Porn Valley- I spoke to Bud Lee Monday afternoon and he told me that Spice TV is fine.
"Spice is alive and well and living in Los Angeles," says Lee on the heels of rumors last week that it had shut down. Lee says it's more like a hiatus.
"We had gone on hiatus with the live Spice shows because we're remodeling, revamping and redesigning all the shows," he says. "And we're going to come out with what we think is much more interesting product and exciting stuff for people to see." Lee figures a re-launch to be set for around the first of September.
"But right now we're looking at it as a major company re-tooling."
I then talked to Lee about the tragic death of Don Lemmon, Asia Carrera's husband who was killed in a car crash several weeks ago. Lee, who used to be married to Carrera, was on the scene.
"I went the next day to where she's living and helped her for a few days," said Lee. "She just left this morning- she was here with me for a week- her and her baby Catalina. We had to deal with that and it was kind of hard. At the time, I helped her deal with the coroner and going through the car and getting all of her stuff out of it. She is eight months pregnant and is due August 11. It's a hard row to hoe. When Asia has someone in her life she pretty much locks into that person. And they are really close- they become her best friend and best companion in the world. That's what she lost- she lost an all around person to her, a husband, lover and best friend."
Lee said the fans have been fabulous.
"I know she's said several times how much she appreciates the outpouring from them," said Lee. "She loves them all very much and is very grateful for what they've done for her. And they have done a lot. It's really cool to see that and I'm very excited by all the outpouring. It was really fabulous. She's got some healing to do and some grieving to do, but she's a strong girl. I have a feeling that she's going to find her way."
While we were on the subject, I asked Lee about the "death" of Hyapatia Lee, another ex-wife, and a subject which was brought up in several fan forums when the circumstances of Lemmon's death were first debated.
"Here's what happened with that," Lee explained. "Hyapatia no longer wanted to be Hyapatia Lee. She wanted to go back to who she was and not be referred to that way. She felt the best way she could do that was to say that Hyapatia Lee was no longer alive. So she took a very stupid, childish, immature way of going about it by saying that Hyapatia Lee passed away from complications of a childhood disease. That happened at the time that we had probably the last CES Show attended by the industry. People were coming up to me, what's going on? My answer at the time was the woman that my children have lived with since their birth is alive and well and taking care of her children. She did it more as an escape from who she is and what she had done in her life, and not really had taken into consideration what people were going to think. She really didn't give a shit. But Hyapatia is still alive- she's out there."
Lee says he talks to Hyapatia every week.
