Porn Valley- The late Jim Holliday called me on the announcement that Tim Connelly had been named AVN’s publisher.
“I guess Fish can’t be bothered with that any more,” surmised Holliday. “My confirmation came when I called [Jared] Rutter to see what was going to happen to an organization that I helped found- an organization I had nothing to do with when Rutter and Connelly decided to act like a couple of scared girlfriends when Jay Shanahan tried taking over the show.
“What had happened, Jenna started reading from Shanahan’s inaccurate script and was about to introduce Michael Raven who had already called me and said, hey man, I’m sorry. I can’t make it. Is that a problem? I said no I’ll just get some other presenter.” According to Holliday, there was a to do over the fact that Raven’s non-appearance never got into a revised script.
“Shanahan has refused to speak to me since,” says Holliday. “Then the following year they [XRCO] put Jake Steed into the Hall of Fame. Everybody has a story. This is my Cliff Note’s version. Jake Steed wanted to go into the Hall of Fame.” But, according to Holliday, Steed had also, allegedly, made some physical threats to bolster his case.
“When Rutter ran that by me I got furious,” Holliday says. “I called Jake and said, you’re more than welcome to go in in a couple of years. I calmed him down, but they decided to do it anyway to prevent a whoopin’.”
Having always made the point through the years that he thought the AVN sales charts were bogus, Holliday returns to the subject of AVN, noting that he had stopped writing for the magazine several years and that AVN always managed to minimize his accomplishments as a director.
“To them I was VCA’s director #8,” sniffed Holliday. “Apparently Tony [Lovett], Jane Hamilton], Whit Maverick, Chloe- most recently Chloe, Cass Paley, [Jim] Malibu and Fred Lincoln have all finished higher on the AVN sales charts than I have. You’re aware of the Hustler situation at VCA? There have been rumors that 24 big movies are going to be made a year. I was told I’m probably going to do half of them. Why would that be? Is Hustler a bottom line, by the numbers outfit? Are the people that make movies for $100,000 and sell 2200 copies, are those people history? But those people who make $100,000 movies and sell 2200 copies are in the AVN Top Ten. Whereas a schmoe [Holliday] shows up once at #17 and the schmoe made a movie for $35,000 and sold 2,800 on tape. This is tape, mind you out the door. Chloe is #4 and I’m #6 and I’ve outsold her 3 to 1. That’s enough to make me pissed off.”
Holliday referred to the new Hustler-run VCA as “a mom and pop conglomerate”.
“There are a bunch of little old ladies running it,” Holliday maintained. “There are things I have no clue about, like how well the former AVN publisher gets along with his ex wife [Kimberly Wilson] who refuses to speak to me.”
Changing swiftly to another subject, Holliday relates another story about how he got told off by “a gonzo girl” because he wasn’t where it was at, presumably. In his defense, Holliday said he told her that he was going to continue to make his “humble, shitty features” and keep on keeping on. Asked specifically what the girl’s comments were, Holliday said he was told that “cream pies are where it’s at, stupid”. When Holliday told her that she minimized her marketability, she told him who gives a shit. “Like I’m some dumb ass.”
Holliday goes on to say that a shooter for Red Light once looked at him like he was trash. “These guys with their lousy little $2,000 roll over deals, they make the movie for six, sell it for eight and they keep going.”
Holliday says when he heard the news about Connelly ascending the throne of AVN, he tried calling Jared Rutter to see what his reaction would be to the XRCO. “Now that his partner was an AVN boy.” [Bearing in mind that Rutter had yet to move over to AVN.]
“Does Jared throw in the towel? Does AVN eat up the XRCO? I’m just curious. I have nothing to do with the XRCO.”