After two months and just 10 paying customers, the first legal gigolo in the United States has left a Nevada brothel to return to his first love, making porn.

Markus (his sex worker pseudonym) joined the ranch in January, after its owners won a decision allowing them to legally hire him from Nye County and the state of Nevada, where prostitution is legal and dominated by female sex workers.

For $200, ladies could buy 40 minutes with Markus, who told Details magazine in January that he was less of a prostitute and more of an artist, surrogate lover and pioneer for the gigolo community.

Owner Bobbi Davis said the Shady Lady Ranch hired another male prostitute on the heels of Markus' departure, a Las Vegas man who went by the handle Y. Not.

After seeing about 10 clients, he too departed the brothel after an electrical problem in his bungalow forced Davis to temporarily close it.

We're just taking a little break, she told the Review-Journal: We're going to try it for a while longer.

The directors of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CalOSHA) Standards Board have voted unanimously to form an advisory committee to study the possibility of requiring condoms to be used in adult movie production.

The board's vote capped a civil but contentious public meeting, where present and former adult performers spoke of their experiences on adult sets, and advocates from AIDS Healthcare Foundation (whose petition to the board prompted the meeting) as well as former performer Shelly Lubben's Pink Cross Foundation added their own spin on what several referred to as a health care crisis affecting the adult industry.

A Minnesota lawmaker wants state employees to stay out of hotels with violent porn while traveling for work.

A bill sponsored by Democratic Senator Tarryl Clark of St. Cloud could prohibit spending public dollars at in-state hotels or meeting facilities that provide their customers with pornographic materials that link sex with violence. Non-violent adult movies would be OK.

The bill gets a hearing in a Senate committee on Wednesday.

The Department of Administration would keep a directory of approved facilities to help employees plan travel.

Update: Unanimous

11th March 2010. Based on article from politicsinminnesota.com

A bill that would prohibit state employees and elected officials from spending public dollars at hotels that offer customers access to violent pornographic movies has passed unanimously out of a Senate committee.

The measure, introduced by Sen. Tarryl Clark, DFL-St. Cloud, cleared the Senate's State and Local Government Operation and Oversight Committee and will proceed directly to the floor.

The legislation allows for state employees to ignore the prohibition if there's no porn-free facility available. But they're required to provide a written explanation as to why they opted to stay in a hotel providing access to pornographic materials. The legislation defines that term as a sexually explicit image or performance that objectifies or exploits its subjects by eroticizing domination, degradation, or violence.

Only one person testified against the bill. Francis Jenkins White told legislators that sexual role play involving blindfolds or handcuffs is perfectly natural and should not be regulated in any way by the state. The bill is a classic case of trying to regulate someone's thoughts and desires, he said.

The only senator who expressed some misgivings about the legislation was Claire Robling, GOP-Jordan. She noted that pornography is all over the Internet and that the legislation would do little to limit access to such materials. Someone coming in with a computer could still be viewing it, Robling said.

Update: Voted Down in House Committee

18th March 2010.  Based on article from business.avn.com

A Minnesota House committee has voted down a bill that would have prevented state employees from using state funds at hotels or meeting facilities in the state that provide pay-per-view violent porn for guests.

The bill, HF 3287, which was introduced on March 1 by Larry Haws was taken up by the State and Local Government Operations Reform, Technology and Elections Committee, but didn't make it out.

The Senate version, SF 2861, was introduced in late February by Tarryl Clark, and passed the State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee last week.

Language from the House version included:

Constitutional officers, members of the legislature, an agency and its employees must ask if a facility is a preferred site and must use a preferred site when selecting lodging or facilities for state employees traveling on state business and when selecting facilities for conferences, meetings, education or training sessions, and similar events in Minnesota sponsored by state agencies unless:

Preferred site means lodging that can demonstrate, upon request, that it has adopted clean hotel policies and procedures;

Clean hotel policies and procedures means reasonable policies and procedures that eliminate within the facility the availability of sexually explicit work with depictions of sexual conduct that objectifies and exploits its subjects by eroticizing domination, degradation, or violence.

The Senate version awaits a final vote.

A federal appeals court upheld a Nevada law that bars legal brothels that operate in some of the state's rural areas from advertising by newspaper, leaflets and billboards in Las Vegas, Reno and other places where prostitution is illegal.

The laws had been challenged by the ACLU, a Nye County brothel called the Shady Lady Ranch and two newspapers: the High Desert Advocate and Las Vegas City Life.

The 9th Circuit panel reversed a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge James Mahan in Nevada that two 1979 state laws prohibiting brothel advertising in counties where prostitution is illegal were overly broad and unconstitutional.

The 9th Circuit noted in its ruling that Nevada was unique among states because it has a nuanced boundary, rather than total criminalization of prostitution. But the state still seeks to confine the sale of sex acts through licensing and advertising restrictions, the judges said. The Nevada laws appropriately limited commercial speech, the 9th Circuit said. We conclude that the interest in preventing the commodification of sex is substantial.

ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein said he didn't immediately know whether he'd seek a hearing before the full 9th Circuit or would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to take the case: The key issue is freedom of speech, It's a violation of the First Amendment for the state to restrict advertising by a legal industry, and it's wrong for a court to make exceptions because the state doesn't want to have it advertised that legalized prostitution exists.

Tristan Taormino's Rough Sex from Vivid Entertainment was recognized with the Adult Industry Showcase Award at the seventh annual CineKink Film Festival held last month in New York City.

I was honored to be included in this showcase with such other terrific filmmakers and now I'm thrilled to get this award as it was determined by audience ballot. It's the type of recognition that directors dream about, said Taormino.

Rough Sex was also nominated for a 2010 AVN award and named as one of XCritic.com's 10 Top Adult DVDs of 2009.

CineKink NYC presented a specially curated program of films and videos that celebrate and explore a wide diversity of sexuality. Billing itself as the kinky film festival, the event ran from Feb. 16-21. It was presented by CineKink, an organization dedicated to the recognition and encouragement of sex positive and kink friendly depictions in film and television.

The adult-entertainment industry is in a tailspin, shattering the notion that it is one of the few recession-proof industries.

The slump is especially stinging because technology — which helped adult-entertainment enterprises reap riches through innovations such as video streaming, webcameras and online payments — is contributing to the misery.

DVDs and online pay sites, which make up the majority of porn-related sales, are in a free fall largely because of the rise of so-called tube sites. Knockoffs of video-sharing site YouTube, the sites serve up snippets of free porn that is often pirated.

Some 1,000 tube sites — double those of a year ago — have put a sizable dent in the estimated $13 billion porn industry, prompting a flurry of copyright-infringement lawsuits. Most tube sites run ads to make money.

We're dealing with the perfect storm: declining DVD sales, rampant piracy, free content and a weak economy, says Steven Hirsch, founder of porn heavyweight Vivid Entertainment. He says its DVD sales plunged 20% last year. This is the worst I've seen in this industry in 25 years.

A recent report by market researcher XBIZ. It says initial orders of DVD titles by distributors have sunk, on average, to 1,500 to 2,000 now, vs. 5,000 to 6,000 in 2005.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., refused to dismiss a case against pornography producers who were charged with trafficking hard-core porn films across state lines and displaying illicit movie trailers online.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon rejected their claim that federal obscenity laws are unconstitutional.

John Stagliano and Evil Angel Productions Inc. claimed that federal laws criminalizing the interstate trafficking of obscenity were unconstitutional. They argued that the law barring a Web site from displaying obscene materials was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, because made online material subject to the community standards of the most conservative jurisdictions in the country.

But Judge Leon said the law was confined to a very narrow legal definition of obscenity. He said he is certain that online material will be judged as a whole and not individually according to obscenity laws, quashing filmmakers concerns that the trailer would be taken out of context.

Federal obscenity statutes require items to be judged in context of surrounding work. The government will have to show that the trailer is obscene in the context of the Web page, Leon said.

He also rejected their claim of a right to sexual privacy, saying such a right does not cover the distribution of obscene materials. He said the producers' case pales in comparison and does not even remotely approach the sexual privacy cases concerning homosexual rights and rights to obtain birth control. However you look at it, obscene material is not protected by the First Amendment, Leon concluded.

Update: Trial Set

26th March 2010. See article from xbiz.com

A federal judge has set a July 7 trial date for the obscenity case against John Stagliano and his two production companies, Evil Angel Productions Inc. and John Stagliano Inc.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, at a status conference in Washington at 3 p.m., set the trial date one month and one day after he rejected Stagliano's claim that federal obscenity laws are unconstitutional.

Leon said last month that obscene material is not protected by the 1st Amendment: Having considered the defendants' overbreath of arguments, I am not convinced that such strong medicine is warranted in this case. Nor am I convinced that the federal obscenity statutes are unconstitutionally vague as applied to Internet speech.

Detroit City Council have approved further repression of the city's 31 topless clubs. They have banned VIP rooms and lap dancing, but still allow the clubs to serve booze.

The council also voted unanimously to pass new zoning regulations limiting where new clubs could open.

The action comes one day after more than 500 people attended a 3.5 hour public hearing on the issue. The majority backed tougher regulations, which included the alcohol prohibition and opaque pasties that the council has abandoned. The watering-down of the rules infuriated religious nutters.

The Reverend Nutter Marvin Winans, pastor of Perfecting Church who led the fight for tougher rules, promised to continue the battle: Detroit deserves better, said Winans, who added he had no specific plans for a next step. The people are going to have the last word.

Strip club owners and employees said the crackdown would cripple their business, but after the vote, Larry Kaplan of the Association of Club Executives said they would do our best to live within the restrictions.

During the debate, Assistant Police Chief Ralph Godbee warned an alcohol ban at topless clubs could drive the behavior underground, creating more blind pigs. He added it would be harder for police to make sure underage girls aren't dancing at the blind pigs. Licensed clubs could lose their liquor license for certain violations.

The new rules would ban VIP rooms, require most employees get licenses from the city and limit dancers to 18-inch tall stages, which essentially bans lap dancing. The rules also ban touching, even when dancers are clothed.

Other changes include:

• All employees would have to get licenses and pass background checks except bathroom attendants, valets and repair and delivery workers. The city has yet to determine the cost of the licenses.
• Employees couldn't get licenses if they have certain criminal convictions, including sexual or drug related crimes.
• New clubs have to be at least 1,000 feet from another club, house, park, school or church.

Adult industry legend Jamie Gillis succumbed Friday to a battle with cancer in his hometown of New York City. He was 66.

A longtime New York acquaintance of Gillis' tells AVN the strain of cancer afflicting him was melanoma. The disease was diagnosed a mere four to five months ago, the source said.

Gillis will be cremated at a private ceremony. He requested that in lieu of flowers, contributions be made to the NYC Police Athletic League, an organization that assisted him as a boy and continues to aid New York City children.

Vetern adult director Cass Paley (aka Wesley Emerson) said the following in an email to AVN Friday evening regarding Gillis' death: It is with great sadness that I report the passing of Jamie Gillis. A wonderful and charismatic man and most treasured friend, he will be greatly missed by his partner Zarela, his family, his many friends, and countless fans around the world.

Jenny Joyce, a familiar face to fans of mature women videos, died on Feb. 9 at the age of 63 in Las Vegas of polycystic kidney disease after a long illness.

The actress, who appeared in about 35 movies between 1993 and 2007, worked mostly for specialty producers Totally Tasteless Video and Filmco Releasing, as well as amateur company Mike Hott Video. She appeared in several volumes of the Aged to Perfection series, and even starred in two volumes of Shooting Star Productions' Secret Life of Jenny Joyce.

She was well-known in her private life as an advocate for the disabled and those with Down syndrome, even going so far as to direct a play featuring only disabled actors.

The Texas Supreme Court has decided to review the legality of charging a $5-per-person pole tax to patrons of strip clubs and other adult entertainment venues, a case that has hinged on whether the government can tax content protected by the First Amendment.

The law, passed in the 2007 legislative session, originally directed revenues collected from the fee toward sexual abuse and violence treatment and prevention programs, but it has been mired in legal wrangling almost since it took effect in 2008.

I'm extremely happy that they agreed to hear the case, said State Rep. Ellen Cohen, who sponsored the legislation and filed an amicus brief urging the court to review the matter. If you're going to do this, you need to raise a substantial enough amount of money to make a dramatic effect on issues surrounding sexual violence. The way we fashioned it was absolutely the correct way and the most reasoned way.

The law was struck down in March 2008, by a Travis County District Court judge, a ruling that was upheld in June by the Austin-based 3rd Court of Appeals. The state has collected more than $12 million in fees that have been held in escrow pending the final outcome of the case.

David A. Furlow, a former Harris County prosecutor who has represented businesses in numerous cases involving First Amendment protections, said the central issue is whether the government can levy a tax on speech, such as a newspaper or TV show or dancing in a strip club, that has the effect of singling it out.

When you say certain types of messages and certain types of entertainment can be taxed, you begin down a slippery slope that can allow the government to destroy a form of business by taxing it out of existence, he said. You start down a pathway that could lead to censorship-based government like that which exists in Iran.

To defend the law, the government has been forced to argue that strip clubs lead to greater violence against women, a claim for which there is no evidence, Furlow said. Under such logic, he added, R-rated movies could be taxed because of the violence sometimes depicted in them.

An Albuquerque judge has fined a group responsible for organizing an adult film festival.

The Guild Theatre near Central and Carlisle has hosted the Pornotopia film festival— an event that has attracted both porn lovers and controversy.

After three years, the judge decided the theatre that has hosted the Pornotopia film festival is not zoned for adult entertainment, but organizers say the show will go on. The festival will likely be held somewhere else though.

Matie Fricker, the co-owner of Self Serve, a sex store in Nob Hill, is trying to figure out where she can host Pornotopia later this year. She has organized the festival since it started in 2007.

A Metro Court judge fined the Guild Theatre $500 for a building code violation stemming from one of the previous festivals, saying the theatre is not zoned for adult entertainment.

City officials admit there have been no formal complaints from the public about the event, but now their legal department is checking to see if the Guild can be fined for the other two festivals.

Some of the biggest names in the adult industry strutted their stuff and sizzled on the red carpet at the 8th annual XBIZ Awards, held at the Avalon Hollywood.

Honors were handed out to the most influential companies and performers who play a vital role in the growth and popularity of adult entertainment.

• Affiliate Program of the Year Pimproll
• Emerging Affiliate Program of the Year Cash Dorado
• VOD Company of the Year Hot Movies.Com
• Content Licensor of the Year Platinum Feeds
• Live Video Chat of the Year LiveJasmin
• Web Host of the Year Cavecreek
• Design Studio of the Year Blue Design Studios
• Dating Program of the Year Adult Friend Finder
• Web Retailer of the Year Fleshlight
• Billing Company of the Year – IPSP GTBill
• Billing Company of the Year – Merchant Services Netbilling
• Billing Company of the Year – Alternative Webbilling
• Software Company of the Year 2Much.net
• GLBT Web Company of the Year Buddy Profits
• Web Babe of the Year Jelena Jensen
• Pornstar Website of the Year Eva Angelina
• Traffic Service Company of the Year EroAdvertising
• Mobile Company of the Year TopBucks Mobile
• Innovative Web Company of the Year RedLightCenter.com

A US comic book collector has been sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books supposedly depicting illustrations of child sex and bestiality [presumably referring to the usual many tentacled monsters].

Christopher Handley was sentenced in Iowa almost a year after pleading guilty to charges of possessing obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children. Without a plea deal with federal authorities, he faced a maximum 15-year sentence.

The man was charged under the 2003 Protect Act, which outlaws cartoons, drawings, sculptures or paintings depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and which lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Handley was the nation’s first to be convicted under that law for possessing cartoon art, without any evidence that he also collected or viewed genuine child pornography.

Comic fans were outraged, saying jailing someone over manga does not protect children from sexual abuse. I’d say the anime community’s reaction to this, since day one, has been almost exclusively one of support for Handley and disgust with the U.S. courts and legal system, Christopher MacDonald, editor of Anime News Network, said in an e-mail.

Congress passed the Protect Act after the Supreme Court struck down a broader law prohibiting any visual depictions of minors engaged in sexual activity, including computer-generated imagery and other fakes. The high court ruled that the ban was too broad, and could cover legitimate speech, including Hollywood productions.

In response, the Protect Act narrows the prohibition to cover only depictions that the defendant’s community would consider obscene.

One of the issues we've talked about repeatedly over the years is the question of what is the internet jurisdiction.

If you think that just because it appears on the internet, anyone's laws apply, then you reach an untenable situation where all online content is controlled by the strictest, most draconian rules out there. That makes little sense.

And yet some courts still think this is the appropriate interpretation of the law.

In the US it's already troubling enough that the issue of indecency is measured on an amorphous community standards basis, but when it comes to the internet, what community applies?

A recent ruling in the 11th Circuit Court of appeals on a pornography case, the court seems to have made a ruling that effectively says all online content should be held to the standards of the strictest communities. Thus, an erotica website targeting a NY subculture should be held to the standards of a southern bible belt rural community? That seems ridiculous, but it's what the court said.

In this case, a guy who produced porn content in California was tried in Tampa, Florida, because investigators downloaded his content there:

The Atlanta-based court rejected arguments by Paul Little (Max Hardcore)'s attorneys that applying a local community standard to the Internet violates the First Amendment because doing so means material can be judged according to the standards of the strictest communities.

Other courts, including one in California, have found differently on similar questions, so it seems likely that, at some point, this issue will finally go back to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, it seems likely that the Supreme Court will focus on what counts as community standards rather than whether or not laws against obscenity even make legal sense under the First Amendment.

Five coffee shop workers in Everett, north of Seattle, US, are facing prostitution charges for putting on sex shows for customers in return of cash.

The five baristas work in bikini coffee shops where the staff is required to wear swimsuits, but they are said to have gone further by wearing thongs and nipple tassels.

According to the police, the five indulged in lewd behaviour bordering on the obscene, and have been accused of charging up to 80 dollars to let customers fondle or photograph them as they put on erotic shows. They face court dates on prostitution charges later this month.

Dozens of bikini coffee shops, with names like Brewlesque, Twin Perks and Java Juggs, have sprung up in the Seattle area as competition for customers mounted.

Bill Wheeler, who runs four Grab-N-Go bikini espresso stands in the Everett area, said the prostitution charges has damaged business: You have a bunch of church groups that got together and decided they just don't like women in bikinis.

But at Java Juggs business is booming, with workers picking up close to 150 dollars in tips during a six-hour shift: We just wear lingerie, or bras and panties instead of pasties (nipple tassels) and thongs. We have a lot of regulars. They don't really care too much, barista Jade Layng added.

Update: Grinding out a Repressive Deal

7th March 2010. Based on article from google.com

Prosecutors in Washington state have dropped prostitution charges against a bikini barista accused of selling more than coffee at an espresso stand.

The Daily Herald reports that Everett Municipal Court Judge Timothy O'Dell approved a deal between Everett prosecutors and the 21-year-old Kirkland woman that would drop the charges if she promised to stay out of trouble for two years.

If she fails, she could face prosecution in municipal court for violating the adult entertainment ordinance.

The woman also agreed to testify against four other Grab-n-Go baristas charged last year with prostitution and violating city ordinances. They were accused of charging customers for touching certain body parts and for stripping down while fixing drinks.

Update: No Fun in Washington

22nd May 2010. See article from seattletimes.nwsource.com

A Bikini barista who had faced a prostitution charge pleaded guilty to working without an adult entertainment license and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

The Daily Herald reports she is allowed to serve her time under home electronic monitoring. Judge Timothy O'Dell also ordered the woman to be fully clothed - no bikini or lingerie - when she works at an espresso stand.

The 21-year-old had been charged with prostitution after detectives photographed her licking whipped cream off another barista.

Four other baristas charged after a lewd behavior investigation last year at the Grab-n-Go Espresso stand will have charges dropped if they stay out of trouble for two years.

New Orleans police are using a state law written in 1805 for child molesters to charge hundreds of sex workers as sex offenders.

The law, which dates back to 1805, declares it a crime against nature to engage in unnatural copulation -- a term New Orleans cops and the district attorney's office have interpreted to mean anal or oral sex.

Sex workers convicted of breaking this law are charged with felonies, issued longer jail sentences and forced to register as sex offenders.

Of the 861 sex offenders currently registered in New Orleans, 483 were convicted of a crime against nature, according to Doug Cain, a spokesperson with the Louisiana State Police. And of those convicted of a crime against nature, 78% are Black and almost all are women.

The law impacts sex workers in both small and large ways. One sex worker, Tabitha, explains that she has to register an address in the sex offender database. Her driver's license has the label sex offender printed on it. She also has to purchase and mail postcards with her picture to everyone in the neighborhood informing them of her conviction. If she needs to evacuate to a shelter during a hurricane, she must evacuate to a special shelter for sex offenders, and this shelter has no separate safe spaces for women. She is even prohibited from ordinary activities in New Orleans like wearing a costume at Mardi Gras.

The Missouri Senate has endorsed repressively strict regulations for sexually oriented businesses.

The legislation would ban strip clubs and adult video stores within 1,000 feet of homes, schools, churches, libraries, parks and day cares. It also would ban nudity, require semi-nude employees to stay 6 feet from customers and force adult businesses to close by midnight.

Senators gave initial approval to the bill by voice vote after a short debate with scant opposition. A final vote, which would send the bill to the House, is expected early next week.

The legislation is sponsored by the long time nutter senator Matt Bartle.

Bartle recently testified before a federal grand jury in Kansas City that is looking into how his 2005 version died in the House. Bartle has said he believes there is a link between a $35,000 contribution from the adult entertainment industry to a political committee and then-House Speaker Rod Jetton's decision to send the bill to a committee whose chairman opposed it. Jetton has denied wrongdoing and said there's no connection between the money and the legislation's demise.

Bartle and Senate Majority Leader Kevin Engler both said it was mere coincidence that the Senate took up Bartle's latest anti-pornography legislation the same week as the grand jury investigation. But they acknowledged the publicity could help propel the bill to passage this year.

The bill's restrictions on the location of sexually oriented businesses would apply only to those opening after its Aug. 28 effective date. But existing businesses may have to remodel. They would have 180 days to comply with provisions requiring semi-nude dancers to remain on a stage at least 18 inches high that is at least 6 feet from customers in a room with at least 600 square feet.

Businesses or individuals that don't comply with the legislation could face misdemeanor charges punishable by a fine of up to $500 and 90 days in jail for each day a violation exists.

Too many adult production companies, too many porn actors. That's what Los Angeles County's public health chief told three AIDS Healthcare Foundation members who showed up at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors meeting demanding to know why the county won't require performers in porn films to wear condoms.

The three foundation members hijacked the meeting. The issue of condoms and porn weren't even on Tuesday's Supervisors Board meeting agenda.

But county officials reacted to the group and told them that they should be realistic to the situation. Dr. Jonathan Fielding, the county's public health chief, told the foundation members that regulating the porn biz is very, very difficult to implement.

There are roughly 200 production companies with about 1,200 actors, he said. All you need is a room and a camera and a bed, basically, to do this kind of shoot, and we have no ability to police this.

Fielding said that it would be difficult for public health officials to prove if the porn videos were shot in L.A. County or elsewhere, because producers often do not apply for filming licenses.

We worked closely with county counsel trying to see if there's some other way that we could effectively do this under existing authority, and what we've come up with is, basically, we're unlikely to to have an effective approach to prevent them from acquiring preventable STDs, Fielding said. It's very disturbing to come to that conclusion, but we also have to be realistic.

Fielding said the California Legislature would need to green light legislation that would require condom use for porn shoots.

Sara's Secrets/Condoms To Go chain has 12 stores in the conservative state of Texas. It has come up with a couple of knee-slappers for an advertising campaign, including the pictured billboard on I-35 and the TV ad that gave rise to it.

We ran that at the end of last year, explained Sara's Secret VP. We try to make our advertising entertaining and edgy; those are the two words we keep in mind. Because anybody can watch a whole evening of TV and I bet that they cannot recall one commercial, so obviously you've got to do something that will stand out from the noise, and this commercial hits the spot, and the billboards are kind of a follow-up to it.

What we want to do is create advertising that will stir people, he continued. Whether they're stirred because they don't like the advertising or stirred because they find it really funny, this particular combination really hit the spot. Here in Texas, which is a pretty conservative state, the churchgoers certainly give us their opinion, but CBS-11 did a story on it last night, and if you go to the comments underneath it, you'll see that the positive comments are overwhelming compared to the negative ones. People have come to our website and commented, and we're getting more positive comments there too.

If sex sells, TV programmers are adding inventory to an already humongous sale.

Viewers are about to see full-frontal male nudity, heterosexual, homosexual and group sex, and graphic scenes rarely — if ever — seen on mainstream TV. And that's just on pay-cable Starz's fornication-heavy, 13-episode Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a 300-meets-Caligula epic about the Roman Empire's notorious slave/gladiator.

MTV plans a June launch of The Hard Times of RJ Berger, a scripted comedy about a nerdy 15-year-old whose cool quotient heats up when his anatomical gift is accidentally exposed. And basic-cable network Spike's just-launched raunchy college-sports comedy Blue Mountain State showed a masturbating school mascot on the Jan. 12 premiere, while last night's episode featured a scene suggesting oral sex between a coed and jock before the opening credits.

...Read full article

The Shady Lady Ranch in the Nevada desert has got a job for male prostitutes (female clients only) charging an estimated $300 (£187) per hour.

Although legalised prostitution is nothing new in the wilderness beyond Las Vegas, pimping out men has been long been against the rules — largely because it was assumed by state officials that the only people interested in paying for such a service would be other men.

Until last month, Nevada's state regulations demanded that all licenced prostitutes undergo frequent cervical testing — something that was obviously impossible for those without cervixes to do. But after a long and bitter fight, the law has finally been changed, with male prostitutes now able to undergo urethral testing instead.

Hence the Shady Lady Ranch, located between the Nevada dust towns of Beatty and Tonopah, is ready to offer an entirely new menu of services, marketed directly at women.

With so many male revues going on in Las Vegas, we thought it was time to give this a try, said Bobbi Davis, proprietor of the ranch, adding that her first two male employees will be hired as soon as her establishment gets approval from officials in Nye County.

So far, the Shady Lady's madam has received applications from 150 candidates, with by far the most of them coming from Detroit and Las Vegas, where unemployment rates are among the highest in the US.

Ms Davis is making a great deal of effort to ensure that male prostitutes expand the brothel market rather than destroying it. For example, female customers who make the two hour drive to the Shady Lady Ranch from Las Vegas won't have to mix with male clients who've gone there to meet women—instead, they'll be ushered into a separate, private cabin on the brothel's grounds.

Meanwhile, sex will be advertised as The Boyfriend Experience, with an emphasis on romance.

Given Go-Ahead

Based on article from content.usatoday.com

A Nevada brothel has gotten the green light to be the first to add a new red-light special to its sex menu: male prostitutes. Officials in Nye County, where prostitution is legal, gave the go-ahead yesterday for the Shady Lady Ranch to hire the first legal male sex workers.

Owner Bobbi Davis is looking for a few good men to work at her high-desert brothel, about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas, where an hour costs $300, condoms are a must and workers get regular blood tests.

The criteria:

• Between 21 and 40.
• Have a Good Work Ethic.
• Must be Service Oriented.
• Have a Willingness to Please.
• Have a Positive Attitude.

Update: Given Go-Ahead

17th January 2010. Based on article from myfoxdetroit.com

One of the few legal brothels in America has hired Markus, its first male prostitute.

Last week the Shady Lady Ranch in Tonopah, Nevada, was given the OK by the county board to hire men for its business, reported The Los Angeles Times .

Markus arrived by Greyhound bus at the brothel, located about 150 miles northwest of Las Vegas. Details magazine interviewed the 25-year-old man from Los Angeles who compared himself to civil-rights icon Rosa Parks: Basically this is the first time in the economy of the United States that a male has actually stood up and said, 'I want to do this for a living.' And be protected under law to do it, Markus said in the article . It's just the same as when Rosa Parks decided to sit at the front instead of the back. She was proclaiming her rights as a disadvantaged, African-American older woman. And I'm doing the same.

According to news reports, actress Erica Boyer was killed on New Year's Eve in a traffic accident near her home in Panama City Beach, Florida, where she had been living since her retirement from the adult industry in 1994. She was 53 years old, and is reportedly survived by one son.

According to the Internet Adult Film Database, Boyer began her XXX career in a little-seen 1974 movie, Cowgirls In Chains, but waited another five years before fully taking the plunge into adult acting. From that point, she worked regularly for another 25 years, during which period she racked up the vast majority of her 184 features. However, she did come out of retirement briefly in the early 2000s.

The movie was Dark Chambers, the second of a trio of movies Marilyn Chambers did for VCA beginning in 1999, and Boyer's final on-camera appearance.

She was just so nice and so sweet, actress/director Veronica Hart said. She was living in Florida. Everybody had only the nicest things to say about her. She was just a gem to work with, and she was so thrilled to work with Marilyn, and I was so happy to be able to put them together.

Boyer was known primarily for her girl/girl scenes, and reportedly, that was her preference off-camera as well. Indeed, at the first X-Rated Critics' Organization (XRCO) Awards show, Boyer was given the Lascivious Lesbian award for her performance with Robin Everett in Bob Chinn's Body Girls. VCA's Every Woman Has A Fantasy also won that year for Most Erotic Film of the Year, in which Boyer had essayed a solo, a girl/girl and a threeway scene for the film.

The body of Juliet Carr, better known by her adult career name Juliet Anderson, and even more frequently recognized as one of the characters she portrayed, Aunt Peg, was discovered this morning in her residence in Berkeley by a friend. The cause of death is not yet known, but the actress suffered for many years with Crohn's disease, which had only recently been diagnosed, though she had suffered from it for most of her life.

Carr's adult career was unusual, to say the least. Born in Burbank in 1938, the diminuitive blonde began acting in adult at the age of 39, when, as an employee at an advertising and engineering firm, she was discovered by famed director Alex DeRenzy, who cast her in his 1978 blockbuster hit Pretty Peaches. Her career took off quickly, and she performed in more than 80 movies over the following 10 years.

Her best-known role, however, was as Aunt Peg, her character in the movie of the same name. Aunt Peg was a Hollywood agent who had an unusual method of choosing her clients and of getting them work, as displayed in Aunt Peg Goes Hollywood and Aunt Peg's Fulfillment. She also appeared in such top hits as Tangerine, Vista Valley PTA, Dixie Ray Hollywood Star, Outlaw Ladies, Taboo 1 & 2, Hustler Video Magazine 1, and in half of the first 24 volumes of the Swedish Erotica series.

The multitude of 2010 AVN Award winners were announced on Saturday night during the 27th annual ceremony at the Pearl Concert Theater inside the Palms Resort Casino.

Here are a selected Few:

• Best High End All-Sex Release. Deviance, skinworXXX/Adam & Eve
• Best Actor. Eric Swiss, Not Married With Children XXX, X-Play/LFP
• Best Gonzo Release. Tori Black Is Pretty Filthy, Elegant Angel Productions
• Best Comedy. Flight Attendants, X-Play/Adam & Eve
• Male Performer of the Year. Manuel Ferrara
• Best New Starlet. Kagney Linn Karter
• Best Selling & Renting Title of the Year. Pirates II: Stagnetti's Revenge, Digital Playground
• Best Director – Feature. David Aaron Clark, Pure, David Aaron Clark/Evil Angel
• Best Actress. Kimberly Kane, The Sex Files: A Dark XXX Parody, Revolution X/Digital Sin
• Female Performer of the Year. Tori Black
• Best Video Feature. The 8th Day, Adam & Eve Pictures
• Most Outrageous Sex Scene. Belladonna: No Warning 4, Belladonna/Evil Angel; Bobbi Starr & Bobbi Starr, Go Fuck Yourself
• Best Interactive DVD. Interactive Sex With Tori Black, Zero Tolerance Entertainment
• Director of the Year (Body of Work). Will Ryder
• Best Director – Foreign Feature. (A Tie).
  Paul Chaplin, Black Beauty: Escape to Eden, Bluebird.
  Moire Candy, Ritual, Marc Dorcel/Wicked
• Best Gonzo Series. Jerkoff Material, Mike John/Jules Jordan
• Best Classic Release. Debbie Does Dallas 30th Anniversary Edition, VCX
• Best Foreign Feature. Billionaire 1&2, Private/Pure Play

Why is the adult film business in dire straits? Sasha Grey and other stars answered The Daily Beast's question this weekend at the porn industry's annual convention in Las Vegas.

Every January, the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas is the biggest annual gathering of the adult film industry. But the biggest is suddenly a lot smaller. The 2010 AEE convention, which ran Thursday through Sunday, had shrunk from packing two floors of the Venetian's Sands Expo Center last year down to one floor (and that one with lots of empty space).

The AEE show is an example of what the business faces. There are fewer fans, less foot traffic, and less companies exhibiting, said Steve Javors, editor in chief of industry trade publication XBIZ. During the 2000s, porn kept expanding outward. We thought there was an insatiable appetite for porn, and there would keep being more companies and more porn stars. Now, we are finding out that is not true.

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