Porn Valley- Howard Levine calls to tell me that not only did the Adam Carolla Show attack Vivid honch Steve Hirsch viciously, the show reneged on a promise to give Vivid some rebuttal time on air.
“I set up the interview,” says Levine. “It was on the premise that they saw a clip of the [Kim Kardasian] movie and they wanted to talk about it. Then they proceeded to ambush and attack him personally. I called back after that was on. I talked to Mike August who set up the interview. I left him a message and said I really appreciate you guys interviewing Steven this morning [last Friday]. Thanks a lot for ambushing him. And as far as Danny Bonaduce is concerned I think it’s ironic that the biggest scumbag on the earth should call somebody else a scumbag. I probably left some other choice words and hung up on him.”
According to Levine, he got a return call from August.
“He said, dude, I’m really sorry – that’s not the way it was supposed to go down. I didn’t know they were going to do that. I was pretty upset and said, look, this is unbelievable and I went on to express my dismay about Danny Bonaduce and about how he became moral and is taking the high ground now. It’s just ludicrous. He said do me a favor. Come on the radio on Monday and you can rebut the interview. And you can tell Danny whatever you want. You can tell Adam whatever you want. I said okay. I will do that.
“I called in Monday morning as instructed and they said Danny’s leaving for a wedding right now and we’ll reschedule it,” Levine relates. “I called back and talked to Mike August- well, what’s the deal? He said let’s do it for Tuesday. I said fine. Then he called me back around 3 yesterday afternoon and said Adam doesn’t want to do this. I said so you guys can just attack Steven and then when somebody calls back now all of a sudden you don’t want to do it? He said we’re going to have to back out of it.”
Levine said he wants the other people in the adult business who are asked to do the show to know what they’re getting into.
“First of all, the attack was completely unprofessional,” Levine goes on to say. “Steven’s done hundreds of TV and radio shows and has never, ever been treated like that. He could have attacked back because who on this planet would be easier to attack than Danny Bonaduce? Steven chose not to attack back. Anyone who knows Steven knows he doesn’t conduct himself that way- professionally or personally. When we agreed to do the show it was to talk about how great the footage was on Kim Kardashian, not to talk about the legalities or the nuances of the law surrounding the tape.
“If we had known that, Steven would have prepared himself by bringing his lawyer on or declined altogether because he’s signed a confidentiality agreement. So that was not open for discussion. When I talked to Mike August he was very excited about having Steven on because Vivid had a great relationship with the Adam Carolla Show.
“I don’t need to go into Steven’s accolades,” Levine continues. “But they made reference that Steven isn’t used to talking to ‘intelligent people’ which is absolutely ridiculous. Steven has lectured at colleges and universities and the last time he did it was at The University of California Santa Barbara to the graduate students in film studies. This is the guy who’s almost singlehandely moving the adult businmess into the mainstream. We went on there soley to talk about how great the footage is and about the buzz that’s surrounding the tape. it’s all over the Internet. I really feel slighted by not being able to respond to them.”