Tampa, Florida- Pretty much weary of Sonja, the $300 an hour dancer, by now, the Grand Vizier calls me Saturday morning.
He tells me the prevailing rumor is that John Stagliano’s coming to Tampa this week -as an observer- to attend Max Hardcore’s trial. According to the Vizier, the local chatter is that Max is going down, with the local newspapers certainly not helping his cause.
But that’s not the purpose of The Vizier’s call. The Vizier has been keeping his radar up with the fact that Eli Thomas has pretty much bolted town and headed for LA. Thomas has or had Alternative Modeling. The Vizier says talk is also linking one of Eli’s cohorts with robberies of studios down in Florida.
“Cesar Capone’s studio got broken into about two months ago,” says The Vizier. “He shoots for ClubJenna in Florida. All his camera equipment was taken and initial speculation was that it was an inside job. Then they supposedly got some guys out of Hollywood, Florida, who did it. But everyone’s being tight-lipped as to just who it was.”
“Some speculation is that it’s male talent, and they’re saying it’s the same people who tried to rob Craig Valentine. Said person is supposedly a close associate of Eli’s.”
“Kind of weird that Eli left Florida when all this went down,” muses The Vizier.
“The story I find interesting is that Jon Belinkie apparently had some financial interest in Alternative Modeling,” I tell The Vizier.
“I was wondering why Eli was so dialed into KSEX,” replies The Vizier. “Nobody there seemed to like him but they always used his models.”
The Vizier tells me there’s been a string of studios robbed in the Sunshine State including Azure and Pink TV.
“It seems everyone’s pointing the finger at Eli’s boy,” states the Vizier. “And it all seems equally weird that Eli skates out the door. Coincidence?”
“Everyone’s talking about how Eli ruined the market down here,” the Vizier continues.
“He was the front man for Dion and Combat Zone. When you mentioned Combat Zone, the girls refused to shoot because Eli wouldn’t pay them. Dion pays his bills, but it was Eli who was getting the money and not paying the girls. Eli was directing and shooting for Dion for awhile. But that deal crumbled about a year ago. And there’s a lot of people claiming Eli still owes them money.”
“And everyone’s talking about how Eli will be at Erotica LA taking his chick, Briana Beach, around- the one who’s been testing positive for STDs.”
According to The Vizier there seems to be some dissatisfaction with the way that Talent Testing Services runs its operation. Talent Testing Service is AIM’s competitor.
“Producers can’t access talent tests,” explains The Vizier. “Theirs is a nice facility, but the talent authorizes who gets the results or not. Somebody comes up ‘hot” no one knows.”
Asked why producers are putting up with this, The Vizier says AIM tests cost $200, $175 plus the freight in Florida, whereas Talent Testing Services charges $110.