Porn Valley- Mitch Spinelli, owner of Rain Video www.rainvideo.com; www.acidrain.com and the gorgeous Alicia Rhodes, www.adorealicia.com – who appears in Spinelli’s upcoming feature Bust My Hole were guests on KSEX’s The Wanker Show Friday night.
Wankus had been talking about some of the bad weather L.A. has been having recently and Rhodes, who’s from England said try living there sometime.
Wankus, who’s been in the business about three years, readily admitted that he was scant on the Spinelli legend- Mitch’s father being the late Anthony Spinelli who’s credited with directing some of the greatest adult movies of all time including High School Memories, Sex World, Nothing to Hide and Talk Dirty to Me. “I know you’re a legend,” Wankus told Mitch. “I know that you’re very well known in the industry, but I don’t know much about you. I just want to say up front, I have no fucking clue.”
“I cater food,” Spinelli said dryly. “That’s about it.” Mitch talked a little bit about his father. “If you go back to the origins, he pretty much invented the video feature- guys like John Leslie, Randy West, Joey Silvera were kids. He was their mentor. It was the golden age and I wrote all his stuff back then.” Mitch started at a tender age writing what became some classic scripts like Nothing to Hide.
“That was the origins,” Mitch continued. “My father opened the doors for a lot of actors who are well known today.” Spinelli observed that a lot of porn companies operating today are second generation and that Vivid’s Steve Hirsch also grew up, similarly, in the industry.
“If my dad was a carpenter, I would have taken over the shop,” said Spinelli, who expressed no regrets in following in his father’s footsteps. Spinelli is also married and a father. “You know what the perception is- that we’re drug addicts. But this is a family business,” he said. “My mother works in the office. We’ve got about 12 employees and it’s a source of income. It’s a dichotomy. There’s a perception- but the perception’s usually wrong. We’re candle light, slow music… and an orgy.” To that extent, Spinelli said he wasn’t re-living his life through his film work. “You need a sense of normality no matter what you do.”
Wankus was quick to agree about mistaken perceptions concerning the adult business. “There are a large number of people who have their head together,” he noted. “I’m talking about talent and behind the scenes people. I’m talking about girls who don’t use drugs; girls that are smart as a whip, girls that are just in this business because they are either, a) they enjoy the activity or b) they enjoy the business opportunity. I will never, ever say the comments I used to say five years ago before I was involved in this business. There are some stereotypical types that people trash but, in general, there’s a lot of good people in the adult industry.”
Spinelli was quick to concede that the nature of sleaze is still there. “It’s what we do, but you try to do the best you can and carry yourself with dignity. I’m going to salute now if you don’t mind.”
Asked if he had any inclinations to swing, Spinelli said, no and wasn’t really interested, that his wife has been to the set a couple of times. “It’s all business and it’s a long day.” Spinelli did acknowledge the fact that he broke his cherry on one of his father’s sets. As far as watching videos goes, Spinelli said he does so to keep track of the competition but not, in any sense, for turn on purposes.
Spinelli’s current video line Acid Rain is the latest in changes he’s made over the years to keep up with the times. “The content is harder, quicker; it’s in your face.” Wankus read off some of the titles like Give Me Gape and Bang My White Ass. “Four years of college- can you believe it?” Mitch said. Wankus mentioned that from what he’s been reading those titles are pretty intense.
“Because that’s what happening,” said Spinelli. “You look at television. It’s stuff like Fear Factor; it’s Boiling Point and MTV. It’s in your face. Bang ’em until they bleed, which is a good title.” Wankus said tongue-in-cheek that KSEX rules grant an automatic copyright if mentioned first on the air.
Asked if he ran into any issues over a title like Bang My White Ass, Spinelli said years ago there were places in the country that you couldn’t see a title like that to. “Black guy with white girls they wouldn’t take it. Now it’s common place. It’s entertainment. It’s a niche.”
Rhodes said hers was a pretty cool scene in Bust My Hole. “It was a hard scene- anal, of course. I got fucked pretty hard.” But Rhodes said this was nothing new to her, that she gets a pretty hard pounding in every scene she does, readily admitting that she was nasty and kinky. “I like the hard stuff-definitely.”
Asked if her family was supportive of her career, Rhodes said they were. “My mom is very proud of what I’m doing,” she said. “She knows exactly what I do. She’s very cool.” Rhodes said her mother’s seen her boxcovers and pictures.”Commenting on changes in the industry, particularly in content, Spinelli noted that the girls are young and prettier. “They do nastier things at a young age. Back in the days an anal was taboo. If they did an anal, it was a couple of minutes and everybody was apologizing. But now if you don’t do anal it’s hard to get work.”
Wankus asked Spinelli’s opinion on the idea that the industry has changed for the worse and gotten out of control. “It’s not as respectful as it was before if you can even say that about the porn industry.”
Spinelli said his correlation is like TV today. “It’s all reality TV. Back then you made movies. Back then it cost $300,000 to $500,000 which today is $5 m. You had trained actors. Leslie and those guys were trained actors. Kids started in their middle 20’s, late 20’s. Today as soon as they reach 18. But you got to embrace the change,” Spinelli advised. “If you’re stuck at a certain point, you miss it. You’re a dinosaur.”
Spinelli said the prospect of government intervention will always be scary. “The reason my father took Spinelli is because back then they were arresting people. It took a guy like Hal Freeman who took it all the way to the Supreme Court. They were going to arrest him for pandering, indict him for pandering. But he beat it. It’s a Fear Factor for sure with the mood.
As for herself, Rhodes said she always wanted to become a Page 3 girl. “Which in England is our national newspaper. There’s a nude girl on page 3 and I always looked at those since I was a young girl.” Rhodes, however, said she never made it. “They don’t use porn girls.” Rhodes said she got into the glamour industry at first. “Then I was offered a boy-girl shoot [in London]. I decided to go for it. I worked in London for two years before I came to America.”Rhodes said if you know where to look for work, there’s plenty of it in England.
“I worked five to six days a week for two years before I even came here.” Rhodes said she heard so many things about the companies in America and how good they are to work for. “I had seen all the movies and I wanted to come out here and see what it was like. I’ve been doing really well since I got here. This is my third time over in America. I’ve made probably 18 to 19 movies so far and I’m enjoying it very much.”
Spinelli said another positive thing about Rhodes is that she gets to the set on time. So far Rhodes hasn’t had any bad experiences, she said. “Of course there’s long days and sometimes you don’t get along with the person you’re working with. But all in all I’ve had really good experiences. And I’ve always had fun out here.” The only thing that Rhodes would call a negative is if the guy she’s working with can’t get wood.
On that issue, Spinelli said he uses guys that work all the time because they can. “If you get those guys [who can’t] you call time out and they go home.” Rhodes said if anyone’s seen her scenes they know that she likes to work quickly and get fucked hard and do a really good scene. Wankus said you have to give credit to guys who can get hard on command. “it’s definitely a lot of pressure and a lot of guys looking at you. The lights are hand. That’s not my thing. That’s why I do radio.”
Rhodes said she particularly likes working with Mike Stefano, Brandon Iron, and Sean Michaels. “They’re all really cool guys.” CoHo Katie Morgan agreed and said there’s probably only about 15 male performers who are worth a shit. Wankus was trying to get Rhodes to name names of guys she’d never want to work with again. “There’s been a few but they’ve made it up to me since then,” she said.
Rhodes did admit that she has a boyfriend who’s been very cool about her career. “He travels with me. He’s a very cool guy.” Rhodes, however, said he doesn’t come on the sets. Wankus said he liked him already. Rhodes didn’t think her boyfriend would be inclined to watch her having sex with other guys. Off camera, Rhodes said she’s pretty normal but that her boyfriend is crazier than her. “He’s a bigger nympho than me.”
Similar to Spinelli, Rhodes and her boyfriend aren’t inclined to swing, she said. “I’m sure he’d like some of the girls but at the moment we’ll keep it as it is.” Rhodes said she’d also be fine if he wanted to get into the business. “As long as it’s work and it’s professional, then it’s all good with me. I do it so I can’t exactly turn around and tell him not to.”
Describing himself and Spinelli as “regular Joes” who work in the adult industry, Wankus asked Mitch whether the girl in the Ralph’s line offered more turn on potential. “I say in some cases, absolutely,” Spinelli eplied. For himself, Wankus said he’ll go to Ralph’s, see the checker, and all of sudden feels a rise in the pants. “It’s real and it’s not so accessible. I love it.”