On August 3, Adultfyi tipped the hand that there was going to be a lawsuit filed against Defiance Films by Metro. In fact, I ask Kelly Erickson about it since she was the one caught in the middle of it. The lawsuit came down last Monday. Here’s Erickson commenting:
Asked about her Metro situation, Erickson says there are obviously some people who are not too pleased with her. “It basically comes down to I quit being paid so I quit working,” she says. “Which seems fair to me.” Erickson explains a scenario that involves overlapping tests and timelines.
“I worked on April 18th- I did a scene with three people that day,” she explains. “I was scheduled to work a week later. I got my test back- because I went and had it done two days before I was supposed to work. I got my test back and it was inconclusive for Gonorrhea. I’m freaking out because I never had anything. This is fucking great. I was on set and we had this test faxed in. The director comes up and says it’s inconclusive, you can’t work. I’m like, fine. I leave and go to pick up my paycheck a couple of days later, and they refused to pay me because they said I refused to work. They expected me to still work on the set because I still had a test that was good from a couple days earlier that was good until the end of that month.
“So even though I got an inconclusive test back, they expected me to go ahead and work with the test that still said I was okay,” Erickson continues. “They said because you still had an STD test that said you were clean, go ahead and use that and we’ll pretend like we never saw this other one. There was no way. So I went to get my pay check and they won’t pay me- they said you refused to do this scene. That’s fine. I got hold of a lawyer. She said to make demands for payment. I made demands for payment. They said they would pay me if I signed papers promising I’ll work whenever they want me to work. Whatever, whatever. It just turned into a bunch of bullshit, Finally I said I’m not going to come in and beg for a paycheck. I had been with them for three years and every paycheck I ever got I’ve had to beg for.”
It was noted that Gauge walked out of Metro with over 90 grand to the good, having only done three scenes, and that Ann Marie just walked.
“But here I am going through actual legal issues with them,” says Erickson who’s contract with Metro expires the end of this month. But there’s even a bone of contention involving that.
“I’m going through arbitration now,” says Erickson. “I’ve got all my witnesses. I’ve got all my paperwork. I’ve got all my pay stubs. I’ve got paperwork.”
Erickson explained that her original contract was for a certain amount of money, with raises upon renewal. She claims she never got the raises. “I would bitch and argue with them, and they’d say it’ll be taken care of.” Asked why she continued under those conditions, Erickson said, well, she still needed her paycheck.
Erickson’s also received a default letter stating that she can’t direct, perform or have anything to do with any other company that could be in direct competition.
“This is bullshit that you can’t work,” says Erickson. “You’re sitting around waiting.”
Now we have more commentary offered on the suit in the person of “Poison Pen”.
The Poison Pen Writes in on www.lukeford.com: Metro goombah, excuse me, um, poobah, Kenny G. is at it again. At this point in his porn career apparently extortion and filing false claims are old hat for good ‘ol boy Guarino. Let me explain… Kenny G. first tried extorting product out of his former employee Joey Wilson, now head of 3rd Degree. He wanted product for his profitable brick-and-mortar stores. You see, Metro has fallen off the porn landscape and Kenny G. now makes most of his bank from his stores scattered throughout the country. So Kenny G. wanted these pieces “on the house” or he would file a frivolous lawsuit against Joey and 3rd Degree and attempt to bury him under the pressure of mounting legal fees until he gave in. Faced with the expense of starting up a studio, Wilson settled with Guarino for undisclosed terms.
His latest strong-arm, extortion plot is against the good people of Defiance Films, who employ my lovely Editor-In-Chief, Taylor Rain. Kenny G(oombah) is trying to pull the same shit again. He is alleging his former contract girl; Kelly Erickson has breached her Metro contract by working for Defiance Films. I guess Kenny constitutes being curled up and napping on the Defiance Films couch, work.
The second claim states that Anthony Simone and Keith O’Connor “induced” Matrix and Norman Bentley to breech their distribution contract, wow… considering Metro breaches contracts daily by failing to pay on time or failing to pay AT ALL, it’s simply more BS from Guarino and the BOZO CFO they employ Les Rich. In any event Kenny G. has barked up the wrong tree here. The lawsuit absolutely has no merit, and in fact, the day it was filed Kenny G. emailed Defiance asking if they would like to take the path of settling.
Hmm, where have a heard that before? Ask Cytherea how well Metro pays, ask anyone who shot for Michael Adams lately, ask photographer Tod Todd, ask anyone!!! Metro has established a PATTERN of screwing directors and performers out of money. Metro/Guarino have also established another interesting pattern. Guarno loves to blame his former employees for the fuckups at Metro, but close inspection would instead point the finger at Guarino himself. Sure he owns the company and can run it into thr ground if he so chooses or use it as a filtering place. But facts are facts.
Greg Alves – Former Metro Boss – Present owner of Zero Tolerance, one of the leaders in the adult business, outselling Metro 4 to 1.
Rick Williams – Former Metro Boss – Present owner of Black Widow Productions, a very stable company that distributes their own product and other companies product, outselling Metro 3 to 1.
Joseph Wilson – Former Metro Boss – Present owner of 3rd Degree Films, one of the fast rising companies in adult today, outselling Metro 3 to 1.
Keith O’Connor – Former Metro Boss – Present head of production for Defiance Films, shipping product for 3 months and already seen as an industry powerhouse, outselling Metro 3 to 1.
So, in Guarino’s world, 4 incompetent managers who didn’t know what they were doing. In the REAL world, 4 people who once rid of the Guarino burden went off and successfully started and continue to run 4 completely separate successful entities. Look in the mirror Guarino, YOU are the problem. Be a man and take responsibility, by blaming everyone else under the sun who goes off and becomes successful you make yourself look like a jackass. And the intimidation tactics against O’Connor and Simone won’t work, “I’ll send some east coast guys over to their house and show them how we handle things”, that won’t work with these two, instead it would get shoved right up Guarino’s ass!
Don’t expect Defiance to stand for Kenny G.’s bullish and illegal tactics. Metro is on the verge of collapse. They have no more contract girls, there are kickbacks all over the place, their product doesn’t sell and sexual harassment accusations are flying all over the place. Plus, rumor has it that a certain company is about to hit Metro and Guarino with a 20 Million Dollar suit that will shut down their websites and their production company. More on that later, faithful LukeFord.com readers…