| --Thursday, July 03, 2008--
What is reality, really? Jandi Lin talks about Foursome
 Yesterday I wrote about Jandi Lin's appearance on Playboy's faux-reality show Foursome, and today Lin talks about the casting process, which underlines the fact that reality TV isn't real.
"That was just about the lamest thing I've ever done," she said. "Fuck reality TV."
"It was a very extensive casting process and not the best-organized. I felt like they wanted extreme sexuality and drama. They had me come in and do interviews on-camera, telling stories of my 'wildest sexual experience.' I told them about my needle-play experience in Berlin and how porn has broadened my sexual horizons. I tried to present a down-to-earth, well-rounded person... I should have realized that I was being interviewed for reality TV and that down-to-earth is probably the last thing they wanted.
"It wasn't until the final interviews that I really understood how reality TV works. They would ask me questions and I would give these long, articulate answers. Then they would pick what they wanted out of my sentence and have me repeat it in a condensed sound-byte. At first, I thought they were just having me reiterate things for clarification purposes. I soon realized that they were feeding me lines and sculpting my experience into something misleading and overly-dramatic that they could cut up into previews and 30-second commercials.
But I'm sure I'm not alone in this experience... Which is why I´ve decided to never do reality TV again." In another life I worked at a company that produced reality television. One of the company's shows was the original "Making the Band," about a fabricated group of musicians, a la the Monkees with less charm and no interest in women. A receptionist in the office was cast as one of the band members' (each of whom was gay) "long-lost girlfriend". She thought it was her big acting break.
Previously: Jandi Lin is not a good Catholic
See also: Jandi Lin on MySpaceLabels: jandi lin, playboy, pornic voices, reality
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, July 02, 2008--
Jandi Lin is not a good Catholic
 Jandi Lin showed up on a recent episode of Playboy TV's faux dating reality show "Foursome," (airing Fridays) in which two men and two women share a Malibu house for the weekend and are mercilessly goaded via product placement into having sex.
 Each of the foursome has a backstory, and Jandi is introduced as a model.
 While porn perfomers are, strictly speaking, models, Playboy committed what we Catholics call a Sin of Omission, like when I introduced Belladonna to my parents as a parapsychologist rather than the star of My Ass Is Haunted.
I usually hate reality shows for a couple of reasons. One is because I know I'm watching something that has been teased into shape, no matter how raw it appears. Another is my abiding misanthropy.
 So not only do I chafe with people acting like they're cool and "real," but also I hate who they're trying to be. At least that's how I feel when I watch C-Span.
 Here's an exchange between demure Alaina and brain-dead personal trainer Peter:
Alaina: So who are you?
Peter: Who am I? A guy. Just chilling. That's right: Peter is the type of guy who repeats your question back to you. Then he uses the word "chilling" in a context other than the appropriate one, which would be to describe the thought of giving him a mortgage or the keys to your car.
 The foursome is tempted with erotic snacks, a visit to a sex store, and maid service. Before my screener DVD crashed, Jandi had still not told her love interest, the affable Australian Kerry, that she likes Star Trek, diddles Ange Venus and, last I heard, was dating Matt Zane.
 As you know, I strive for transparency in all things, which is why I have no trouble telling you that I am the Vice President of the United States. That Playboy did not have the decency to reveal Jandi Lin's superpower is shameful.
Previously: "We can be nerds together"; Pool party auteur; Matt Zane's irons, immortal soul in the fire
See also: Playboy TV's "Foursome"Labels: ange venus, jandi lin, playboy, reality, tv
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, April 09, 2008--
Playboy's mounting Canadians
 I talked with Danny Vegas (formerly Daniel Lenko), title character of Playboy's The Boy Nexxt Door (the lack of three Xs should tip you off that its Playboy and he's Canadian), who told me about delivering pizza and making porn in his parents' basement in his native Edmonton, Alberta.
"I had no girls and no guys," he said. "I'd go to bars to recruit and the guys would be all for it until they heard they'd be seen by other people."
Vegas trudges through the snow to deliver pizza in his Flock of Seagulls haircut, then returns home to discover his mother has moved his Lord of Asses DVD while tidying up.
Vegas was 20 when Playboy began filming him two years ago. The Boy Nexxt Door looks staged even by reality show standards, but it still has elements you wouldn't find elsewhere, like unabashed Canadian accents, real snow, and Vegas himself, whose wholesome Tim Burton look identifies him as the rebel in his neighborhood.
We also meet his school film teacher, who encourages Vegas' nascent porn career. His teacher would probably be out of a job south of the border, but no one seems to blink when he talks about his use of porn to "short-stroke myself to ecstasy" or, after declining Vegas' offer to stunt-cock in one of his movies, says "the old grey mare ain't what he used to be." Silly Canadians have different genders for horses.
 "I started watching porn when I was 12," Vegas said. "The way my family is, there was no taboo, though now they draw a distinction between directing and performing."
Vegas' parents seem less long-suffering and more bemused than the parents of Jackass' Bam Margera, but the show still plays up their confusion and, according to Vegas, "the neighbors still don't know." (Vegas and I talked on the phone, so he probably said "neighbours.")
The series plays on Friday nights on Playboy TV, and culminates with Vegas' trip to last year's AVN show. He says that he will soon get word if there is to be a season 2.
Vegas finally did get local performer Zaira to film a scene after several failed attempts to get local bar girls to perform.
"Maybe I went about it the wrong way," he said. "I'd say to girls, 'Well, you're going to go home and fuck somebody at the end of the night anyway; you might as well get paid for it.'"
Previously: Scenes from the class struggle in Playboy's Penthouse
See also: PlayboyLabels: amateur, canada, danny vegas, interviews, playboy, reality, zaira
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, November 28, 2007--
Eva Angelina - for no reason at all
 Eva Angelina is a guest on Playboy Radio (until 7 PST), but I thought I would show you the one picture in existence of a porn star holding up her breasts.
Nominated for AVN's Best Actress - Video award for her work in Upload, Angelina was quick to not point out that the self-held breasts shot might be too radical for American audiences.
"In Europe we can hold our own breasts all day long for pictures," the Orange County native did not say. "But now it is time for stateside audiences to witness the phenomenon without shame."
Next time: someone with her finger in her mouth.
Previously: Eva Angelina and Marco Banderas take a bite outta porn; Eva Angelina and Boston
See also: Playboy Radio, Eva AngelinaLabels: because, breasts, eva angelina, playboy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Friday, October 26, 2007--
See The Taunting, then you drink
 In the center of Boardner's courtyard was a fountain filled with dry ice and a huge candelabra dripping wax. I felt like I was at the freshman dorm for mopey girls, and I wasn't complaining.
Director Zenova Braeden and the Spice Network were celebrating (with dry ice and candles) the release of The Taunting, a movie Braeden describes as "creepy but not gory", which is a remark I resemble. The boxcover features Lystra, looking uncannily like Sadako from Ringu and any of the vengeful Asian ghosts that have threatened the popularity of Asian schoolgirls in Western culture.
Lystra's makeup job scared even her. Roommates Zak Sabbath and Mandy Morbid said that Lystra now places her television on a shelf facing the wall so ghosts won't get out or, if they do, will fall. I don't believe it but it's a nice story, like "alcohol isn't good for you". Still, you can buy the movie that scared young Lystra.
Read more after the gap.
 I arrived with Holly Randall, who is working with me on my epic Photograhing the Photographers series. "I go to the same gym as Seal," she explained. That guy uses more fans in his videos than Stevie Nicks.
I sat on the edge of the fountain for a few hours and accumulated a healthy waxy buildup on my jacket. It's important at such parties to remain stationary so that people come to me and so that I am not forced to look down people's dresses but instead deep in their eyes as I ask the probing questions that are my hallmark.
 For example, "What's new?" I asked Ryder Skye, staring deep in her eyes and not realizing until I downloaded this picture that she was nearly naked. Skye, in the business since Easter (prior to this she was a dancer and receptionist) has been working in several Wicked movies.
"But a lot of people don't like tattoos for contract stars," she said when I asked if a contract was what she wanted. Then she said that she knew a place that would temporarily airbrush over tattoos for photo sessions.
"Does that hurt?" I asked, thinking only of airbrushing t-shirts, which are dead.
"No," she said. "They use air."
 Kimberly Kane and I talked about sadness and woe, and Haley Paige and Chico Wang. I informed her the latter was dead. I asked if she'd heard anything about heer costar from Avenue X, Brian Surewood.
"Still in the clinker," she said. Things are grim lately.
"Haley was the most innocent girl," Kane said.
"Why do the nice girls date assholes?" I asked, the first time such a question occurred to me.
"I don't know," she said, "but we all do."
 Zak Sabbath doesn't seem like an asshole, but I asked him why he looks angry in his photos.
"Well, it's either the Gay Prostitute or I Fucked Your Mother look that I cultivate," he said, "so this one is I Fucked Your Mother."
I tried to imagine life with Zak Sabbath as my dad. He'd have more hair products than my mom. It's tough that he feels there are only two looks for male talent to use, but perhaps My Mother Fucked a Gay Prostitute might be a good subtext. I'm going to suggest that the next time I am asked for motivation for the photographic tableaux I create.
 I hesitated about showing this photo of Casey Parker. It does not convey how nice it is to see her. Instead it suggests a camera phone photo in which everyone nearby is really drunk. I'm only printing this because Casey is much, much prettier in person. This photo is my fault, and not hers.
There were a lot of people at the party. There was another room and an upstairs, but I didn't go there. I stayed where I was and drank designer water from the open bar. I don't know why I wasn't drinking; I certainly enjoy it. Maybe I was lazy. DVDs of the movie were available at the beginning of the night but they all got taken.
 But then I used my mind to manifest Page Morgan. About a minute before she showed up I thought, "I wonder what that Page Morgan is up to?" and there she was. I like Page Morgan because she accepts me for all my complexity, and doesn't shun me for my petty porn feuds. I asked her where she'd been.
"I've been dancing at the Spearmint Rhino three days a week in the afternoon," she said.
I have never met an afternoon stripper before.
"Businessmen come and they hang out," she said. "It's the best job I've ever had."
I like hearing good news from Page Morgan. If she'd told me, "I'm really getting into arson," I would probably feel happy for her.
 Other things happened, but I was too jacked up on water to manipulate my camera.
 Outside I saw Zenova Braeden herself, and was glad. She was drunk but I was not, so at first I feared we'd be unable to communicate.
"I drink a lot during large adult industry functions," she said. "They're overwhelming."
"I used to drink," I thought, thinking about the previous night. I felt like I wasn't doing my part. Still, I look forward to seeing the movie. I'll watch it with Rodney Moore's Vampires and report back on the turgidifying powers of the supernatural.
Previously: Asian and Hot: Not only but also; Strapped by a Ghost; What, no tentacles?; Porn star or vengeful Japanese ghost? (fleshbot); Julie Simone's method
See also: Spice, Zenova Braeden Labels: "kimberly kane", aiden starr, events, geekery, gia paloma, lystra, mandy morbisd, page morgan, playboy, tommy pistol, WGL, zak sabbath, zenova braeden
posted by Gram the Man
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--Thursday, June 28, 2007--
Gram Ponante launches iLick
 LOS ANGELES -- Hot on the heels of Digital Playground and Playboy announcing that the companies had somehow found a way to transfer pornography to Apple's iPhone (due in stores tomorrow), Gram Ponante said that he will be using the United States Postal Service's self-adhesive stamp technology on his personal and business correspondence.
"Licking stamps is for garlic eaters and reprobates," Ponante scoffed. "I am partnering with the USPS to create a world in which all a user has to do is peel a stamp from some kind of coated backing and then to affix it, saliva-free, on any kind of paper-based enveloping device in order to, like, mail it."
Ponante held Playboy's and Digital Playground's press releases in his hand. "Check these out," he said. "I am mailing these to my Ukrainian mail-order bride because my XBiz mousepad just broke."
Steve Jobs has delivered the hardware and now Hugh Hefner has delivered the software. With the eagerly-anticipated Apple iPhone finally in retail stores, Playboy.com is celebrating the glorious gadget with the launch of “iPlayboy,” a collection of multimedia features guaranteed to turn up the heat on that cool, new phone. "I think it's great that Hef spent all that time programming and delivering software," Ponante, now guzzling limoncello at a Ventura Blvd. restaurant for fat people, said. "And you would be amazed at how far up Cupertino's ass Digital Playground has got."
Digital Playground is pleased to announce an early alliance to Apple's iPhone with 158 full-length trailers available free of charge, for immediate download. "This alliance will be every bit as significant and effective as the Rebel Alliance in Star Wars," Ponante sagely predicted, nibbling Porcini mushrooms off the concave abdomen of a starlet hanging around outside the shuttered offices of World Modeling.
America's Beloved Porn Journalist reflected that announcing one could put porn on an iPhone was like sending out a press release saying that you had moved your air freshener from one car to another.
"A Playboy air freshener," Ponante added, flash-frying a whole turkey at a tony Sylmar Superfund site.
Vivid Entertainment sales manager Howard Levine confirmed today that the long-awaited Blu-ray edition of Paul Thomas' Debbie Does Dallas...Again has arrived in house following a series of delays. The disc ships to stores next week. (AVN)
Ponante has been touting iLick technology since last year, and even mounted huge banners proclaiming it at January's AVN show, but he only recently sent away for the self-adhesive stamps. Since he pays all his bills online and rarely sends letters, he is thinking of using the new stamps next week to send a postcard to his mother, Lita Ford.
Previously: Playboy releases Asians clutching at underwear line; Report: porn industry to utilize Internet; Caprica Six gets a ten; Scenes from the classs struggle in Playboy's Penthouse; Who-ray came first?; Digital Playground's cavalcade of synonyms
See also: Playboy, Digital Playground, Vivid, Apple, United States Postal ServiceLabels: Apple, Digital Playground, hype, playboy, sic, technology, vivid
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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--Thursday, April 12, 2007--
Double the Nicki Hunter benefits next week
 There has been a large outpouring of love for Nicki Hunter in the past few months since the announcement that she is battling cancer. Two large-ticket events next week might be enough to neutralize her lymphoma with enough to spare that we can finally cure rickets.
HunterCARE, the foundation set up to ease Hunter's hospital bills, will benefit from parties at the Playboy Mansion and in Hollywood.
PhilanthroMILF DeBella organized a party on April 19 at Forbidden City, co-sponsored by SexZ Pictures, Red Light District, Hot Movies, Shane’s World, Jules Jordan Video, Wildlife, AEBN, AVN, X-Play, SugarDVD, Elegant Angel, Pure Play Media, Empire DVD-CA, Filmco, Oliver Ashe Hope, Glow Industries, Naughty America, and Northstar Associates.
The event is $20 for everyone and the public is urged to attend.
Two days later at an actual Forbidden City, namely the Playboy Mansion, Friend-of-Porn Hal Sparks (other Friends-of-Porn include Dave Navarro, Richard Dreyfuss, David Spade, and Tom Sizemore) will emcee a slightly more costly benefit for Hunter, the Kiss And Tell Party.
This will be the first time the Mansion and grounds will be open to the general public for an event, though Playmates will be frolicking in and out of the Grotto.
Admission to the Hunter CARE Playboy Mansion event ranges from
$350.00 for a Lady's single admission, $1,000.00 for a Man's single
admission, $2,500.00 for a Male or Female VIP admission, $10,000.00
for an all-inclusive Cabana VIP Party of Five, and $20,000.00 for an
all-inclusive VIP Cabana Party of Ten with either Lil Jon or Vida
Guerra. All tickets include open bar and buffet, ability to roam the
grounds and use of pool, and access to the after party
(transportation provided). VIP and Cabana packages include the
aforementioned benefits, as well as limo service from local hotels,
discount hotel accommodations, unlimited photo-ops with Playmates,
and other titillating perks.
The event is like several parties happening at once.
Also in attendance will be Snoop Dogg and Lil Jon as well as football players Lance Briggs, Franco Harris, Reggie Bush, Takeo Spikes, Correy Dillon, Rudy Johnson, Jeremy Newberry, and Erik Burgess.
The appeal is that porn stars will be able to ogle football players and vice versa. The worlds of professional football and porn do not normally mix. The closest porn has come to bridging that gap is when Tyler Faith dated a Boston Bruin.
Porn stars like Mari Possa, Brooke Hunter, Trina Michaels, Amber Peach, and Veronica Rayne will be pon hand to auction off lap dances and dates. It is assumed that football players have the cash for that sort of thing.
Previously: Wig flippping with Nicki Hunter, Plight of the Hunters
See also: Kiss And Tell Party, HunterC.A.R.E.Labels: "nicki hunter", events, playboy, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, February 19, 2007--
Look at this picture while you listen to Amber Peach
 Amber Peach, with a new set of photos that make her look less like Ellie Mae Clampett and more like someone trying to get into the fetish market (and both are fine; it's just that I'm resistant to change) will be on Playboy Radio next Monday, February 26, from 5 to 6 p.m. PST.
Previously: Peach bites back; Day rate plus anal
See also: Playboy, Amber PeachLabels: playboy, WGL
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, February 12, 2007--
Playboy releases Asians Clutching at Underwear movie
 Director Bud Lee, whose Whoriental Sex Academy 4 was the first porn movie I'd ever seen being filmed, has released the sequel to his naughty stewardesses movie Fly Spice.
Fly Spice: Pacific Rimmed follows the airline to Tokyo, Gateway to the East, where aircraft personnel nervously grab at their own underthings, as depicted in the boxcover photo.
"We wanted to show that if Asian stewardesses couldn't keep their hands off themselves, how could they be expected to keep their hands off of you?" Lee did not say. "It's the same with love, really."
Pacific Rimmed will be in stores on February 22 and stars Michelle Maylene, Cheyne Collins, Kaiya Lynn, Nyomi Marcela, Mikayla, Avy Scott, Syren, Kyle Stone, Nick Manning, Evan Stone, and Nick East.
Previously: 35 years of grass on the field; Spice racks new channels; Gram Ponante sold to Playboy
See also: Spice StudioLabels: dvd, playboy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Monday, January 22, 2007--
Night of the Hunter
 Tod Hunter (seen here with Selena Silver) has been writing about Porn Valley since 1997, and is one of the only writers in the adult business who actually grew up here, giving him an unique perspective.
He will be on Playboy Radio's Adult DVD review tonight between 9 and 11 p.m. PST, beginning the slow trudge to AVN's 2008 awards and doing his part to inspire hope in some starry-eyed fister.
Hunter once told me, "You should eat at the Ellis Island Casino; the food is good and it's cheap."
I ate there at least once a day throughout my trip to the AVN Expo. The food was good and inexpensive. Hunter's views on adult dvds must be similarly spot-on. I listened to Tod - shouldn't you?
Previously: 35 years of grass on the field; Gram Ponante sold to Playboy; Lurk lands lads, lauds longevity, lashes latecomers
See also: Tod Hunter, Plight of the Hunter (fleshbot)Labels: blogs, playboy
posted by Gram the Man
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--Wednesday, November 29, 2006--
Scenes from the class struggle in Playboy's Penthouse
 The letter from Playboy's Home Entertainment Division that accompanied my copy of the three-DVD set Playboy After Dark read:
"Grammy! Here is your sophisticated entertainment. I hope the lack of cumshots isn't disappointing."
Is that what you people think of me?
I dimly remember repeats of Playboy After Dark, Hugh Hefner's "rumpus room party" from the late 60's and early 70's, and I don't remember its predecessor by ten years, Playboy's Penthouse. Both featured a Cy Coleman opening score that sounded, a propos of the period, like a combination of Neil Hefti's "The Odd Couple" theme (only divorced men can appreciate being playboys) and the theme from "Route 66".
Watching both black and white Penthouses on Disc 1, I was amazed at what TV audiences were given credit for in those days, not only in content but in length. An interview with Lenny Bruce, in which the comic compared Beatniks to rabbis, lasted a whopping 15 minutes.
All the while drink is flowing and people are smoking up a storm. Hef hosts the show, and in a 2006 interview he recalls the pipe and the smoking jacket as part of his reinvention of himself. Jazz music also played a large part in this "...for a kid who grew up as I did in which the music represented a kind of a freedom and sophistication which I didn't have."
Hefner called the girls-in-ball-dresses, smart-men-in-suits-and-ties scenario of Playboy's Penthouse "the dream of the 40's and 50's." It really does look like a glimpse into the fantasies of one's bachelor uncles. There is no sex, and hardly any innuendo, but the Playmates are more seen than heard, long-legged ornaments for the space-age bachelor pad, delivering drinks to people like Bruce, Nat King Cole, and Cy Coleman's Trio. The girls gamely follow along as the men talk, listening attentively.
Hefner is a nervous host in the early series. He mentions starting Playboy magazine with no money, and he has a certain new-money awkwardness, and sometimes a trace of condescension, when talking with his guests, as if they shouldn't forget who is paying for the party.
On the other hand, people like Bruce display a fawningness to Hefner that I would not have expected, repeatedly complimenting Hef on the show. I would probably do the same thing. Each guest appears amazed that actual liquor is being served.
Bruce is a little uncomfortable performing in a clean, well-lit room, as if money makes him nervous. Hef has the money, and he struggles to appear urbane. They both act as if they're not quite in the right place, but the show works.
Bruce recounts threatening to walk off a television show because producers had a problem with his material.
"I've got enough bread," he said, "I'm not gonna make this scene." Hef smokes his pipe, thinking, "I've got my own show."
To hear the conversation, to watch that generation's aspirations for itself, as well as to view standout performances by guests Sammy Davis Jr., Coleman, and Ella Fitzgerald is worth more than a History Channel marathon.
The next two discs deal with Playboy After Dark. Filmed in color, Hef is now in his early 40's and has been "Mr. Playboy" for 15 years. It is the end of the 60's and the women are in miniskirts and the men (except for the musicians) are still in suits. As Wooderson said in Dazed And Confused, "I get older, they stay the same age."
The first of the Playboy After Dark discs opens with a game of Simon Says. Part of the Playboy ideal at that point, as manifested by Hef himself, is staying young or, more to the point, recapturing youth. Hef does this when he meets Barbi Benton (then Barbara Klein) on set. At the time she is 24. Throughout the rest of the series, she is on his arm, listening attentively.
 Both series reflected a leftist aesthetic with clear aspirations to establishment legitimacy. This is why guest Mort Sahl could talk about championing "the left" while drinking with Playmates in a multimillion-dollar penthouse set.
"1969 was a year in which if a man tried to collect his thoughts he'd be arrested for unlawful assembly," Sahl said to the collected Republicans, who laughed like Sahl was a delightful pet.
 Excellent performances by Linda Ronstadt, Sonny And Cher, Canned Heat, and Joe Cocker are featured in the Playboy After Dark discs, and Sonny and Cher are particularly envious of Hef's jet, which they'd only heard about.
"Does it really have smoked glass in the back?" they ask.
"We worry about peeping toms up there," Hef replies.
People say that science fiction says more about the time it was made than the time it seeks to depict. Playboy's world of the 60's, coinciding with the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Society, and the Sexual Revolution, reflects Hef's reinvention of himself in a world that's all about class.
Buy the DVD set here.
Previously: 35 years of grass on the field; Gram Ponante sold to PlayboyLabels: dvds, playboy
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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Yesterday I wrote about Jandi Lin's appearance on Playboy's faux-reality show Foursome, and today Lin talks about the casting process, which underlines the fact that reality TV isn't real.
