Porn Valley- James Bartholet will be the first to tell you he’s got it pretty good. As Hollywood’s man about town, Bartholet rides limos, attends premieres, interviews celebrities, scores photo ops with Kiefer Sutherland, hangs out at all the fashionable parties, even appears in an occasional porn flick [so far in a non-sex capacity] and, yes, dates porn chicks.

Bartholet, who’s done the mainstream crossover but only in reverse has said he’d even whip it out and do porn scenes if it comes down to it. And for that he’s a subject of a thread on www.xxxporntalk.com.

“The people that write these comments on the threads are probably the same kind of people that are nervous being around beautiful women,” Bartholet suggests. “And they’re not going to pull out their cocks. I feel what the hell, why not? I’ll start out slow and work my way up. Everyone’s giving me advice and we’ll see what happens. Right now I’m booked and doing tons of stuff in all these movies.”

On Monday nights, Bartholet can also be seen on PrimeTimeUncensored, www.primetimeuncensored.com where one show a month is devoted to the real world, but the rest of the time Bartholet’s exchanging opinions and social recipes with naked babes. Just recently, Bartholet was supposed to have had the Stevens sisters on, but they didn’t show.

“They apologized and wanted to come back on, but I told them not this Monday because we’ve got a full show,” explains Bartholet who comes off as your basic people pleaser. And that is one of the reasons why Bartholet’s been given access to the secret handshake of the stars- that he always stresses the positive and avoids trashing those who sometimes need to be put in a dumpster.

Devoid of the Wagnerian operatics, Bartholet’s program is like Oprah without the books.

“But we have booze instead,” Bartholet always jokes, as resident bartender Mike Sneed whips up the night’s latest substance. Bartholet’s drink of choise used to be Jack and Coke but discovered what it’s capable of doing in the unwanted waist line department.

This Monday on PTU, Bartholet’s hosting some of the members from the musical Debbie Does Dallas, www.xxxdeepthroat.com, which is currently playing in LA.

As I spoke to Bartholet Saturday night, it sounded like he was in a roomful of women and getting more action than Sinatra. Bartholet is saying something about Veronica Rayne spinning her porn tales for some of the new girls.

“We had a photo shoot- it was very nice- right by the beach here,” he says. “We had some beautiful girls down here. It was really good.”

And Bartholet’s got another project coming up- this time he plays a detective in a six-part film noir series for buddy Lynn LeMay’s company, LeMayzing Pictures, www,lemayzing.com.

Rayne and Tommy Gunn are among the prncipal players in SSI: Sex Scene Investigations. That project gets started in five weeks and Bartholet’s role is something of a Don Knotts character.

“It’s comedy relief,” he says. “And no sex scenes in this one.” Then Tuesday, Bartholet lends his presence to the ongoing J Ho project where he plays a California senator.

In all, Bartholet figures he’s been involved in about 20 adult features. I mention Frank Bukwyd to Bartholet. Bukwyd had been the go-to-guy for non-sex roles.

“I heard about him,” says Bartholet. “A lot of people mention that. They’re, like, you’re the new Frank. You need someone to be able to do that, that can be a real actor and bring the level up there on the set.”

Bartholet got his start in adult by working with MacDaddy Entertainment.

“It was Ivan Nagy [Heidi Fleiss’ old boyfriend],” says Bartholet. “He’s a great guy. Him and his wife Julie were just here in town.” Bartholet explains how he and Nagy created this sleaziest casting director in Hollywood character.

“He’d have the girls come down and do the phony auditions to see all the girls naked,” Bartholet explains. “That was my first real thing doing stuff like that. There were some Korean movies I also did- I can’t remember the name of the production company now- the guy was doing these vampire-things and it was softcore. I had a part in that and doing little simulated sex scenes. That was, like, years and years ago.”

“So you were the guy they went to for sleaze?” Bartholet’s asked.

“Yeah, I know,” he laughs. “Vampires and sleazy directors- I’m getting pigeon holed.”

Which must make Bartholet the pride and joy of an acting family with roots in Hollywood. His mother was under contract both at Warner Brothers and Universal. Except Bartholet won’t mention her acting name but notes she was a bit player and did a lot of movies.

“She hobnobbed all around Hollywood,” he states. His father was in the military and when his mother was in San Francisco they met. They’ve been together now 55 years.

“They’re very cool people,” says Bartholet. “They’ve very understanding about all of this industry and are cool with that. They say just be safe and make some money and most of all enjoy yourself.”

To a degree, Bartholet’s mother was a stage mom.

“She would take me to Disney or something like that when I was a kid,” he says.

“But I wasn’t really pushed to be an actor. It was something I always loved to do and be that center of attention. I think that’s why we all become actors whether it’s mainstream or adult because we all want to relive that childlike innocence and attention.

“It’s all like we’re little kids. We all want to perform and we all want to be in the limelight. And I’m so happy to see more of the features being done and giving more of the performers in the adult industry a chance to really do some acing and have a script and do some dialogue.”

As a young lad, Bartholet danced in a number of movie musicals of that time including Xanadu and Grease. Not to mention award shows on TV.

“I was a dancer and an actor and I did Broadway touring companies of shows,” notes Bartholet. “I was a real actor. I trained in San Francisco and studied Shakespeare. When I came down here I was doing the choreopgraphy, then music videos happened. I danced in some music videos. And I was doing coaching for young people starting out in dancing.”

Bartholet describes himself as being a very energetic and outgoing kid.

“I was always happy and always creating things,” he goes on to say. “I was drawing, and making little skits and doing fun little things. When I grew up, Laugh-In was so big back then. We used to make little home movie skits from characters on that show. The Artie Johnson-thing. I used to love those shows. Years later in my life I met George Schlatter the director, the guy who created it. George cast me in this TV show with a very young Nicolas Cage- his very first piece of work. It was something we did with Jackie Mason called ‘The Best of Times’.

“It was the high school, Eighties-thing with the jocks and the nerds,” Bartholet recollects. “That was fun but the show never made it. But I was in awe of this guy. I would be meeting all of these great actors that I grew up loving so much- a Don Knotts or a Betty White, a Robert Goulet, people like that, Tony Curtis, and getting any kind of information about them. I’d be like a sponge, learning. And it’s the same thing now with the adult stuff. I know so many great people and I’m just learning and watching from them. That’s the best advice I can give to young people starting out- that’s to be on the set and learn.

“There were some young girls here, [as Bartholet is speaking] and, luckily they had Veronica Rayne- she’s in the other room right now. She’s talking and they’re hanging on to every word she’s saying. She’s coaching them and telling them about the industry and stuff. And I think that’s great that people are mentoring.”

The subject of Bartholet’s lost virginity comes up, and he responds, like, why would anyone even care to ask.

“That was probably back in the Seventies,” he offers. “When I was probably 15 years old. It was with some girl and we were in high school. I used to make out with girls a lot when I was younger. I was always like a little Romeo guy and getting in trouble.”

Bartholet recites the Georgie Porgie nursery rhyme and says that was him the whole time.

“I always had the little girlfriends and was exploring sexuality with these girls,” he continues. “But, of course, we just got out of the Sixties and the Free Love. Then the disco era came by and everyone was horny and fucking all over the place. Discos were the big thing- even if you were a kid you could get into discos and have a lot of fun.”

Bartholet laughs at the thought but thinks his son was conceived in the back seat of a car.

“He’s 27 and he goes, I don’t want to know this, but where was I conceived? It doesn’t sound very romantic but back then we didn’t go and get motels. We just found a place to park behind a church or something and went at it.”

Along the way, Bartholet did the LA Nite Life Show for years and was an entertainment reporter.

“I’d go to all the clubs and parties and all the events,” Bartholet says, explaining that he was getting out of a long relationship and needed to do something. He had a radio show at the time and had some name actor friends of his pointing him in the direction of TV. Albeit cable access.

“This was before the Wayne’s World-thing, and they said you ought to do that, you’re good-looking,” Bartholet recalls. So Bartholet created the LA Nite Life show for TV from basically the concept he was adhering to on radio.

He covered parties, events, and premieres, then got hired by different networks. He wound up on Fox and E!, did some work in San Diego and the Bay area and wrote for a number of magazines.

Bartholet also promoted a number of nite clubs and became part owner in several ventures.

“I got to meet a lot of celebrities and got to know a lot more people,” Bartholet notes. “Before I knew it, I got calls and e-mails and letters, saying, hey, can you come to this thing, that thing. I’d go to all of these events and covered them. People loved my coverage because I never took potshots. I always gave good, positive spins and people loved having me around because they got good plugs for their artists or clients or events or venues.”

Bartholet thinks he was probably burning the midnight oil at least six nights a week. Then he began covering the adult industry.

“I had friends in the industry that I would bring on the LA Nite Life show like Lynn LeMay and Isis Nile,” he says.

“I think Jenna was on at one time as was Holly Body. All of those names from way back in the day.”

Another time in his life, Bartholet had a video store that was visited by John Holmes who’d rent old movies. Holmes on one occasion invited Bartholet to his house.

“And there were all the porn stars back in the day,” Barholet muses. “They’d be watching the movies and stuff. I was, like, wow. There’s all these people naked in these movies and magazines and I’m seeing them in real life. So it was like a little bit of a fascination.

“Never to be one in the wings, I was always the one who wanted to be on the stage, I started doing more things,” Bartholet continues.

“I began covering behind the scenes on adult movies. Then directors would start asking me if I wanted to play litle parts, non-sex roles. I’d go in there, do my acting job and go home. Then they said, oh, you get paid. I was, like, wow. That’s a cherry on top of the sundae. This is really, really cool.”

At this stage, Bartholet thinks he probably has more friends in the adult sector than in the mainstream industry.

“I’d say 99% of the people I meet are in the industry- and not just performers- but producers, writers, directors, distributors- they’re all great people. They’re all nice people.”

“I think there’s more despicable people in the mainstream industry,” contends Bartholet.

I was curious if people in the mainstream now turn their noses up at the fact of Bartholet’s porn relationships.

“God, no,” he answers. “In fact they’re always asking about coming on sets. I don’t think I’ve had one person who’s stuck their nose up. And if they have, it’s probably somebody I didn’t pay a second amount of attention to. I don’t dwell on any kind of negative energy at all. I’m just all about positive energy. I think there might have been one or two people that said something negative, but most people are like how cool, how great. Because there’s always that fascination.”

With the advent of his PrimeTimeUncensored show, Bartholet at first experienced some difficulty getting mainstream guests on.

“They were seeing the adult content on there,” he says. “Now we’re getting to the point where they’re coming on because they’re seeing we have one night dedicated to mainstream. And the film companies are going, well, the guy that’s watching the porn stars will probably want to go and see this movie. So here’s these movie trailers to plug, or you can pre-tape this interview with Ed Begley Jr. and put it on with Shay Lynn [Bartholet’s co-host] getting his name wrong while stark naked.” Bartholet chuckles thinking about Shay’s gaffe.

Bartholet then met PrimeTime’s Michael Fattorosi at the time he and LeMay were doing something for Wet radio.

“I was doing my entertainment report show but the adult and mainstream industry and niteclubs to go to, stuff like that,” Bartholet remembers. “Lynn and I were doing that and Michael got involved, I guess, with this guy at Wet Radio.

“We were at a strip club called Fantasy Island,” Bartholet goes on to say.

“And Michael said I’ve got this idea, we can do this thing. I said, God, that’s great. Sure enough a couple of months went by and I heard from him. He said we’re ready to go [with PrimeTime] and I was one of the first shows that he brought in there. He said I like that whole angle you’ve got about having mainstream and adult on there.”

Bartholet feels that his show is completely different from the pack.

“It’s a fun, big party atmosephere,” he says, describing it. “One of my idols is Dean Martin. Dean Martin used to do that wonderful show with The Golddiggers. He had the beautiful girls on there and the little bar, and he’d drink and smoke. It was a groovy thing and you thought you were in a swinging singles pad. There’d be a knock-knock-knock on the door, and it was Sammy Davis Jr. I always thought I’d like to do that kind of show. I pitched this to network people. I had producers who were working with me to take LA Nitelife to that level. For some reason, whatever, it didn’t get on the air. So I said, okay, the opportunity will come up because I’m a very persistent person.”

Nonetheless, Bartholer describes the PrimeTimeUncensored venue as an absolute godsend.

“It’s been a wonderful opportunity and I’m so thankful for having this as a showcase,” he says. “It’s just opening up more fans. I’m getting e-mails from Italy and Jersey and California and England, and all over the place. People are going you had this interview and that interview. Wow, you’re watching overseas and people are watching because it’s informative and entertaining and I keep the pace going. It’s just like party. I’m a Libra and I love to entertain people. And I love to have people around and make sure everyone’s having a good time. It’s like coming into my home and having a little party.”

Bartholet’s asked about some of the most interesting celebriies he’s met.

“I really have met some legends in this industry,” he answers. “Tony Curtis, John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, people like that. Sally Kirlkand.

“And, oh God, Milton Berle,” Bartholet pauses. “It was incredible to interview him before he passed away. That man was a real icon. And Bob Hope, I met. I’d be around all these wonderful people. And Merv Griffin was a great guy. There’s a lot of absolutely fascinating people. And directors. I’ve had a chance to work on movies with David Lynch, an incredible director. Blake Edwards- all those Pink Panther movies. James Garner, people like that, people I admire- the old school stuff.”

Predictably, because he is a politician, Bartholet avoids dropping dimes on the dickheads.

“There’s been a couple of actors who have been like that,” he says in the vaguest of terms. “I can’t think of their names right now. They would be arrogant on the set, talk down to people, and I said, okay, mental note, this is some way you don’t want to act. This is a big star and, God, everyone was bowing down to them but they were crushing people under their feet like a burned out cigarette. I’m going, you can’t treat human beings like that. It all comes back to bite you in the ass.”

And, even on a smaller level, Bartholet’s witnessed similar behavior on adult sets.

“Certain girls are mean to the guys,” Bartholet observes. “And the poor guy is trying to get wood, and these girls are being so difficult. I thought, there it is, the same thing. When you see really cool people like a Tommy Gunn or somebody like that who are always smiling, always happy, you still have to keep in mind you got to be cool for the crew, too.”

Bartholet had done a mainstream gig earlier in the day and went to thank the crew.

“They were, like, wow, he shook our hand,” reflects Bartholet. “Thank you for being there doing the lighting, the sound and the camera-thing. If I have time I like to thank everybody involved because it’s a whole team effort.”

Bartholet’s asked if he’s dated any porn stars.

“Oh God, yeah,” he says but volunteers no information on that subject.

“I just got out of a really long relationship and I’m back being single,” he adds, indicating that it was a civilian chick.

“She was a real disaster, and Michael said don’t you ever bring her on the show as a co-hostess. She was attractive but a real golddiger. She’s living with some producer now who makes C-movies and stuff. I wish her well.”

“Send her to Phil Spector,” I suggest.

“Exactly,” replies Bartholet who met the late Lana Clarkson years ago.

“She did something on our show- we were at some Best of LA Food fest. I remember Lynn was with me and Isis Nile and Lana Clarkson was there. She had garlic bulbs all over. She was supposed to be Miss Garlic. We were joking with her. And she was trying to be all prim and serious. She had this big garlic hat on and garlic bulbs on her tits.”

“But I don’t think she committed suicide,” comments Bartholet. “I really don’t.”