from www.vegasdeluxe.com: Two of the biggest names in the world of erotica will be hosting the annual AVN Awards at The Pearl in the Palms on Saturday: Kirsten Price [pictured] and Kayden Kross. It’s the 27th annual ceremony, aka the Oscars of the Adult World, and after years at The Venetian and Mandalay Bay, it moves to the Palms for the first time.
Among the celebrities attending will be rocker Dave Navarro, hip-hop star Baby Bash and comedians Margaret Cho and Dave Attell, who will host with Kirsten and Kayden. More than 120 awards will be handed out for everything from Best Film to Best Video to best things we can’t list here! Some 12,000 films are released each year and thus the 100-plus award categories.
Porn princesses attending and picking up their statues include the top names of XXX films: Jessica Drake, Alektra Blue, Sasha Grey, Bree Olson, Belladonna and Jesse Jane, who also will host The Playboy Channel’s red carpet coverage.
AVN President Paul Fishbein said: “This is treated with the same seriousness as the Academy Awards. An enormous amount of product is released weekly in the American market, and the glittering event is to reward thousands of people working in the adult business. The scope of this year’s awards is truly historic and shows just how far the industry has come from the days of peepshows and stag films. Our show was first presented in 1983, and it has grown into a massive and successful glamorous gala — our equivalent of the Oscars.”
Saturday’s ceremony, which is open to fans and the public, with tickets ranging up to $300, is the centerpiece of the four-day AVN Adult Entertainment Expo at the Sands Expo Center a The Venetian that attracts 30,000 and runs today through Sunday.
It is a walk on the wild side through a sea of silicone, as more than 2,000 porn performers dressed in the most eye-popping and revealing gowns turn out with industry executives. Fans don’t have to resort to their imagination because this is the real thing in a festival of flashed flesh.
Traditionally, crowds have lined up six deep for the 1,000-foot-long red carpet. Many bring stepladders with them and cameras taped to brooms to crane over the people in front so they can catch a glimpse of their favorite porn stars. Those sexy starlets totter along on the tallest of high heels and in the skimpiest of barely there outfits displaying as much flesh as is permitted by our vigilant Police Department.
It’s a far cry from 27 years ago when the very first AVN Awards show began. Back then, 300 people gathered in a bingo parlor at the old Aladdin. Now there are more than 100-plus print, TV, online and radio journalists from 10 countries as far away as Japan, Australia and Germany covering them. Even representatives of the prestigious The New York Times and Los Angeles Times are here to record the antics of the $12 billion-a-year business.
For a sneak peek at this year’s AVN convention and awards, I talked with Kirsten, who is regarded as one of the top performers and fan favorites. Since her epic appearance in 2007’s Coming Home, she’s received several nominations, and this year, she’s nominated for Best Actress. Kirsten, a Miss Massachusetts and Miss Rhode Island in the Hawaiian Tropic competitions, relocated to Los Angeles, where she hosted Playboy TV’s The Bang and appeared on Night Calls. She also appeared on Fox Reality’s My Bare Lady testing her acting skills in a London production of Romeo and Juliet. She’s hosted podcasts for Poison and appeared on Showtime’s Weeds.
Here’s our conversation as she began packing for Las Vegas:
Robin Leach: So, Kirsten, let’s just start with a little bit of fun — explain to me the difference between you (Kirsten Price) and the singer who has the same name as you.
Kirsten Price: I don’t really know too much about her — I think she may be a lesbian, which is totally cool with me because I am all for the gays. I’ve never met my name double. I’m pretty sure she’s Canadian or British. All I really know is she has an amazing name. You can tell us apart, though, because I’m the one who takes off all her clothes! She really sings, though, and I only sing in my shower and my car. But, you know, I tried. I do what I can.
RL: OK, let’s get a little serious. First of all, your reaction to being tapped to co-host the AVN Awards show.
KP: It is so exciting. I have wanted to do it for so long. I have been hosting the red carpet for about four years now, two years for Playboy TV and two years for Showtime. Hosting is just really what I love to do. It’s my passion. It’s my forte. It’s what I think I do the best, and I am just really excited to get up there and do it. I think it’s a really good choice, and I think everyone is going to be very happy with that. The AVN show is our biggest industry event of the year. It is the one time we can go all-out, dress up. It is our Academy Awards. Our fans look at us like stars. We are appreciated and awarded by our peers for what we have done that year.
Kayden Kross is my co-host. We’ve never worked together before. It’s the first time we’re together. In fact, we only met briefly the day that they asked us to host. Then we met a second time on the photo shoot for all of our promo shots. But we have been in contact since coordinating our scripts, our lines and our outfits. They’re going to be similar but not matchy matchy. She’s a really sweet girl. She is really cool — I think we’re gonna be a really good team.
In the show, I am going to have two outfit changes. We are going to start out in our evening gowns right from the red carpet. And then we both have a short dress, more cocktail style, which we’ll also wear out to the parties afterward. I think Kayden had hers made, but I just had mine altered to fit me.
My first dress is an Herve Leger [isn’t he the movie actor who overdosed? just kidding]. It’s kind of a long, white Cleopatra-looking gown baring one shoulder. It is really tight with gold beading on the top and gold beaded stripes on the bottom. It is gorgeous. It is so pretty, and it runs about $8,000 to $10,000. You have to go all-out for the big day! And my second one reminds me of a sexy figure skater. Something you might see on Dancing With the Stars. It is bronze and brown, and its sparkly and a little furry, but very sexy and all open in the back. It is really short. I’m wearing that to the official AVN party and then the Wicked after-party at Rain.
RL: Kirsten, you’re quite familiar with Vegas, right? And have been here many times?
KP: Oh, yes. Vegas and me are like old buddies. We go way back. I even got married in Vegas! I surely did. It wasn’t a runaway wedding. It was a planned thing. We set a date and told everyone, “Look, we’re going to get married in Vegas, and if you want to come out, you should, and we did.” Now, though, we’re divorced. I can’t remember how long, but a couple of years at least. He’s in the business, but it only lasted for three years. That’s a good run as far as Las Vegas weddings are concerned, but as far as our industry is concerned, that’s a lifetime. I’m not planning on getting married again anytime soon, so I’m still single but am seeing someone.
RL: This year you are nominated as Best Actress? What have you won previously?
KP: I didn’t win anything last year despite several nominations, but I was Best Supporting Actress in 2007. A shame about last year, but hopefully I will win this year and make up for last year. I am nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 20-40, also nominated for Best Group Scene for 20-40 and nominated for Best All-Girl Scene for House of Wicked. They are all very sexy.
RL: You went from winning as a Miss Hawaiian Tropic beauty queen to posing for Playboy special editions. How did you transition from that over to the bare-all-for-sex adult world?
KP: I guess it was kind of a natural progression for me. I have always been really interested in the adult film world, and I am kind of an exhibitionist and love sex. All my friends were doing it, so I was around it for about a year before I actually took the plunge and really found out the inner workings of the adult industry. I wanted to make sure it was something I really wanted to do, which of course it was. It was kind of easy; it was just more of a natural progression for me. It wasn’t difficult for me to do my first sex scene. It was exciting. It was fun, so no problems about doing all and baring all for the camera. I think I look really good naked, and everyone else should enjoy that. I still love every minute of it.
RL: And where does this eventually take you? What do you wind up doing as a result of this? And is mainstream a possibility?
KP: Oh, of course mainstream is always a possibility. I’m definitely looking into doing some hosting and whatever acting I can. Other than that, my life after porn, hopefully I will be doing something with hosting or fashion — those are pretty much my two passions in life.
RL: So we have gone from you being the host of the red carpet to the host of the show. The roles have been a bit reversed? You interviewed the stars for the previous four years, and now you are the one who is being interviewed.
KP: Yes. Some of my best friends — my best friend Miss Jesse Jane, who also hosted years ago, she hosted the show, and I interviewed her about it, and now our roles are reversed, and I am really excited. I am really happy she is the one taking my spot because she basically talked me into joining her in the business. We have done the red carpet together, and I can’t think of another person who would be better at it than her.”
One-time top porn actress Tera Patrick, who has retired from the industry, will sign copies of her new book Sinner Takes All tomorrow and Saturday at AEE. She’ll also be at Borders in Town Square early Saturday evening for another signing. She’ll host at LAX in the Luxor tomorrow night.
Leach Blog Photo
A.I. Studios will be showcasing some of the biggest stars in the porn world at the center of the sexpo exhibits, including Ginger Lynn (12-time AVN winner), Evan Stone (10-time winner) and multiple award winners and nominees Andrew Blake, Nicki Hunter, Heidi Mayne, Cousin Stevie, Shay Lynn, Jaded Dawn, Veronica Ricci and Emily Parker and MMA stars Fred George and Todd “the Shark” Medina.
Also featured will be models from Private Dancer Magazine. Other features in the exhibit include the world’s most extreme racecar Wicked Porsche. Evan will emcee the stage show, and Alter Image will be performing at select locations.