Robin Leach reports on www.lasvegasweekly.com: For the second consecutive year, rocker Dave Navarro hosted the Showtime special from the Adult Video Network Awards at Mandalay Bay’s Event Center.

Dave was almost shoulder-to-shoulder with me while I reported from the red carpet. He told me that last year, it was the first time that a major network had aired the controversial X-rated awards show and the preening porn princesses on the red carpet. It was such a ratings success that he was tapped for this year’s encore.

Before our TV duties got underway, he and I had a chat about his fascination with the porn industry, and he revealed that he’s about to start producing and directing his second XXX-rated feature. Two years ago, his debut movie Broken, for Tera Patrick’s distribution company Teravision, had even won a best movie award at the AVNs.

Here’s our candid conversation:

Robin Leach: Everyone is waiting for this festival of flesh to begin! Dave, set the scene. What are you doing here at the AVNs?

Dave Navarro: As I did last year, for Showtime, Kirsten Price and I will be hosting the TV special. We will interview the actors and actresses. We will talk about what they are up for, their nominations and what they are doing next year. Basically what you are doing, too! Last year, Showtime aired the awards, and it was a very big deal. It was the first time a major network had aired something as taboo as the porno awards ceremony.

RL: Each year, porn seems to get more and more mainstream. The plain brown manila envelope has gone the way of history.

DN: That is good for a lot of things, production and health care, but at the same time, I am one of those guys that I want it to be a little wrong. I want my porn to be a little taboo. For it to be as mainstream as it is, it is important to find the balance.

RL: Your own debut porn movie Broken, which Tera distributed for you, was your first directing venture into the adult XXX world. How did it go, and are you going to make more?

DN: It went well, and I even took home Best High-End All-Sex Movie. My first year directing, and we took home an award. We were up for five awards, including best director. I didn’t win that, but next year I plan on taking that home.

RL: Be very honest: What the heck are you doing in the porn world?

DN: I really have decided that when I came up in the rock business, it was late ’80s, early ’90s, and there was an edge about it, a danger, and I realized it is not really there right now. It is not a lack of the artists providing the edge, but a lack in the corporate structures allowing the artists to express themselves on a broad playing field. One of the places where you can find that is this adult industry. I am also a huge fan of film and imagery. It is not as if DreamWorks is knocking down my door saying, “Hey, do you want to film a movie for us?” Teravision approached me, and I was, like, “absolutely.” I was able to add in a little of my creative ideas, music, too, as a backdrop of what was going on.

RL: So it didn’t harm you on your regular side of the music world?

DN: I don’t think it did. There will always be those opinions. At the end of the day, I have to go to bed with myself, hopefully not every night, I think there is a little bit of latitude in the creative world, the rock world. There is more latitude than in the mainstream acting world. If Matthew McConaughey came out here and did porn, his career may be over, but for ex-junkies basically keeping rock music as their No. 1 forte, it is not that far of a stretch.

RL: Would you date and marry a porn star?

DN: I have dated them. Would I marry one? If the heart wants what it wants, then why not? That is one thing that you can’t really control. You cannot control whom you love.

RL: I have seen you topless behind the drums. Would you take it all off and star in your own movie?

DN: To be honest, Robin, I don’t know if I am equipped for that. I have seen some of these guys out there; they have a lot to offer the film world. They use a wide angle lens.

RL: What does it take to get ahead in this business?

DN: Interestingly, usually all you have to do is show up on any set. I am not much of a viewer of adult films, but as a producer and director, I am more interested in the creative process. For me, I want to put something out that I have not seen before.

RL: There are only something like 19 positions and 22 camera angles, right?

DN: Something like that. There is only so much you can do, but you have to think about the backdrop, the setting, think about how intimate you want to go. That is something that is lacking in a lot of film. I did a photo shoot yesterday with actress Sasha Grey, who is a client of mine, a co-manager. We did a photo shoot, and the photographer said let’s do a shot of you and Sasha in the bed. We were, like, OK, we have seen that before. What we did was kind of a post-coital, cuddling, nurturing shot. I wanted to present that in this context. Something unique and different.

RL: At AVN this year, everybody has talked about how the economic slowdown has affected the adult movie business. Is the music business affected, as well?

DN: We could say that, but being honest, the music business has been in the toilet for the last 10 years. As an observer, I am not in the boardrooms talking it over with everyone, but as an observer of music and film, I would say that the downloading is hurting more than anything else. Let’s call it what it is: You have a film that is an hour and a half to two hours long. Most guys need about seven minutes. I am talking about porn; I am talking about downloading a clip on the Internet that is free for a guy to sit there. He doesn’t need an hour and a half. So it is affecting sales.

RL: Male lust ruins another industry!

DN: You could put it that way. I am going a little more street than where you are going, but, yeah, you don’t need the hour and half. You don’t need to spend the $50 or whatever it is.

RL: I thought this was something where you take the wife or the girlfriend home, open a bottle of Dom Perignon, put the movie up on a 108-inch HDTV screen, settle down on the couch, and you have 90 minutes of fun?

DN: Yeah, that is one option.

RL: People just want to get straight to the heart of the matter, I guess.

DN: Although I have never uttered the phrase, “Honey, it just came out. I have got it in my hot little hands, and I will meet you at the house.” Never said it.

RL: Maybe your next movie will be that one?

DN: I am working on another film. I am putting together the story line right now. We start shooting it next month — February — and it will be out before the end of the year. I know I said guys don’t want a story line because they only want seven minutes, but as a director, I am going to put together what I want.

Maybe a fantastic idea would be to make 10 separate seven-minute acts that all lock together at the end as a 70-minute movie, sort of like Four Weddings and a Funeral. Except mine would be seven sex scenes about a wedding and a funeral, where the widow finds new happiness.