Tod Hunter on www.tod-hunter.net writes: Paul [Fishbein, AVN president] produced “The Money Shot,” a failed sitcom that he tried to give away on the Internet and nobody wanted it.
Gene sez: This might be the one instance where karma was waiting to bite King Smut in the ass. The Money Shot was an idea of mine based on a porn movie I wrote in the early Nineties about a fictional day in the life of AVN. It was called Adult Video Nudes, a project celebrating AVN’s Tenth Anniversary. Scotty Fox directed it. And it stars Peter North, Tony Tedeschi, Kelly O’Dell, Rebecca Bardeaux, the late Alex Jordan, Alicia Rio, Nick East and Ron Jeremy who plays a Mark Kernes character. The movie was released by VCA Pictures.
The success of cable in the early Nineties with such series as a Dream On which began using liberal doses of nudity prompted my thinking that cable TV might also be ready for a series based on the adult industry.
And the fact that Seymore Butts is in the middle of such a series on Showtime is no mere coincidence, let me assure you. I first brought the idea to the attention of King Smut to see what he thought of it. If his resounding lack of enthusiasm was any indication, it was apparent that my interests would be best served elsewhere.
From there, it developed that my contact to take the Money Shot project to the next step was pure happenstance. This was in the person of a gentleman named Richard Ladd who I first met at the AVN awards show the year it was held at Caesar’s Palace. Ladd, who arrived late for the show, didn’t have a ticket and was trying to get in. He introduced himself at the door. In name-dropping, he dropped one that certainly caught my attention that of Alan Ladd Jr. In our quick exchange of handshakes I didn’t have the opportunity to grill Ladd about his pedigree but his rugged resemblance to Alan Ladd Sr. was certainly more convincing than that of Alan Ladd, Jr. who among other things produced such movies as Braveheart.
Ladd thanked me profusely for pulling some strings and gave me his business card indicating if I ever needed a favor in return. Hey, why not. So I would call Ladd [his office was in San Francisco] on occasion and we talked about the possibility of doing something with The Money Shot. But it wasn’t until the year following in Vegas for the next award show that we’d sit down and chat. My take on the whole idea was if it happened fine, if it didn’t, so what.
My recollection is that I was even willing to share if this thing ever became a reality. So I held an informal, after work hours dinner meeting with the AVN staff to see if anyone would be interested in working on this project should I get something going with Richard Ladd.
By this time, also, Bryn Pryor had been brought in by me as managing editor of AVN. Pryor’s claim to fame is that he had been in some kind of TV commercial and had been screwed by Elliot Segal of the old Western Visuals porn company for a bunch of cash. And, while there was no compelling reason on my part, I invited Pryor out of respect to the meeting at Caesar’s Palace which involved Ladd and two of his people. The meeting was cordial but non-committal.
And by the sheerest of coincidences, Seymore Butts began making announcements at the trade show that he was going to be doing a cable series called The Money Shot. But, wait, it gets better. My recollection is that I had a somewhat unpleasant conversation with Seymore about that subject when we all got back to Los Angeles. In the meantime, I was told by a few people that Pryor had been talking to Butts about my project which- would have made sense- because I don’t think Seymore just picked that title along with a cable project to boot out of his ass. Along with that, I was to later discover that The Money Shot was no longer in my hands. Evidently.
However it wasn’t Seymore running with The Money Shot ball. I do know that Pryor began taking it upon himself to contact Ladd- a move which I found to be a bit presumptuous all things considered. Then I’m being informed that Ladd’s not going to do anything with it and that Pryor is going to run it by some contacts he has in the mainstream. Well, gee whiz. Then, all of a sudden, The Money Shot is now becoming a movie project and I’m going what the fuck especially when a thick movie script shows up on my desk casting, of all things, Pryor as the romantic lead in a comedy that’s as funny as a dead mule. A role has also been written in the movie for Pryor’s buddy Rebecca Gray, an AVN staff member who subsequently distinguished herself by writing, under a pseudonym, the movie Seven Deadly Sins which AVN went on to pick as movie of the year.
By now I’m seeing the jackals swirling over the carcass, and I want no parts of what’s becoming an in-fight to wrest control of what was to me, in the beginning, a casual, fun project that I had initiated. And I remember some of those meetings where I’m being informed by people that I hired at the magazine, that, don’t worry, I’ll get some form of credit in all this.
Many years ago when I worked for Philadelphia advertising legend Jerry Gray, I always meant to ask him what it was like to have been booted from his own company Gray & Rogers but I never got around to it. But, suddenly I grasped what might have been his answer.
The Money Shot project now gets King Smut involved, but I’m at the point where I really don’t give a shit. I just want out of this organization entirely. This being the next to the last straw, the final one being the infamous Rebecca Gray e-mail that attempted a palace coup of the editorial department.
As for The Money Shot, it became this gross Internet spectacle and died the death it deserved in the hands of people who obviously had no respect for honor and fair play.