I was so nervous on the ride there that thick droplets of sweat were running down my body. The words of encouragement my father had spoken to me on the phone rang through my head. I kept repeating to myself, over and over, that I was the prize. I needed to walk into Steve’s office with the attitude that I had just bench-pressed the world. It had to be conveyed not just by what I said, but by how I moved, the way I held myself, and the sound of my voice.
I knew I wanted not just a job, but a contract. Wicked was a small company and so far Steve Orenstein had only granted a contract to Chasey Lain, a beautiful brunette stripper from Florida.
The only problem was that I had no idea what a contract entailed, how much money I should ask for, or what terms I wanted. But I came up with a plan: I was not going to discuss money whatsoever, but instead tell him that I was all about the fame. This way, I figured, they’d be more likely to back me because asking for money was taking something from them. But with fame, they had something to gain: cachet and, more importantly, cash. In addition, they knew I would work hard for them, and not just try to get away with as little work as possible for the paycheck. It was like the old Hollywood studio system, in which actors and directors signed exclusive deals with studios, which in turn harnessed their entire marketing power into making them household names. Although this system was seen as exploitative by modern Hollywood standards, it also produced some of the most awe-inspiring females in cinema history: among them, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe, Bette Davis, Mae West, Greta Garbo, and Joan Crawford.
I sat in the waiting room sweating for fifteen minutes before the secretary told me to go to the first office on the right. As soon as I crossed the threshold, I started shaking. The office itself was unimpressive: a tiny cubicle with bare corrugated steel walls in an industrial park. But I’d never been so nervous in my life, because this was it. I didn’t have a backup plan.
The room contained only a black lacquer desk and a leather couch, which revolted me. It looked sleazy and disorganized, and I reevaluated my goals on the spot. But then I took a good look at Steve.
He sat behind his desk, with assorted stacks of paper piled up to his chin. He was little, with red curly hair and an easy smile. Then there were his eyes; he had really happy eyes. And he had a tic of blinking a lot, which made me comfortable because he was nervous in his own way too. Even rarer, during the entire time I spoke, he never once looked below my chin. He let me talk, and didn’t interrupt at all. He only had two main questions: “What are you about?” and “What do you want out of this?”
“Listen,” I said. “I’ve done a billion magazines. With no one’s help, I made myself the most photographed girl in the business. The movie scenes I’ve done have been pivotal. A lot of people know who I am. I know what I’m worth, and I’m ready for the next step. The most important thing to me right now is to become the biggest star the industry has ever seen.”
As soon as I said that last phrase, Steve’s eyes lit up. Either he really believed in me or he thought the delusions of grandeur coming out of the mouth of a baby-faced twenty-year-old were humorous.
I assumed the best and went on. “You and I want the same things,” I said. “You are a new company in the industry. You care about quality and perfection, because you want to be the best and the biggest. I want the same thing for myself. And together we can change things. So you can either sign me or I can go to another company and take them to the top. It’s up to you. I’m going to be a star with or without you, so let’s do this.”
I had nothing to back this up whatsoever. I was just talking out of my ass. I glanced at Steve. He was looking at me in awe, and I thought, “I did it.”
“Okay,” he said. “Come with me.”
He walked me out of the room to where his assistant was sitting and dictated: “I, Jenna Jameson, agree to be under contract to Wicked Pictures. I agree to star in eight Wicked productions a year for a fee of six thousand dollars per film.”
Suddenly, I had a thought: what if my novelty wore off for them one day and they ended up signing a bunch of girls? “If you want me to do this, I need to be your main priority,” I insisted. “So if you want to sign any other girls, I need to approve them first.”
Steve’s assistant looked up at him and, to my amazement, he nodded his consent. She pulled the sheet out of the typewriter. This was my contract. And, because I felt comfortable with Steve, I signed it on the spot. Afterward, we all stood there beaming like long-lost friends. Steve asked me what I wanted as a signing bonus, and I requested something I desperately needed: a refrigerator.
No girl goes into the business saying, “I’m going to be a big star and conquer the world,” especially then. But that was what set me apart. I knew Wicked could help me achieve that. However, by putting myself entirely in their hands, I was being very naïve. Signing a two-sentence contract without a lawyer could have been a career-ending mistake. But luckily, I happened to walk into the office of the most honest man in the adult-film business. And, even though we don’t work together anymore, that’s still true today.
With Steve Orenstein, on the far left.
RÉSUMÉ
Name: Steve Orenstein
Age: 38
Position: Owner, Wicked Pictures
FAMILY BACKGROUND
My father was an auto mechanic in New York, until he developed arthritis in his hands. His doctors suggested he live in a drier climate, so we moved to Southern California.
Searching for work, my mom answered an advertisement in the newspaper for a manager/bookkeeper at Lyndon Distributors. She never asked what they distributed until she started working there, and discovered it was adult magazines.
WORK EXPERIENCE
For a summer job after high school, I went to work in the Lyndon warehouse. After a while, the owner’s nephew, Fred Alfano, hired me at his company, which distributed magazines, toys, and eight-millimeter films to adult bookstores.
I continued to work for him on-and-off during college, until, during sophomore year, I decided to drop out altogether. Fred didn’t have a fulltime position available, so he offered to pay me to learn everybody’s job at the company. He wanted me to spend two weeks with each person, so that if they were out sick, I could take their job.
One day, I showed up to work and all Fred’s store managers, along with their supervisor, were lined up outside his office. Fred was making them all take lie detector tests. He even gave me one, which I passed, of course. But the supervisor failed. Fred had me follow the guy around, learning his job, for two weeks. And then he fired him. Suddenly I found myself, at age twenty, managing all his stores.
One of the companies we bought a lot of our product from was called CPLC and, in dealing with them, I became friends with the owner’s son, Stuart Tapper. The year was 1982, and distributing adult movies on videotape was rare. Stuart wanted to start a video division at his company, so he hired me to help out.
But three weeks after I started, Stuart was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. And since Stuart was the brains behind the business, positioned to inherit it all when his father retired, his idea for a video division went into a holding pattern while he spent two years in treatment. In the end, both Stuart and his father died within thirty days of each other.
I continued to run the warehouse at CPLC until I received a call from a friend in the business, who told me that there was a guy named Ruby who had a video distribution company called X-Citement Video and was looking for someone to run his warehouse. I wasn’t interested, but I met with Ruby anyway. And he was such a good salesman that I wound up working for him from 1984 until 1993.
Around 1990, he told me, “Remember, when I hired you, I said that one day you’ll have your own money and we’ll do something together?”
I remembered. He had promised me a lot and, so far, had delivered.
“Well, I want you to start doing production—as my partner.”
So we started X-Citement Productions. But becoming partners chang
ed our relationship, and we had a falling out, as most partners do, over money. We had made twenty-four movies, so we split them evenly between us and I left X-Citement.
For the first time since high school, I wasn’t working for anyone. And I didn’t want to again.
COMPANY PROFILE
By now, I’d had over thirteen years of experience in the business, mostly in distribution, which I was pretty burned out on. So I decided to start my own production company. My goal was simple: to replace the paycheck I had just lost.
The original staff was just myself, a salesman I knew from X-Citement, and my mother, who worked as receptionist and bookkeeper. We chose to name the company Oasis. It sounded classy, and my plan was to make films for the couples market that had a relatively high-end production value. I wanted to put out a small amount of movies, and be proud of each one. But then someone in the industry heard me talking about Oasis, and informed me that it was already taken—and registered.
I had rented an extra office to a friend of mine, an independent salesman. One day, I sat in his office and we tried to brainstorm a new name. He said it first: Wicked. I liked it instantly, because one of the titles we had made at X-Citement was called Wicked. It just sounded right: Wicked Pictures.
COMPANY TALENT
CHASEY LAIN
Soon after we opened our doors, an agent named Lucky Smith, who I had known from my X-Citement days, came into the office. He wanted me to sign one of his clients as a contract girl. But I told him that I had no interest in putting any girl on contract. I wasn’t in the business of girls; I was in the business of movies.
But after we made our first movies and they weren’t flying out of the door, I began to worry. It was hard to convince buyers that we were making a better, higher-quality product than the competition, because that’s what every other company was saying. So I called Lucky and told him, “I want to see pictures of that girl you were talking about.” I figured that if the distributors didn’t believe we had a company that was different and more special than the others, perhaps they’d believe us if we had a girl who was different and more special than the others.
“I thought you weren’t interested,” Lucky replied.
“I changed my mind.”
So he returned to the office and showed me pictures of Chasey Lain. She was a beautiful brunette who had never done a movie before. I knew that if we could build an image and following for her, then people would only have one place to go for her product: Wicked.
Of course, we had little experience managing talent. In the middle of shooting her first movie for Wicked, she had a boob job and both sizes were ultimately seen in the film. But that movie, The Original Wicked Woman, was such a success that it put the company on the map.
JENNA JAMESON
When Chasey’s contract expired a year later, she decided to stay at the company a few more months while she figured out what to do next with her life. In the meantime, my friends Brad and Cynthia Willis, photographers who were (and still are) responsible for our box covers and brand development, called and said that they had just shot a cover for another company with a beautiful model. Her name was Jenna Jameson, and they suggested I try to lock her up. I had never heard of her, and I was in no rush to find another contract girl. The company was doing well now and more and more girls were coming to us, though none of them stood out like Chasey did. Whoever I signed next would just be compared to Chasey, and I didn’t want that to happen.
I made a few inquiries a month or so later about the Jenna girl, but I was told that she was going through personal issues and had left the business. About nine months later, Chasey told us she was leaving the company for good. And, by coincidence, Brad and Cynthia called. They said that Jenna was back, and looking even better than before. So when Jenna and I set up a meeting on the phone, though she didn’t know it at the time, I was ready for her.
However, I had never seen any of her movies. I’d never even seen a picture of her. As soon as she came through the door, I was surprised. She looked so sweet and innocent (though whether she was or not is another story). I couldn’t believe that a girl who looked like that would want to go into this business. I wondered for a moment if she had walked into the wrong office.
In those days, adult film stars were making a lot of money touring strip clubs. So a lot of strippers were crossing over into movies, just so they could make more money dancing. So the first thing I asked Jenna was what her motivation was and if she was looking to feature dance. And she said, “No, I’ve already danced. That’s not what I’m looking for.”
“Then what is it you’re looking for?” I asked.
And she said, “I want to be the biggest porn star ever.”
“Well, that’s a great goal,” I told her. That was exactly what I wanted to hear.
I asked her a lot of questions, about everything I could think of, for three hours—where she came from, what her family knew, how involved they were, how comfortable she felt doing this, what her goals for the future were, if she was okay with everyone knowing. But what stands out most in my mind was when I asked her how comfortable she’d be with the sex scenes, and if there would be any issues for her I should know about in advance.
She looked me in the eye and said, “Don’t worry about the sex. It won’t be a problem.”
She had the right answers to everything. I told her I’d sign her to a contract right then and there.
The following is a sample adult-film contract, with all identifying information removed. It is presented here in its final form, after negotiation. However, like most contracts, it is still biased heavily in favor of the production company. If you take the time to read it carefully, you will notice the many ways in which a female performer can get shafted—both literally and metaphorically. When signing a contract, most girls don’t add in their own demands. But any good lawyer will tell them: contracts aren’t just for the benefit and protection of one party—they’re for two parties.
THIS DOCUMENT HEREBY SERVES AS AN AGREEMENT BY:
* * *
[Production company]
Herein referred to as “the Company.”
Between:
* * *
[Porn star]
Herein referred to as “the Talent.”
1. Term: The duration of this contract shall be twelve (12) months beginning on January 1, 2004 and expiring on midnight of December 31, 2004. There are four (4) options of one (1) year, which the Company may exercise with sixty (60) days prior notice in writing that it intends to pick up the option.
2. Production: The Talent will be required to act, play, perform, and take part in rehearsals, acts, roles, and scenes of a sexual hard-core nature over the duration of the contract mutually agreed to by both parties as needed to promote the career of the Talent. The scenes may be in the form of any of the following combination (at the discretion of the company): Girl/Girl, Girl/Girl/Girl, Boy/Girl, and Multiples. Involvement in any scenes involving Anal, Interracial, and DP [Double Penetration] is at the sole discretion of the Talent. The Company will feature the Talent in at least six (6) features each year and may increase this number based on marketing. The Company will use the Talent in other productions during the course of the year and will have the Talent on a minimum of six (6) box covers each year.
3. Exclusivity: The performance of the Talent in video and film of a hardcore nature for the duration of the agreement shall be exclusive to the Company unless otherwise agreed to in writing by the Company. The Company shall have the exclusive right to photograph and/or otherwise reproduce any and all of the Talent’s acts, poses, scenes, and appearances of any and all kinds and to reproduce and transmit the same in any media. The Talent grants to the Company solely, exclusively, and perpetually all rights of every kind and character whatsoever in and to all such photographs, reproductions, and recordings and all other results and proceeds of her services hereunder. All other outside work including but not limited to still photography, film and video
work, dancing (feature or otherwise), “bachelor parties,” and any and all other services in the entertainment industry must be approved in writing in advance by the Company, not to be unreasonably withheld.
4. Advertising and Promotion: The Company will promote and advertise on an active basis the films and videos of the Talent, as well as promotions in any other area that will assist in making the public more aware of the Talent. The Talent will attend all such promotional events, including signings and parties, that are necessary to help promote herself and the sale of the videos, DVDs, and films produced by the Company. The Talent shall cooperate with the company in connection with any licensing arrangements (“Licensing Agreement”) entered into by the Company to license, manufacture, and/or distribute adult novelty products or any other product using Talent’s name, image, or likeness. The Company will assist in promoting the Talent through the Internet and the Talent may have her own website linking to the Company website. The Talent’s Website and all income earned from her website is her sole property.
5. Compensation: The Talent will receive monthly compensation of $3,000 paid on the first day of each month. If the Talent fails, for any reason, to perform at least four (4) scenes in a given month, compensation for that month shall be reduced for each scene in which she fails to perform, by the greater of a) $800; or b) the cost to replace the Talent for such scenes. The Talent will receive five (5) percent of the net profit on videos or DVDs in which she is featured on the box cover, after the Company recoups its cost. Costs are defined as any money spent on the production and postproduction of each video in addition to advertising, marketing, and overhead costs allocable to the Production. Notwithstanding the foregoing, residuals are split among all the Company talent appearing on a box cover for a production so, for example, if Talent and a second Company performer appear on a box cover for a Production, the Talent will receive 2.5 percent of the net profit for a production. Additional compensation based on Schedule “A” attached hereto and incorporated herein for reference.
How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale Page 21
