Porn Valley- DCypher’s surrounded by fascists and naked girls. And one of them’s sitting on his lap. No, it’s not the fascist. That would be Van Damage, and a tableau like that would be very creepy. The naked girl is Ava Rose, from LA Direct, and she’s the star of DCypher’s latest movie Taboo 22 for Metro.

Only Rose is wearing a sun dress at the moment, but she’s nestled squarely in DCypher’s crotch, dry humping him reverse cowgirl style while he’s got his hand wrapped around her throat. Cypher flashes this nonchalant-look as if to say this generally happens in a porn director’s life every day of the week. Cypher loves the job Rose did the first day of the shoot and tells her he was so excited that he went home and wrote 40 more pages of dialogue.

Rose gives him that you’re kidding me look. Rose, who’s either seen naked taking a shower or strutting around wearing nothing much else than a dog collar and ankle bracelets, is Brooke Haven’s lesbian lover in this 1984-style feature.

Haven works for this bureaucracy where all the employees dress and behave alike. As one of them, Nicole Sheridan’s wearing her hair like Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein. Yet, considering the fact that the women are also decked out in sexy skirts and black pumps, suggests there might be something said for fashion statements in dictatorships. It also seems to be Cypher’s idea to go to post and create the illusion of a vast horde of drones at electric typewriters. Someone on the crew mentions that Michael Ninn did something similar.

Brooke Haven’s delivering a “you betrayed me” speech, and the sound of stacked heels echoes in the studio like the Budweiser team of Clydesdales. The suggestion is made that maybe Rose should do the walk-on in bare feet.

“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” repeats Cypher as though he knows something.

It seems like 1984, but it was only a couple of weeks ago when Cypher was exchanging witty banter with Steven St. Croix on KSEX. Cypher was talking about his exclusive contract with Metro and the number of projects he had lined up for the next couple of years. Proving that things change quicker in porn than under David Copperfield’s magic hanky, Cypher’s deal with Metro terminated suddenly, and this will be his last feature for them. Though Cypher figures he’ll probably shoot for the company in the future but not on an exclusive basis. Which is okay by him because he wanted it that way.

“This script has a lot to live up to,” says Cypher because of the fact that it’s part of the highly regarded Taboo series, the last being directed by Red Ezra.

“That was just amazing looking- it was really glossy and high end,” states Cypher. “You could have stripped the title ‘Taboo’ off of that and it would have done well as a feature because it had so much of a storyline.”

Cypher feels that Metro went outside of tradition to make the kind of movie that Red Ezra made.

“I think because we’re getting to the point where it’s hard to tell what’s taboo in society,” Cypher continues. “It’s how you choose. Everything seems acceptable in this day and age. So what Red did, which is really cool, he went back in time to the Prohibition Era, and the taboo was more against the law and a taboo of interracial.” Handed the baton in the Taboo relays, Cypher felt it had all been said and done and there wasn’t going to be a lot for him that wasn’t taboo.

“So instead of making something like that, I felt I’d do something that had more of a wall-to-wall feel,” he goes on to say. “Instead of going back, I went forward. The taboo itself is sex- the fascist state where sex is illegal. Ava Rose, the lead, is using sex as a tool of revolution to try to incite riots in people. And so we’re focusing on explicit, beautiful sex between really hot people as the theme of what’s taboo. Then, of itself, the acts that they’re doing are a violation of the law. I thought that would be a nice angle.

“There’s a thread of 1984 in there but it’s a very loose homage- it’s hardly noticeable,” Cypher adds. “The storyline itself is not as intricate as the things that I normally do- these gigantic narratives. It’s just supposed to be a blueprint to get to a lot of hot sex. My goal is to try to make a lot of hot sex that didn’t go quite gonzo but still is explicit, so it would still be glossy.”

In one scene, Rose is strapped in a chair while Van Damage- the O’Brien character from 1984 and the interrogator- begins to torture her using mind control devices.

“They’re trying to get her to recount what she’s done- in her head,” explains Cypher, noting that this method ferrets out traitors to the state.

“Once you’ve violated the law, you’re a sex slave pretty much,” he says. “You’re given a subject number. And so Rose believes in the process of them tweaking with her mind that she’s somehow escaped and is running around and seeing all this stuff. And really she’s still strapped in the chair and they’re manipulating her mind to try to figure out who the leaders of the revolution are. She comes to this realization at the end.”

As the scene plays out, Van Damage is having sex with Brooke Haven as Rose is writhing the whole time with a dildo strapped into her.

Another scene is a fourway scene featuring Neveah, Charlie Laine, Celeste Star, and Carli Banks.

“Ava’s running around these medical offices- it’s like this dreamscape,” Cypher says. “One door leads to this and that. She comes through a door and she’s in the high chancellor- the head of the fascist regime’s living room. He’s in there with all these women having an orgy pretty much. And she’s, like this can’t be happening. It’s not possible. He’s the moral leader. So there’s no way. It’s obviously a machination of her mind and he gives her a show of these women that leads to Herschel Savage having sex with Faith Leon and August.”

Then on Wednesday afternoon Rose was scheduled to have sex with four workers in a factory that she’s trying to liberate. And, as you might suspect because they’re lovers, Rose and Haven also have a scene.

“It’s almost like V for Vendetta where she’s got the lesbian girlfriend and that’s what led to her being captured in the first place,” Cypher points out. “It’s a parallel of how far the Republican party goes and what it would be like if they went everywhere they wanted to go with the Christian Right. But it’s a very loose story and is not to be taken as this great narrative. It’s a nice blueprint to set up what I hope will be a lot of nice, glossy sex with really pretty girls. We’ve been lucky to get really hot chicks.”

Going from fascist regimes to the subject of the late Jim Holliday is a stretch the mind can easily make when you think of Holliday’s mythical Jimmyland. That’s because, somehow the subject of Holliday’s white moccasins came up, and it was Cypher’s recollection that Holliday would ceremonially bestow a pair to a girl who was deemed worthy to become one of his angels.

Cypher remembers Katie Gold being tongue tied when it came her turn. Ethan Cage, who’s on crew, remembers being welcomed to Jimmyland and asked for a map because he had no idea where the fuck it was. From what I gather, the boundaries of Jimmyland began with the fact that there had to be at least three angels on the set at any given time. And so you were at least at the entrance of Jimmyland when that occurred.

Cypher recalls a conversation he had with Holliday who also was of the belief that clever titles were what sold porn. And so Holliday supposedly kept a filing cabinet of them locked away. Cypher’s wondering where that filing cabinet is; while we both agree that Holliday was supersensitive on the Mike Albo issue and was convinced Albo would attempt to send spies to his sets.

“I told Holliday he was more paranoid than Spiro Agnew,” Cypher laughs, recalling how Holliday would also power down a pound of bacon between two slices of bread with chugs of ice tea.

“He lived life on his terms,” Cypher concedes.

When he’s not playing a fascist prick who dresses like one of the nihilists in The Big Lebowski, Van Damage is a pretty cool guy. And Damage brings up comments he made on another shoot about Fred Salaff which I later quoted him on. Something about Salaff, who’s currently having drama in central America, owing him money. It got back to Damage that Salaff was pissed and was threatening to kick his ass. Which would be a good trick because Salaff’s been off and on occupying prison rooms in third world shitholes. Salaff is also supposed to be saying that he’s not paying Damage now after those remarks.

“I always got a bad vibe from him,” says Damage. The subject gets around to Tom Zupko, who’s now back with Extreme Associates. Damage recalled the time he walked off a Zupko shoot and almost did it again another time on a Hustler movie. Except Naomi, from LA Direct, who Damage was working with, did it for him. Naomi showed up on set at one in the afternoon but the scene didn’t get started until 8 in the evening. It was going past midnight when she said she finally had it.

“She gave out first, and I didn’t have to be the asshole,” says Damage. “It was the sweetest thing ever to happen.” Damage is also wondering aloud about the four bottles of wine he had in his refrigerator the time Zupko shot at his house.

“They disappeared,” says Damage tersely. “Zupko thinks he’s a visionary but he’s a drunk.” Damage is kidding around with Ava Rose urging her to call him daddy and to come over his house so they can have sex in his dryer on low speed. Van then turns around and whispers, “Rule number one- don’t take anyone home.”

There’s a rumor going around that Rose is now dating photographer Todd “I don’t get out of bed for less than $500” Todd. Todd Todd was engaged to Bobbie Blair who supposedly walked out of the relationship the day after the XRCO awards, headed to San Francisco and left no forwarding address.

I also believe it was Rose who was quoted on the set as saying the only difference between sexual harassment and flirting is how cute the guy is. Cypher finds that one amusing. Meanwhile Dan, the makeup guy, is talking about the time he did hair on Raising Arizona and is greeted by a naked Randall “Tex” Cobb in a trailer, Cobb calling him Sunshine.

Damage is also asking about the latest Kurt Lockwood gossip.

“I’ve seen him fail on many sets,” Damage says. “I don’t know where he gets his arrogance.” Damage checks his cellphone and has two calls from Otto Bauer. There’s a message from Otto stating that he didn’t mean to engage in predatory calling tactics. Damage figures only a guy who taught English would come up with something like that, and so returns Otto’s call.

Rose is ready to take part in a gratuitous nude shower sequence.

“This is going to be the best three seconds of porn, ever,” Cypher’s convinced. Voodoo, who’s shooting stills, is saying he’s now addicted to Pepsis.

“That’s the devil’s highway to diabetes,” Cypher warns him.

Doesn’t matter, says Voodoo. It’s that and Grand Theft Auto.

“I’m so sad when I get to the end of a game,” he says.