Follow Gene Ross at twitter@GeneRoss3; Follow AdultFYI at twitter@Adultfyi1
from www.forbes.com – If there was ever a political scandal made for porn, it’s the Anthony Weiner debacle. In fact, one could argue the sexcapades of Eliot Spitzer and Weiner have closed the gap between porn and politics. The details and leaked images from their sexual travails are as X-rated as any movie release to make its way out of Porn Valley.
With Spitzer struggling to put his call girl-loving past behind him in a bid to become New York City’s next comptroller and Weiner staggering through an increasingly messy campaign in hopes of becoming the next mayor of New York City, pornographers at the other side of the country are rubbing their palms together and trying to figure out how they can make money off the steamy headlines.
One such guy is Michael Kulich. A 26-year-old from Westport, Conn., he was suspended from high school for selling Playboy magazines out of the trunk of his car. Nowadays, he works out of North Hollywood, Calif., and runs a constellation of adult companies.
“[Weiner]‘s like the politician that’ll admit that he does wrong [stuff],” Kulich told me. Last week, as reports broke that Weiner was sexting under the moniker “Carlos Danger” with one Sydney Leathers after his resignation from Congress, Kulich had a revelation. “Most guys would just deny, deny, deny,” he says. That Weiner exposed himself — admitted what he had done, well, sort of, at least — “it kind of gave me some respect for him.”
Therefore, Kulich is making a porn movie in Weiner’s honor, “Don’t Pull Out,” and he says he’ll be donating 15% of the profits to Weiner’s campaign.
According to a story in the Huffington Post, the movie will feature Ginger Lee, a stripper and former porn star who communicated with Weiner online before his fall from grace.
(In emails to Lee, Weiner referred repeatedly to his “package.”)
The Huffington Post got the story half-right. Lee, Kulich says, will appear in the movie, but, he told me, the scenes in which she appears are old ones, made before she retired from the adult movie industry several years ago.
“That they are not new scenes would appear to be confirmed by a tweet Lee sent out on July 26 in which she states, “I have not filmed a scene in almost 5 years, & will not be doing so for whatever film you are ‘reporting’ on.”
The tweet is directed at a conservative blogger who picked up the Huffington Post story. (I’ve reached out to Lee’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, for comment and haven’t heard back yet.) [Update: I’ve received an exclusive statement from Lee through Allred.
Kulich’s businesses include Monarchy Distribution, which produces original adult content and works with adult internet companies to assist them in distributing their online-only content in DVD format.
“We did some buyouts on content from companies that had gone under or gone belly-up,” Kulich told me. “When [the Weiner story] broke, I saw it was Ginger Lee.” More recently, Kulich plugged Lee’s name into a database of content he owns and discovered, he says, he holds the rights to two previously-shot scenes featuring Lee. Those older scenes, he says, will be on the DVD, as well as five new scenes.
In a follow up email, Kulich described a Weiner-themed newer scene to me thusly:
It starts off with her sexting her teacher Professor Wiener. He leaves his phone in the teachers lounge and another teacher finds it. She confronts him about the text. The next day [porn star] Haley [Sweet] comes in and he asks her to come in his office. he tries to cut off ties but she seduces him into one more time on his desk.
The DVD will retail in brick-and-mortar adult stores on Sept. 7 for $29.99. The video-on-demand version will debut the same day and cost consumers around eight cents a minute, depending on the site. As for the movie’s budget, Kulich says it’s “standard.”
Of course, porn spoofs inspired by politicians’ hijinks are nothing new. Porn star Lisa Ann has made a name for herself playing Sarah Palin‘s porno doppelganger, “Serra Paylin,” in a series of adult movies, among them “Who’s Nailin’ Paylin?”, “Obama Is Nailin’ Paylin,” and “You’re Nailin’ Paylin.” And 2008 saw the release of “Gov Love,” a graphic retelling of the Spitzer drama. Those titles are from Hustler Video. In other words, we’ve got Larry Flynt to thank for the genre.
I reached out to Flynt, curious to know whether or not the man who’s made a side-career out of targeting politicians has plans to turn The Anthony Weiner Story into a porn movie.
“Mr. Flynt says that Anthony Weiner has become a parody of himself, and that we have no plans to parody the parody,” his publicist related to me in an email.
To date, the gay porn industry alone has taken up the call to turn Weiner’s saga into an adult movie. In “Anthony’s Weener,” Lucky Daniels plays “Congressman Wheiner,” and, suffice to say, the storyline takes liberties with the truth.
I spoke with Joey Vierra, director of marketing, casting, and social media for Jet Set Men, the San Fernando Valley-based company behind the 2011 video. The idea for the spoof came from Chris Steele, a gay porn star-turned-Jet Set director and executive producer described by Vierra as “the most creative mind in the gay porn industry.”
Why Weiner? I asked.
“If you have a storyline that goes in between” the sex scenes, Vierra explained, “it might cause some people to pick ‘Anthony’s Weener’ over some other title from some other company, the same thing they’ve been peddling for the last twenty years.”
The DVD retails online at a popular site for $49.99, and it’s proven to be a top seller.
Update: I’ve received an exclusive statement from Ginger Lee through her attorney Gloria Allred. In it, Lee reiterates that she received “sexts” from Weiner, states that she has not appeared in adult movies in five years, and calls again for Weiner to withdraw from the race.
Statement of Ginger Lee Regarding Anthony Weiner
When Anthony Weiner was a congressman, I was interested in politics. Like many people, I agreed with his position on many issues and indicated my support to him.
I was surprised when he responded and began to sext me. I had never sent him any sexts or photos of myself and never would.
Even more shocking to me, however, was that when the first sexting scandal involving him broke, he indicated to me that he wanted me to lie for him. I refused to do it.
Although I did not want to make my identity public at that time, somehow the press found out about me. I was hunted by them and my identity was revealed through no fault of my own.
False statements were made about me and I felt that it was then necessary to set the record straight. For that reason, I went public, shared the truth about what he had done and called on him to resign, which he did the day after I called on him to do it.
I hoped that it would end there but unfortunately he decided to come back and run for Mayor. Now I find myself dragged back into this scandal all over again with more false claims and statements made about me once again.
For example, it is reported that I will be appearing in an X-rated film about Anthony Weiner which will be released in September. The public may mistakenly conclude that I am still in the adult film business and I that have decided to profit from the fact that I received sexts from Anthony Weiner. This is false. First, I have never had any communication with the person who has stated publicly that I will be appearing in such a film and participating in it. Second, I have not appeared in any adult films for the last five years and have no interest or intention in participating in any X-rated films. Third, I have never profited or made any money whatsoever from being involved in the Anthony Weiner scandal and I have no intention of profiting in any way from it. Fourth, the only person that I authorize to make any statements about me is my attorney, Gloria Allred.
Finally, at this point I hope that Anthony Weiner will withdraw from the race and this scandal so that the people of New York City can focus on the really important issues and the question of which person, other than Mr. Weiner, has the qualifications and good judgment to be Mayor of New York City.
I simply want to be able to go on with my life without ever hearing the name Anthony Weiner again.
July 29, 2013