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The Adams Report
by J.C. Adams
09/26/00
Vol. 3, No. 44
I picked up the buzzing phone the other day to find directrix Chi Chi LaRue on the line. S/he was up in San Francisco for business meetings and to meet with none other than Eric Manchester, a dark-haired butch stud very popular in the late eighties, but about whom almost nothing has been heard for nearly a decade.
Among his better-known titles: Hot, Hung, and Hard (HIS Video/VCA, 1990), Spokes 2: The Graduation (Falcon, 1988), Head of the Class (Catalina, 1988), In Your Wildest Dreams (Falcon, 1988), the delightfully titled Touch Me-It's Hot, It's Tender (Falcon, 1988) and Down for the Count (Catalina, 1987). Mr. Manchester's better scenes have been crammed into a number of compilation videos, among them L.A. Video's 1987 Men of Size, and a pair from Catalina, Best Bi Far 2 and Best of Eric Manchester. He last appeared (I think) in 1992's Rites of Summer from Vivid. The video is lackluster (as are most of Vivid's films from that period), but Manchester's coupling with hottie Chris Ladd is the best scene in the film.
I'd been hearing vague rumors that E.M. had fallen on hard times in recent years, but if that's true he revealed none of it to Ms. LaRue, who reports that he was just as fit and gorgeous as ever. If anyone can give Eric Manchester the career boost he needs, it's LaRue. Hmmm… there is supposedly another Link film in the works. What do you think, Chi Chi?
* This business being so far-flung and people's schedules being what they are, rarely do folks in the industry find time to come together in significant numbers. Chi Chi LaRue's annual birthday bacchanalia still draws a hefty crowd, as did the Gay Video Guide's Gay Erotic Video Awards for a seven-year stretch (show producer Sabin folded the show soon after the 1998 edition). July, 1998's fourth edition of the Men in Video "Probie" awards drew a surprisingly inclusive crowd, and the Adult Video News "GayVN" Awards are slowly drawing more of the industry. As such, when Bob East over at Men of Odyssey invited industry insiders, myself included, to the set of the Zak Spears comeback film, A Journey Back, I wasn't sure what I'd find. Well, color me cynical. A fair number of industry folks turned up, and what a treat it was to reconnect with some of them.
Mr. East and the film's co-directors, Jim Steel and Chi Chi LaRue, wanted to shoot a restaurant scene packed with industry names (in a small tribute to the grand old MGM star-studded films). Fans watching this film won't recognize most of us, but it ought to make for a neat little bit of trivia nonetheless.
The restaurant location was Numbers on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, which had been rented out all afternoon for the shoot. After greeting LaRue, East, Steel and the man of the hour, Zak Spears, I picked up a bottled water from the way-cute waiters--I couldn't keep my eyes off the butt of one wearing skintight tan jeans--and ambled over to chat with shy guy Tony Donovan, looking sexy in a tight black tee shirt. Will Clark was at a nearby table with Casey Williams. As Mr. Steel rushed about placing everyone, I found myself at a small table with All Worlds Video's Dan Cross, Fox Studio's John Coletti and Jerry Douglas, who dragged himself away from the editing bay where he's whittling down his upcoming Top Secret with editor Andrew Rosen. Elsewhere, a couple of newbie porn stars I didn't recognize made an appearance as part of someone's entourage; Gay Chicago's Big Daddy Ferguson decided to take a long weekend away from the Windy City and flew in for the shoot; Stable Entertainment's Donald von Wiedenman turned up and spoke to me briefly (and off the record) about his sudden break-up with Stable partner (and boyfriend of several years) Grant Wood; I had a nice talk with the very busy director Thor Stephans, who was wearing his perpetual look of weary befuddlement, as if he'd forgotten something important and hadn't had enough sleep (and considering his hectic schedule, both are probably true. Don't tell him I said that).
Spike strolled into the restaurant extremely late, and as I made my way over to say hello, he once again had no idea who I was. I like Spike quite a bit, so I'm well beyond annoyed and heartily amused that after two years of acquaintance, half a dozen parties, one long night of drinks and clubbing (well before he met Chi Chi and hit the "A" list) and nine (I've counted) introductions, he still has absolutely no idea who I am or what I do. My face doesn't even ring a bell. Remarkable, really. It's as if the memory of our meeting is erased from his brain as soon as I'm out of sight.
Another latecomer was Sharon Kane. Ms. Kane's a dear friend, but, my god, that woman will be late for her own funeral. We worked together on a film some years back, and I told the director to give Sharon a call time ninety minutes before anyone else's. He was doubtful, but it worked like a charm. The shoot was running late, as they inevitably do, and when Sharon rushed through the door two hours (not ninety minutes, mind you) "late" she was actually right on time.
Anyway, deep into conversation with Mr. Cross and Mr. Coletti, I barely noticed Chi Chi, Zak and cameraman Steven Walker as they prowled through the restaurant, shooting take after take from one angle or another. The afternoon flew by, and we soon found ourselves wading through the oppressive late summer heat and back to the working world. Keep your eyes open for that scene when the film is released sometime during the holidays.
* There would be no reason for me to watch a film directed by Edward James if I wasn't being paid to do so--he's not credited on his newer films for the simple reason that his name is greeted with outright hostility by reviewers and editors alike. Film credited to James are just as likely to be tossed into the recycling bin without ever seeing the inside of a VCR. His films truly are that awful. I've met the man, you should know. He's quite charming, low-key and very good looking. In fact, he's one of the best-looking men working on the other side of the camera. I've seen most of his films, and he's not without some ability (Ciao Bello 1 & 2, shot on location in Italy, aren't bad). But more often than not, his films are slapped together with little apparent effort. They seem to be edited with a pair of scissors and spliced back together with Scotch tape. Most of the time the camera is in focus and pointed in the right direction.
Most of his films are interracial, because Mr. James harbors an attraction to African-American models and he possesses a baffling ability to lure some very talented black models in front of his cameras. But unless I'm being paid to watch the damned things, I won't touch 'em. Thus, I found myself viewing the perfectly dreadful Pack of Smokes from Bacchus Releasing, a distribution company I deeply admire for their consistent adherence to mediocrity. And who should I discover in the film but Justin Side. Go ahead, snicker at the stage name. I still do. Justin appeared on the scene some years ago and quickly drew a sizable cult audience for his slender, pretty, good looks and gigantic cock. He was inevitably better than his films, and never really broke through to the "A" list, although he had the talent to do so. Then, quite suddenly, he vanished. No one seemed to know what happened to him. Last time I spotted him was three years ago at the Gay Erotic Video Awards. But there he was in Pack of Smokes, looking a little heavier but no worse for the wear. I guess he had some bills to pay. Hopefully, if he's angling for a comeback, he'll hit the gym and make a play for the quality films, because the kid has talent. However, I'm told he's next slated to appear in Justin and the Chocolate Factory from Bacchus and Edward James. Figures…
One of Side's better films is Straight Guys, Straight Trade (Brick House, 1996), which also features gorgeous, mega-hung Cole Youngblood. I also rather like the smooth pups on display in Tutor Me (Bent Productions, 1995), starring the never-seen-again Matthew Reid. And Pure (Vivid, 1996) features mind-blowing sex between Lance Williams and Matt Easton, culminating in Easton blowing a whopping ten spurts of come. Other Side films that aren't all bad include Man Watch (New Age, 1997), White Men with Big Dicks (Jet Set, 1996), Ambush (Metro, 1996) and Mount Olympus Pool Party (All Worlds Video, 1996).
Interesting side note: You'll probably never see Justin Side's best scene, an absolute sizzler with Dustin Tye in Love Spell (1995, Exotic Productions). That's because one of his co-stars was Jeff Browning, who was revealed a few years back to have been underage at the time he made the film. Browning was paired with a slumming Alec Powers, of all people, but most distributors and video stores were advised to destroy their copies of the film to avoid possible criminal prosecution for the possession of child pornography.
* HEARD AROUND TOWN … There may very well be a fifth edition of the Men in Video Awards (formerly the "Probies") sometime this December. That's peachy (if we don't congratulate ourselves, who the hell will?), but the last couple of shows were disastrously produced. Let's hope a soup-to-nuts revamp is in the works … Cole Tucker has pulled up stakes from his longtime home in Boston and relocated to scorching Palm Springs with his lover … Vacationing Bel Ami beauty Johan Paulik visited New York City for several days in early August. "Can you picture the traffic jam when Johan went to a local gym to work out?" says a friend of mine. "Guys would walk by, do an extreme double-take, and inevitably would run into wall or trip over a weight bench. It was hilarious. Johan was embarrassed, but I think he thought it was flattering, too." … So which well-known porno star screeched into a parking lot at a high speed, slammed into the only available space (ahead of someone who was waiting for it), and ran over one of those tall, slender, bright orange traffic cones, very nearly bashing the parking attendant who was about to remove said traffic cone? Mr. Porno Star stomped out of his car and strode into a nearby store, with the flattened traffic cone jutting out from under the car. He ignored the parking attendant's protests, and when a pedestrian pointed out that he had run over the cone, he replied, "I know. So what?" Minutes later, he climbed back into his car, pulled out and drove away with the cone still jammed underneath his car. It broke loose a block down the street. Oy. … More odd behavior: Chad Conners, now pumped up to twice his former size, if not more, recently resigned to David Forest Entertainment. What's so strange about that, you ask? It was Chad's testimony that led, in part, to David Forest's incarceration several years ago for pandering. Conners had been nabbed in an L.A.P.D. sting operation and turned state's evidence to avoid jail time. When the announcement arrived by e-mail that Mr. Forest and Mr. Conners had reunited, I got on the horn for a comment. "What can I say?" explained Mr. Forest. "We had a talk, and it's all water under the bridge as far as I'm concerned." All righty, then.
Faversham...
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