Posted May 25, 2004: Porn Valley – Mr. Metro calls me.

Mr. Metro: I don’t know if it’s coincidence or what, but no sooner do you post the story about Kara and Skeeter Kerkove, www.bkmax.com having a blow out at Metro that it’s announced Kara’s being re-assigned to the corporate headquarters back east. Funny stuff.

And we’re beginning to wonder if Gauge didn’t set up her squabble with Metro to sell her movie Gauge Unchained in which she does a 15″ black guy. There’s a suspicion she might have a piece-of-the-action. If that’s the case, the controversy stirred up by Gauge certainly helped sell it out on the first day. Metro sold every copy. That’s unheard of. The guess is because she talked it up so much.

Gene sez: According to what AVN reports, Gauge took the hype to the convention floor in Las Vegas proclaiming that Metro neither pays their talent and shoots scene without proper PCR DNA testing. According to the story, Gauge was on the convention floor passing out flyers detailing her grievances against Metro and urging fans not to buy the company’s product.

Gauge is still holding to the claim that she was not paid for her work in Gauge Unchained and that Metro’s running an unauthorized website, www.xxxgauge.com for which she’s not receiving any compensation.

Les Rich, Metro’s corporate attorney and CFO, is quoted as saying: “Metro had paid Gauge a substantial amount of money for which it never received any performances.” [It’s been said that Metro paid Gauge in excess of $90,000 and she only did three scenes for that money.]

Gauge also claims she’s spent $20,000 on legal fees in a lawsuit against Metro that she filed in 2004. Rich says he’s unaware of any such lawsuit.

According to Rich, Gauge Unchained was acquired by Metro and its affiliates from or through Keith O’Connor, now of Defiance Films. “They were purchased free and clear of any claims,” says Rich. “When Gauge told Metro that O’Connor deceived and lied to her, Metro actually paid her monies for the movie, even though it didn’t have to.”

Gauge’s manager Syko Sun also claims that Metro purchased footage from O’Connor to make Gauge Exposed, for which Gauge has received no payment or royalties. Rich denies those claims stating that Gauge Exposed is not a Metro title and that he has no idea where that content came from and who released it.

Also, according to Rich, any agreements between the company and gauge regarding the xxxgauge.com site were terminated when Gauge defaulted on her agreement with Metro. Rich says he’s also unaware of gauge’s claims regarding proper testing.

The following is an interview I did with Gauge last year on many of these subjects:

Porn Valley- I spoke to Gauge late Saturday night and she addressed some of the controversial issues that she’s been mired in since her show on KSEX aired Friday night. Gauge, in abdicating her contract status with Metro that evening, made remarks critical of the company. And several Metro employees, including Metro’s attorney, have stepped up to the plate in response. Gauge, however, holds to her guns, and this is how the conversation went.

Gauge holds firm to the fact that she’s in the right. “I don’t know who the fuck suzi dressed for u is [one of the people who voiced criticism of Gauge on the Internet], but Metro did not do everything for me,” Gauge said.

Gauge: She said I’ve only done two sex scenes and six signings for a grand total of $70,000. That’s bullshit. I’ve done 24 signings. I’ve done all of them that are in my contract. Second, I don’t get paid per scene. I get paid per month. Production fell behind at Metro. After our last negotiation in December, we had a six month plan. There was a series that I was going to have. And never did I ask for a camera and a budget. I did ask to direct my own line. I did ask to have my own ideas expressed in a movie. Instead of them saying, hey, you do it on a couch, maybe I want to do it on a kitchen counter. I wanted to put it my own creativity.

On the Gauge Gone Wild movie, I wouldn’t allow it to be released because me and Keith O’Connor had filmed that before I was under contract. And I never got paid for that. He sold that movie without my permission to Metro. No, I was not going to have that released when I was not paid for it. However, I’m getting paid for it now and it’s going to be released. They have a whole new boxcover for it. They haven’t paid me in total. It comes in increments. But they probably won’t give me the rest. [she laughs]

This woman wrote that she only make 8 dollars an hour. She sounds like that 80% of Americans who hate their job. My man makes more on disability than this broad can working fucking overtime. She needs to shut up and quit fucking with the Local 13.

Regarding the comments from Metro’s attorney, I’m not being slanderous or anything. Because if that was the case, that means what I’m saying is not true and I do tell the fucking story. I have begged for meetings to get my own series to come out. And they are not shocked by my reactions. This January- after the renegotiations- I was promised to have a print out of the documentation of the activity of xxxgauge.com. Plus my percentage of the activity that comes from amazingdirect. I never got it. I never got a single thing. I never got the money from May to December that we negotiated on. They had a check but no paperwork to go along with it to show me that it was the correct amount. It was like, here, trust us, it’s $200. I pretty much ripped that up and threw it in their faces. I’m not going to take a check without proof to show me that’s how much I earned.

As far as I know they’re giving me one-sixteenth of what I earned. And I do treat people the same way I want to be treated. This is why I blew up at Metro.

In a conversation I had with Joey, I told him that I want to treat people the way I want to be treated but apparently Metro doesn’t want to be treated that good. I had my test ready to shoot on Saturday for Red Ezra. I go out and get a test. They’re saying they stopped paying me because Red said I didn’t confirm. The thing is my checks go out the 1st and 15th of every month. But the last check never went out on the 15th. They said they cut me off on the 18th because Red said I didn’t confirm. So what is it? The timeline doesn’t match up. If I was supposed to get paid on the 18th and Red said I didn’t confirm on the 15th then it would make sense. They were like you don’t have a current test and I said bullshit. I did have a test.

When I walked in there Friday, I told Neil I was very unhappy because they had reneged on obligations they had agreed on.

Gene: Did Jason call Neil [Persky] a cocksucker? [Gauge asks Jason off the phone if that was true, and Jason said he certainly did.]

Gauge: Yeah, he did. And Neil was sitting there being really rude. I told him I’m very unhappy here. You guys promised me documentation on all activity. You guys promised me that I would have my own series. And they’ve only done one photo shoot of me. It’s not like I haven’t done any scenes. Goddamn right I haven’t done any scenes because they haven’t booked them along with a photo shoot that I’ve been begging for. I told them I was very unhappy here. Then Neil says what are you still doing here. I said you know what, that’s what I’ve been asking myself the last fucking year.Gene: You said it’s the 1st and 15th that you get paid.

Gauge: Yes. And I haven’t been paid 70 grand. That’s a fucking lie. I wish.

Gene: Now do you get your check on the 15th or is it mailed out on the 15th?

Gauge: It’s mailed out on the 1st and the 15th. I’ve only picked up three or four checks, otherwise it’s been mailed. I live in the South Bay area and I’m not going to drive up every single time. I’m often in the Valley anyway throughout the week, maybe it so happens that I’m not there on that day. And I don’t mind waiting a few days for it to come in the mail. So it gets mailed to me.

Gene: I’m trying to establish a timeline. If it gets mailed out the 15th, when would you generally get it?

Gauge: On a Wednesday or Thursday.

Gene: But those days are different each month. So let’s rephrase that. Would you generally get your check or the 17th? 18th?

Gauge: Yeah. It only takes three or four days. I’ve never complained about that. Most of the time I would get a call to come pick up my check or I would say just mail it. But the thing of it is, last Monday they cut the check and sent it out. I waited and it never showed up. Thursday I got a voicemail from Neil. I couldn’t really hear it so I called him back. He said come in and tell me what’s wrong and what’s right. I said I’m going to come up there to get tested because I’m working for Red and I want to pick up my contract check unless you guys have sent it. And that’s when everything went down hill. I would have worked Saturday thinking my check was still in the mail.

If you remember back in December, I’m supposed to get paid the 1st. On the 4th [she didn’t get her check yet she says] they told me I had to go to Cincinnati for that store signing. I got on the plane anyways and did that. I get back. On the 8th I had a conversation with [attorney] Les Rich and he said we’re not paying you any more. I had done 24 signings and they don’t even count the travel to get there and back which is a waste of two days.

Gene: Now you’re claiming you didn’t make $70,000.

Gauge: No. No way.

Gene: Is it fair to say that you were making $7,000 a month? [If Gauge had signed her contract in May, the math would have it 10 months @ $7,000 is $70,000]

Gauge: I’m not going to comment on how much I’m getting paid. And I don’t want to know how much other girls are getting paid. Let me back up a little bit. I told Neil where’s the meeting to talk about my new series that I’ve been wanting for so long. He said go ask Joey. Go ask Joey? Where the fuck is Joey? He said, I don’t know. I go, does he work for Metro any more? He said no. But I’m supposed to ask him where my series is. He’s like, yeah. That’s what he said to me and that’s why Jason called him a cocksucker.

Gene: What was Neil’s attitude toward you at the meeting? Was he nasty with you?

Gauge: Yeah, verbally. Then again I’m sitting there and I’m not being Mrs. Metro corporate kiss ass. I go in there and he says to me you don’t look happy. I said you wouldn’t be happy, either, if you didn’t get paid. He says, well, we were told that you weren’t going to work. And, another thing, Neil told me that Kenny was sick. I never wished him ill. I didn’t wish that he would die. But I said I don’t care that times ticking, we all have something wrong with us. But he made it sound like Kenny was on his death bed. But I never said I wish he would die. So they’re just lying about that. They’re trying to ruin my credibility. In that meeting Les also promised to give me all the paperwork [for her websites for the last year]. Also for Gauge Gone Wild I had asked them about the boxcover. [Gauge says basically that what developed was an idea for her to be featured on a boxcover in what is more or less the multi-photo gonzo format whereas she wanted more of a presence to suit her fan base.]

Gauge: That’s what they called a boxcover? The point of all this is that Metro is just trying to slander me. I don’t care what they have to say. They’re going to sit there and slander me. They say I was treated like royalty? If I was treated like royalty they would fucking put me in some cool, killer scenes and do update photo shoots with me and publicize me. If everything was okay up until a week ago, why haven’t they promoted me dancing considering that I sell their movies. I’m out there promoting them, but do they promote me? No. I haven’t seen anything publicity-wise on Gauge. No, I’m slowly dying and they expect to put me on the back burner in the prime time of my career. I’ve been in this industry since 1999 and you put me on the back burner, I don’t have that many years left.

Gene: This is the most obvious question to ask. Why have you as a contract girl only to ignore you?

Gauge: That’s what I’ve been asking. That’s the same thing my lawyer’s been asking. I rejected working with James Avalon once because I didn’t know the guy I was supposed to work with. And I have a right to do that. Other than that, I’ve been wanting to work and have my own series. All they want to do is, oh Gauge? That girl’s just in a gonzo scene, let’s just not do any cool movies with her.

Then I find out Ann Marie’s directing Babes Illustrated 14. Not that I’m mad at Ann Marie. I like Ann Marie, but why are other people getting special treatment and I can’t even have my own series. But she can direct and they have her on the boxcovers. I see her, Bridgette and Britney and Kelly on boxcovers but where’s mine? Can anybody tell me where’s mine this whole time? And how can that be avoided going on almost a whole year? If I was just a money hungry bitch that they’re saying in the gossip columns, saying I’ve only done this for this amount of money, Neil had this measly website check for me. I ripped it up and said, no, fuck that. I want the paperwork to go along with it. If I was that money hungry, my whole purpose would have been to go there and squeeze every little amount of money that I could out of them. I’m rightfully owed what I’m owed. I told them fuck that. Keep your goddamned money. I’m standing up for what I fucking believe in and the treatment that I should be getting. You guys need to pay attention to me. Like a little kid running around and shit, yeah, they’re going to act up if you don’t pay any attention to them. Plus they stopped paying me.

Plus, I’m just back from Greenville sitting here in my house thinking everything’s fine with Metro. I hear Joey’s fired. Oh my God. I got this feeling in my heart that something was going to be fucked up with me, too. I just knew it. Sure enough it was. I was hoping it wasn’t because we had renegotiated. I’m like, it’s against the law, to breach the contract. And they breached that contract like five ways to Sunday. [Usually four ways to Sunday is the porn limit.]Just by stopping payment isn’t the only way they’ve breached the contract.

Gene: You’re saying no way did you get paid $70,000 from them.

Gauge: Right.

Gene: But they’re saying that they have endorsed checks claiming they can prove you got that amount of money. What would you say to that?

Gauge: I would say that they were off. If you think about it, if I haven’t earned anything on the website, and I’ve got to have a lawyer that will come under contract, how much is actually going into my pocket? If they were paying me that much, why the fuck will they not shoot me and give me my own series? I don’t get paid any more or any less. me, the lawyer and them all sat down and said, okay, this is many scenes she’ll do. Everybody agreed to that. But nobody would call me. Actually me and Joey came up with a title called The Simple Life. I was back in Arkansas and I have talent waiting to be shot along with location and everything. I wanted it to be a reality-type series. Because I know that’s what my fans like of me. They don’t want big boring features and stuff like that. But if I am in a feature like I was in Chapter X, then I should be on the box. What shouldn’t I want to participate in my boxcovers. They should be thankful that I want to participate. Not that I’m being bossy. What’s wrong with wanting to participate with the company you work for? Most girls don’t even give a fuck.

My goal was to have my series out there. If we shot from January to June like we were supposed to, and have this series going, by the time the contract was up, I’d still be having movies coming out. So the fans wouldn’t be left hanging. They postponed the series because they wanted it to warm up in Arkansas and we’d shoot about two or three volumes down there which is what was more than scheduled in the contract for me to do. But I said, no, I’ll do it anyways because we had postponed it a couple of months. I was going to take what I was supposed to do in those couple of months and make up for it. Doubling up on the scenes.

And I don’t care if anyone knows this or not. I didn’t work the whole month of January and they knew this. I was having bad stomach problems-excruciating pain. I went to the doctor and found out I had a cyst on my ovary. I told them this. If any woman’s ever had this they know it’s dreadfully painful. I had to resort to giving blowjobs to my boyfriend because just because I couldn’t have sex. The only thing was either surgery or they change your birth control. I had my birth control changed because I didn’t want surgery. I don’t care if the whole fucking industry knows that. And I work with it still there. It’s just not as bad.

Gene: That was one of the comments saying that you were always sick, that’s why they couldn’t shoot.

Gauge: That was only the month of January. That was it. There was nothing I could do about that. I started shooting as soon as I felt better. And it still’s there. I just went to the doctor’s the other day. That’s my own personal problem and for them to treat me like that, whenever something’s wrong with my body…it’s probably because I was shooting so much before Metro. But for them to sit there and know that was my problem and for them to treat me like that is really unfair.

Gene: On KSEX you talked about how Metro didn’t pay you and you weren’t able to go home for Christmas. Yet they claimed they paid you $7,000, that what are you talking about.

Gauge: They may have paid me that after the negotiations with what the owed me since December 1. And for part of the movie, Gauge Unchained. But I was paid that the last week in December. They originally wanted to meet Christmas Eve but I said no way.

Gene: Here’s what I’m trying to establish. You get paid the 1st and the 15th. Now in December did they give you a check after the 1st?

Gauge: No. I was supposed to get one on the 1st but on the 4th they sent me to Cincinnati. Then the 15th rolled around and they’re like screw you. I had no money to go home or anything. They didn’t pay me anything. The last time they paid me was the 15th of November until the end of December when I had to get a lawyer to go up there.

Gene: Then the end of December they squared away for what they owed you.

Gauge: Right. That’s when we renegotiated and it was a whole new thing. They weren’t using me. Things got postponed. Shoots would get cancelled, whatever. But I still worked. If something got cancelled, I shot with Scott Preston even. So why is Metro coming up with this shit? It was empty promises from Metro. I heard this going on for months where it affected my personal life. I’d get pissed off at Metro and I’d end up taking it out on Jason. Who else do I have to lean on?

He was there in the meeting with me and the lawyers because I wanted to have a witness. Not only did my lawyer witness it and negotiate it, Jason was there beside me the whole time. He knows about the empty promises and lies that Les made me. Because Les made them and he sits up there in the corporate world, it affects everybody else downstairs. He’s not on the ball getting anything going. And I didn’t know what was going on with production. I asked Neil who’s over production. He goes, I don’t know. I go, no, Neil, who’s over production? I want to talk to him and I want my goddamn series. While I’m up here we’re going to have the meeting now. He goes I don’t know who’s over production. Nobody’s over production. And so I go out. He’s got this little secretary who’s probably the one talking shit about me. She was the one there hearing me yell. I looked at her and said who the fuck is over production. She goes he is. I go, you are, Neil. You’re over production. But every time I’d fucking ask Neil anything he was I don’t know. I’m like how the fuck do you still have your job when you don’t know anything.

Gene: He would always say that when you asked him a question, I don’t know?

Gauge: Where’s my series Neil? I don’t know. Why haven’t you guys done a photo shoot of me? I don’t know.

Gene: Gauge, doesn’t that strike you funny that a guy would have a meeting with you and not know shit?

Gauge: That’s what I’m saying. Jason would go to ask him a question and answer it by saying never mind, I’m sure you don’t even know. I can’t get any fucking answers from him. Who cut me off from my check? I don’t know. When he said you’re not getting paid because we assumed you were not going to shoot for Red, I go, okay, he made it sound like it was him. But is Neil really the guy making these decisions?

Gene: But you don’t know.

Gauge: I don’t know. That’s why I was working. I’m not going to sit there asking stupid, smartass questions when I already know the answer. I’m not in the mood for playing games. But they wanted to sit there and say we’re not going to pay you until you shoot. Well, that’s what a girl does when she’s not under contract. He said you go shoot then we’ll pay you. I said no you pay me then I’ll shoot. That’s the way it goes. The cut me off from my check and I’m supposed to be like up and at ’em and wanting to go shoot and nobody knows anything? I never had any of these problems until I got with Metro. Ever. I’ve always been really nice. I’ve worked for all kinds of people and they’re all waiting for me to get off of contract because they know I’m reliable. They know I’ll show up on set. And now they’re trying to make me look unreliable because Metro doesn’t want to shoot. They’re doing something else but I don’t know what the hell it is because I’ve been asking and they won’t tell me. I’ve been ignored since May and I don’t appreciate being ignored.

They don’t want to pay me and they don’t want to use me. And if so they need to fire me. They’re like we want this communication level to go on. I said, Neil, if there’s communication why didn’t you call me and tell me I was cut off from my check? You want communication until it comes to paying me. Several people have told me how Metro works where Nicole Sheridan had a contract where she got paid per scene but they’d never shoot her. She was under contract and couldn’t shoot for anyone else.

They had paid me where I didn’t work for a month, but I was thinking I have so many scenes to do I’m going to have to double up on them. Or whatever.

Chapter X was my first shoot coming back after my womanly problems. I’m in that whole movie. I was on that set 13 hours a day for three days.

Gene: The different Metro contract girls must talk. Do you get the feeling that other girls are being treated similarly?

Gauge: I’ve only talked to Ann Marie. I think with me and Ann Marie there’s a line that we don’t cross. I’ve called her up and said, hey, are they doing this to you, too? As far as I know they haven’t cut it off from her check. I think they might have, once. Maybe they did, or maybe they just sent it out a few days later. But that’s the only horror story that I’ve heard, personally. I don’t talk to her too much about it. But there’s a line…you don’t trust anybody in this business. So you don’t tell them too much about whatever the hell is going on. But I’m sure if Ann Marie really got screwed over she’d say something about it. But a lot of girls don’t in this industry. A lot of girls get screwed and they ride it out. Because companies like Metro will say we’ll make you pay back every single penny that we’ve ever given you, and they get scared and they sit there and tough it out. A lot of girls have done that. But I’m trying to stand up for what I believe in. But what Metro wanted me to do is act like their bitch- a jackass with a carrot in front of my face- here’s your check, here’s your check, come get it, little bitch. There was no check. There was no anything. They just kept changing the rules in the middle of the game.

I never got paid for xxxgauge- not once, ever. Not even before they even bought it because Keith O’Connor is still running it. I got off from my KSEX show Friday, and, guess, what? Keith is always in the chat room. I always know it’s him because I know the way he talks. I know the way he writes. He calls me up on my cell phone. I didn’t even know he knew my current number. Anyways, he said, Gauge, I can help you. I can help you get to the back way of Jeddis, which is the company that runs all of Metro’s websites. He said I want to help you. I’m here for you. I said you’re not going to help me for free and I don’t want your fucking help. I’m, like, dude, why are you fucking calling me. I was nothing but rude.