US Sex Sells News

AVN has been following up the appearance of a new DVD label specialising in release classic XXX films.

The label is released through the long established classics distributor Distribpix. Steve Morowitz of Distribpix explained more about Sweetheart Theatres:

Distribpix is pretty much synonymous with classic New York erotica, preserving it as well as being filmmakers and such. But besides producing films and distributing, they also owned theaters, which was a big part of it all. They had theaters all over the place, including Times Square, but also upstate New York and other states as well, and they called it the Sweetheart Theatre chain.

Morowitz, whose company archives contain about 160 negatives for classic XXX films along with, he said, tons of exploitation stuff, has been mulling over new ways to release the classics in a market that's quickly shifting away from physical DVDs and diving deep into video-on-demand--and he thinks he's hit on a new marketing idea.

The Sweetheart Theatre thing is really kind of unique, Morowitz explained, because you might ask, what is the criterion for a Sweetheart Theater release? Really, just anything that's X-rated. Sweetheart Theatre releases will be the same exact movies that would have played at these Sweetheart theaters.

For example, in 1977, Bill Lustig, who went on to do Maniac and all these wonderful films, and who I'm somewhat close with--we have a very good relationship and I've licensed some mainstream stuff to him that I've owned--so I own these two films that he made under the director name 'Billy Bagg' before he ever made his horror films. They were his directorial debut, and from a historical point of view, these really helped him to make films and become who he is. So we thought, since Violation of Claudia was really Sharon Mitchell's first movie, and it premiered at the World in 1977, and the following year, the other film played at the Royal, though it didn't premiere there, we thought it'd be a great double featur

Porn veteran Larry Flynt is celebrating the 40th birthday of his X-rated magazine Hustler. He told AFP:

I'm the largest content provider in the world for adult material, (operating in) 60-70 countries and still growing.

While celebrating his magazine's four decades in print, he admits it is struggling, with circulation down from a peak of around three million during its heyday to a couple of hundred thousand today , according to a Hustler spokesman. Flynt added:

Publishing is not good .. for anybody in America because Internet is replacing print. We'll continue the magazine as long as it is profitable. Then we'll go online.

Hustler's website doesn't make much money either, competing with a tsunami of hardcore porn online which is often free, and made by amateurs. His business' future lies above all in TV porn channels and on-demand videos, but also in Hustler-themed sex accessory and clothing stores and casinos, which he is opening everywhere. In fact so much so that Flynt claimed;

We're having our best year this year.

Philadelphia officials have decided not to keep appealing in court to revive the lap dance tax.

The 30-day window to file an appeal has officially passed since Judge Ellen Ceisler ruled Philadelphia cannot impose its entertainment tax on what goes on inside strip clubs. The tax already applies to cover charges at the clubs.

Attorney George Bochetto represents two of the strip clubs the city unsuccessfully targeted for collection of the lap dance tax . He explained:

The fact of the matter is they had no authority to impose this kind of new tax in the manner they attempted to do so. It doesn't mean they aren't entitled to seek the additional taxes, but they just can't do it by unilaterally imposing it.

If the city wants to tax this activity, it would have to craft a new law. They are going to have to do in a manner that treats all types of interior entertainment equally. So it's potentially an issue that doesn't affect just gentlemen's clubs, but every place of entertainment in the city of Philadelphia.

kink is a 2013 USA biography by Christina Voros.
Starring Peter Acworth, Van Darkholme and Princess Donna.

The Promotional material reads:

Director Christina Voros and producer James Franco pull back the curtain on the fetish empire of Kink.com, the Internet's largest producer of BDSM content. In a particularly obscure corner of an industry that operates largely out of public view, Kink.com's directors and models strive for authenticity. In an enterprise often known for exploitative practices, Kink.com upholds an ironclad set of values to foster an environment that is safe, sane, and consensual. They aim to demystify the BDSM lifestyle, and to serve as an example and an educational resource for the BDSM community. In kink, we discover not only a fascinating and often misunderstood subculture, but also, in a career far from the mainstream, a group of intelligent, charismatic, and driven people who really, truly love what they do.

At kink.com, each performer's limits and boundaries are discussed and agreed on beforehand. The ideology, then, becomes that the actors are in control, that they dictate the limits of their sexual exploration. This film leads us to believe that this is what kink.com, and BDSM in general, is about; being brave and courageous and sexually curious enough to go places within a rulebook of pre-determined confines involving dominance and submissiveness (Choking is fine, but not the word bitch , someone gives as an example). Yes, she is being hammered with a device throttling at the speed of a machine gun, but, as all members of kink.com would point out, this is all consensual and, of course, stoppable.

There is no way to escape explicit images in a documentary on Internet pornography, and if private parts being threatened by electrical toys and pounding machines makes you squeamish, perhaps you should steer clear of this documentary (or just look away when something unpleasant ends up onscreen).

This level of authenticity is the hallmark of kink.com, a fetish empire where almost very conceivable sexual fantasy can exist. The actors and directors, all surprisingly normal, charismatic, and intelligent, pride themselves on the truthfulness of their twisted pornographic endeavors, and speak about their experiences in an almost artistic way.

...Read the full article

A bill that would have made it a criminal act to shoot pornography in California without condoms has been permanently shelved by the State Senate's Appropriations Committee.

The bill, introduced by SoCal Assemblyman Isadore Hall was intended to follow a similar law enacted in Los Angeles County

Adult industry folk have argued over the last several months, the bill was attempting to address a problem that had already been solved almost a decade ago within the industry itself via extensive STI testing regimes. As porn model Lorelei Lee and others reiterated before the Senate committee last week, no model has been infected with HIV on a porn set since 2004.

The bill, AB 1576, was essentially conceived by the well-funded, anti-porn campaigners of the Los Angeles-based AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) .

And while no one debates the importance of condoms in the ongoing fight to stop the spread of HIV, condoms have never been widely used in straight porn and are increasingly disappearing in gay porn as well, because consumers seem to prefer the condom-free fantasy.

AB 1576 was put in suspense as of last week , and now the committee decided it should stay there, voting that there was not budget to feasibly implement it, essentially killing it.

The good and decent folk of New Castle in Ohio have been protesting outside a local den of iniquity known as the New Beginnings Ministries.

Six fine upstanding strippers, who work at a club called Foxhole North, took part in a short topless protest march that went from the corner of Railroad and Church streets to the edge of the New Beginnings parking lot, where they set up lawn chairs and waited for the people of dubious morals to enter for Sunday services.

It wasn't the first time the women had protested, but this time, they were joined by about 30 more citizens, most of whom sat across the street from the church entrance or marched in front of it, holding protest signs. Two of the club workers remained topless for the length of the protest.

The strippers were protesting at the unchristianlike behaviour exhibited by the church congregation as they previously picketed the strip club. Thomas George, Foxhole North's owner explianed:

We want to let [church members] know how it feels to be under scrutiny. They come up every weekend. They're very abusive and certainly not Christian-like, not what I read in my Bible. I have to point out the hypocrisy I see and not stand by and let this go on week in and week out.

I don't have a problem with people expressing their First Amendment rights, but at what point does it become harassment?

George said that at least twice he'd filed injunctions to have the church protesters stay at least 100 feet away from his club, but both requests were denied---so George decided to take matters into his own hands.

The church erected a tarpaulin between the entrance and the strippers lest their congregation catch a sight of the dancers and get struck down by a bold of lightning

It has been known as the nation's porn capital for years, but if recent film-permit records are to be believed, fewer than three adult movies a month are being made in Los Angeles County this year. Last year 40 adult filmmakers took out permits, compared with 485 in 2012, the last year before the mandatory condoms ordinance took effect.

So where are those hundreds of films available for instant download on the Internet coming from? Many are still coming from right here, say industry officials, acknowledging that when Los Angeles County voters cracked down on filmmakers in November 2012 with an ordinance requiring that actors use condoms, quite a few filmmakers went underground.

Mark Kernes, senior editor at Adult Video News explains:

A lot are simply shooting in out-of-the-way places where they won't be caught. Normally it's in people's homes who are willing to rent them out for a day. Sometimes it's out in the woods. There are vacation cabins far away from anything that you can shoot a movie at.

Others have traveled outside of Los Angeles County, either to neighboring counties or sometimes even out of state. Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an industry advocacy group, said she knows of a handful that have moved to Las Vegas, although none want to be mentioned by name for fear of bringing condom activists after them.