[Robin Leach reports on www.Las VegasWeekly.com]- It was a walk on the wild side for thousands of adult entertainment fans who lined up, sometimes five deep, on a winding quarter-mile walkway through the lobbies and hallways of Mandalay Bay last night.
“Crazy and insane. Mayhem and madness,” one security guard told me. “Even if it was just for a split second, they just wanted to catch a glimpse or grab a photo of their favorite porn stars.”
More than 2,000 porn performers dressed in the most eye-popping and revealing of gowns turned out with industry executives for the annual ceremony. Some so low cut, everything spilled out, some so short that even fans got an eyeful as the princesses of porn tottered by on their 7-inch-high heels. Think of it as the adult film industry’s equivalent of the Oscars.
It was a night of wading through a sea of silicone when one didn’t even have to resort to the imagination because you got the real thing in this festival of flashed flesh! Except for the transvestites who wowed as glamour girls but kept their goodies to themselves.
The fans snaked all the way back from the Events Center past chef Michael Mina’s Stripsteak, Hubert Keller’s Fleur Des Lys right to Wolfgang Puck’s Lupo. Fans even paid premiums to grab prime real estate patio tables to snap photos of the adult stars on their parade of preening pulchritude.
It was a far cry from 26 years ago when the first AVN Adult Movie Awards show began. Back then, just 300 people gathered in a bingo parlor at the old Aladdin hotel casino. Last night, more than 5,000 performers, producers, distributors and fans — some paying $200 a ticket — packed into the Mandalay Bay arena for the ceremonies.
In fact, the red carpet stars’ walk took three hours for the 100-plus print, radio and TV broadcasters from some 10 overseas countries as far away as Japan, Australia and Germany. Even representatives of the prestigious The New York Times and Los Angeles Times were on hand to record the antics of the $12 billion a year business.
Showtime hired rocker Dave Navarro to host its second consecutive year of producing an hourlong broadcast of the two-hour ceremony, which was co-hosted by porn’s reigning royalty Jenna Haze and Belladonna. Comedienne Thea Vidale followed rapper Flo Rida and reality TV personality Flavor Flav, who opened the show with a backup 25-girl group made up of our Las Vegas Spearmint Rhino topless club dancers. Hustler publisher Larry Flynt made an on-stage speech.
In all, there were 127 awards handed out, with 15 going to Pirates 2. That was only half of the 30 nominations it received, but four more awards than for the 2006 original. Co-host Jenna won Female Performer of the Year, and co-host Belladonna won for Best Supporting Actress. We also chatted with Jessica Drake, who won Best Actress for Fallen Angel. She wore an appropriate specially designed white angel outfit.
We’ll be back with our full photo reports and star stories tomorrow, but meantime, you have all of our videos from last night’s mayhem and madness. We’ll tell you how Tera Patrick and Evan Seinfeld renewed their fifth anniversary wedding vows in an Elvis Presley look-alike ceremony in the legendary singer’s former suite at the Las Vegas Hilton. We’ll review the list of 50 questions Howard Stern had his producer Garry Della Abate ask the porn stars.
We’ll also catch up with millionaire mogul Marc Bell, who heads the Penthouse empire and the latest update of his plans to buy a Vegas resort casino. We’ll meet everybody from Bubba the Love Sponge to porn king Ron Jeremy, who pulled out his … harmonica! Plus my reunion with former Miss Hawaiian Tropic beauty Jesse Jane, who switched to porn superstardom, and the hi-jinx of Flavor Flav and Flo Rida.
Meantime, watch our exclusive videos of the outrageous, fabulous fashions and the celebrity sound bites on the red carpet, as well as our fascinating, full-length interview with rocker Dave Navarro. He revealed, following the successful debut of his first porno Broken last year, that he’s about to start producing and directing his second, full-length XXX feature.
When the show and trophy presentations wrapped up after midnight, the torrid temptresses fanned out all over the Strip early this morning to host parties at clubs throughout town. We’ll have that full photo report tomorrow, so be sure to click back often to Vegas DeLuxe over the next 24 hours … and beyond!