Porn Valley- If you saw the front page of the LA Daily News [which is running a series on porn] Monday morning, you'd have sworn George W. Bush had abdicated his throne in Washington.
For there was this big, bold, stark headline proclaiming: "An HIV epidemic could happen - Health Issues say Safety Standards Are Ignored". Whew.
Another red letter day for the porn industry, and everyone who contributed to this six-part sucker punch with quotes should be justifiably proud of the positive PR they've helped generate.
Meanwhile, on page 2 of the Internet, Max Hardcore is being raked once again over the coals. And the usual list of suspects is doing the raking: calling Max, again, to task for his usual screen improprieties, i.e., fisting, pissing, wearing a cowboy hat, etc.
My gripe with Max has always been about the ankle socks and the 80 pound waifs he dresses to look like The Pinheads from the Tod Browning movie, Freaks. Click here to see if I'm exaggerating: www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/freaks/pinheads2.jpg.
But that's Max's uncommon fashion sense, for you.
Otherwise, the porn industry grousing about Max's ethics is like the Capone Mob arguing among themselves about selling heroin to jazz musicians.
Just last week Max was handed a ten-count indictment. And it stems from a raid on his home in Pasadena a couple of years ago:
From Adultfyi, 10/24/2005 By now Max Hardcore's federal raid is a story that has been told www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=12267, and Max told it again Friday night on KSEX's The Wanker Show. Max brought Exhibit A along with him bearing a hole from a shotgun blast, noting that it was a piece of plywood.
"It's flooring material," said Max, www.maxhardcore.com. "This is from the floor in my house. Wankus said he's been in Max's house but it didn't look like a floor piece. Max said that's because it was under he carpet. Wankus asked if it was the Feds who labeled it courtesy of the FBI. Max said he did it.
"I labeled it for posterior."
Max noted that he's been making movies since 1992. Wankus brought up the issue Max had with the law four years ago.
"They accused me of obscenity in 2001 for a couple of movies including Golden Guzzlers 1 and Max Extreme 4- that was a state thing," Hardcore explained. "It was right here in L.A. That's a part of the vice dept. We have a vice dept. We have a separate pornography division. It's the taxpayers dollars at work. I guess what these guys do is look at a lot of dirty movies all day long until they find something they think is too outrageous, or too much for the tender mercies of the viewing public." Max said he beat the state obscenity charge.
"It's a dogfight- it really is," he continued. "It's not like in the movies. That took almost four years to be done with and this deal might even go on longer. It's hard to say. I haven't been charged with anything yet. But one of the freakiest things that can happen to any living person in the U.S. is to get raided by the fucking FBI."
Wankus noted that Max was out of the country when it happened.
"I'm quite sure they knew I was out of the country," said Max. "They knew when I was gone because they must be afraid of me or something because they waited for me to leave."
Max said on the morning of October 6th [2005], the FBI executed a search warrant about 9:30 in the morning.
"My house keeper Adelina was there." Wankus asked if she was legal. Max said yes and that he's got two eyewitnesses.
"Another one of my guys was there- he's been with me for a long time. He wasn't intimidated by these guys because he's seen them before and he's got his paperwork together. They were waiting- they could have left- but they saw what happened. Fifteen agents- it's hard to say- half of them were FBI and half of them were the local goon squad. They came up and Adelina had to let them in. So they went and sent four or five specialists into the house before the rest of the gang. These were the house cleaning specialists. These are the guys who go in and secure the location with guns drawn and everything. They walked in and it's a big house so it took them a long time to clear every room."
Max said his housekeeper was downstairs with his dog. Wankus asked if the Feds did an anal cavity search of the dog. Max said he didn't know but the dog was walking a little funny.
"My house keeper could have been hit," Max continued. "She was downstairs and the bullet went off upstairs. Who knows what could have happened. It shouldn't have went off in the first fuckin' place. These are specialists that go in and secure the property. These guys are supposed to know better. This guy made at least three mistakes. He must be so embarrassed over the situation. By the way, we intend on doing everything legal in our power to fight this and this deal, too."
Wankus suspected that the Feds can make their own rules in these situations.
"They can make their own rules," Max conceded. "But they still got to follow some fuckin' rules. And one rule we got is this is America. It ain't Russia. For that I'm very thankful. And I'm going to stand up and show these guys. They can't say it's illegal. Only a jury can make that ruling. The chances of that happening in this day and age are slim and none. And Slim left town four years ago when I got acquitted of the last charges."
Max never received an explanation of the gun shot through the floor.
"They said nothing about it- it went off and my house keeper panicked, oh my God, somebody got shot. Everybody's yelling what happened, what happened?"
"Doesn't a shotgun kind of spray?" Wankus asked.
"Not when it's literally a couple of inches off the floor," Max replied.
Wankus wondered what could possess an agent to do something like that.
"It's unbelievable that this could happen," stated Max. "They know me. They know I'm no threat. It's not like a drug house invasion or something like that. They know what's going on."
Wankus offered the possibility that Max was being fucked with. Max agreed.
"I was in Barcelona at the time attending the huge sex show," said Max. "I was having a great fucking time over there and I did not cut my stay short. I stayed the full week. Some people were asking am I coming back right away. What the fuck could I do? They came in- they fucked me up good. They took all my computers. They even took my servers but for some reason they gave them back right away. Their logic is strange. The interesting thing about the charge is that it's not specific to any sales. We don't really know what the deal is. We're trying to figure out the motives and what these guys are going to do. It defies comprehension because they're all fucking fucked up anyway.
"You would be fucked up too if you had to sit in a room all day and watch fuckin' shitty porno for the most part. I think the reason they came after me is because I'm doing the pissing and I'm doing the fist-fucking and really hard scenes. They always go after the hardest shit. This is not s surprise to me. But I thought they learned their lesson the last time I beat 'em."
Asked if that activity was illegal, Max said nothing's illegal until a jury decides it's illegal.
"I was always told if you do a fisting scene to leave the thumb out," said Wankus.
"The adult industry in America-exclusive of me- has pretty much come up with the idea that if you don't stick the thumb in you're okay. And for the most part you are. It's like an unwritten rule. It's not illegal and I say people have the right to do this shit. It's not for everybody but if you want to see it, you ought to be able to. Leaving the thumb out I think is ridiculous. It's asinine and I'm not going to play that game. I'm going to make the videos I want to make."
Max says he makes two versions of his movies and that he's being charged for the Euro-version."
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A replay of this interview was meant to acquaint the newer generation to the industry with the fact that, yes, the Feds can play rough. Yes, they can raid your home. Yes they can violate your property at will. Except at the end of a very long day, it's guys like Max who are left footing the bill for the holes in the floor.
Granted the porn industry has allowed Max very nice digs in Pasadena. And he can certainly afford high end drinking water and perhaps glamorous brands of Vodka to get polluted on if he so chooses. In the final analysis, however, all it means is that Max is pouring the piss equivalent of premium gas into a consenting girl's butt. And there's certainly nothing wrong with that.
Whether or not the taste police have a case against Max for delivering good ol' fashioned whiz by unconventional means of transport, is to be determined. However the prerogative to watch Max doing that is still left to the viewer. And if Max was doing something uncommonly wrong, two sectors of the marketplace would have put him out to pasture a long time ago: those that buy porn and those who perform in it.
Judging by the fact that he's able to pay the legal freight after all these years, suggests that Max has no limit to either resource.
The obvious suggestion in all of this is to walk a mile in those cowboy boots before weighing in heavily on the buckeroo: offer to pay Max's next monthly invoice and ignore the bad ankles and fallen arches from those Tony Lama's.
After all, it's not your concern. Because you're the pornographer with the high moral standards. And the LA Daily News just told you so.
