren't aware they were all from the same organization). Immediately we found that none of us was on any list kept by StubHub, the ticket seller, or Maddbacker. As we were a collegial group, we waited in the warm parking structure.
Some of us waited over four hours, while others stayed just one or two and wisely went home.
 By 10 p.m. only a few press were left in the parking structure. Cousin Stevie, who negotiated Nicki Hunter's part in the event with ACE, was joined by a limo full of girls, including Jada Fire, Amber Peach, Bettie Rage, Cossette Angel, Shannon Kelly, and Veronica Rayne. Nicki Hunter and her entourage had driven directly to the Mansion around 9 p.m., and by virtue of the grounds not yet being at capacity (that night's capacity was 500 guests) and the fact that the entourage consisted mostly of hot girls like herself and Tory Lane, were let in.
We at UCLA had by this time been informed that we were not on any list and that tickets were not available for us. Some of the girls had been given tickets but were told they could only get to the Mansion via shuttle buses, so the limo they arrived in was useless. At 10:30 ten of us got in the limo and decided to drive to the Mansion.
We were stopped by a Mansion guard who didn't know who we were (I wisely did not show myself because I have hairy legs and no breasts). Cousin Stevie explained that he was a co-producer of the Nicki Hunter benefit. He was not let in. Veronica Rayne explained that the girls were there volunteering for the benefit, you know, to give lap dances.
The guard did not acknowledge Rayne, but instead said to the limo driver, "Take them back where you found them."
This was unforgivable and rude, no matter how much Playboy tries to convince itself it is not an organization that sells sex. Still, when Rayne shouted that "this is why I work for Hustler" I doubt the guard went back to tell Hef.
"It was the largest traffic jam in Holmby Hills history," said Cousin Stevie, on whom security was called and who snuck around to the back gate, where he was finally let in after ACE owner Max Soto paid an additional thousand bucks. There Stevie joined his wife and Nicki Hunter. By this time it was 11:30 and the in-house caterers were dismantling the party.
Nicki Hunter had dragged a table into a corner and decided to enjoy herself.
"It is what it is," she said.
At UCLA, over a hundred StubHub ticketholders, who had each paid over $1000 for tickets, were still waiting for shuttles. They never got in. Celebrities personally invited by Maddbacker publicist Jameela Jackson and told to just show up at the Mansion, met with mixed results. Miami Dolphin and Maddbacker partner Joey Porter chartered a bus for friends. A StubHub rep told me that StubHub had oversold the event. At the check-in area in the parking structure, I was told, a fight broke out and tickets were stolen from ACE representatives. I didn't see this.
What I do know is that by the time I got to the Mansion, no one was being let in, and that any communication between the Maddbacker reps and the ACE people had broken down. No one knew who was on the correct list, and by a certain point it didn't matter. Playboy, meanwhile, had planned for 500 people and was letting no one else in.
When the limo dropped me off at my car at 11:15, there were still people at UCLA waiting for shuttles. "It's not happening," I told one guy from San Diego. "Who's going to refund my ticket?" he asked angrily, getting in my face (he had seen me step out of a limo).
I told him I wasn't sure; I don't think anyone broke even other than Playboy.
ACE owner Soto said that the Maddbacker partnership was a one-time event. "Our other events we handle on our own," he said.
So charity doesn't necessarily begin at Holmby Hills.
 "One important thing is that Nicki got into the Mansion," Cousin Stevie said, "and she knows people care about her. There were a lot of people out in force to support her ... even if none of them got in."
This is, in its way, encouraging. Perhaps the individual, thoughtful donation route is the way to go. Hunter is upbeat and is a tough chick. She is currently the adult world's object of philanthropy, and there is no one better.
Donations can be sent via HunterCARE, where there will be a PayPal link available soon.
Previously: Wig flipping with Nicki Hunter; Double the Nicki Hunter benefits; The Playboy Mansion in a nutshell
See also: HunterCARELabels: "nicki hunter" "cousin stevie", business, philanthropy, playboy, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, April 02, 2007--
Tees & A for Skylar Neil
 The Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament, a charity event for Cancer, Leukemia and AIDS research founded by Motley Crue frontman Vince Neil in memory of his late daughter, returns to the Lost Canyons Golf Course in Simi Valley on May 4.
Lost Canyons has two courses, both of which will be employed for this year's event, as the charity has expanded. In the past, adult companies have sponsored specific tees, so weary duffers crossing the lunar landscape below the Ronald Reagan library could at least hope to see jessica drake hanging out amongst the divots.
Previously: Skylar Neil Memorial Golf Tournament 2006; Wicked good hors d'ouevres
See also: Skylar Neil Memorial FundLabels: events, philanthropy, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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--Friday, March 23, 2007--
Nicki Hunter benefit at PSK Tuesday
Nicki Hunter, one cool chick (or two if you count the other spellings of her name) will be the star of a benefit in her honor this Tuesday, March 27, at Porn Star Karaoke.
Hunter has been undergoing chemotherapy for the past few months. Not because she is a thrill-seeker, but because she has cancer. If you have ever seen Hunter perform, you'd assume that the cancer might be intimidated by her ferocity alone, but the benefit will ease the financial burdens of taking on a big-ticket disease.
The benefit will feature an auction of the following items and services:
Ginger Lynn dinner date – dinner held at Sardo's
Amber Peach & Cleopatra of the Nile dinner date – dinner held at
Sardo's
Electric Guitar signed by the cast & crew of the hit show Cold Case
Scrubs signed by the entire cast of ER
Brandy decanter – Specialty item – blown Deer glass decanter filled
with delicious brandy signed by Nicki Hunter
Raffle Items:
"Family Guy" gift basket filed with signed scripts, video game, "Family
Guy" DVD collection and more, all in a very special "Family Guy" case
(not available in stores) – donated by Seth McFarlane creator of the
"Family Guy"
Disney gift basket filled with shirts, DVDs and other great Disney
items – donated by Disney Studios
Ginger Lynn gift basket – donated by Ginger Lynn
Private in-home Yoga session donated by BMY Studios
(bmystudios@yahoo. com ) - Donated by Becca – Yoga instructor to
Sardo's
$1000.00 Gift Certificate for Cosmetic Surgery good towards any
medical procedure – donated by New Me Surgical Institute
(www.lovenewme. com)
Brandy decanter – specialty blown glass pig filled with delicious
brandy – donated by Sardo's
2 tickets to Sea World
Liquor gift basket – donated by Sardo's
And MORE!!!!!
DRINK SPECIALS
The drink specials Sardo's offers this night, 85% of the proceeds to
directly to Nicki Hunter. So for every 2 for 1 drink special that you
spend $6.00 on, $5.00 is donated to the charity event. I suggest, further, that everyone in the adult industry who comes by should also bring something special to bid on; each of us has at least one or two very hard to find DVDs (or maybe boxes of them), special autographed items, and/or a signature service only we can provide, like photography, advertising, or maybe even a cool and detached explanation of why it was probably a mistake to accept a blowjob from that Best New Starlet nominee in 2003.
Previously: Wig-flipping with Nicki Hunter; Plight of the Hunters
See also: Sardo's Bar, Info on Lymphoblastic LeukemiaLabels: events, philanthropy, PSK, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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--Friday, February 09, 2007--
Plight of the Hunters
 Imagine if Nikki Hunter (pictured here with her husband, Josh) had become the porn star she is during the videotape era; you would have gladly shelled out a hundred bucks to wear your playheads down on her quintessential porniness.
With DVD prices falling to historic lows, what are you to do with that extra cash?
Hunter has cancer, and fighting it is expensive. What about texting some of it to Darling Nikki?
I have noticed mean-spirited backlashes recently with regard to porn stars like Asia Carrera and Dana DeArmond asking for money in the wake of personal tragedy. People who know Hunter personally really love her; no one should be penalized for asking.
An innovative way to help out a friend in need using resources most of us employ every day is charitable texting. Last week the news broke that Hunter was ailing and, in addition to a charity movie in the works as well as a benefit party in March, there is a more immediate way to help a'throbbin' in your pocket.
Fans searching for an easy way to help the uninsured mom of two now can text their get well wishes for 99 cents. Proceeds from the transaction will be donated to Hunter's recovery effort.
From Wankus at KSEXRadio:
• Simply open a blank text message doc on your cell phone or SMS service on your computer
• For the send address type in the numbers 54015
• In the body of the page simply type KSEX (Hunter is a former KSEX "porn jockey" and the station's SMS contest service is being commandeered for the next month to raise funds for Hunter and her family)
• Shortly after the message has been sent, you will receive a notification thanking you for your participation and reminding you that there is $.99 charge to send your love to Nicki. It will give you another short code to enter as a reply. Type that code in, hit send and you are finished.
Hunter is currently undergoing chemotherapy and close friends say her spirits are high.
Previously: Scenes from a Pussy Party; Ravenous
See also: KSEXRadioLabels: philanthropy, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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While GramPonante.com is written for a tenth-grade reading level (in some countries), you must be 18 years or older to visit this site. Sorry.
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Erotic Scandinavian among erotic Scandinavians Vicky Vette, whose wholesome sauciness evokes the pornstars of the 90's, is in a near dead heat with someone named Tera Patrick over a Best Boobs contest on a site called Booble. At this writing, Vette is ahead.
