Porn Valley- The road to hell is paved with good intentions. And so, the We Are The World project which was supposed to benefit Ron Sullivan, aka Henri Pachard, has now turned into a petty game of tug-a-war and a resultant bureaucratic Kafkaesque nightmare.
On one end of the rope is Amber Lynn who’s apparently holding on to the model releases and isn’t letting go.
According to Deloras Sullivan who’s on the other end, this is what’s basically holding up the project. And the fact that Vivid’s been reluctant to get involved in it becomes enormously clear once you hear Deloras Sullivan’s side of things.
On a more obvious note, the title of the project, which is in rough cut status, suggests a hands across the porn industry approach to aiding the ailing Ron Sullivan. But if you check out the boxcover art, Lynn, standing on a pedestal, holding the world over her head, is looking like some Emmy award or bowling trophy.
As the boxcover would give that impression, Deloras Sullivan says the whole thing’s become a Lynn vanity project.
[In a subsequent conversation I had with art director Ron West, West tells me that this boxcover isn’t set in stone. “Amber came to me and said we have a deadline, we don’t have a picture, what can we do? We were under serious time constraints to get an ad in to meet the dealine. There was never anything that it’s all about Amber. It was very important to her that everyone involved got equal credit for donating their services.”]
Meanwhile, I spoke to Deloras and Jason Sullivan while Ron was listening in. He can no longer speak.
“I’m pissed,” Deloras is saying. “This girl and Bill Margold- I don’t know what they think they’re doing. I really don’t. A lot of people, including Ron’s sons shot all day, they worked their asses off and put up with Amber’s crap.”
“This is not about her- this could not have been done without Ron’s credibility,” Deloras continues. “His clout is what got this thing done and this is why people persevered. This is just sad.”
My puzzlement in the whole matter was why choose to do a video project knowing the red tape and delays, when money was an immediate issue to paying Sullivan’s bills. There were other ways to go besides a movie.
“The reason why Ron said to go forward was Paul Fishbein told Amber that he would talk to Vivid and put the deal together,” explains Deloras.
“That’s what we agreed to. Based on the fact that there was a distributor in play, we said yes. So it went forwards. There were a host of technical people that came out of the woodwork to do this. These guys are not cheap and they did it.”
“Amber then brought Bill Margold on, but this was not part of the deal,” continues Deloras.
“Amber was supposed to be a producer. I guess she wanted to sharpen and hone her skills. That’s a reasonable thing. Everything was fine until she disappeared. Then she showed up and said she got some B-movie role. Then she started in with the language about Vivid. Bullshit. She started changing the deal and making shit up as we went along. Now the movie can’t get to Vivid and they’re ready to leave. They don’t want the deal any more.”
The last time I spoke to Lynn, Paul Thomas had yet to direct his scene as part of the project. But Jason Sullivan says Thomas finally did which was the time Vivid still was on board.
“I spoke to Steve Hirsch when we shot that scene,” says Jason. “He was very open to how ever we wanted to work this out. He just didn’t want to have Amber in post production driving everybody crazy. But he was happy to do this for Ron. Steve made it clear that she was not to be involved in post production, not to be standing over everyone’s shoulder.”
“She also wanted Paul Thomas out of it,” Deloras reveals.
According to Jason, Steve Hirsch used Thomas as interference to keep Lynn out of his hair.
“Steve Hirsch didn’t want to give her access to himself,” adds Deloras. “She’s a nutcase.”
“We came to the conclusion that her intent from the very beginning was self-indulgence,” says Jason. “She was using Ron as a means to create this show so she could promote herself.”
“But then Amber didn’t do her job- and that was to turn in the paperwork,” says Deloras Sullivan. “She tried to manipulate Vivid. She’s trying to tell them how they’re supposed to do things. They didn’t want to deal with her.”
“Steve Hirsch made it very clear that he was not interested in having a conversation with Amber Lynn,” adds Jason.
“They were doing this for Ron. They knew it would take time to recoup the money for this. I expressed that maybe it would be in our best interest to put it up for bid and give it to another vendor who was willing to buy it outright.”
Regardless of issues of money, Deloras Sullivan says the main problem is getting the movie to Vivid. For now, Sullivan has the rough cut and Lynn has the releases.
“We don’t want to do anything without the releases,” says Jason.
“But she wants the movie because she’s claiming that it’s hers,” adds Deloras.
“It’s not. It could never have happened without Ron’s clout. No one’s going to show up performing for nothing for Amber Lynn. Ron can’t produce his own benefit movie.”
Sullivan said also she’s fine and very happy with the work Jeff Mullen of X-Play and David Sutton of VCX have done in supporting the cause.
But, according to Sullivan, what made matters worse is the fact that Lynn went ahead and attached an amendment to the Vivid deal.
“It declares PAW and Amber Lynn as the producers and the interim, temporary caretakers of the custodian of records,” explains Jason.
According to Deloras Sullivan, Vivid bowed out when Lynn delivered her “ridiculous” amendment.
“And I don’t even know why Bill’s chiming in with his slimy ass,” says Deloras. “And she keeps making shit up as she goes along. You should see the e-mails back and forth.”
Where Lynn really paints herself in the corner was her comment in an e-mail to me that the boxcover had yet to be shot when lo, and behold, there it is.
“And you saw the picture?” says Deloras Sullivan who sent the boxcover to me.
“They lie and they don’t remember. It really is incredible.”
My personal opinion is that the present screwed up state of affairs is not arrived at from malice as much as ineptitude. Deloras will agree to that, but adds the word “sociopath”.
“It fits these guys to a T,” she says. “It’s ridiculous. I couldn’t stand it. I had to scream out today. These guys aren’t letting go. They’re like suckerfish.”
“Bill realizing that Amber needed guidance was an opportunist and invited himself to coach her and help her and take her side of things,” comments Jason.
“He did raise the money for the ‘Fund’ and some of that did go into the insurance and permit to create the shoot.”
Deloras says a friend of Ron’s also chipped in $500 and gave it to Lynn to meet pre-production costs.
“She claims she came out of her own pocket for the tapes, permit and insurance which is bullshit,” states Deloras. “This crap comes out of her mouth as the day goes on.”
Mwanwhile, Jason’s trying to get a hold of a couple of attorneys to work out a deal where Vivid forwards the license, copyrights and obligations in Ron Sullivan’s name.
“And then we can have all the model releases forwarded to him and they can free and clear. Amber can leave her model release out it and we can re-shoot whatever needs to be done to complete this film without her.”
“We just want her to get out of it,” says Deloras.
“And we want to make it easy for Steve Hirsch and free him from any liability and obligations,” adds Jason.
“If Amber had given Vivid the model releases, Vivid would still have been in this deal,” Deloras thinks.
“But she wants a signed deal from them,” Jason hastens to point out.
“She wants a deal from Vivid giving her creative control,” chimes in Deloras.
“She wants them reporting every dime. She wants them opening their books and all these crazy demands that have nothing to do with her. You can’t tell people how to do their job. They’re the distributor, let them do their job.”
“Vivid had been on board with this from the very beginning,” points out Jason. “They just weren’t going to deal with Amber.”
“And she was shopping outside deals,” adds Deloras. “This is not her job. She’s really overreaching and lying about it. I’m fed up with it.”
Jason feels that part of Lynn’s problem was probably the fact that Vivid wasn’t giving her carte blanche on the post production end.
“It’s not her job to tell them how to do things,” huffs Deloras. “That’s what they do as a business. They know what’s going to work.”
“Paul Thomas made that very clear to her,” says Jason. “He said they’re qualified to make the decisions and for her to stay out of their hair. She would get an opportunity to sign off on it. But they don’t want directors hanging around the editing rooms. They don’t need that. If I directed a picture it would be the same thing.”
“And she’s never really done those things,” Deloras points out.
“She wouldn’t know how to look at a rough cut. She’s really destroyed what this thing was about in the first place.”