To the fans of Michael Brandon, the beloved San Franciscan gay porn star with a 10-inch cock named Monster, a stubborn crystal meth addiction, and pending drug charges against him: Fear not. After being arrested by police and bailed out twice this year by his boyfriend, Marcos Monzon, the porn star — whose real name is Michael Phillips — has begun a supervised pretrial recovery in rehab. If all goes well, Phillips says, he could avoid prison and be back in porn by next year.
As reported by SF Weekly in October, Phillips had gotten into meth in the ’90s, done time, sobered up, and risen to stardom as an actor, producer, and director at Raging Stallion Studios, only to fall back into addiction last year. His relapse was particularly surprising, considering he had been a lead spokesman in the city’s “Hot Sex Without Crystal? Hell Yes!!!” campaign.
“I was miserable — I was all caught up in it, and I couldn’t find my way out,” Phillips says of his 10-month tweaking binge, during which he “motel surfed” — moved around to avoid attention — and got involved in drug deals. “I’m just really happy for the cycle to have stopped.”
Since he entered treatment, which included a 45-day detox and stabilization, Brandon has gained 32 pounds and found a new Narcotics Anonymous sponsor.
On a recent visit with Monzon and a reporter, he appeared healthy and optimistic, but admitted sobriety can be rough. “All the feelings are coming back,” he says. “Shame and guilt for the things I’ve put Marcos through. … I need to work on why I relapsed.” Phillips believes it might have something to do with resentment for the NA program, because the stories he shared privately in meetings often became town gossip. “There’s no anonymity for me,” he said. But after leaving the program, Phillips found himself drinking again, taking painkillers for back pain, and, finally, injecting and selling meth on the street, only to get caught in an SFPD sting operation.
While he waits to find out what charges the district attorney will pursue (his next court date is Dec. 22), Phillips is adapting to his new pink-walled home near the Haight and participating in group discussions and anger management classes. When asked about the future of his porn career, he gets feisty: “I’m not leaving the industry. Hell, no,” he says. “I spent the better part of 10 years creating my name, and I love my fans.”