Results tagged “sashagrey”

       

How is it that every Pixar film is an absolute gem, yet every other animated movie from every other large American studio is just okay? Oh right -- John Lasseter. I watched The Wizard of Oz plenty of times when I was a kid, and I admire it as an important film in the American film canon...but...would I ever watch it again? Probably not. Man, Jennifer Aniston just can't seem to pick good movies in which to star, huh? Management was a dud despite the presence of the great Steve Zahn (see him in Rescue Dawn and Safe Men). Away We Go has more of an Eggers feel to it than a Mendes stamp, huh? Does anyone not like John Krasinski?

                                   

Last Wednesday, the inaugural edition of "Sex, Drinks, and Rock 'N Roll Freedomfest," hosted by Hustler Hollywood and benefiting the Free Speech Coalition, took place at the Whisky a Go Go in West Hollywood. While it's easy for recent punching bag Perez Hilton to snark that "...porn stars want to be able to say what they want in and out of the filmed orgies," the reality is that the adult industry has been targeted by the federal government, with XRCO Hall of Fame inductee Max Hardcore currently serving a 46 month prison sentence and Evil Angel founder John Stagliano indicted last year.

              

You've probably seen the billboards and other advertising promoting this weekend's Erotica LA at the LA Convention Center. While smaller in scale than AVN's Adult Entertainment Expo, the 13th annual incarnation is still the city's largest yearly adult consumer exposition, with predictions of over 40,000 people in attendance, many of whom will be women and couples.

       

LAist favorite Sasha Grey has been quite a media sensation due to her leading role in Steven Soderbergh's , with film critic Roger Ebert even observing that "I haven't seen any of [her adult work], but now I would like to see one, watching very carefully, to see if she suggests more than one level."

       

I was never a huge fan of the Terminator movies, so I wasn't too upset about the mythology-raping that goes on in Terminator Salvation. For me it was just good, loud fun with cool robots and Moon Bloodgood's amazing cleavage. During a family visit over Christmas I was snookered into seeing the first Night at the Museum. That will not be the case with the dreary-looking Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Yes, the flicks are stupid, but I am a fan of whatever the Wayans' brothers touch so I'll queue up for Dance Flick. In shame.

                            

If the AVN Adult Movie Awards are the Oscars of the adult industry, then the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Awards would be the equivalent of the New York Film Critics Circle Awards.

                                   

LAist has been fortunate to run into pornstar and mainstream crossover artist Sasha Grey (MySpace) already a few times this year -- at AVN's Adult Entertainment Expo and Adult Movie Awards as well as Vivid-Alt's release party.

                     

Last Tuesday, pornstar/director Kimberly Kane (MySpace) celebrated the release of her new Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie "...is an extreme hardcore fetish feature from the most primal reaches of [Kane's] psyche," and is highly recommended by XCritic, who gave it four out of five stars.

                                   

Joanna Angel, nominated for 14 AVN Adult Movie Awards, including Jenna Jameson Crossover Star of the Year, blogged (NSFW) about her experience:

                                   

So what's the Adult Entertainment Expo like? Scenester photographer Igor from Driven By Boredom explained that "This is just a huge room filled with booth after booth of sex related things. Mostly porn companies in the front, but towards the back there are booths for hookers, strippers, sex toys and a lot of ugly clothes that only the biggest manor of scum bag would wear. (Discounting the rad kids at the I <3 Vagina booth)... I met a bunch of people and saw a lot of friends." It should be noted that while Igor didn't mention the marketplace on the lower level, his description of the upper level is mainly accurate.

                            

Longtime Adult Entertainment Expo patrons such as Dan Kartz also noticed the decline in business, stating that "'My girlfriend is Czech, so I really like European women, and because it has become so expensive to fly internationally, you don't have nearly as many international women here... Before, you could fly women over from the Czech Republic, from Germany, England, Spain, but it has gotten so expensive that it's mostly an American crowd. There are a lot less foreigners, a lot less foreign companies, too... There used to be a lot more free DVDs and free publications, but they've gotten pretty stingy. There are not a lot of quality giveaways this year.'"

                     

As mentioned last Friday, the adult industry has gathered this week for AVN's annual Adult Entertainment Expo and Adult Movie Awards in Las Vegas, with the convention running through Sunday at the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and the awards show on Saturday at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. And while Thursday, the first day of the convention, was only open to members of the adult industry and press, it will be open to the public from today onward.

       

NOTE: See LAist's coverage of world premiere and UC Irvine's Sociology 69: Sociology of Sexuality.

                                          

Today: Pornstars.

                            

Two weeks ago, photographer/director Dave Naz (MySpace) celebrated the release of his new Vivid-Alt (MySpace) movie revives "...the early 80's and focus[es] on the important things in life: sex, music, and doing whatever the fuck they want. No parents, no school, no rules." The movie features cameo "...appearances by punk legends Keith Morris (Circle Jerks), Don Bolles (The Germs, .45 Grave) and Jim Lane (Killroy)" and the soundtrack features several songs from the Circle Jerks.