Today Mike South writes on www.mikesouth.com: “I’m not going to say too much cept that I knew this was coming. Adultfyi broke the story today that Gram Ponante has contacted the police and is filing assault and battery charges against Kurt Lockwood. there is also mention of a civil suit.

Seeing the problems this is ging to cause her wannabe director Jennifer James is now trying her best to cover her ass. Had she been a real Director instead of a Kurt Lockwood bitch, she wouldn’t be in this predicament. There’s a reason more than half the studios in Porn Valley will NOT shoot Lockwood.

Her desperation on adultfyi shows in inconsistent statements to Gene as well as speculation and comments attributed to LAPD that I highly doubt LAPD made.

I think Gram is doing the right thing here, it’s high time someone clipped Lockwoods wings and Gram chose to do it legally. He has my full support.

Jennifer honey, you brought this on yourself and on egoist, the producer and everyone else, simply because you couldn’t do your job. You aren’t a director…you are a liability now.”

Gene sez: This is the second time in a week that South has called James on the carpet which is his prerogative. Except now James has elected to voice her response through me which I guess makes me her bitch. In any event, James obviously takes issue with South’s casting bricks at her glass directorial house. Overall, James thinks South’s comments are “ridiculous.”

However, I have to make one point in all of this, and it’s on James’ behalf. She didn’t have much choice in the matter as far as replacing Lockwood with another performer. The movie, eXXXtra, eXXXtra was written specifically for Lockwood. So it’s not a clear matter of bringing someone else in from the bullpen. James either had to use Lockwood or junk the whole project.

“That’s the whole point,” says James. “Who am I going to replace him with? Nick Manning? This was written specifically for Lockwood.” James then asks this question:

“How many features has Mike South shot lately? How many big budget features has he done? This one had a lot of money on the line. And my job is to bring in the best movie I can. I’m sorry about Gram. I invited him and it wasn’t my decision to throw him off the set. But since I invited Gram personally, I was deemed as the one to tell him personally. Brian Scott [who owns Egoist] made the decision. It was his movie. I’m just a director for hire and he made the final call. And in the end I think it was the right call.

“But I got to tell you, if it had been my decision, I still would have thrown Gram off the set,” James contends. “Sorry about that, Gram. I’d love to have you on the set but my first priority is to get the movie finished.

“I’m shooting a six sex scene, 25-page script, seven or eight set ups, 90-minute broadcastable feature in two days,” James continues. “I don’t have a lot of options. This isn’t a gonzo scene like Mikey used to shoot. This is a feature. It’s all got to work.”

In an earlier posting about James, South states the following: “The number one rule for a Director is that you never ever ever let talent run your shoot.”

“Talent didn’t run the shoot,” James responds. “But if you’re a director and you have a financier and an executive producer, they probably do run the set. I’m God on my set except for the guy that writes the checks. If that makes me a whore, I’m sorry.”

Although she’s ducking line drives off of South’s bat, James admits this story is certainly keeping her name in the news.

“I would have preferred something else to being infamous but I’ll take infamous,” she laughs.

South also states in an earlier James post: “instead of maintaining control of her set she [James] let Kurt Lockwood run it. Proving she is NOT a Director, at best she is simply there to make suggestions.”

“You’ve probably been on a few of my sets,” says James. “I think I probably do a bit more than make suggestions.”

South:”It’s called professionalism Jennifer, try it sometime maybe you too can be a real Director someday.”

“Like him?” asks James. “Good God almighty. His attitude about talent is probably why all the best people want to work with him.”

South: “When Ii am the Director that fucking set is mine and its my way or the fucking highway, I will never be run over by cast or crew.”

“Wow, wouldn’t it be fun working for that guy?” James asks. “Wouldn’t he be a joy to work with? Goodness gracious. The thing is my cast and crew always have fun and love working for me.

“This was about making a movie, telling a story, not just a bunch of fuck scenes for content in a crappy gonzo,” James continues. “It was a real movie. If he’s ever been on a real movie set, he’d find out on a real movie it’s a group effort. Everybody makes the movie, not just the director. Everybody on set- your crew, your talent. And my job is to keep everybody moving in the same direction. I don’t have to be a dictator to do it. I can get people to do what I want them to do without acting like an asshole. People do what they want to do- they don’t do it out of threats and demands because you have a massive ego. The people that worked on eXXXtra, eXXXTra? That was a helluva cast.”

James notes that Nikki Benz chose that project to do her last boy-girl scene for any director [other than Benz’s own company].

“She wanted to do a scene and she did it with Nick Manning and Kelly Wells,” states James. “You got to go, wow, that’s pretty cool. And Sunny Lane doesn’t do all that many movies. We got a great cast and all those people can work for whoever they want. They don’t have to work for me. I think that makes the difference. I have a great crew and a great cast. Those people are there because they want to be. That’s how you get a great movie. This will probably be a $50,000, $60,000 picture when it’s all said and done. How many sixty grand movies has Mike South done?”

“Not that Mike South particularly liked me,” James continues, “it appears that he’s decided to set his sights on me. We were at least civil at one time. I had met him once or twice. But he must think I’m worthy of an attack. For years and years, nobody knew who the hell I was. Now there’s a scandal around every corner.”

I suggest to James that she immediately jump on it and do a movie about this incident.

James also notes that in an e-mail to Egoist’s Brian Scott, Gram Ponante apparently refers to Egoist as running a dangerous set.

“I thought, boy, there’s a great advertisment,” says james. “We want to be known as the most dangerous set in porn.”