Las Vegas- [Vegas Popular.com] The festival of flesh for the red carpet walk of dames for the Oscars of the porn-business came in all shapes and sizes, mainly 36-44 DD with one hardcore actress proudly boasting 65NN!! Designer gowns you’d expect to see at the Grammy show were replaced by outfits so skimpy, so sexy, so shocking, so scandalous that with freak temperatures hovering below 32 degrees you’d have thought the parade of pulchritude would have frozen in place.
Going Britney — without bras and undies — this was really standing to attention in the nippy weather. The brazen, bust-out bonanza of 2,500 actress/models from all around the globe was the ultimate in the annual parade of porn princesses turning Sin City into Silicone City and Cleavage Central. Platinum-bleached blondes and bawdy, buxom brunettes tottered in on towering glass and stiletto heels or thigh-high laced leather boots, wearing thigh-high slit gowns or band-aid 4″ sized miniskirts with lacy lingerie and lace-top stockings all on full show. The daredevil girls who stripped down to skin had security on them within split seconds to quickly put on something to comply with our tough gaming regulations.
– Celebrities were everywhere you turned at the AVN events. It was the first time that more conventional stars such as Vegas headliners Criss Angel and Carrot Top joined with rockers Gene Simmons and Dave Navarro to present the mind-numbing 116 awards for Best Sex scenes in a multitude of categories and positions!
You know how mainstream its become when Eddie Van Halen won the Best Music award for his score of Sacred Sin (18 nominations) which he also co-produced! I was told that although it’s the first time a mainstream name rockers has scored and co-produced an adult movie, while numerous rap-stars from Snoop to NWA to 50 Cent have been funding porn pix in the past 3 years for investment purposes!!! Sean Penn and NBC’s Last Comic Standing attended the AVN pre-party at Mandalay Bay’s rumjungle club and MTV’s comedy star Tom Green and Big Black of “Rob & Big” were amongst the audience.
– It was the first time that the awards had been held at the Mandalay Bay Events Center, just like a regular show, where next-up Christina Aguilera and the Pussycat Dolls will play followed by Rascal Flatts in March. It began at 10PM with 100 Vegas Strip Club dancers grinding out the opening number and was still going strong at 1AM yesterday as the last of the 116 awards were handed out with Carrot Top closing the show! The porn awards have an additional two more years under contract options to return to Mandalay Bay.
– It was the first time the Adult Video awards show had been opened to the public. And it was a sell out with tickets going for up to $225 apiece to the 7,000 jammed into the arena for the privilege of catching a glimpse of their favorite funny-named stars.
Ron Jeremy at AVN AwardsMore than 142 print, radio and television broadcasters from 10 different worldwide countries such as Japan, Australia and Europe joined writers from the prestigious New York and Los Angeles Times to record the cornucopia of curves! Thousands of adult entertainment fans lined up along the walk-on-the-wild-side as early as 5PM to stand 3 and 4 deep on both walls of a winding 1/4 mile walkway thru the lobbies and hallways of the swank resort this weekend.
They started at Wolfgang Puck’s LUPO restaurant and past Hubert Keller’s Fleur de Lys and Michael Mina’s Stripsteak before ballooning into one major crowd near the airport-security-type metal detectors at the entrance to the Events Center. Some even taped their cameras and video recorders to broomsticks and poles 20 ft. high to go over the fans in front; all a far cry from the original Adult Video awards back in the ’80s, when just 20 people gathered! In the past 25 years, the adult entertainment industry has exploded into a staggering $12.9 billion business — of which more than a third ($4 billion+) alone goes into sex-driven DVD’s videos and the new broadband Internet downloads. Sex certainly sells!
After passing through airport metal screening detector devices, I was allowed alongside the red carpet for these exclusive photos, and AVN publisher, Paul Fishbein told me: “This turnout of both fans, exhibitors, film-makers and stars is even larger than last year’s record-breaker. We’ve really become a mainstream business with proper recognition.”
And Jenna Jameson’s ex Jay Grdina, who runs Club Jenna, told me: “This has been our best-ever sales convention and we’re a tomorrow’s technology company so we’re ready if the DVD business switches fully over to internet broadband downloads to burn your own DVD or pop-it-up on your mobile. It just keeps growing bigger and bigger.”
Here are just some of the hotter highlights:
– ‘Mindfreak’ magician Criss Angel, who was one of the surprise presenters, told me that he was filming all the AVN scenes for a Fantasy segment on his current 3rd season of A&E shows. He’ll also shoot an episode of CSI-NY in two-weeks time and has his 1st book “Mindfreak Secrets Revealed” being published this Spring.
– I asked Dave Navarro why he was attending. He told me: “Many of the actresses are friends of mine. This is just a lot of celebrating and I’m here for the joy of it. It’s just another process of the many aspects of entertainment. It’s no longer dirty. It’s no longer under the covers. It’s come out from hiding to go mainstream and when you think of it this is no different than the celebrating that goes on with the Oscars or for the Grammy’s.” Some Hollywood types would still disagree!!
– KISS lead hero Gene Simmons was also filming for his new reality show ‘Family Jewels’ and he asked me to look carefully at his face to check out the plastic surgery he’d recently undergone to make it look “young rock” again! I couldn’t see a surgeon’s scar so I wouldn’t even believe he’d gone under the knife, but he swears we’ll see him getting the facelift on an upcoming episode.
– Self-proclaimed bad girl, Jesse Jane, who gave up her Miss Hawaiian Tropic title and straight acting career (she debuted on ‘Baywatch’) for porn stardom, was hosting Playboy TV’s coverage on the red carpet. In addition she currently hosts Night Calls and Naughty Home Videos for Playboy TV. Cameras from rival E! Entertainment cable channel were filming her for her plastic surgery enhancement segment on an upcoming Dr. 90210 episode. She told me that earlier in the day two of her former customers at the Hooters restaurant she managed in Tulsa drove out to congratulate her on her porno-stardom!
Her ‘Pirates’ movie; at $3-million the most expensive X-rated film ever made- won for both Best Selling Title” and “Best Rental” and she revealed that in six weeks time she’ll start the California shoot of the Pirates 2 sequel. Jesse also turns up for the 2nd time on the cover and centerfold layout on the new Playboy Special Editions magazine.
– Native Vegas star Jenna Jameson regarded as the most famous porn actress ever won “Crossover Star of the Year” for going more mainstream than any other actress in the adult world, She also got the most fan applause and the most recognition from other actresses thanking her for taking the industry from out under the sheets to a full-frontal view of the world. Jenna was with Ultimate Fighter, beaufriend Tito Ortiz. He kept a safe-distance from Jenna’s former husband, Club Jenna President, Jay Grdina, but Jay told me that despite stories of a feud between the two men “Jenna and I are best friends still. Our marriage lasted eight years and we were always best friends then but now time for us to both move on but remain best pals.”
– All eyes were also on Stormy Daniels who has been a regular Vegas visitor recently. She won the “Contract Star of the Year” award and everybody in the sex industry is predicting she will be another major mainstream crossover star. She told me that she’s got a recurring role in Courtney Cox’s new network series DIRT and even gave her permission for the character to use her real name Stormy. She told me she’s excited about 2 regular movies being released this year “Knocked Up” and “Super Bad.”
Stormy currently the Penthouse cover girl and centerfold was escorted by my old friend, Dieter Ehrich, the head of the prestigious worldwide Wilhelmina modeling agency HQ’d in New York. “Yes we’re talking to her about signing with us,” he told me. “She’s definitely the next major crossover star and has an incredible future ahead of her modeling, doing TV-commercials and being a corporate spokesperson. Said Stormy: “I’m excited by all the mainstream offers, but I’m not giving up the adult entertainment industry, at least yet.”
– X-Rated producer John Stagliano told me that on Feb 8 he’ll move his erotic ‘Fashionistas’ musical dance drama from Krave in the Aladdin’s Desert Passage to the Empire Ballroom alongside the MGM. He admitted that his $20 million-a-year Evil Angel movie business allows him to cover the losses on his live Vegas show. His original ‘Fashionistas’ movie won 10 awards back in 2003, and he was determined to turn it into a respectable (read “fashionable,” instead of “topless”) yet controversial erotic Vegas spectacle. He hopes that it will finally break even with the move, particularly now since his movie sequel ‘Fashionistas Safado’ won for Best HD Production. The producer brought his 20-Vegas cast members for a special entertainment number.
– For the first time, Wicked Pictures star Jessica Drake hosted the awards show. “My only time,” she said, “because they never let us do it again. I feel very comfortable after nearly 6 hours of rehearsals that it will be all OK. The only thing confusing is that I’m nominated for 8 awards, so it’ll be a little strange introducing myself! Eventually she won for Best Actress for her ‘Manhunters’ movie (24 nominations), which also won Best Film award.
– Actor Dustin Diamond who played Screech on “Saved by the Bell” finally admitted that the X-Rated video circulating on the web is indeed him, with two women! “Yes, it does exist. Yes it was me, but it was never meant for public viewing,” he told me. “It was done in private for private enjoyment. However, since all the controversy it’s got me interested in the adult business which is why I’m here tonight. I support the industry and although I won’t act in one of these things I will direct some x-rated product. I’ll leave the on-screen acting to the professionals.”
– Goody Grab-bag: Also attending hard-core actress Echo Valley who proudly displayed her 65NN bust-line saying that although she was owner of the 3rd largest breasts in the world she was the #1 porno star when it came to size! … Longtime industry veteran Nina Hartley and Ron Jeremy who’s currently appearing in ‘Fame Games,’ the hit VH1 TV show I host. … Blonde-haired Hillary Scott, in a totally see-thru pink dress, won for Best Actress. … Sex goddess Kim Chambers, who after numerous movies and awards, says she’s going to concentrate on directing from now on instead of acting. … Every time Missy Monroe posed in her blue skirt, she yanked it high enough to show she was wearing matching panties. Britney take note!
… Buck Cherry lead singer Josh amazed me with his heavily tattooed body but tried to reassure me he still had 25% left to cover. The group performed their ‘Crazy Bitch’ hit at the show. … And my personal photo of the night award goes to rocker Evan Seinfeld from Biohazard who’s appeared on HBO’s ‘Oz’ and was a great sport for kindly displaying the tattooed back of his head while posing with his wife, X-Rated actress Tera Patrick!