Porn Valley- Anyone who’s been there knows that AVN will change ratings if an advertiser complains loudly enough.

In a taped conversation, I spoke to the late Jim Holliday after he had been read an AVN review of Eternal Virgins. Holliday had received a 3 1/2 rating and was not pleased and said he attempted to call Paul Fishbein and was told that Fishbein was in an editorial meeting all afternoon.

Holliday said he told whoever answered the phone that he would be happy to talk to Fishbein at any time but as far as he was concerned he “had no use for anybody or anything connected with the magazine.” Holliday said it was a movie that featured no condoms and all anal but no one seemed particularly impressed by his efforts.

“I’m going to lash like a motherfucker at them,” Holliday tells me. “AVN, corrupt as hell. That’s going to be the start. How corrupt is AVN and how stupid is AVN.” Holliday said he was going to go public with his comments and, like I have in the past, I always challenged him about how he would fold or cave in when push actually came to shove. Holliday told me at the time that he was looking for another gig, that he sensed the shoe was going to drop at VCA. I told him he could always shoot gonzo. Holliday didn’t find that amusing but was even less amused with his sense that no one even looked at the movie for an honest review.

“It’s over. It is over,” declared Holliday. “If Fish looks at it and agrees with it and he has sometimes been known to do- okay agree with content, not with the material. If you think there’s not much of a story, that’s fine. It’s a con story. A con game. But the gloves are off, now. This isn’t even funny. It’s not fair. Paul will regret the day when I still have my integrity and bring it intact to your site, Adultfyi. There’s another voice saying that AVN is full of shit.

“Many of you if not all of you think like I do,” Holliday continued. “None of you have the balls that I have. Let’s see if one or two of you a month will stand up and be counted. But now you’re cowering because you think it may adversely affect your business. That’s kind of the approach isn’t it?”

Holliday also commented that he was going to pick himself up and dust himself off. “And not play the game with them anymore,” he said. “Them” being AVN, apparently.

On a follow up phone call, Holliday told me he tried to catch Fishbein as he was coming out of the aforesaid meeting. “I left a message. I saw that 3 1/2 and went out of town.” Holliday was of the belief that a write named “Larry Majors” was the one who wrote the review. Holliday said he called the magazine and asked for Larry Majors.

Who?” he was asked. “I said Larry Majors, please.” Holliday was told that he called a cell phone number that Majors was in an office. “That’s the exact quote- he’s in an office or at an office. This is his cell phone. I said I don’t care. I want to talk to Larry Majors. Suddenly it’s Paul saying who is this. I said I want to talk to Larry. Then Paul became identifiable. I said Paul, it’s me. Who the fuck is Larry Majors? He said what do you want with Larry Majors. I said I’m going to kill him.”

Holliday said Bill Margold had read him the review of Eternal Virgins. “It’s not even close,” said Holliday. “This was a man [apparently Majors] who didn’t even watch the movie. Why am I going nuclear over this? Because if they’re supposed to be what they are, they get it right. They aren’t. There’s Mike Rubenstein. There’s TT Boy. The list would be people who basically said fuck you to AVN without taking a public stand. Would I then by coming out of the closet and standing up and saying I’m going to be the first to stand up and say, enough. They’re corrupt. They’re useless?”

Holliday’s opinion was that Fishbein, while a nice guy, the magazine itself had to go. “Or be changed for the better. And how can you change something for the better when you bring a complete idiot in to be the publisher- a man who is so dense.” Dense, in Holliday’s jargon was something apparently written by Tim Connelly attributing the movie Insatiable to VCA. “You can’t be that dumb and try and pretend you’re somebody important,” said Holliday.

“Next time Connelly ramrods a room, just look at him and say ‘Insatiable’ you fool. Sit down and shut the fuck up. I’m going to dance on that guy’s head forever. The key is what has he done?

“Adam Film World- he was taking over a magazine that Kent Smith had designed for him at the direction of Edward S. Sullivan. Any other credentials? No.”

Holliday admitted to being very worked up. “Every now and them I will make a movie that I actually care about,” he said. “I remember what Margold read and the sentence he read was typical of, oh man, it’s all anal…it’s great. Not the greatest sex you’ve ever seen kind of write up. I’ve had a few of them. I’ve had the sex is sizzling and scintillating and gotten 3 1/2.”

“How about aggressive and vibrant,” I ventured to add, telling Holliday that words like that usually rate you at least a Four.