Mr. Condom

The LA Times has a profile of Michael Weinstein, the guy who's been leading the charge to get the adult movie industry to require the wearing of condoms on porn sets.

"Porn mogul Larry Flynt, who also opposed the condom mandate, said Weinstein had 'played the press beautifully' on the issue.

'If the whole industry had to respond to his demands, the whole industry would just shut down. But that's not going to happen,' Flynt said. 'He'll get his 60 minutes of fame, I guess.'

Weinstein maintains that protecting porn workers is the right thing to do. But he also concedes that the campaign is a public-relations windfall: 'We got more publicity for safer sex and condoms than we ever could have gotten any other way.'"

[LA Times]

Porn for Women

"Fact: Dylan McDermott Is the Hottest 52-Year-Old Currently Living."

The first time I was on TV, I did an episode of "Politically Incorrect," and Dylan McDermott was on it. He was wearing a buttery suede jacket, and he was as smooth as margarine. It was years ago, but it appears he hasn't changed much since.

[BuzzFeed]

Fuck the Wolf of Wall Street

Variety reports the word "fuck" is uttered 506 times in "The Wolf of Wall Street," setting a new record in cinematic swearing.

"According to Wikipedia, the word 'fuck' is used 506 times over 'The Wolf of Wall Street’s' 180-minute running time. Previously, the record for a non-documentary was Spike Lee’s 1999 film 'Summer of Sam' with 435 instances."

[Variety]

Say What?

pic.twitter.com/YAeNSSU7VW

— Graham Roumieu (@roumieu) January 5, 2014

All the News That's Unfit to Print: 1.4.14

Mannequin or Manson follower? [Twitter]

Just say no to boners. [Scientific American]

That girl with that butt. [NY Post]

This tree is obscene. [Romenesko]

From Pizza Hut to Porn Hut. [Used to Be a Pizza Hut]

She likes broccoli. [Darling House]

Zip it, fairy. [This Isn't Happiness]

Will Pussy Riot win an Oscar? [NYT]

Hey, girl, wash my car. [NIF]

Peekaboo Beyonce. [Tumblr]

That woman with that big butt. [Gawker]

My favorite video of the year. [Vimeo]

POW POW. [Instagram]

"All chance for romance is dead." [Jodi Taylor]

Now that's a dirty martini. [New Yorker]

You can see the whole world in her. [NOWEAR LAND]

Dr. Manny gets ill trying to get off to medical sex show. [Fox News]

Ceci n'est pas un peep show. [Laurenn McCubbin]

A brief history of the nude body stocking. [The Cut]

Nice clams. [Curbed]

They Shoot Porn Stars, The Sequel

Reddit picked up "They Shoot Porn Stars, Don't They?" again recently, which has been sending some readers here. It's a long-form investigation of how the Great Recession impacted the adult movie industry I wrote in 2009. You can read more about the project here.

This year, I'll be returning to the Valley to write a follow up, revealing how the porn business is faring five years later.

An excerpt from the original piece:

"To date, he has produced and directed over 500 adult movies. But, this isn’t your father’s porn. Equal parts freak show, horror movie, and Russ Meyer-on-crack, his X-rated visions are deranged, demented, mind-boggling expeditions into the dark, unexplored continent of human sexual perversity. Fascinating, horrifying, and amusing—oftentimes all of those things at the same time—Powers’ celluloid world is one populated by midgets, bald chicks, and crazed men outfitted with monster-sized papier-mâché phalluses which spew torrents of goo onto the naked bodies of supine women, movies in which everyone has sex all of the time, and in which, most of the time, no one appears to win."

["They Shoot Porn Stars, Don't They?"]

Trouble in China

The New York Times has an interesting story on prostitution in China: "For Prostitutes Jailed in China, Forced Labor with No Recourse."

"The last time she was hauled into the local station house, Ms. Li was sent without trial or legal representation to a detention center in neighboring Hebei Province, where she spent six months making ornamental paper flowers and reciting the regulations that criminalize prostitution. Her incarceration at the Handan Custody and Education Center ended with a final indignity: She had to reimburse the jail for her stay, about $60 a month."

[NYT]

Death Becomes Her

NOOOOOO!!!! Oh Gawd, no. Stop. @F1abraham . Just stop. pic.twitter.com/mm1JtspOdx

— Caleb Wilde (@CalebWilde) January 2, 2014

The Men of Victoria's Secret

Fashion Copious asks an interesting question: Do only men work on Victoria's Secret video productions? Judging by this photo, that would appear to be the case.

[Fashion Copious]

I Get Email

"I am not familiar with your work, however, I enjoyed reading this article since it displays a rigorous background in the discipline of Journalism.  There is a nice breadth of interviews, combined with a skill at clean rhetoric for the intended audience.  Interestingly, there was a slight undercurrent of zeal for sexual, perhaps dark topics.  It was akin to coming across a trade publication such as 'Current Advances in Mortuary Science,' written by Ed Gein.

In any case, a beautifully rendered piece of Journalism.

Regards,

[redacted]"

Porn Limits

A man can only edit so much porn per day.

— Danny Wylde (@dannywylde) December 30, 2013

1-800

Listen to Iggy Azalea Official / 08 1-800-BONE | Explore the largest community of artists, bands, podcasters and creators of music & audio.

American Apparel Billboards

The New York Times Lens blog has an interesting post on Thomas Alleman, who takes photos of sexy American Apparel billboards found in the urban sprawl of Los Angeles.

"The more he photographs these billboards, the more he wonders if we aren’t most disquieted by the inference that, in a postfeminist world, it still isn’t acceptable for the models to choose to engage in the process. Can they not make their own decisions about sexuality, as descendants of media manipulators like Madonna? He asked, rhetorically, 'Are we a little creeped out by these pictures because these are confident women who are empowered, who seem to be in charge of what’s happening to them?'"

[NYT]

Numbers Game

if vagina's came with odometers, how many miles would u have on urs?

— seymorebutts (@seymorebutts) December 29, 2013