Top 5 Gay Porn Stories of 2005 We Didn’t Blog

Granted, this industry is small but we can’t be everywhere. The following are the five biggest stories we missed — or chose not to report on — and the fascinating reasons why.

1. Dick Wolf Retires From Porn To Open a Pot Club
Fuzzy powerbottom Dick Wolf caused a major a stir in the gay porn world in ’04 and ’05 thanks to his good looks and intense performances in Hot House’s Skuff 2, Mo’ Bubble Butt, Manhunt.TheMovie and finally Perfect Fit with Aiden Shaw. Then he quietly left the biz.

Amidst some false starts and speculation among his fans as to what his next steps were (and some bogus claims he was going to re-emerge under a new persona called “Johnny America”), in 2005 he opened a medical marijuana club in San Francisco (three doors down from my house, no less). It’s still legal to sell pot in CA thanks to Prop 215, but, in light of neo-con mania sweeping the nation, it’s dicey and raids are a real possibility. I was afraid mentioning it might draw unwanted attention, so I refrained but then there was a big article about it in Unzipped a few months later, so I guess I was being over cautious. Anyway, it’s called Sanctuary, and it’s at O’Farrell and Hyde in SF. Sadly, it’s not open to the public (unless you have a doctor’s note) but if you do, definitely check it out.

 

2. Ethan Marc Gets Sent Back to the Jail
Ethan Marc appeared in a few movies between ’97-’99 (including Lost Exit, in which he was on the cover), and returned to porn in ’04 for Falcon’s Taking Flight. I was excited when he signed on for a key role in Wet Palms and after working with him, I really got to like him. Rumors were circulating on the set that his absence from porn from ’00-’03 was because he was serving time jail for some check forgery scam he was running, but I withheld judgement since he seemed to really have gotten his life back together after whatever might have happened.

Staying in touch with him between shoots proved difficult. At one point, Mike and I got some nervous calls from the producers telling us that we might have to write his character off the show since he had gone “missing”. But when shooting time came around, he was there, on time, and performed excellently. In between the second and third shoot, he disappeared again, but come shooting time, again he re-appeared and gave another terrific performance (in a terse email, he told me he went back home to Louisiana to deal with some family stuff).

A few months later Jason Curious posted a long, hateful rant by Ethan’s former friend Kris Anthony, chronicling a sordid tale of his encounter with Ethan. The gist of Kris’s story was this: Ethan was in and out of jail a few times in ’05 (the times corresponded those periods when he was missing between the WP shoots), and after he was released from jail in June ’05, Kris took him in as a roommate. Ethan (allegedly) went on another check writing spree — this time with Kris’s checkbook. He hasn’t been heard from since, but presumably he’s back in jail (that would be for the 4th time, from what I understand). You can read a more detailed account on JC Adams’ blog.

For the record my interactions with Ethan were nothing but 100% positive. I was truly saddened to hear about all this, which is in part, why I never reported on it.

 

 

3. A Porn Star (or Three) Retires

While Ethan’s “retirement” from gay porn might be court-ordered, a few big stars stopped doing movies this year and I either found out too late or missed the boat completely. Tough talking (and tougher fucking) tattoed pup Jacob Slater was — for a second this year — everywhere. But no more: He’s moved to Japan to teach. Slater fans, don’t give up hope, however. This isn’t the first time he’s left the biz only to return a few years later under a different name. He first did movies as Bastian Adams, then returned, still twinky, as Ethan Richards. Then he got a bunch of tattoos, buffed up and returned to the blue screen in the incarnation we know best. For a brief history of Slater’s career, check out this entry on director Jett Blakk’s blog.

(Turns out Jett Blakk and I were a bit premature in announcing Jacob’s retirement. Turns out he doesn’t leave for Japan until June, and he’s looking to do as many movies as possible until then. He will be missed regardless.

Despite his first cover (Lube Job) and being in what’s turning out to be one of this year’s biggest blockbusters (Arabesque) Cory Koons’ porn career is currently on hold thanks to his getting a really great job in fashion (which is what he wanted to do in the first place). He’s unsure if he’ll go back to making fuck flicks — I guess it all depends on how his job pans out. He’s told me he was quitting a few times before, but this time, I sort of believe him. Joey Russo announced to Lavender Lounge his intentions to leave the biz a few months ago as well, but didn’t provide a reason. Titan’s Cirque Noir will be his last movie.

 

 

4. Chi Chi LaRue Appears on MSNBC, AMC and HBO
The multi-tasking drag directrix failed to disappoint in 2005 with her continued penetration into the mainstream media. Earlier in the year, she was featured a lot on HBO’s cliche-enforcing porn expose “Pornocopia” — both in and out of drag and talking about the straight and gay sides of the porn industry. While I think I mentioned the HBO series at some point, her appearance on two other more important shows completely fell off my radar. In early December, she was interviewed by Rita Crosby on MSNBC in a segment about Vivid (who Chi Chi directs straight videos for in her spare time.) Then later in the month she was again featured prominently on a AMC on a show called Movies That Shook The World, talking about how Pink Flamingos influenced her career (along with my homegirl Peaches Christ, another drag directrix autuer). Luckily you can catch a repeat of the AMC show on Jan 17.

 

 

5. Brad Benton Gets Spunk’d
World of Wonder, the gay-ish production company that brought us art house hits like “Party Monster”, “Eyes of Tammy Faye”, as well as flacid late-night cable-ready yarns like “Shock Video” and “101 Rent Boys”, took the plunge into gay hardcore with a DVD release called “Spunk’d”. Brad Benton (as “Asshole Fucker”) plays the host to what amounts to a bunch of retarded and revolting Jackass style gross-out gags. Overall, it’s mildly amusing but mostly unmemorable (despite watching it twice, I can’t exactly remember any of the “hilarious pranks”, except one where a guy stuffed like 10 marbles in his foreskin.)

Anyway, when I got a screener in the mail my jaw sort of hit the floor. See, as a behind-the-scenes extras for the first three episodes of Wet Palms, Mike and I thought it would be funny to play pranks on the stars of the show during the downtime. So we got the camera — and Brad Benton — and ran around the San Vicente Inn doing stupid things like filming crew members getting busy in the sauna. We even called it “Spunk’d”.

I wouldn’t be so bold as to out-and-out accuse World of Wonder with stealing our idea. But the fact that Michael gave World of Wonder founder Randy Barbato a copy of Wet Palms at Sundance last January (and the fact that WP came out about 8 months before Spunk’d) makes is sort of hard to dispute. At first I was a bit angry about the whole thing (OK, obsessively irate), but now I have more of a “That’s Hollywood!” attitude about it. Can’t you tell?

— Jack