Porn Valley- Erica McLean came on KSEX’s The Young and The Curious Show Friday night, hosted by Jason Sechrest, www.jasoncurious.com.

McLean, whose late husband, Clive, was a legendary photography and director of Hustler’s Barely Legal, took over the video series when he passed away from cancer.

Sechrest wondered why she wanted to take over the task.

“My husband re-started it in 1999,” she explained. “We worked side by side and I produced and put everything together. I came up with the locations and hired the girls along with Clive.” With all of that happeneing., Sechrest assumed it would only be natural that she’d take over.

“I love it- I’m passionate about what I do,” said McLean. “I have a heart-connection to it. If it sounds corny, that’s what it is.”

McLean said she met her husband through Hustler and they became a team.

“And we became an item- we traveled all over. I loved it.”

At the time she met Clive, Erica explained that she was doing makeup. Then she went on to help him with styling, picking out the girls and location hunting.

“It grew,” she said. “I understood what he needed and wanted. I was able to carry it off. We meshed so well. It was a powerful team.”

McLean passed away in 2005 but Erica said she doesn’t like to dwell on that.

“I think he’s still here with me.”

Since the time of Clive’s death, Sechrest imagined that Erica must have had a difficult time not to mention the fact that she was ready and able to take on his legacy.

“Where did you find the strength to end up doing that?” he asked her.

“I just did,” she replied, noting that Clive’s mother was a famous clairvoyant in England.

“She sent me to this woman- she said your husband’s in the room and he wants you to pick up where he left off. That’s what I did. The message was really clear and I believed in it. I found the strength through that, through love. That was part of our life and that’s what we did. If you’ve ever lost somebody close to you then you know how I feel. You can’t imagine, and I hope that never happens to you.”

Sechrest imagined it must be tough for Erica going to industry parties, award shows and events when she used to be on Clive’s arm.

“Personally I would feel completely alone at those events,” said Sechrest. McLean said the experience for her has been surreal.

“Somebody the other day said why don’t you bring somebody to the Christmas party,” she continued.

“I said I didn’t know how it was going to feel until I turned the corner and got out of the car. To do everything without him physically being here is really difficult. But I do it in his honor. I do it with grace. I miss him. He was my lover, my best friend- we were business partners and partners in life.”

Asked what she’d most miss about Clive, Erica said it was his sense of humor.

“We’d both laugh at the end of the day- we were together 15 years, we were married. And at the end of the day we’d sit there and we’d laugh about somebody or something. Or we’d say something silly and be in tears, laughing. No matter what happened that day, we’d laugh about it or talk about it. We were just in sync. It was really cool.”

McLean explained that Clive died suddenly of cancer.

“You wouldn’t even know it.” She explained that it started in his kidney and went to his brain.

“He never complained,” she said. “He must have had amazing headaches. He never, ever complained. I carry that strength with me. Your problems are really minute when you look at it in the grand scheme of things. If you love somebody, let them know you love them because every day’s important. You should share that with people.”

Sechrest brought up the fact that McLean had written a book about her experiences trying to heal Clive through holistic medicine.

“They call themselves nutritionists,” McLean noted. “The book is going to be called No Ordinary Love. It’s in Washington DC being copyrighted right now. I wrote it with a woman named Jan Robbins. Her husband is [the late] Harold Robbins who wrote The Carpetbaggers.” According to McLean, she finished the book on Clive’s birthday which she feels is some kind of sign.

“You know he’s still here,” agreed Sechrest. “For that many coincidences to happen like that.” Sechrest wondered if the experience harmed or helped Clive.

“I feel the people that were involved were a scam- con artists,” answered McLean. “They weren’t up front. It was somebody that he knew for a long time, that he had gone to- nutritionists. She’s not even licensed. And there have been so many people who have come forward since that article [in the LA Times]. www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=14450

Besides the Times, the New York Post and National Enquirer also did stories, said McLean.

“This person didn’t even have a high school diploma. They weren’t even licensed in the state of California.”

According to McLean, one of the reasons why they went with a holistic healer was at the urgings of Clive’s mother.

“She believed in healers- in the Forties she would send Clive to healers and it cured him. He had a stutter when he was little when his dad passed away and it cured him.”

“Big difference between a stutter and cancer,” Sechrest pointed out. McLean went on to say that she didn’t think all holistic healers are a hoax but was more judgmental about Feline Butcher, the person they were working with. McLean agreed with the assessment that Butcher was trying to bleed them out of money and took them for nearly $200,000.

“Are you kidding me?” said Sechrest. “You are breaking my heart.”

“They’ve done this to other people and they will be stopped,” McLean predicted, noting that Butcher’s company is called Studio City Health Center. McClean mused that Butcher had an appropriate last name. Sechrest wondered what McLean’s holidays have been like. She said last Christmas and New Year’s were horrible.

“This Christmas I went to Hawaii- my friends said just get on a plane and come,” McLean stated. “I spent it with Hawaiian friends and I have never known that much love. They opened their arms, their houses. It was absolutely beautiful.” McLean also went to a Japanese-Buddhist temple and got a blessing.

“Then in the middle of the street there were unbelievable fireworks- it was on the North Shore. And they got a kick out of me looking at it. My God this was great. They were so happy that I was at peace with a smile on my face. Because that’s how they are. That was how I brought in the New Year and woke up thinking this is love. This is what Clive would want. I know that he was here looking at the amazing fireworks. These people are limited in funds but rich in spirit but they put on these fireworks like no other place.”

Sechrest wondered if McLean experienced any difficulties in taking the Hustler series over. McLean didn’t think the company was sure at first that she could do it.

“Now they see that I’m serious, that I’m focused. I think now there’s a realization. I love what I do and it shows in my work.”