Page 68 - AVN March 2016

many goals,” Lux told AVN
backstage. “This just helps me
move forward and make some
exciting new changes in my
industry.”
After Waka Flocka’s show-
stopping live performance of
“Grove St. Party,” AVN’s new
CEO Tony Rios introduced the
Visionary Award, which this year
was bestowed upon the founder
of AVN.
“In 1983, a young man
from Philadelphia named Paul
Fishbein and two partners
contributed $300 each to launch
Adult Video News, which started
out as an eight-page newsletter,”
Rios began. “That newsletter
went on to become the monthly
trade magazine now known as
AVN that is still published every
month, and laid the foundation
for the annual event that you’re
all a part of here tonight.”
Rios asked the audience to
watch a tribute video recapping
Fishbein’s achievements,
but instead the video was a
no-holds-barred roast of the
enterprising former leader of
AVN.
“It’s quite humbling and a
little embarrassing to accept the
award that I created five years
ago before I left AVN, but I am
truly thankful,” Fishbein said
when he took the stage.
In a thoughtful five-minute
address, he recounted a
brief history of the trials and
tribulations the porn business
has survived and underscored
the importance of standing up
for freedom of speech in an
industry that is always subject to
government scrutiny.
He thanked all his AVN
partners, including the original
co-founders Irv Slifkin and Barry
Rosenblatt, Stuart Franks, and
Darren Roberts, “who helped
bring AVN into the technological
age and is my partner in my new
television production company
Plausible Films.”
Clockwise from top, presenters Shawna
Lenée, trophy girls Elsa Jean and Jenna
Sativa with Kate Quigley; Waka Flocka
Flame; AVN founder Paul Fishbein with
FEATURE
AVN CEO Tony Rios. (Photo of Waka on
this page by PictureBoi; all others by Nate
Smith)
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