Porn Valley- Did Bob Friedland skip town and take all the JKP hamburgers with him? No one’s saying for sure one way or another, but I’m getting the impression that Friedland’s absence is being viewed as good riddance to bad relish. I had a chat with Mike Barbella who’s sales manager over at JKP. Barbella is very optimistic about the company’s future and presents it in such a way that makes you think twice about some of the recent company developments.
I tell Barbella I hear rumors that two high school kids are now running JKP. Barbella thinks this is particularly amusing. “I got 16 years experience and you can mark my words on this one, as long as I’m here, there’s somebody that knows what the fuck they’re doing,” says Barbella. “This company is definitely undergoing some changes but we’re looking to the future. We’re not looking at the past. Anything that was bad in the past we got rid of pretty much.
“There’s so many people that left and left for whatever reasons,” Barbella continues. “Everybody has their own things to say. These contract girls have not performed in a movie for a year and they were all getting money. So you tell me why would they leave here mad? They shouldn’t have left here mad. And they really didn’t, necessarily. There was nothing to be mad about. Every week they got a check for doing nothing. The best thing that could have happened was to let them go. They’re not making movies for us.”
According to Barbella, all company decisions that are being made now, are being made wisely. “We’re not here to finagle; we’re not here to lie; we’re not here to cheat,” he continues. “We’re here to try and make Jill Kelly a good company and make good movies. High school kids? All that bullshit. I’ll see you when the movie comes out. When the movie comes out, let the world be the judge. If it’s not just as good or if not the best product Jill Kelly ever put out, then I’m out the door. I’ll leave. I’m not going to sit here and work for a mediocre company. I’m not going to sit here and work for a company that’s half-ass.”
Barbella says the company’s biggest problem was obviously an internal one. “Jill Kelly has a great look, a great feel and people like it. The fans like it. Just because the crazy owner ran out, dropped the ball and left everybody hanging, should we just let it go?”
Barbella says Friedland pulled a Houdini on everyone. “He did it- on a Wednesday we thought everything was fine. Thursday we didn’t hear from him and Friday we found he had been on a plane.” Barbella’s saying no one has a clue where Friedland went.
“People are coming out of the woodwork, and it proves the intention of this guy was to disappear,” Barbella says, noting that he’s not at liberty to discuss the financial twists and turns of the Friedland saga. “But think about it. If you’re going through business Wednesday like everything’s fine and Friday you’re on an airplane, of course there were things that happened.”
Taking the glass is half-full approach, Barbella asks what is it that the company really lost. “By losing him [Friedland] we lost a large allotment of money that was siphoned out of this company on a regular basis,” Barbella says. “We definitely gained because we’re not going to lose this money in the future. But we are left with the bag trying to clean up in the chaotic wake. However we’re going to do it. It’s going to take work. We are all prepared to do that work. We have 16 employees here that have been here for a year or more- or most of them have. My sales right now are better than ever. I’m selling more Jill Kelly than I’ve ever sold since I’ve been here. The fans, again, have spoken. The fans know that they want this product. It would be an absolute shame for me or for anybody to let this go to waste. This is a great product line and a great library to be had here. I’ll tell you that. This is not high school kids running the show.”