Porn Valley- Tuesday morning I had a conversation with America’s pimp, Dennis Hof. Hof was talking about Cathouse: The Series which debuts on HBO this week. Hof’s also writing a book, and a deal has been signed with Reagan Books. We also talked about his relationship with Heidi Fleiss, and the fact that you can bet dollars to doughnuts that there will be a porn industry crackdown involving girls who have been turning tricks, particularly for Exotica 2000. We told you the Feds were coming. Hof said he’s told girls the Feds were coming. Guess what? The Feds are coming. The Feds are coming.

Once again, Hof’s riding the elephant in the media circus. As I spoke to him, he was juggling a bunch of calls. Hof says it’s been an exciting ride, noting he had started his Bunny Ranch relationship with HBO the end of 2002. “That was the highest rated non-fiction show they’ve ever done,” he notes. Hof notes that it aired after The Sopranos. “Twenty minutes into our show, the ratings went up 28% over The Sopranos,” he says. “Giant ratings. They had no idea. Then we did the second show and the ratings were extremely high. Then they came to me and said what do you think of an 11-week series. You want to be The Sorpranos? You want to be Sex in the City. We’re going to give you the chance. We’ve raised the bar.”

Hof says Jacklyn Lick will be in one of the new shows as well as Bridget the Midget, Christy Lake, Alexis Fire, Ron Jeremy, Johnny Buss and Raquel Divine. “We’re bringing in a lot of our friends.” According to Hof, new episodes will air Thursdays and will be seen in re-run over the next four days. “It starts out with what men want to know, ” he explains. “I look at as Dr. Ruth meets porn. What we’re doing is taking a group of men and teaching them how to find the G-spot.” To which I wished everyone involved good luck.

“The infamous G-spot,” Hof laughs. “You can’t go to AAA, and get a roadmap to get there. But our girls will teach them how. Like Isabella Soprano- she’s doing some porn now in L.A. – and Shelly Duchelle- they’re teaching the world how to find the G-spot. And then the clients get to go with the girls and practice.” It’s amazing, said Hof, that in a conservative environment, HBO is ballsy enough to show sex. “We’re not showing any cum shots- or anything like that- but they’ve raised the bar. I really believe that when I’m done with HBO, they’re going to change their name to HB-Ho.”

Hof and HBO both agree that this is maybe the steamiest programming the channel has ever aired.

“The demand to know what goes on behind those gates at The Bunny Ranch is incredible,” notes Hof. “It’s propelled us to a whole other level.” And by that Hof means the book deal with Judith Reagan. “We’re finalizing the contract now. It’ll be a combination of my crazy life and all my friends and what we do- including sex tips from the girls. The girl want to know why their husbands keep going to The Bunny Ranch. The answer is very simple. Wives and girlfriends are terrible lovers because they don’t have much experience. And The Bunny Ranch girls are journeymen.” Hof likens it to building an Indy car. “You’re going to have it done by someone who’s run the race, been everywhere and had a few accidents. That’s what the Bunny ranch girls are and that’s why the porn girls come to The Bunny Ranch. They’re open-minded. They love sex. They can be nasty and they can be themselves. Where wives and girlfriends can’t do that.”

Hof mentions that he’s just done an hour show with one of the networks but wouldn’t say who. I tell Hof who I think it is. Hof laughs stating that he’s signed a confidentiality agreement. “But it’s going to be a good story when we get there,” he says, noting that Judith Reagan is, likewise, shopping a reality show to a couple of networks. Then Hof is off to New York next week with Heidi Fleiss. They’re doing a show together as well. So I ask Hof what’s the story between the two of them. Hof responds with his famous line that he normally doesn’t date girls who can buy drinks, legally. Except, when they were dating, Sunset Thomas also fit Fleiss’ description. “Why? Because I can,” says Hof of his penchant for school-age women. By the same token, Hof says Fleiss is generally drawn to billionaires or actors. “And I’m not either one of those,” says Hof. It’s mentioned that Ron Jeremy introduced them. And it’s no secret that Fleiss has been wanting to set up shop in Nevada.

“She went to prison and paid the price for what she did,” says Hof. “Now she’d like to be on the legal side of it and who better to go to than me? We started to get to know each other. I think Heidi said it best. You fuck who you’re around.” Fleiss is a very bright woman, states Hof. “Don’t anybody underestimate this girl. Incredibly bright and has deep connections.” And, from sex, the relationship has evolved into friendship, says Hof. “Who knows where that goes?” Hof is also quick to point how how Fleiss’ business model departs radically from his. “Minimum clients pay $5,000.” Hof didn’t believe his ears in the beginning and told Fleiss her system was flawed and wasn’t going to work, that she’d have women sitting around days at a time waiting for Johns with that kind of scratch.

That being said, Hof points out how he raised the bar in Nevada which was noted for bad girls and bad environment. “I have over 500 XXX girls now,” he says. “There’s Playboy Playmates and Penthouse Pets. That’s what I’m known for. I’ve raised the standard but I’ve also raised the prices to go along with it. She’s going to take it up not one notch, two, three or four. She’s going to give you the girl that was on the cover of Seventeen Magazine last month. She’s going to give you the chick who was on the cover of Vogue and Cosmo. You want to bang Miss Alabama? No problem. She’ll bring that girl.”

After hanging around Fleiss for awhile, Hof has no doubts that she has those kinds of clients. “She’ll be extremely successful.” But one plan has changed, says Hof. Fleiss originally wanted to build a bordello to replicate the White House. Now she wants to build one on the model of The Beverly Hills Hotel [probably the most famous meeting place in L.A.] “Including the bungalows,” Hof adds. “She’s going to the big designers like Prada and Gucci to design those bungalows.” The location is going to be Nye County around the Parumph area. But, according to Hof, Fleiss hasn’t acquired the land as yet but he’s helping her there.

“I think it’s going to happen,” he says. I ask Hof the blunt question. Where’s the money coming from. His answer’s not surprising. Fleiss kept her mouth shut and lot of her high-dollar clients, consequently, would be willing to chip in if not on sheer gratitude. “When she got arrested she did the right thing- she didn’t snitch on anybody,” says Hof. “She could have sold those stories for millions and millions. She could have grabbed National Enquirer every week for half a million. But she didn’t do that. When she makes the phone call and says I need 10 million for this, guess what? The money will be there. She was a friend to these people. She could have destroyed a lot of lives. She didn’t do it. And these are very recognizable people. If you saw her client list- pick up the new Fortune 500 list of guys- half those guys are her clients. There’s arm dealers and oil people. She don’t want to know a guy unless he’s got $300 million. It’s that simple and she’s made it very public. it’s not hype. I know who she talks to.”

Hof said he’ll be having sex with Fleiss and she’ll get a phone call. “How does she make these connections?” And Hof will be supporting Fleiss not only for the reason that he sleeps with her. “But it’s also good for business in Nevada,” he says.

I asked Hof for his opinion on the late Chloe Jones when she blew the whistle on Charlie Sheen a couple of months ago. “I think it was terrible,” he said, noting that he’ll talk about celebrities but with their awareness and acknowledgment. “It’s good content to do that,” says Hof. “But to talk about people without their approval is unconscionable. It destroys the basic premise of our business which is discretion. “They’re not there to make it public that they like to fuck hot chicks and pay for sex. I don’t think that’s right. But who knows? Maybe Charlie said it was okay. That’s the part we don’t know about. If he didn’t say it was okay, she was out of line.”

Which brings Hof to the subject of Exotica 2000. “I warned my friends,” he said, noting that some of the girls who worked at the Ranch were involved. “I know the girls- they’re friends of mine. When the heat was coming, you don’t think that the Feds aren’t going to call me? I’m the straight guy. I’m the guy they can talk to because they know I’m going to give them the straight scoop. When they call me and say there’s this girl that works for you, does this mean you’re involved in that operation in New York, guess what? I’m going to tell them the truth. I’m the boy scout of this business. So I knew it was coming. I warned people. I told Ron Jeremy you need to call so and so. The heat is coming and it’s coming big. And they didn’t want to listen.”

If Hof found out girls at the Ranch had connections with Exotica 2000, he’d ask them to vacate the premises. “We don’t want any part of this. We wouldn’t allow them to come back.” Becka Bratt is one instance, said Hof. “She’s great. I love her. She’s a fun chick. This was a chick that I dated. She started with us when she was 18 and went on to the porn industry.” By the same token, Hof said, he couldn’t be part of the “nonsense”.

“I was able to keep some of our friends out of the newspaper along with some of the embarrassments,” he adds. “But this is just the beginning.” I had heard that The Bureau of Homeland Security was involved. Hof says absolutely. “There’s no question about it. They are involved in it,” he says. “New York Vice is involved and it’s just the beginning of what’s going to be a nationwide witch hunt for porn chicks.”

According to Hof, expect the treasury people to also join the fray. “These girls are going to go through audits and you know they’re not paying taxes on the money. At this point they can’t even reconstruct it. They had the cash and they spent it. But the Feds are going to be able to reconstruct it because a lot of that is credit card money and they’ve got the transcripts of the credit card accounts. They’ve got the customers who are going to testify because they don’t want any heat. These girls are in a world of fucking trouble. And it’s only going to get worse. You’re going to see it in L.A. come very soon with the big name escort agencies in L.A. These girls need to get away from those agencies and either get out of prostitution or come to the Bunny Ranch.”

Figure Hof to turn a Federal sweep into a commercial. Hof’s also saying that some porn girls are running their own agencies. “Guess what? They’re going to be in that same penitentiary Heidi Fleiss was in. That’s where we’re going.”