Page 85 - AVN February 2018

Editor’s Desk
(Continued from page 16)
Entertainment that same year. In addition to gracing
the pages of every major adult magazine, Leone
has also been featured in mainstream publications
such as FHM, Maxim and Jane. While she made only
60-something adult films during a 10-year span, most
of which were girl/girl performances, Leone’s impact
was enormous. She transitioned into the role of
producer/performer with her studio SunLust Pictures,
releasing her first DVD through Vivid in January
2009. Her big break came during her appearance on
the Indian reality TV series Bigg Boss in 2011, and she
made her Bollywood debut the following year. A major
celebrity there, she was at the top of Google India’s
2014 list of most-searched personalities.
NICK ORLEANS—After debuting as an adult director
with golden-age studio VCA in 1993, Nick Orleans a
name for himself with Virtual Sex, a feature starring
Kelly O’Dell that can still be obtained on VOD. He
worked for a few other studios, but it was with Adam
& Eve Pictures that he built his career. The director
took a brief leave of absence around 2008 but came
back to the adult industry in 2012, lured by Adam
& Eve exec Bob Christian to helm Perfect Secretary 3.
“Adam & Eve Pictures has worked with Nick Orleans
since our first days of movie making,” Christian
recalls. “Nick directed a number of our big movies.
... I love that he got Adam & Eve’s founder, Phil
Harvey, to appear in our movie Tailgunners, in a role
reminiscent of FDR. Adam & Eve is proud of the over
60 movies which bear the director/producer credit for
Nick Orleans.”
KIRSTEN PRICE—In the adult industry since 2004
and married to adult star Keiran Lee, Kirsten Price
indeed lives up to her Twitter tagline: “Real Housewife
of San Fernando Valley.” But that’s just one aspect to
this multifaceted adult star, who got her start with
such titles as Wet Teens 7 (Simon Wolf Productions)
but within a year had ascended to the ranks of adult
stars privileged to work under contract for a major
studio. And along the way she’s feature danced,
hosted radio and TV shows, including Playboy TV’s
Night Calls, and been featured on the mainstream
shows My Bare Lady and Weeds. At the age of 23, the
former Hawaiian Tropic model had done two movies
for Wicked Pictures—Between the Sheets and The
Visitors—before the studio brought her on as a Wicked
Girl. While still with the studio, Price was tapped to
co-host the 2010 AVN Awards with Kayden Kross.
MIKE RANGER—His 11 years in the adult industry
were over before the mid-1980s, but performer Mike
Ranger is certainly not forgotten. One standout
reason: He starred with Kay Parker in director Kirdy
Stevens’ Taboo (1980, Standard Video), a landmark
for its frank exploration of mother-son incest. The
wide-eyed, baby-faced Ranger is remembered by fans
of Golden-Age porn for his role as Parker’s son—and
their sizzling scenes of forbidden love. Though he
started in 1974, Ranger really hit his stride in the
1980s. In addition to his scenes with Parker in Taboo,
Ranger also performed with Candida Royalle in Ultra
Flesh (1980), with Marilyn Chambers in Insatiable
(1980), with Serena and Juliet Anderson in Aunt Peg
(1980), and with Seka and Angel Ducharme in The
Seduction of Seka (1981).
DAVID STANLEY—Above all else, David Stanley has
always proven himself to be a storyteller of a higher
ilk than typically found in the ranks of X-rated cinema.
The Minneapolis native has demonstrated this time
and time again over his tenure as a writer/director,
which began in 1997 with a few titles for Elegant
Angel Productions. It was in 1999, however, when he
would begin making movies for Vivid Entertainment,
where he was able to fully manifest his creative
powers. His 2004 picture Pretty Girl garnered him
trophies for directing and screenwriting at the 2005
AVN Awards. Following that double victory, Stanley
switched teams and signed a contract with Wicked
Pictures. Stanley’s directorial efforts became sporadic
but he’s continued to write scripts, primarily for
fellow director B. Skow’s movies both at Vivid and
Girlfriends Films. Two of those scripts would land
him additional AVN Awards: The Condemned and Clerks
XXX: A Porn Parody, both from Vivid.
CELESTE STAR—Having pulled off the nearly
unheard of feat of maintaining a steady career as an
all-girl performer for 13 years and counting, Celeste
Star lives up to her surname. Star has remained a
favorite of girl/girl aficionados throughout her time in
adult, proving so as recently as this past January, when
she won the AVN Award (along with Alix Lynx and
Serena Blair) for Best All-Girl Group Sex Scene for
AI: Artificial Intelligence from Girlsway/Girlfriends
Films. She also holds the distinction of being the
first of only two all-girl performers around whom
celebrated director Mason has crafted an entire star
showcase, with 2011’s Celeste from Club 59/Elegant
Angel Productions (co-directed, it so happens, by
Star’s fellow 2018 AVN Hall of Fame inductee
William H.). Among her other accomplishments,
Star served as the backstage host for the 2014 AVN
Awards, and has been a repeat nominee for AVN All-
Girl Performer of the Year.
AIDEN STARR—This tiny (4-foot-11, 90 pounds)
blonde beauty arrived on the XXX scene in 2002.
With just a couple of exceptions, between 2002
and 2006, Aiden Starr did exclusively girl/girl and
bondage scenes, and then joined Julie Simone in 2006
on a new bondage line, Vicious Vixens. In all, Starr
has appeared in more than 550 features and web
scenes, and while most of the action has been girl/
girl, there doesn’t appear to be any fetish she won’t
try at least once. But Starr long had the directing bug,
and by 2013 she was assisting directors Dee Severe
and Jimmy Broadway at Severe Society Films. The
following year she broke out on her own, working
with Evil Angel and exploring niches ranging from
BBW to foot fetish to all-girl domination. Since then,
Evil Angel has distributed more than 40 Starr-directed
features, and she was responsible for the company’s
first bi title, Bisexual Pick-Ups.
DEVLIN WEED—Straight outta Compton, Devlin
Weed has worked in adult entertainment since 1994.
Weed had always thought about doing porn, and
he got his chance from famed adult performer Ron
Hightower—a connection made via another son of
Compton: Eazy-E. That was the start of a long career
that has seen Weed featured in more than 1,150
movies for a wide range of studios. He also made the
leap into directing in 1997. Another key person in
Weed’s career was director Jim Powers, “who turned
into a very good friend of mine. He used to keep
me working constantly.” Weed also did many titles
for Fat Dog, Heatwave, Video Team and Darkside
Entertainment. These days Weed isn’t in front of the
camera, but he’s still very much a part of the business,
editing movies for various studios, including Elegant
Angel, Dirty Laundry, Darkside and other Juicy
Entertainment imprints.
ANGELA WHITE—After starting her adult
entertainment career in 2003 at the age of 18, White
became the first Australian to pose for the Florida-
based Score Group. Fifteen years later, White is a
multiple AVN Award-winning performer, producer
and studio owner who is widely regarded as one of the
top adult stars in the world. A girl/girl only performer
for the first eight years of her career, White debuted
her own production company, AGW Entertainment,
in October 2014. White has distinguished herself as
Australia’s best-known adult performer. In addition
to appearing on Australian TV and on the front
page of the Sydney Morning Herald, she also received
national exposure for her bid for the Australian Sex
Party Senate seat during the Victorian state election
in 2010. That same year White graduated from the
University of Melbourne with First Class Honors in
gender studies. Most recently White co-headlined the
2018 AVN Awards Show with Harli Lotts last month.
MICHAEL ZEN—Adult feature director Michael
Zen entered the adult industry slowly, helming one
feature, Falconhead, for VCA’s gay imprint HIS in
1976, then the following year, a straight extravaganza,
Reflections, for VCX, with an astounding 19 scenes—
and then nothing until Filthy Rich in 1981. In fact, it
wasn›t until 1992 that Zen›s career really began to
take off, with the highly rated Secret Garden 1 & 2
(Xcitement) and Ice Woman 1 & 2 (Vivid). But the
work for which Zen may be best remembered was his
1995 film Blue Movie, starring then up-and-coming
performer Jenna Jameson. The following year, Zen
again struck up a relationship with Vivid, shooting 32
straight and gay features for them while continuing to
work for other companies before he retired in 2009.
Recalled screenwriter Raven Touchstone, “ He had
such an understanding of film. He was a teacher of
filmmaking, and he knew every movie, every plot,
every star.” Zen died in June of 2017 of pancreatic
cancer.
AVN Hall of Fame – Founders Branch
DAVID JOSEPH—As the former president and CEO
of Red Light District, which he co-founded in 2001,
David Joseph was responsible for the distribution
of several of the top celebrity sex tapes of all time.
During Joseph’s tenure—he took over day-to-day
management of the company in 2003—Red Light
District became one of the major players of the
Golden Era of gonzo. After the notorious Paris Hilton
sex tape 1 Night in Paris propelled Red Light District
into the national spotlight, the following year Joseph
did it again with 1 Night in Chyna, the sex tape that
showcased the late pro wrestler Joanie “Chyna”
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