> Gene sez: Could the fact that Lauren Phoenix didn't repeat as Female Performer of the Year have had something to do with her decision to leave Defiance?
posted on www.lukeford.com: Late Wednesday afternoon, Defiance Films contract star Lauren Phoenix announced to AVN that she was once again a free agent as she and Defiance Films agreed to end their 6 month old contract.
Phoenix had been a contract performer/director for Defiance for 6 months and had appeared in the current releases Slick Chicks/Black Dicks, Penetration Nation and Pleasure 2 plus the 2006 upcoming releases House of Anal, Backdoor Desires and Kiss My Ass.
"We're sad to see her go, Lauren is a big part of the reason for our success. She's been with us since our 2nd title and she's a part of this family. But she's a performer and she's all business, she has a plan, she has goals and she didn't feel she could reach those goals here and unfortunately we couldn't help but agree with her", stated Head of Production Keith O'Connor.
"When she signed with us, Lauren had aspirations of balancing performing, directing, making appearances and running her newly formed agency. But working 10 to 15 times a month as an independent performer, compared to only 2 to 4 days as a contract star left Lauren with a lot of solid ideas that kept getting pushed back."
O'Connor went on to explain "Lauren had incredible ideas for movies of her own that she wanted to direct and our plan for Lauren to direct one title a month was stifled because of our current director pool consisting of Vincent Voss, Taylor Rain, Aurora Snow, Cindy Crawford, Bentley, Missy Monroe, Kelly Marie plus Kelly Erikson and Tyler Durden will make their directing debuts in 2006 for Defiance and Torrid. It simply wasn't fair to Lauren, because in a way we have been holding her back. We love Lauren and we owe it to her to allow her to take advantage of her talents and abilities."
Since Taylor Rain announced her retirement in December she's taken more of a role as a director for both Defiance and Torrid. And now former performer Kelly Erikson, who's contract with Metro Interactive has ended, is getting ready to make the jump into directing. "The fact is that Lauren Phoenix should be the spotlight of any company she signs with or works for, she's a star as both a performer and a director and she's earned that. But here at Defiance and Torrid we have spread that spotlight around to several stars and directors. So to release Lauren from her contract allows her the ability take to her proper role in the spotlight as both a performer and director."
"Knowing that Lauren has joined up with Derek Hay at LA Direct Models shows that she's committed to regaining her position on top of the industry. Derek helped Lauren rise to the top and he will undoubtedly get her there again. As for our future relationship with Lauren, we intend on continuing to use her as both a Director and Performer, she's a proven professional and fan favorite, plus she's a friend to all of us."
Anthony Simone, head of sales for both Defiance and Torrid added, "It's a sad day for us, but a good one as well. Instead of holding her back and making her unhappy and uncomfortable, we're letting her go so she can go out and reach all her goals for performing and her big aspirations for directing consistently. We'll still maintain a relationship with Lauren in both performing and directing."
> Bob East has a brilliant industry track record: Odyssey- out of business; Phoenix Releasing- out of business; now Lava.
Craig Valentine posts: Well it seems like none of us are getting paid from LAVA and it's becoming more apearant. Me and some of the other producers have asked several times for the accounting firm handling our payouts. To this date the ghost accounting co. has not appeared. Bob East is MIA and Howard Taylor whose private email addy is [email protected] does not respond either. Serveral rumors have arrisen that Howard used the producers monies form LAVA to fund some 13 films he produced on his own. Where is our money ? So myself, Rob Fontana, Bill and Victoria Givens, Peter Frost to name a few are still left unpaid. At what point is this classified as theft ? But im the asshole and its amazing im only a asshole or a dick when the people owe me money?
> XXX writes: AVN has always been the "leader" of the adult industry when dealing with the mainstream press. Funny how when someone calls bullshit on them, www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=14086 AVN runs for cover. I bet if ABC wanted Fish for 15 minutes to exalt the AVN awards, he'd trip over his desk getting to the interview. All of AVN's stats [industry revenue, most rented DVD, biggest selling DVD, etc.] have as many inaccuracies in them as the Warren Report did on Kennedy's assassination.
> XXX posts: As the saga continues, name not necessary [Ben Fisher] as by now all who read this column know who he is [Ben Fisher], this so called talent agent, [Ben Fisher] a legend in his own mind, still refuses to pay Dane Productions the $200.00 he stole from them. Fisher has been living in a one room motel in Chatsworth for many months now, and has been driving a car for at least 6 months without plates, most likely because it is not registered with the DMV.
All the various threats that were made by this person to hurt Dane at the AVN show, were just idle chatter, and it turned out to be the best show not only for Dane, but for most companies that attended.
While Dane does not expect to ever get the $200.00 back, if by some miracle this person [Ben Fisher] decides show an ounce of decency, the money will be donated to the American Cancer Society, in the name of this column, ADULTFYI.
Let this be a lesson to all of us who interact daily with people in business, "you lay with dogs, you get fleas".
