In a willy-nilly debate on Proposition B which she had with AHF attorney Brian Chase, www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=56125 Diane Duke vowed that porn companies will indeed leave Los Angeles if condoms become mandatory.
Duke in fact said that a couple of companies have already left town and gone to Las Vegas. What Duke didn’t say is that porn companies generally split and go to Las Vegas because it’s much harder for a company in Porn Valley to take a Las Vegas company to small claims court.
Not that I’m saying that was the case with Bluebird America Inc., which is run by Nicholas “Pay ‘Em Later, Nick” Steele, mind you.
But the move to Vegas hasn’t been exactly fortuitous for the company either, from my understanding. The company began welching – I believe that was the term used by one of their former contract girls – on arrangements to buy laptops, ipads, iphones, free plastic surgery, allowances for clothes, shoes, hair extensions and other bonuses such as cars, vacations around the globe and apartments.
I’d believe that except you know how porn girls are. They talk out their ass, though, from my understanding some talent agencies are insisting for their money up front.
Once located in Porn Central, Bluebird, reputed to have “deep pockets” [owner Paul Chaplin’s deep pockets] moved to Vegas to “downsize” its operations. Except Pay ‘Em Later Nick, who drives a Mercedes and lives in a gated community, wasn’t downsizing.
Steele among many execs in the porn industry operates on the little known porn statute of limitations. If you stop annoying a company for payment on a bill, they’ll stop paying it.
When that happens, there’s often such a thing as Porn Karma. Not that it’s of any consolation to a creditor, but here’s our Porn Karma works for instance.
In April of this year New Frontier Media, Inc., announced a content and development agreement with Bluebird Films. The agreement included an opportunity for Bluebird to develop and produce 250 hours of original content beginning in April 2012. Additionally, over 2,500 high-definition scenes from Bluebird’s existing library would also be available for worldwide distribution. The agreement also included an option to acquire up to 900 additional, to be produced scenes over a three year term. That’s a lot of money.
Now that sounds like a sweetheart of a deal, except one of the sweethearts in the deal, Michael Weiner over at New Frontier, got banished from the sorority house.
When it was learned that Weiner, the company CEO, was positioning himself with an outfit that was planning a hostile takeover of New Frontier, the 71 year-old Weiner was shown the door.
It’s a guess, but only a guess, that deals consummated on Weiner’s watch would be declared null and void. That’s how companies work. A new broom sweeps clean and all that jazz.
You may have missed the nuances of yesterday’s announcement, but a judge’s ruling certainly stands to prick some of the fat out of Steele’s lifestyle.
Los Angeles Superior Court judge Mark Mooney in a breach of contract case ruled that Bluebird America Inc. must pay Private Media Group $230,000 and hand over past, present and future worldwide distribution rights of Bluebird content.
Back in September, 2009 Bluebird and Private entered into an agreement where Private was appointed as the global exclusive distributor of Bluebird’s existing library and all future releases including DVD, IPTV, web and mobile.
Except Bluebird’s owner Paul Baxendale, aka Paul Chaplin, pulled a Zero Mostel from the Producers and begin selling distribution rights to third-party companies. Baxendale, according to Private, also attempted to set up shell licensee companies to peddle the Bluebird films. You know you’re going to get caught, Paul. How stupid.
In judge Mooney’s ruling, payments now go directly to Private instead of Bluebird, and that’ll put a dent in any Mercedes.
I wonder how many other deals are being looked at under the microscope after that judge’s ruling?