Las Vegas- In addition to the [AVN] awards the program included a number of pre-taped humorous vignettes. Most were too filthy or too insider baseball for me to understand or enjoy though I had to admit that I laughed at one involving adult actresses who were unable to distinguish between Ron Jeremy and an overweight beer guzzling dude when both had bags over their heads.
Of course, there were also parodies of the latest movies from the real Hollywood like the very predictable vignette featuring two male stars in a trailer for an upcoming film about a couple of cowboys out on the range together...You can fill in the jokes yourself here.
There were also musical breaks from the Canadian band Hedley and rapper DJ Quik. But by around 12:30 I had lost track of the proceedings and I was ready to go home when I ran into an old friend of mine Jeannie Pepper pictured]. I first met Jeannie way back at a Chuck Berry and Little Richard concert when Caesars still had a showroom. I was reviewing the concert and Pepper introduced herself as a distant cousin of Little Richard. I was kind of floored when I asked her what she did and she said she was a porn star. But, in fact, Jeannie Pepper has been doing porn since 1984 and as she reminded me she was the first black porn star to be inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame. I asked her how many AVN's she had: "A few. Yeah, I have a few."
As the people swirled around us, I asked Jeannie if she was surprised by how big the industry has become since she started doing films. "You have no idea," she said, "I just never imagined it would be this big. It was just a few of us back then and now look at this. I remember coming to Las Vegas in the 80s for this (AVN awards) and it was like 20 of us in a small room and it was cheesy as hell. But I love this. I've waited all year to come here. I love to see my fans and watch this. People don't know what we go through in this industry: how hard it is and how it can cause problems for your family, or whatever. But this night it is all of us together and we all know. And, this is fun."
