XXX Wasteland Interviews James Bartholet

Adam Wilcox writes on www.xxxwasteland.wordpress.com -

Running a major publicity agency, co-hosting an immensely popular radio program and consistently performing in adult films for some of the top studios in the industry would be more than enough to keep any one individual busy – something James Bartholet knows firsthand.

After establishing himself in mainstream entertainment with appearances in countless television shows and feature films, Bartholet – who began his acting career on-stage in the theater – transitioned into the adult world several years ago by co-founding Galaxy Publicity, which represents top XXX names such as Jenna Presley, Tommy Gunn and Angelina Valentine.

Bartholet can be heard on his popular adult radio show, Inside the Industry, which is broadcasted live every Wednesday night from 8:00 – 9:00 PM PST on L.A. Talk Radio (where archives of the program are also available). James and co-host Emy Reyes regularly welcome the top personalities in porn to the show and also discuss current industry news.

James will be at Exxxotica Chicago this weekend conducting his exclusive Inside the Porn Actor’s Studio seminar series and will also be signing at the Galaxy booth along with a collection of the agency’s talent (Receive ten percent off one of Bartholet’s DVDs by mentioning this interview).

Bartholet kindly spoke with XXX Wasteland at length to discuss his time in mainstream entertainment, successfully converting into adult and much more.

You can visit James online at JamesBartholet.net, follow him on Twitter and find him on Facebook here. Bartholet is also available for bookings through L.A. Direct Models.

(Photo of James Bartholet courtesy of Industry by Rick)

Q: Can you give us some background on your career in the entertainment industry?

Sure. First and foremost, I’m an actor. I have my PR company, Galaxy Publicity. I worked as an entertainment reporter in mainstream for many years. I worked for a lot of different television stations and radio stations here in Southern California and worldwide. Then I started getting into porn about five years ago, I guess. I had always been really good at doing the PR stuff, so a lot of people had mentioned to me about helping them out with PR. My friend Mike (Sneed) and I had started Galaxy Publicity and that’s become a big, huge success.

When I got into porn, it was kind of by accident. I was on a set covering it as a reporter and they asked me if I wanted to do a little speaking role. I was a bit hesitant at first, but then I thought, “What the fuck? It’s just a speaking role.” So, I started doing it and I really enjoyed it, and I noticed that the porn work was becoming more than the mainstream work, especially (when) the parodies started up. People said, “Wow, this guy’s a real actor and we want to put him in this.”

I’ve been acting since I was probably about 10 years old, maybe younger. I worked on stage for many years coast to coast, did a lot of stage shows and worked with some of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry. I worked with some real, real legends. I did movies for some incredibly legendary directors like the late Blake Edwards, who did the Pink Panther movies – that was a huge thrill. David Lynch of Twin Peaks, Richard Donner … I mean, some really, really incredible people.

The television work, I’ve done everything from being a regular on General Hospital, Beauty and the Beast with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman to doing Designing Women, Golden Girls, Quantum Leap, Murder, She Wrote and Head of the Class. I mean, some really classic, classic stuff.

I come from a theater background – a theater family. My late, great mother always used to say that I was a seventh-generation performer on my mom’s side of the family. So, I got a lot of stuff from my mom, I got a lot of stuff from my wonderful dad. He used to film little movies and little skits when I was a kid, so I was always doing the comedy. We were doing little skits around the house and making little movies around the house, so it was something I was always into.

When I was a kid, I was doing plays and I was dancing, and back then in the 70s that was really hard if you were a straight kid to be doing this stuff because people automatically labeled you – you were a “fruit.” But movies like Turning Point with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Saturday Night Fever, Grease - all those movies came out and it’s like, “Well, it’s macho.” And there have always been people like Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire – who are great idols of mine – Danny Kaye was a great performer.

All of these people were dancers and stuff. Bob Hope used to do a lot of song and dance stuff. And I am so lucky that I got to meet people like Bob Hope before they passed away. They taught me a lot of things about being a performer, so I was really, really lucky. And here I am now years later making adult films and I’m turning around and applying this acting background – the technique and the discipline – to making our movies in adult.

And I think the bar has definitely been raised. If you see stuff that my friend Will Ryder or my friend Brad Armstrong have made, they’ve really raised the bar. Rocky Whore Picture Show is the most popular, number-one, best-selling movie out right now and I’ve gotten rave reviews from that. Sales are going fantastic. When I go to fan conventions, I have fans that come up and say, “Wow, I really dig the parodies, I dig what you guys are doing, I love your performances, I think the stuff is really sexy.” They love the sex, they love the storyline, they love the plot, they love the dialogue. People weren’t saying that about porn movies ten years ago. They really weren’t. People are actually watching the whole movie, they’re not just skipping through the stuff and whacking off.

[This] week, I’m going to be in Chicago for Exxxotica. I always have a great time over there. I do seminars about the porn parodies and I do this thing called Inside the Porn Actor’s Studio, where I do this James Lipton thing and I interview the porn stars – kind of like Inside the Actor’s Studio, but about porn. That’s really popular.

And I notice that afterwards a lot of couples come up to me and say, “Wow, we watch these movies. We’ll watch Charlie’s Angels, Brady Bunch, Three’s Company, Married … With Children, M*A*S*H, or any of these other movies,” because this is maybe something they grew up in as Baby Boomers, or maybe it’s something they feel comfortable that a couple could watch. They get a little laugh, they get entertained, they get turned on. And then they’ll go and have great sex. (Laughs) Sort of like a marital aid! Back in the day, somebody wouldn’t go into a store and say, “I want to get a porn movie.” They would say, “Where is the marital aids section?” And that’s what we were: We were marital aids. So, that’s really cool.

I also did a lot of comedy stuff, sketch comedy – T.V. shows and stage shows. One thing I was always really stoked about is that I was in Hot Tamales Live at The Comedy Store every month. And I was in there with this beautiful, gorgeous, petite, sexy actress by the name of Eva Longoria. One night an executive from ABC came in and saw her – and everybody was all excited because there was an executive in there – and they were looking to fill that role in Desperate Housewives. They called her in and the rest is history.

We’ve done some incredible, incredible stage shows and to be on that stage where George Carlin performed – who is one of my idols – Richard Pryor, another idol, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey … all of these people who started out on this stage.

I’m up there performing and making people laugh, and that feels really, really great. When we do a movie or T.V. show, we don’t get that automatic response and applause. When a complete stranger comes up to you on the street and says, “Hey, I saw you in a movie. I dig it,” “Hey, I saw you in a movie because it was on Playboy T.V.,” or the Spice Channel, or something like that, that’s cool.

When a fan comes up to you at a convention and they’ve been waiting for like a half-hour outside, and then the guy comes in, buys five movies and wants to take a picture with you and stuff … that’s pretty cool because the one thing about the guys here in the industry is – my friend Anthony Rosano was saying this, we just did The Graduate for (Paul Thomas) – and he goes, “We’re meat puppets.” And I go, “No, no, no. Have more respect. With all due respect to you, I think we’re a lot more than that.” Of course, all of these porn movies, it’s about the girls. So, when the guys get acknowledged, I think it’s a great thing.

There are some incredibly great male performers and actors out there – Evan Stone, Tommy Gunn, Marcus London, Tony DeSergio, Anthony Rosano, Lexington Steele. These are people who are great performers and they are great actors – Tom Byron … a lot of these people, they are still out there – Ron Jeremy, Herschel Savage … these guys are still out there knocking this stuff out, turning on the people and we’re entertaining people. That’s the great thing: If we can turn you on and we entertain you, that’s a good thing.

Q: And you yourself actually won an AVN award this year for Best Non-Sex Performance in Not Charlie’s Angels XXX, is that right?

Yes, I certainly did. That was in Charlie’s Angels. A lot of fun to do that one. Will gives me a lot of room for creativity and he wrote this character of Bosley and they go undercover, so I got to do what I love best: The improve and doing different characters. So, Bosley gets to go incognito and do all of these funny little characters and voices, and all of this different kind of stuff. It was really, really fun.

Then, on the other hand, a big movie I’ve got that’s out right now is Gary (Orona) and Tabitha (Stevens) put me in the Official Halloween Parody for Zero Tolerance. They’re getting great reviews on that. I have sex in that as well as acting. Two fellow performers on the set were like, “Wow, this guy’s a real actor. He’s really intense. I’m going to step up my game.” I get really deep into my characters. I have a script here right now for Beverly Hillbillies, they start in a few weeks. When I’ve got a script, I delve really deep into that. I became the Dr. Loomis character. I became Donald Pleasence in that and the sex is the cherry on top of the sundae. So, I’m really proud of that one.

Saw was a great one – I was nominated for Best Actor for that. That was the first movie that I’m actually doing sex and acting. That was a fun role. Big all-star cast. I did my scene with little Emy Reyes, who co-hosts Inside the Industry, and that’s on every Wednesday night on L.A. Talk Radio. That’s coming up to 100 episodes. So, I constantly keep busy. Sitting here talking to you by the pool is like a little break or vacation time. (Laughs) When everybody is out enjoying the Fourth (of July), I’m going to be like boom, boom, boom trying to get everything done, because there is a lot to do when going to conventions. You can’t just throw a couple of movies in there and head out – you have to do this thing right.

And then I have movies to do. We have press releases. The girls are doing store signings. We do special appearances at a club called On Broadway down in San Diego every month. Myself and the girls go down there and we introduce top hip-hop stars. We do the store signings at Bizzy B, Susie’s Delights, the conventions. Then there are wonderful interviews with people like you guys that we do, so there is always stuff going on.

I’m just one of those people who has to keep busy all the time. And then my wonderful agents at L.A. Direct will call up and say, “I’ve got another movie for you to do.” I get a script and I delve into that, put one-hundred percent of myself into that one, get the role down, go out and do the movie and go on to the next one.

Q: I noticed that as well. I saw the trailer for the Halloween parody and you weren’t just coasting it. You put a lot of effort into your roles and that is great to see.

It is great to see and thank you for acknowledging that. It’s good to see that people are doing that in our movies because I think our movies are being more appreciated by the audience and even by mainstream critics. There are still going to be the conservative people out there who are going to go, “Ew … porn,” but the vast majority of people out there … I have mainstream actor friends, directors and producers that think the movies are great. Some of the parodies that are being done are not really well-done because they’re doing it on a shoestring budget, they are not paying the talent really well, they are not organized and they knock these things out on little cardboard sets in a couple of days.

If you are going to do this movie, you have to do it right. You have to spend the time, the money, the energy, write a really good script, have great dialogue and the most important thing is to have a really good cast in the beginning that can pull this off and won’t just be sitting there reading their dialogue from a script that they just looked at a half-hour before they got in front of the camera. Some people that really spend some time delving into that character. The audience is very, very sophisticated now. After they whack off to the movie you want them to stick around and watch the whole thing. And we hope that people are going to buy the movies and not download them illegally.

That’s one of the biggest things I always say: “Buy them or rent them – don’t download them illegally.” You can go to a wonderful site like HotMovies.com and you can watch the movies there or buy them. We have an Inside the Industry page there, so we’re putting up the episodes of the T.V. show on there – we are going to try to do some original content for them.

I think that’s what the future is going to be, that people are going to be getting their movies online, for both mainstream and adult. There are no video stores around here anymore. There are a couple of little mom and pop shops, but the chains are gone – the Blockbusters.

Q: It’s the same way here. They are all closing down.

Yeah, they are closing down, so where are you going to get your movies? Well, when a new movie comes out, it goes right on to cable. And we’ve got things like Hulu, where you can watch the shows on T.V.

I’ve got a brand new mainstream movie that I’m doing in the Fall. I don’t have a title on it yet, but it’s like a big ensemble piece, like The Big Chill or Grand Canyon. There are a couple of other adult performers that are going to be in this as well in cameos. I’m looking forward to that because it’s going to be something different.

I’d love to get back up on stage again. I get a call every once in a while to maybe come and fill in for somebody at The Comedy Store. People call me and say, “Hey, can you come and do this play?” I don’t have time to dedicate three months to a play right now, but I think is something I might look into doing next year – taking a couple of months off and just doing a play for a little bit, because acting … you have to keep that tool sharpened all the time.

Q: And that is where you got your start, right – the theater?

Yeah, that’s where I got my start and I remember my mother sending me out to auditions. I was doing a lot of plays, I was doing touring companies and working with a lot of big stars. I could probably mention their names, but your readers will probably go, “Who’s that? I have to look that up on Wikipedia.” (Laughs)

I always just try to work on new sets – maybe a new routine or something. I try and write little things all the time. Drew Carey once told me that the best advice for a young comedian is to write something down every day, so that way you always have fresh material. It may be good, it may be bad. But write something down every day. Just keep a little journal. It’s an important thing to do for a comedian, to always have fresh material. You never know when something could come up. You could be on stage at a porn award (show) and have to come up with a quick little joke.

We have an awards show coming up in town in July, the Urban X Awards (on July 23) in downtown Los Angeles. That’s going to be a lot of fun, I’ll be up on stage at that. And then I’ll be one of the presenters at the NightMoves (show) in Tampa in October. So, that’s going to be a lot of fun. Then jump on a plane to go do Exxxotica in New Jersey in November.

(Laughs) It creeps up on you real fast. I’ve got two scripts I have to finish. I’m writing some comedy porn parody scripts myself right now. Scripts, lines to learn, lots of young girls out there to fuck …

This is a wonderful life – it really is. (Laughs) For a guy my age – a middle-aged guy – I’m acting, I’m fucking and I’m getting paid. My three favorite things.

Yeah. And I’m with these sexy girls. I run into old friends from school or just some random guy on the street if I’m at a club restaurant, or airport, some guy comes up to me and says, “I’m living vicariously through your life. I’m about the same age, wife and kids, I work nine-to-five and I go online and watch these movies.” Maybe they can relate to me a little bit more than they can the guy with the six-pack abs. But I am working out and trying to stay in shape. You have to do that because you have to keep up with these girls – they are like little Energizer Bunnies on top of you. And I love that.

Q: As someone who has worked extensively in both adult and mainstream, do you have a preference between the two or is it more of an apples and oranges-type of thing?

I love them both, but I have to admit that I’m leaning more toward the adult for several reasons. One of them is that people in adult I find are a lot nicer than people I’ve encountered in the mainstream world. They become really your friends. They’re good people. They are intelligent, they have families they are raising and stuff and they are good people. They’re not phony or anything. I’ve run across some pretty stuck-up people that would stab you in the back because they are competitive or jealous or whatever. Plus, I’m walking around and I’m working with beautiful naked ladies. (Laughs) I don’t mind the mainstream stuff, but I don’t want to be walking around and see Estelle Getty, Bea Arthur and Betty White naked. (Laughs)

Q: (Laughs) I agree about the people in the adult industry. I have interviewed several of the bigger stars in the business who were very nice and down-to-Earth and I would be thinking, “Wow, I didn’t expect them to be that nice.” I suppose I just automatically expect someone who has achieved a great deal of success to have an ego.

Right. And some stars are and some stars aren’t. There are some wannabe stars who are just starting out that just have this really bad attitude. And it’s like, “Wow. Just let that go. Just come in, do your acting job and let it go. Don’t sit around on the set and grab ass, gossip and carry on.”

Another thing I hate is when people are on a set and Twittering all the time. I did a scene one time and the chick was Twittering while we were fucking.

Now, just to clarify this: Not actually while the camera was going. But she had her phone off to the side of the bed. So, in between the shots – “Okay, we’re going to go in for a tighter shot,” or, “We’re going to switch positions,” or they have to change the tape or lighting – she would reach over and start Twittering. And it’s like, “Wow! Can you just put that down?” I’m starting to really get into this Facebook thing and I understand it’s important, but I don’t think it’s really that necessary for someone to let everybody know what they’re doing every few seconds. They’re Tweeting, “I’m taking a right step” … “I’m taking a left step” … “I’m opening the door” … “I’m walking to the doorway” … They’re doing that. It’s like, “Okay, that’s way too much information!” (Laughs)

Plus, everybody has to realize that we’ve got some fanatical fans out there. And if you put the GPS thing in there, they know where you are. So, that’s kind of not safe.

A lot of people also have this misconception that we’re like filthy rich because we’re in porn. We’re not getting paid the money that we used to get paid. We’re definitely not. We’re very blessed to be working. Are we going to go back to getting that kind of money again? I don’t know. I would hope so.

But I think the best way people can be making money is in between working for a studio like Vivid, Hustler, Digital Playground, Metro or Zero Tolerance, I think your best bet is to shoot your own stuff. A lot of people are doing content off of their own websites and making their own little business. You can sell (content) right off of your site, make a copy, have your own DVD and make money off of that. We don’t have residuals like they do in mainstream. Remember Jill Kelly?

Jill Kelly had Jill Kelly Productions and she tried to do the residual thing. It was a great idea and we applaud her for doing that. My good friend Alexis Amore, who will be with us in Chicago, was one of her contract girls. Unfortunately – I guess it was maybe her bookkeepers or something like that – things got messed up and the girls ended up not getting the money.

I think that would be a wonderful thing if the studios would share a little bit of the profit or maybe people get points for something. I know on Saw we did that: We got paid, plus we got points. But because sales are not as big as they used to be, we are waiting a while to get that money. And that could be another reason why studios are not doing that.

I would like to see the studios and the agencies get together and maybe start a health care foundation for performers. That would help to lower our rate because we have to get tested every 28 days. So, that is something that could help everybody out because every month I hear another performer saying, “I’m just squeaking by. I’ve got to get money so I can get tested, so I can go work and I’m short on cash,” because they don’t’ know how to budget their money properly and put some money aside. So, if we had something to help them out …

Or if somebody gets stricken with something, there is a health care foundation where you have money to help you pay your medical bills. And I’m not just talking about getting something from an STD. What if somebody gets cancer? What if somebody gets in a car accident? What if somebody gets Leukemia or something like that? There has to be something to help everybody out.

We do these fundraisers. I did one for Nina Hartley earlier this year and that was a cool thing. The fans came down to support her, but we didn’t have a tremendous industry turnout. And I thought that was kind of bad. There were some people who said, “Well, she made tons of money,” and everything like that. And I go, “Really? No – not really.” People have bills to pay and medical bills cost so much. I know my health insurance like doubled and tripled over the last couple of years. Every time I got that bill I was like, “What? It went up another 25 bucks?” Or another 30 bucks. These things just add up every month. So, if we had a health care system for all of us in adult, I think everybody would get behind us. I don’t know a lot about that, but maybe an HMO or something that could help everybody. I think that would be really, really great, so we can keep making our movies.

Everybody is always like, “I love your movies, I love your movies, I love your movies,” but then when something happens to you – some kind of catastrophe – you know your real friends because they are the people who will be around when something bad happens. And that is another reason why I love this adult industry so much is the support of everybody. Everybody who has been there for people when they’ve had a death in the family, if they’ve had a really bad drug or alcohol problem, financial downfalls or a medical problem.

People in porn rally around each other. We stay in a really tight-knit group and it’s like a big, giant dysfunctional family. Larger than the Kardashian family – and that’s probably the most dysfunctional family on television. (Laughs) People in this industry, they really do care about each other, which is why I’m proud to say I am part of this industry and to be working with all of these people. I’m not ashamed at all.

I remember John Stagliano said a wonderful thing at the AVN Awards in January. He looked out into the crowd – I was sitting there with Daisy Marie and Priya Rai, my friends – and he said, “Don’t let anybody make you feel bad about what you do. Be proud of what you do.” That isn’t word verbatim of what he said, but you know.

Q: I believe it was, “Be proud of what you do, or don’t do it.”

Yeah, “Be proud of what you do.” Don’t let anybody make you feel bad about it. I stood up and applauded. I shook his hand after the awards and I was like, “Thank you so much.” He said, “You’re welcome,” and, “You do a good job and thank you for being a positive influence on this industry.” And I always want to put a positive spin on the industry. I do that with our PR, with our movies and in interviews like this. I always like to put a positive spin on this industry because there is really nothing wrong with what we are doing.

No, not at all. I’m not ashamed either about my own minor involvement in the industry. My family knows about my blog. I basically said, “Look, this is what I’m doing now,” and … whatever. (Laughs)

And that’s cool. And do you know what you have? You have your audience for that. For years, I used to do a show called L.A. Nitelife.

Q: I heard about that.

Yeah, that was a really super popular show. Then I worked for FOX, MTV, E!, E.T. and all of these things, and I’ve gotten more popular and cut a better formula with the whole adult industry news stuff. I really do. It’s crazy. There are more people listening to the radio show, going to the InsidetheIndustry.net site or JamesBartholet.net and wanting get more information about porn and porn movies and the girls and guys that I work with. When I was doing a show about the entertainment news, it was like, “Yeah, yeah … it’s another entertainment show. Big deal.” But people are fascinated by what we do. I’m in a book right now called Confessions of the Hundred Hottest Porn Stars.

My friend Lainie Speiser over at Penthouse did this book and that’s really a cool book because they get to know about us. And of course, we have pretty wild things that we do, but for the most part we pay our taxes, we raise our families, we take care of our homes, we pay our bills. We’re normal people. But whether you are a mainstream actor or an adult film actor, it’s going to be like you live in a bubble. You live in a fish bowl and people are going to be looking at you differently.

I think an important thing for somebody getting into this industry is to prepare yourself mentally for the kind of stuff that’s going to happen. People are going to look at you a little bit differently and your privacy is going to be gone. Once things get out that you’re a porn star, people are going to be coming by and looking at you all the time. Even around my house I had to reinforce my security and get a new security system put in because I started getting kind of like stalker stuff going on. It’s kind of amazing. But there are weird fans out there and they can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy.

I’ll always remember a time we were at a convention and this guy kept coming up to one of my girls and saying, “I knew you were talking to me in that movie,” and everything. I looked at the movie and it was a P.O.V. movie that she did. And I said, “Dude, she’s looking at the camera to everybody. She’s not looking specifically to you, I’m sorry. That’s what they do on a P.O.V. – they look into the camera and talk. She wasn’t talking directly to you, man, so don’t go out and kill the president or something like that.” Kind of like that Jodie Foster thing with that guy that shot Reagan. He thought Jodie Foster was talking to him in Taxi Driver. (Laughs)

On the other hand, we do have really, really great fans. I have to say, I love all of our fans. I love hearing from everybody and I know all of my girls – my clients over at Galaxy – love hearing from all of the guys, because if it wasn’t for the fans we wouldn’t be making these movies. We really wouldn’t. But there are some wonderful, wonderful dedicated fans out there. And the wonderful thing is when they come up and say, “I remember this part in a scene.” And they describe the scene or they say something that you said.

And it’s like, “Wow! I’m really impressed.” I’m really, really impressed when they come up and say, “I loved this performance because he did this, this and this. Or, “You fucked this way, “ or, “You said something this way.” It’s like, “Wow – thank you very much.” I just want all the fans to know that makes our day when you take the time to do that: Come up and say hello, get our autographs, buy our movies, take a picture with us. We really do appreciate that.

I think it’s great that many of the girls speak very highly of their fans and don’t allow that small percentage of creeps to affect their overall opinion. Most of the stars seem to treat their fans very well and you hear a lot of things about how great they are to them.

Oh, yeah! Adult film stars, I think, are better with their fans than the mainstream. I’ve gone to mainstream fan signings – a lot of different ones – and I’ve seen the famous T.V. or movie star sitting there like she’s bored out of her fucking mind. The only reason she’s there is because the promoter has probably paid her “X” amount of dollars to be there. She is selling her stuff for a ridiculous amount of money not realizing we are still in a bad economy right now and even charging people to take a picture of her. She just had a really bad attitude.

The fan comes up and (talks to her) and she’s like, “Um, are you going to buy a movie? If not, then don’t talk to me. You only get one question. Move it along, because there is going to be somebody else coming along buying some stuff. So, don’t clutter around.” And it was like, “Fuck, bitch! Why the fuck did you even come out of the house?” Why don’t you be appreciative of the fact that these people spent good money to come to this event, took time out of their day to come down and see you because they love what you do? You should be appreciative of that.

The porn girls – they are all appreciative. From the biggest stars to the up-and-coming girls. One girl who is always really wonderful with fans is Sophie Dee. Always great. She’s a real, real class act. She’s always really, really super great with her fans. She takes the time to talk to them and everything. Priya Rai, Daisy Marie, Sunny Lane – these are class acts and these girls always take the time to talk to their fans.

Q: Sunny was really nice when I spoke to her. She was one of the best interviews I’ve ever done.

She is so great. She is one of my best friends in the world and I was managing her and doing all of her P.R., and she’s left the industry now, she’s taking a hiatus. She fell in love with a really nice guy. I’ve met him briefly, he’s very cool, he’s taking very, very good care of her. And this is something she wants to do for right now, she wants to take the time off. There are other girls who are getting married, like Jenna Presley, but I think Jenna will probably still be performing. But Sunny is one of those kinds of girls who wanted to put one-hundred percent into this because when she was a performer, she put one-hundred percent into every single thing that she did. Whether it was an appearance, movie, scene, photo shoot or something, she was one-hundred percent with that. So, now with this relationship that she’s having, she wants to put one-hundred percent into that.

I think everybody has been incredibly understanding. I know there are things we had her booked for that (fans) are disappointed that she can’t do and are a little upset, but I said, “Her life has got to come first.” And you know what? All the girls come back. (Laughs) Ginger Lynn came back, Raylene came back, Lisa Ann had actually taken time off and she came back.

Q: Inari Vachs, I believe, left in 2002 and came back just last year.

That’s correct. So, the girls will come back. Whether Sunny comes back or not is totally up to Sunny. We can’t predict that. In the meantime, there are a lot of other girls that are coming up that could be … nobody is going to fill Sunny’s shoes, first of all. But I think one that could be close to doing that would be Chastity Lynn. She just got a series on Showtime and she does some incredible scenes. (She’s that) cute, little petite blonde She’s got a lot of potential. I’ve seen a lot of really hot girls that are coming back and doing stuff.

My friend Adrenalynn is back now and I’m really, really stoked about that. She just opened a tattoo parlor here downtown, so after this convention I’m going to go and have some ink done by her on my left arm. She’s really talented at that and she’s a Hell of a fucking great performer and just sexy as Hell, isn’t she?

Q: Yeah, she is.

Her birthday party was last Friday night, so I’m going to go to that for a little while, then come back and just start working. I have lines to learn for three movies coming up in July and then heading out to Chicago. On your site, tell the fans to come up and see me at the Galaxy booth and I’ll give them ten percent off on one of my signed DVDs if they mention this interview.

Then I’ll be up on the seminar stage too, so come down and check it out. Victory Tradeshow does a really great job doing these (conventions). They do it with Club Magazine and HotMovies, and it’s a great event. 2 Live Crew will be up there performing on stage.

Q: I also wanted to touch on your radio program, Inside the Industry, because I have loved the show since the first program I listened to and think it is terrific.

Thank you!

Q: For people who may not be familiar with the show, can you talk a little bit about Inside the Industry and explain what you do?

I created the show several years ago. It is an entertainment news show about the adult and mainstream industries. We’ve had mainstream guests, but most of the time it’s adult guests. It’s light-hearted gossip, in-depth interviews, coverage of behind-the-scenes of the making of the movies, the top film directors, the top stars – guys and girls. Legendary stars, we have them on once in a while, so people can hear about them and hear what’s going on.

The show is so incredible. We are over at L.A. Talk Radio. We are talking to a couple of other radio stations about bringing it over right now. I can’t talk about that yet. It’s an hour show. You can hear it on iTunes – the kids are downloading it on iTunes. You can listen to it at the archive on L.A. Talk Radio or at InsidetheIndustry.net.

I originally started the show with Michelle Maylene – everybody knows Michelle. I did the Co-Ed Confidential series on Cinemax with her. She’s a beautiful gal. And then over the years Angelina Valentine, Daisy Marie, Kaylani Lei have all been co-hosts. Right now, I’ve got Emy Reyes co-hosting with me and she is doing an absolutely incredible job.

The stars that we have on there … it’s crazy. You’ve heard this thing, Adam. The guys are calling in from all over the United States – from all over the world. Sunny Leone comes on the show with her boyfriend Daniel (Weber) and there were guys calling from India long-distance. Celeste Star was on and there were calls coming from England. Sophie Dee comes on and she had calls from South America and Australia. It’s absolutely amazing. I get E-mails from all over the world.

We get phone calls from all over the world. It’s like I was saying before, this is an interesting show because it’s not only information about the adult film industry that people are so curious about, I’m giving the opportunity for the fans to actually call in and talk to their favorite stars. We have a chat room. You can go to the chat room at InsidetheIndustry.net – and I think we have one up on Skype as well – and people talk. I was doing that years ago when I was doing KSEX and when I was doing Prime Time Uncensored. They had chat rooms and people would talk, watch, they’d listen and they would just comment on everything. People would just get together, which I thought was kind of nice. It was a nice little forum.

I think the one thing that stands out really big about Inside the Industry is that they get to call in and talk to their favorite adult film stars. Even for a minute or so just makes their day. Of course, with the social networking sites like the Twitter and the Facebook, the girls are sitting there at the radio station and Twittering while they are on the show with the phone number up, and we encourage them to call in – we want to hear from these guys. The girls start talking dirty to the guys and getting them off. Like Angelina Valentine the other night – she’s telling the guy like, “Pull out your cock,” and everything. (Laughs) When I listened to (Howard) Stern, he never did anything like that with these girls. And I think we are kind of building a grass roots following like Stern did at the beginning and becoming that popular.

It’s like real stuff. You see the movies, you can go to the girls’ blogs and go to the websites and stuff, but you don’t get to talk to her, so I think if a fan talks to the girl for even a minute on the radio he’s going to say, “Wow, she’s really cool. I’m going to go out and buy her movies,” or, “That guy was great. I’m going to see some more of his scenes,” or, “I’m going to go back to that radio show because they were very respectful, they talked to me, they had some funny, sexy, arousing stories and entertainment news.”

And once again, I’m putting out a positive spin: We acknowledge when somebody has passed away, we acknowledge a new movie coming out, all of that kind of stuff.

We are looking for some new sponsors, by the way. If any body has a production company and want to be an advertiser on the show, it’s really inexpensive. Drop me an E-mail ([email protected]).

Q: I think it’s great because, as you mentioned, it is not only entertaining, but you feature news, appearances by the legends – it’s a great learning and resource tool as well.

Fuck, yeah! There is stuff on there the girls are talking about that nobody else has heard about. When Lupe (Fuentes) and Evan Seinfeld got engaged, they announced it on my show. Tera Patrick had some breaking news – she announced it on my show. So, I’m pretty happy about that.

Q: I like the show as well because the people you have co-hosting – you mentioned Angelina Valentine the other night, who did a really great job – and also Ashlynn Leigh and Emy Reyes. Their attitudes – even their voices – compliment the program so well.

Oh, yeah. I know people think that we might kid about this, but we get naked on the show and we’re fooling around and stuff. Emy brought this one girl on, makes her come and this chick squirts all over the radio station. And the engineer was like, “Don’t let her squirt on the equipment, it will short it out!” It’s like, “Dude, relax!” It’s like, “What are they going to do this time?”

We have a little cocktail there and we just relax. Everybody just has a good time. Nobody is smoking any weed in there, but people feel relaxed and comfortable, and a lot of people say I’m a good conversationalist, so they are more apt to open up to me. And that means they are opening up to the audience and they are finding out more about them, so that’s kind of a cool thing.

With that being said, one of the things we’re planning for the future for Inside the Industry is to do like a webcam or do a specific show, maybe exclusively for HotMovies. And it’s the same thing where we’re interviewing people and then the nakedness ensues and the fooling around and stuff. People want to see that. I don’t know how many times I’ve had people writing to me or in the chat room going, “I want to see their boobs,” and stuff. I say, “Fine. You want to see their tits? Go to their website.”

Life is short. Let’s have a blast while we’re on this planet. I think that people are entertained. I have very loyal people who listen to the show every week and they can almost repeat stuff word-by-word verbatim. It’s like, wow, I’m really impressed that they are really listening to this thing loyally. And the numbers are growing. I think we’re probably one of the (top) shows on L.A. Talk Radio. We’re really happy and this month is our anniversary – a hundred shows.

Q: Wow. Well, people must be really digging it if you have made it to a hundred shows.

Definitely, definitely. If there wasn’t anybody listening I wouldn’t do this stuff, because believe me, I’ve got so much stuff to do. (Laughs) And I’ve actually been on movie sets and I’ve told the directors, “I have to leave the set for like two hours and go do the show, and I’ll be back.” We did that when I was shooting M*A*S*H for X-Play. I left the set and some of the cast were like, “Why does he get to go off?” And they go, “Well, he hosts this popular radio show and he has to take the time off.” I said, “Listen, I’ll be back before you know it. You guys break for dinner or something right now.” And I came shooting right back over there.

But it’s important to do this show because I know there are people like yourself – and they are all over the globe – they love the show and they want to hear it. If we put on a rerun or something, they get all up in arms and they’re like, “What happened to you and why aren’t you there?” It’s like, “Everything’s fine.”

Q: Are there any upcoming projects in the works you would like to mention or anything you wish to say to readers?

Let’s see … GalaxyPublicity.com, InsidetheIndustry.net, JamesBartholet.net, follow me on Twitter and on Facebook.

New movies out now are the Official Halloween Parody for Zero Tolerance, Rocky XXX for X-Play comes out real soon, Rocky Whore Picture Show, Not Jennifer Lopez XXX, The Graduate that I just did. Spiderman for Vivid, I am in the very end of the movie – the Dr. Octopus character gets introduced. Axel Braun is a brilliant genius. In the sequel, Spiderman vs. Superman, me and Lex Luthor team up to defeat Spiderman and Superman.

We might be at the Comic Con. I’m hoping that we’re going to be. We’re doing a lot of the super hero things and I think also with the horror parodies … I like doing that. I love doing the comedy stuff, of course, but it’s a welcome change to do the horror movies. No comic shtick or anything in that – straight-out horror movies and sex. At first, a lot of studios didn’t want to have that stuff because they said, “Nobody’s going to buy that,” and “It’s too gory,” with the blood gushing and the horror stuff. Then the sexy girl and the fucking.

There’s a huge audience for that. There’s a huge horror audience out there. So, it’s something new and I think we’re going to see a lot more horror parodies being made. I think also the musical singing and dancing parodies … we already had a homerun with Rocky Whore, Axel’s been talking about doing Grease, I know X-Play wants to do a Wizard of Oz. There’s tons of stuff that we could do.

And then there are original movies that are really creative. You have to see stuff that Erica McLean does. Erica McLean is a real brilliant director. Flying Pink Pig and Hardcore Circus were really original things.

Q: Yes, I spoke to her about those and they sounded very unique and creative.

There are a lot of people that say, “Parodies are on their way out,” but people are still buying them. I think we’re going to have to get to the point where we’re going to have to start making some original movies. I have a couple ideas for some scripts that I’ve already knocked out or maybe going to start. I just pitch them out there to the studios, so there is another niche I can put in the bedpost – “Writer.”

I would like to direct several times. I think I could be a really good director because coming from an acting standpoint I understand the acting stuff and from a performer’s standpoint, I understand the shots that have to be done. I watch very carefully on the set. I don’t just go in there and do my job. I’ll watch. I’ll ask the director, “Can I watch and see how you direct a scene?” So, I’ve gotten all these different ideas and techniques. Axel will be different than Will, who will be different Andre, who will be different than P.T., who will be different than Brad, who will be different than Leroy, who will be different than any of these other directors out there.

There are a lot of performers who are starting to direct right now. Rocco Reed is directing. I hope there will be an opportunity where somebody will give me a chance to prove what I can do. I went to film school and I understand about getting things on budget, I understand about angles and stuff and I’ll bring out the best performances in these people – not only sexually, but acting-wise. So, that’s kind of a future plan for me.

But right now, I’m just concerned with the present and taking care of things. Everything is really, really great and I couldn’t be happier. I have wonderful people I work with, wonderful fans and people like you who are supportive all the time, wonderful opportunities and there is work all over the place. I’ve got my health – knock on wood – and everything is good. The only thing is I wish we were making a little bit more money per scene. But besides that, everything is really good.