Chasey Lain Needs Help

I am absolutely shocked.  This is what 15 years of the porn industry can do to people.  Kids please stay off drugs.  It is a dead end street.

Ruby Ryder is Out of Jail

Ruby Ryder used to like dix

I received the below  message about Ruby Ryder on a previous post I wrote about her being locked up on drug charges.  According to the eloquent “best friend” of Ruby Ryder she is now out of jail, clean and sober, and no longer hiding the salami for a living.  Good for her!

hey asshole, for your info ruby is one of my best friends and she has been sober for a very long time. and actually turned her self in for 10 days and is already back out (STILL NOT BACK IN THE PORN INDUSTRY) so i would advise you to get correct information before you exploit it out on the web. With her license back and sobriety still in check i think you should be ashamed of yourself for being an ignorant piece of shit.

toodles

Interview with Anti-Porn Advocate Shelley Lubben

Shelley Lubben

I recently conducted an interview with Shelley Lubben who went by the name Roxy while she was an active adult performer in the mid-90’s.  Since leaving sex work, Shelley has become one of the most outspoken critics against the porn industry and has established the Pink Cross Foundation to help porn addicts and adult performers.  Shelly and I discussed her past, the struggles she endured as a porn performer, and her recovery.

Where and when were you born?

May 18, 1968 in Pasadena, California

What was your family life like early on?

My early childhood was pretty uneventful. I grew up in a middle class family. I was a Brownie, attended Sunday School and was very creative. I was an extremely energetic child and my mother says raising me was like raising twins.

I felt my parents ignored me and I began to make up stories like men were trying to kidnap me when I walked to school in order to get their attention. My Dad worked a lot and loved his garage.

What was your childhood like? Were you happy?

I was bored most of the time. My parents weren’t very involved in my life and much of the time I was on my own hanging out in the neighborhood. I was often writing and directing my own plays and skits beginning at age seven where I would invite neighborhood kids to come and watch.  My 1^st grade teacher told my mother I was a creative genius and my mother replied, “Oh yes she’s very peculiar.” The teacher told her I should be put into a creative program. My mother didn’t “get it”. I was never developed and grew up very frustrated. I was left to myself and began to get into trouble.

By age 9 I was sexually abused by a teenage boy and his sister, a classmate of mine. I had my first lesbian experience at that time. I was horrified. Immense shame and guilt followed me well into my adult years. I began masturbating at 9 years old. I looked for love in boys and realized if I gave them sex they would tell me how special I was. I longed for my parents, especially my father, to notice me and give me affection but he was a workaholic. My mother was a religious nag and drove me crazy. My family spent most of our quality time together in front of the TV so I grew up with people like Jack Tripper and Lucy Ricardo as my role models.

I was writing short stories and poetry beginning at age 8. I played guitar at age 9. I was very creative and musical.

My family attended church the first 8 years of my life and then we stopped going. I loved Sunday School and what I learned still remains with me to this day.

When I was around 7 Jesus told me I would be working for Him some day and He showed me a vision of me speaking to thousands of people in an arena. I was sure someday I would be a preacher and an author. Those were my childhood dreams.

Looking back, is there anything that happened in your childhood that made you turn to the adult industry?

Yes, one of the factors that ultimately led me to be in the adult industry was sexual abuse. The other factor was lack of parenting and proper child development.

At what age did you first start using drugs and alcohol?

Age 16 I started drinking and dabbling in drugs.

I read somewhere that you become involved in prostitution at a young age. How did that come about?

I was a prostitute right out of high school after I barely graduated. I was 18. I got pregnant by a client the following year and had a baby girl in June, 1988.

Shelley on an adult box cover in the mid-90's

How did you first become involved in the porn business?  How old were you?

I was 24 years old when a woman told me I should do porn and would make much more money. By this time I was exhausted from stripping and prostituting so porn sounded better. I was wrong. Nobody told me I would catch an STD. They gave me a false sense of security telling me if I tested I would be safe.

Describe the first time you filmed an adult scene. What do you remember about the experience?

I remember big red doors that led me to a very dark and seedy place where I saw a couch with sexy pillows and lighting all around it. Naked people walking around. A pornographer looked me up and down and asked for my HIV test and my i.d. At the time they didn’t test for anything else. It was a lesbian scene mostly with one guy. We were told to be college girls and have sex with each other. I was not at all interested in having sex with a woman I didn’t know. I was very nervous although I hid it. They asked me my stage name and I had been to the Roxy the night before so I just said, “Roxy” on the spot.

I went into the back, changed  my clothes and downed a bunch of Jack Daniels. They called my name to do my scene and I felt really awkward. I kept trying to figure out if I should shake hands with someone I was about to have sex with or how should I greet them? No one to really guide me.

The director explained what he wanted out of the scene. Nobody checked each others’ tests. I didn’t know we were supposed to do that. I was very nervous and was more focused on what the hell I was about to do. The scene started and something came over me, something very dark. I just started going crazy and took over the scene out to prove I was the best. The scene ended and they threw a rag at me to clean the “stuff” off my face. I felt totally humiliated and disgusting and had tears in my eyes but I turned my head to hide them and told myself to suck it up.

During the scene the producer kept cheering me on and saying things like, “Wow you’re going to be the next big porn star. I never saw anybody give a *** like that. You are so hot Roxy”….blah blah blah. I was desperate to be noticed and so the attention was like a drug for me. I was desperate for attention. Of course the fast money was a major attraction.

After the scene the producer told me he was setting me up with a big producer where I would be doing pro movies with people like Peter North, Nikki Sinn, Ron Jeremy…. I was thinking no way would I do another movie but I really believed I had no other option. I was a single parent and totally burned out from stripping and prostitution. I took the bait and next thing you know I’m doing whatever they asked me to. I had something to prove and they KNEW I would prove it. I had to prove I was better than everyone else so I did very hardcore scenes early on in my so-called career.

You are very anti-porn these days. What are some of the negative things that you witnessed during your time in the adult business?

Where do I start. I saw and participated in drug use. We stood around naked waiting for our scene outside in the backyard where we were filming in and smoked pot and sniffed meth, coke, and whatever else was available. We got drunk in the back rooms or high in the bathroom. Some pornographers said no drugs but that just meant no drugs near the “set”.

I saw girls crying their eyes out and screaming like maniacs. I remember when I was just new I thought to myself “Why are the women so bitchy?” I found out later why of course. I saw women vomiting while their heads were forced up and down some guy’s large penis. I was one of them who gagged and vomited several times on set even though I put my hand up to stop them. They didn’t stop. I saw pornographers make women do scenes they didn’t agree to and threaten them if they didn’t. I was one of them. I experienced disgusting work conditions where rags of crap, pee and blood were thrown on the floor next to where we were “acting”. Women had hair pulled and faces smacked. We were called whore, bitch, cunt, slut and the list goes on. I was forced to do a scene I did not agree to. The pornographer threatened me and I was so naïve about it all that I actually thought he would and could sue me. I remember being very sore that day after doing so much anal sex.

I saw and experienced torn body parts. I saw used sponges and enemas on the floor in the bathroom. NOTHING was ever sanitary. The industry was and is still totally unregulated and operating ILLEGALLY according to Cal Osha’s Adult Film Standards which you can read at http://www.dir.ca.gov/DOSH/AdultFilmIndustry.html . I also saw and experienced a lot of prostitution. Pornographers set us up and we flew around the country to have sex with high dollar clients. They often expected sex without a condom and paid us enough money to do it.

Shelley Lubben

According to the IAFD (Internet Adult Film Database) you only appeared in about a dozen films over a couple of years in the industry. Do you feel like you were involved in adult films long enough to form an accurate opinion about the entire industry?

I appeared in more than a dozen films. The IAFD doesn’t list them all and also some of them are too old or too amateur to be listed.

I was in the porn industry and lived the lifestyle about 2 years. That’s long enough. Between prostitution, pornographers and performing I definitely received a big taste of the porn industry. And I have the herpes and early cervical cancer to prove it.

Your life was obviously headed in the wrong direction before you started doing porn, so do you feel like porn made it any worse? Was your recovery more difficult because you were involved with pornography than say if you were just a stripper and a prostitute?

Yes porn made it worse. The porn industry attracts and lures in people who are damaged and damages them more. They lure in the sexually exploited because they are vulnerable and will agree to be more sexually exploited. Anyway, it’s all about money. None of us enjoys making porn. It’s extremely traumatizing and hard work. There are over 100 porn stars easily who have confessed in interviews or their blogs how hard making porn is. Anyone can go online and find this information. Not to mention all the deaths in the last 20 years or even the last couple years from HIV, Suicide, Drug overdose and Homicide. No other industry kills more people due to the negative effects I just mentioned than the porn industry.

Yes, my recovery was harder due to making hardcore movies. I did things in porn I never did in prostitution.

What were some of the negative consequences you experienced personally from performing in adult films?

Herpes. Early Cervical Cancer where half of my Cervix had to be removed. Three pregnancy losses due to porn. One of them entopic and two were miscarriages. My reproductive system was very damaged after I did porn. I did prostitution 6 years and used a condom and never caught an STD. STDS lead to cervical cancer and other reproductive damage.

I also was diagnosed with mental disorders and had major emotional problems that took 8 years of hard work to recover from.

You have spoke in the past about the illusion of porn. Tell the readers about that.

Yes I have spoken about the lie of porn on the web, tv, radio interviews, churches, government and secular organizations since 2004. Since then more than a dozen other women and men have joined me and spoken out as well. And the cause grows as more and more people contact us for help and want to speak out. Every month a porn performer joins our cause and speaks out against the porn industry.

Shelley Lubben founder of the Pink Cross Foundation

There are some women who are adamant that they enjoy performing in adult films and are able to express themselves sexually by performing. What would you say to them?

I love you but bullshit. Then I would try to get them to open up and share their history and background with me which often causes porn stars to run away. Funny how they hate to talk about their childhood and history.

Remember, it’s ALWAYS about the money, not sexual expression. If it’s about sexual expression then why don’t porn stars ever work for free?

What are some statistics you have about the adult film industry?

I have been researching the porn industry for about three years and share statistics below. I can’t even keep up with all the deaths happening lately. So sad.

http://www.shelleylubben.com/index.php?truth=porn

See stats on the left. If you just want quick stats you can visit www.thepinkcross.org and they are on the right. You may check out my blog for recent deaths.

What caused you to give up making adult films? What was the final straw for you personally?

HERPES!

What was the hardest thing about walking away from adult entertainment?  What was the most difficult thing to give up?

The money $$$. The attention.

After leaving porn did you continue using drugs and working as a prostitute?

I did try to go back to prostitution but it was short lived due to me infecting a married couple with Herpes and being a total wreck due to increased drug and alcohol use in the porn industry. There were LOTS and LOTS of parties I went to where drugs and alcohol were in abundant supply and given freely. Pornographers also loved to give us drugs and alcohol. Good for business if we were intoxicated because then WE WOULD DO ANYTHING.

Have you been diagnosed with any mental disorders?

Yes. I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder, Impulse Control Disorder, Alcohol Dependence, Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I was prescribed zoloft, sleeping pills, lithium and counseling.

Most recovering addicts describe a definite low point in their lives. When did you hit rock bottom?  When did you realize that you had to change your life?

I hit rock bottom several times but was spared by God. I overdosed and tried to commit suicide several times in my 8 year involvement in the sex industry. One suicide attempt and overdose was right after I caught Herpes. That was rock bottom for me.

How long after leaving the adult film business did you clean up your life? Was it though Christ or therapy? Or both?

Right after I left I made a serious decision to really seek God whose love and faithfulness was revealed to me through Jesus Christ. The Bible says those who diligently seek God find Him and I really did find Him, met Him in a very personal way and He did everything His book said He could do. He healed me from substance abuse, mental disorders, emotional disorders, flashbacks, horrible memories and healed my mind and THEN even did above and beyond and blessed everything my husband and I set our hands to. It’s like I won the lotto. That’s how GOOD God is. People think He’s mean and doesn’t care but they just don’t know Him. They haven’t even tried to get to know Him. Unfortunately the church has done a terrible job at revealing God to people. I am not a church person. I am Christian who believes in love and serving people that I might compel them to step into the Light and live the life they were truly meant to live. A life of purpose, meaning and beauty.

I tired therapy but didn’t work. I don’t think they were prepared to help someone like me. They prescribed me the medication listed above and made me watch anger management videos.

When did you first start working to help porn performers?

Women started contacting me in 2005. It was hard to go back to the industry after so many years. It had changed so much. It’s worse now. It’s much bigger now. I started really going after the porn stars and reaching out to them on the web in 2006 and I began to get response after response from girls telling me how screwed up the industry is and that their agent fucked them over and so and so ripped them off and how they caught HPV or another STD. Some had their cervixes removed at age 22! Some were force fed meth and slapped and spit on. Horror story after horror story and I became enraged. I knew I had to do something about it.

Shelley Lubben

Having been involved in prostitution longer than you were an adult actress why is it that your main focus is on porn these days? Why don’t you focus more on helping prostitutes?

That’s not my calling. I only do what my Father tells me to and when it’s truly the work of God, it is successful.  This is the first time in history so many women and men have left porn and are also speaking out.

Do you feel like prostitution is a larger problem since there are more women involved in prostitution than porn?

Porn stars ARE prostitutes. Porn IS prostitution and DOES involve prostitution so it’s all the same problem. Agents are pimps and porn stars are prostitutes.

http://www.lukeisback.com/essays/essays/prostitution.htm

Do you feel like the viewers of pornography are victims as well?

Absolutely.

Some girls in the industry claim to live healthy, happy lives. Do you think that there are drug-free, well adjusted adult performers anywhere out there or are all porn performers miserable?

I haven’t met one yet. I’d love to.

Porn has become a big business. Used to almost every performer walked away from the business empty handed. These days there are a select few that walk away millionaires or at least very wealthy. What would you say about them? Is it possible that porn has made some lives better?

No, it just means they get to live a little more luxurious. They pay the same ugly price. Maybe a bigger price since they are now stuck in a luxurious life style they have to pay for.

Do you think that the mainstream entertainment industry exploits women in some of the same ways the porn industry does?

No, not the same way. They aren’t forced to gag on some guy’s penis or being slapped in the face while called a whore. They also don’t risk their lives physically like porn performers do. Even Dr. Sharon Mitchell confesses that 66% of porn performers are Herpes carriers. We don’t hear statistics like that in the mainstream entertainment industry. Statistics show the death rate in the porn industry due to HIV, Suicide, Drug overdose and Homicide is more than the mainstream entertainment industry. It’s not hard to add the numbers up.

We are a society obsessed with sex. Some of your critics would argue that the problems you expose are part of a broader more cultural problem. What do you say to that?

I agree. We definitely have a huge sexualized culture thanks to the porn industry. Companies like Playboy glamorized it and exposed us to it and others followed.

When did you start the Pink Cross Foundation?

It officially began on January 24, 2009 but took a little over a year to do the legal paperwork and set up business.

Tell the readers what the Pink Cross Foundation is all about?

Pink Cross Foundation is a faith-based IRS approved 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to reaching out to adult industry workers offering emotional, financial and transitional support. We largely focus on reaching out to the adult film industry offering support to porn stars. Pink Cross Foundation also reaches out to those struggling with pornography offering education and resources to recover.

How can adult film performers and addicts contact you?

Porn performers can contact me at help@thepinkcross.org and porn addicts can get help at www.thepinkcross.org where we offer a free web site membership where they can receive help from the Pink Cross Team which is made up of recovering porn addicts, ex porn stars and ex drug users and on and on. We’re a bunch of Ragamuffins who have been there and care.

Tell the readers about your life today.

Shelley Lubben and her husband

I’m a mother of three beautiful and healthy daughters. I live in Bakersfield, California, in a nice home my husband and I own. My husband and I are ordained Chaplains who love to help porn stars and porn addicts and pretty much anyone who crosses our path. I fight porn. I attend a University where I am pursuing my Bachelor’s Degree in Theology/Counseling. I love gardening and roses are my specialty. I study great reformers and American History.

How long have you been married?

I have been married 14 years since Feb. 14, 1995. I married a Pastor’s son who loved a beat up and broken sex worker.

Do you still struggle with your past or have temptation to return to your old lifestyle?

I don’t struggle with my past but I admit my present is pretty stressful. No, I do not have temptation to go back into sex work. The grass on the other side really is greener.

How long have you been clean and sober?

I got clean the minute I turned back to God in 1994 thanks to the Cross of Jesus Christ. Sobriety didn’t happen until 2000.

What would you say to a girl who is considering appearing in adult films?

Don’t do it. You are made for greater things than porn. And everything I wrote above.

Is there anything you would like to promote or websites you would like to tell the readers about?

I’d love to!

Pink Cross Foundation at www.thepinkcross.org

My personal web site at www.shelleylubben.com

Any final words you would like to say?

Yes, to the porn stars.

I love you. I love you. I love you. I’m here for you.

Shelley Lubben

Shelley on an adult box cover in the mid-90’s

Shelley Lubben

Shelley Lubben founder of the Pink Cross Foundation

Shelley Lubben

Shelley Lubben and her husband

Ruby Ryder is in Jail

Ruby Ryder

According to Lukeisback.com barely legal babe Ruby Ryder is locked up on traffic violations and drug charges.  Not Luke wrote:

I received this info a few days ago and have checked it out thoroughly. I am satisfied that is is truthful, but as sometimes there are many girls with similar porn names I am still going to call this a rumor. TY to R for the info & L for your help…

Cute little Ruby Ryder is not available for porn shoots at the moment. Seems that she is in the Pokey, and no I don’t mean getting a pokey, I mean the free room and board pokey as in the caged lesbian hotel. After several previous arrests including speeding, driving on a suspended license, and theft, the law has caught up with Ruby. Looks like she is being held on drug charges and probation violation with no bond. She lists her employment as marketing, lol, Hey babe, whatcha sellin’?  All sarcasm aside, I hope Ruby gets her life together and things work out for her. Maybe a short stay in jail will “sober” her up and scare her straight.

Marilyn Chambers’ Cause of Death Determined

Marilyn Chambers

After weeks of listing the cause of death of Marilyn Chambers as “natural causes”, the Los Angeles coroners office has now reported that she died from complications related to heart disease.  Chambers was found dead in her Los Angeles area home by her daughter back in April.

The toxicology tests ran at the time of her death confirmed that Marilyn suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and aneurysm related to heart disease.  The tests also showed that she had traces of the painkiller hydrocodone and the antidepressant Citalopram in her bloodstream but not at levels to cause death.

http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE54H6G720090518

Houston Battling Cancer

Ex-Porn Star Houston

Houston is most famous for her adult film appearances including two large gangbang videos produced in the late 90’s.  She left the adult business around 2003 and recently was diagnosed with melanoma.  She is also a born-again Christian and is a member of the XXX Church, a religious organization that helps former adult performers and porn addicts.  Here is Houston’s story in her own words:

My story, upbringing and the problems I experienced are far too common.  A family history of alcoholism and abuse and a personal history of alcoholism and drug abuse rarely lead to good things.  You can walk into any strip club or porn set in the world and will find that 99% of the women have the same back story.  Through hard work, bad luck and a lot of pain I was able to take porn to a whole new level.  I achieved national and international success and experienced people, places and things most people only dream of.

Unfortunately, those incredible highs have also been offset by horrible lows, from medical drama to addiction, divorce, kids teasing my child and now cancer.

The world of porn is one that thrives on numbness typically created by drugs and alcohol.  The more numb you are, the more you are willing to do.  The more drunk and high you are, the crazier things you do and the more you get paid. It’s a vicious cycle.  Case in point, I had sex with 620 guys in a single day.  The event was a successful publicity stunt that won me an award for best selling video of all time.  That, along with the other movies and crazy stuff I did catapulted me to the top of the adult world. I was so deep into porn that I just took the ball and ran with it, doing more and more outrageous things.

Houston early in her career

I was a single parent living in LA, supporting my daughter by doing bachelor parties, bikini contests and mud wrestling. At the same time I was also getting into mainstream acting, but not making it big fast enough.  I was introduced to a porn agent and asked if I’d like to be in a porn video, they paid very well and I thought I had nothing to lose.  That week the producer called me and asked me if I would like to be an exclusive contract girl for their company. They would pay me $10,000 a month for several films.  I was so broke and struggling that there was no question in my mind. I didn’t think of anything but the fame and money, not God, disease, my family or anything.

By 2002, I was still living in LA.   I had bought a home in the San Fernando Valley, I was a featured stripper for 32 weeks a year all over the world. I was surviving on methamphetamines to keep going and was a complete mess. I was still doing porn and basically killing myself.  I had a nanny for my daughter who would take care of us both, I don’t know how she did it.  She said she prayed for me all of the time.

By now ten years had gone by and I had become one of the biggest porn stars in the history of the adult industry. I was an empty shell full of hate and sadness and I felt totally alone.  I contemplated suicide often and all the money in the world couldn’t make me feel happy or whole.  By that time in my life I had by then been brought to my knees on several occasions, praying to God to not let me die this time.  My heart would beat so fast that I know a couple times God stepped in and saved me.

I had enough and I knew couldn’t die and leave my daughter.  I decided to sell the house and move as far away as I could afford from my druggie friends and porn.  I retired after 10 years, having been inducted into the porn hall of fame.  I thought “my daughter and I can move to Vegas and start a new life,” and that’s what we did.  I couldn’t handle the fans and the people all over; I knew I would eventually overdose if I stayed in LA.

Later, I got my real estate license and was working for a home builder.  I had been working for them for a couple of years, trying not to wear a lot of makeup, dying my hair brown and even gaining some weight as to not get recognized. In April 2008, I was fired on the spot. Someone in the corporate office recognized me.  I was devastated, I worked so hard and was a great sales person. They said they just couldn’t have me on the front lines, even if that career was in the past.

Recent photo of Houston

That same month, I was diagnosed with stage III Melanoma Cancer.  I was in complete shock, I never had a growth removed or any kind of skin issues.  It was in my lymphatic system.  In July, I had extensive surgery to remove several lymph nodes in both my right and left arm.  I recovered for a month and then in August I was put on a drug [a form of chemo] for an entire month, intravenously, everyday.  I now give myself injections at home three times a week for the remaining 11 months.  It’s a year of treatment and the percentages of survival are not good… but my attitude is.     Everyday I put on my armor when I get up.  I will beat this demon, I have beat worse. I know that I am special and God is going to use me to help others. God has something for me that I can’t even imagine.

My story is one of hope, that people can change, that women and men in porn have a choice and they don’t have to be violated or exploit themselves in order to feel accepted and loved.  There are people to help and love them unconditionally, to show them God is love.  I am growing in God everyday and will continue to learn and grow in the church.  I cannot change the past, but the past does not make my future. Everyone needs to know God is a loving God and He will love you.

I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior and vowed to never be a part of the world that I had lived in before.  I have asked for forgiveness and know that I am worthy. My daughter has been attending a new church for 7 months and I started going about 4 months ago.  It’s a wonderful church and we love it.  I found out about XXXChurch there and wanted to get involved from the minute I found out about what they were doing.  I want to help these girls see that they don’t have to go that route…and if I can do it, so can they.

Houston

Recent photo of Houston

Houston early in her career

Houston from recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show

http://xxxchurch.com/blogs/news/kimberly.html

http://helphoustonfight.blogspot.com/

Fleur Brown found guilty of pimping a 13 year old

Fleur Brown

Former European gang-bang queen Fleur Brown was arrested back in 2004 for trying to sell the virginity of a 13-year-old girl.

Brown had originally sought to make a film depicting the girl losing her virginity but once that went belly-up she decided to simply sell the girl’s virginity to the highest bidder.  A reporter posed as a wealthy Arab businessman and offered Brown 30,000 British pounds.  When she went to meet the businessman at a hotel she was arrested and crack-cocaine was found in her possession.

Surprisingly, Brown later received a suspended sentence.  She was able to convince Judge Timothy King at Snaresbrook Crown Court that she had turned her life around, was no longer using crack-cocaine, and had a steady job.  She also received a concurrent suspended sentence for the crack-cocaine conviction.  According to other reports the 13-year-old was a willing participant but was also a crack addict.

Fleur Brown arriving at court appearance

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/photogallery/porn_stars.html?curPhoto=3

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-456956/Woman-sold-13-year-olds-virginity-escapes-jail.html

Hyapatia Lee Interview

I recently was able to secure a brief interview with Hyapatia Lee.  Hyapatia is a porn starlet from the 80’s and is considered one of the most important adult film actresses from the golden age of porn.  She is known for her Native American heritage and is one of the most uniquely beautiful women to ever perform in hardcore adult films.  Several years ago she walked away from the the business that made her famous and settled down in the Midwest.  In the interview we discuss her early life, her marriage to porn actor and director Bud Lee, and her life as it is today.

Where were you born?

I was born on the west side of Indianapolis, Indiana.

I read that your mother was very young when she gave birth to you and that you were raised by your grandmother. What was your home life like early on?

I grew up with only my grandmother in the house. My mom was a big fan of race car drivers (I grew up next to Speedway, Indy 500, ya know) and she followed them around on the road. My grandmother was very close to her sister and we went over to her house often.

Where did you live?

I lived in Indianapolis until my mother got married and I moved with my step-father, half brother and mother to Cape Coral Florida where I was in a drum and bugle corps.

Hyapatia Lee High School Graduation

How many siblings do you have?

I have no complete siblings, only half brothers and a half sister.

What were you like as a young child?

As a young child I was shy with others, but loved being on stage. I did my first solo tap dance at the age of 4. One of those dance recitals, you know. I studied ballet and tap first, gymnastics for a short time, and then jazz or modern dance.

I also read that your grandmother was full-blood Cherokee. Was your mother or father full-blooded Cherokee as well?

My father is half Cherokee and half Irish. Mom is full blood.

Which makes you…

That makes me 75% Cherokee, 1/4 Irish.

I read that you eventually lived with your mother and stepfather and that your stepfather was abusive. What exactly happened and how has that affected your life?

As far as my step fathers abuse and how it affected me, that would take a book to answer. As a matter of fact, I have written it. but in a nut shell, it affected me just like psychiatry says it does. One feels dirty and that one is only good for sex.

How long did you live with your mother and stepfather and where did you move to immediately after?

I moved to Indianapolis to live with my grandmother again after having spent 5 years with my biological mother.

Hyapatia Lee Photo Shoot

Where was your biological father? Did you have a relationship with him?

My biological father was in Indianapolis although I did not know him. I had to look his name up in a phone book not knowing if he still lived in Indy or not. We do not have a relationship.

Describe your teenage years. What type of a person were you?  What were your interests?

In my teenage years I was a theater nut, I did 72 different plays and musicals in 3 years. I was always in two or three things at once. I did all my acting in local community theater and some in my high school.

How old were you when you lost your virginity?

I lost my virginity at 16 to a guy I was acting opposite of in a musical.

Did you experiment with drugs?

I did not experiment with drugs. I was an overachiever, a straight A student.

Where did you go to high school and did you graduate?

George Washington high school, yes I graduated, in 3 years. I got all the credits I needed and they gave me a diploma. I did not have to go my senior year at all.

Did you go to college and if so where? Did you graduate?

I took singing, ballet, tap, jazz, modern dance at Butler University. That is the extent of my college education.

How did you first become involved in the adult entertainment industry?

I started dancing, stripping, in a local club with a girl I had worked with in theater.

How old were you at the time?

19.

What factors in your life do you feel lead you to the adult business?

I got raped 2 months after moving out of my grandmothers house. I lived next to a theater and a man broke into my apartment while I was sleeping. From there I went to a mental patient half-way house and into lots of therapy and therapeutic drugs. I have split personalities which intensified during this time as a result of what happened and a new personality was born – Hyapatia.

Bud Lee, Hyapatia's ex- husband

How did you meet Bud Lee and when did you marry him?

Through my therapist. We went on the road together as a feature stripper and were introduced to magazine work via the Miss Nude Galaxy contest, which I won, twice. From there it was an easy step to the movies.

I read that he took your last name “Lee” following Cherokee tradition. Is this true?

Yes he took my last name.

What were some of the adult magazines you posed for?

I was in every men’s magazine on the market at least once. Including Playboy and Penthouse.

You performed in a lot of girl-girl scenes. Are you truly bi-sexual in your personal life?

I am not bi, never have been in a relationship with a woman or whatever, but my mother is.

How many children did you and Bud Lee have together?

We had 2 children, both boys.

Why did you get divorced from Bud?

We got divorced for the same reasons any couple gets divorced, we fell out of love… and into hate.

Was he abusive?

Yes Bud was abusive. He still owes me over $20,000 in back child support.

So what is your relationship with Bud like now?

We remain friendly to each other only out of necessity.

Was he ever supportive you and your children? Is he actively involved in his children’s lives?

He was not supportive while they were growing up, but he did pay for the oldest’s college education.

Why did you quit performing in adult films? What factors lead to your retirement?

I got out because of AIDS and companies no longer being willing to work with condoms.

I read that you “faked your own death” in 1998. Is this true or just Internet rumor? If it is true why did you do it?

I closed my fan club because I was tired of answering letters for free which lead to the whole “faked her own death thing.”

The Secret Lives of Hyapatia Lee

I heard that you are also a musician and have performed as the lead singer in a couple of rock bands. Please tell us more about your musical career.

My music career with my band took me all over America, and we released a CD. Before that, I had done a record with a country music record company, SRO. It was fun, but exhausting. I could make far more money dancing for a lot less effort.

Tell us about your book. What parts of your life does it focus on? What can readers expect when purchasing the book?

The book was written with the help of my journals, 12 in all, that I kept through the years. That is the only way I could keep it all straight and remember what I was supposed to be doing.

Where do you live now?

I live in Indiana.

What is your life like today?

I lead a normal life, I suppose. Except for my multiple personality thing.

Do you work or stay at home with the kids?

Now I am a stay at home mom. I have a 7 year old I home-school. I home-schooled my other two also. My oldest was valedictorian when he finally went to public school. He is going to graduate UCLA this year as a physics major.

What are your interests, activities and hobbies?

I do a lot of theater and garden a lot.

How can your fans stay in touch with you?

Fans can reach me at myspace (http://www.myspace.com/hyapatialee1) or at hyapatialee@gmail.com. They can purchase my music and book there. I bill through Paypal.

Thank you for the interview.

Hyapatia Lee Recent Photo

Hyapatia Lee

Hyapatia Lee High School Graduation

Hyapatia Lee Recent Photo

Hyapatia Lee Magazine Cover

The Secret Lives of Hyapatia Lee

Bud Lee, Hyapatia’s ex-husband

Hyapatia Lee Photo Shoot

Feisty adult-entertainment attorney David Wasserman kills himself

David Wasserman (seen in this file photo) made his career as a lawyer defending strip clubs, X-rated bookstores, swingers

Not long ago, David Wasserman was a high-powered attorney for the adult-entertainment industry who wore $100 ties, lived in the country-club community of Heathrow and had an office overlooking tony Park Avenue in Winter Park.

But then Wasserman was arrested, his law license was suspended and he started living in a $350-a-month Orlando-area apartment.

On Thursday, Wasserman, who owned Lake County’s only strip club, committed suicide at home, the Orange County Sheriff’s Office said Friday. He had battled depression since his mother’s death 16 years ago, said his companion, Lois Stone, 48, who found his body.

“I want David to be remembered for who he really was,” said Stone, a bartender at Wasserman’s Fantasy Gentlemen’s Club in Four Corners. “He was the most loving, caring individual I have ever met.”

Wasserman, 52, was a passionate defender of the First Amendment who loved a good fight and reveled in speaking his mind, those who knew him said. He was the Christian Coalition’s nightmare, a guy whose credo was naked bodies are no big deal. And none of the government’s business.

“I’m a crusader,” Wasserman said in an April interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “A lot of people love to hate me.”

At the time of his death, Wasserman was fighting for the survival of his club as Lake County and his landlord tried to shut him down. He was facing criminal charges for what investigators say were violations of Lake’s adult-entertainment law stemming from a raid earlier this year. Last month, he sued Lake County in federal court over the matter.

But his tribulations only made Wasserman feistier. A human run-on sentence, he was eager to preach his gospel of First Amendment freedom.

“When I knew him, he was passionate, he was bright, he was committed and he was absolutely a believer,” said Orlando defense lawyer Mark NeJame.

Wasserman made a name for himself in the 1990s by defending high-profile clients in Central Florida and beyond.

He argued for the rave club Cyberzone, which was fighting a county ordinance requiring it to close at 2 a.m. In Kissimmee, he battled the city over a store that sold X-rated videos and argued for a couple who operated a sex dungeon at a warehouse. He represented men who ran a gay-pornography Web site out of a Seminole County home. He fought adult-entertainment laws in New Smyrna Beach, where he owned a lingerie shop that gave the locals fits by selling adult videos and sex toys.

Although he was proud of his work, depression remained a near constant in Wasserman’s life. He told the Orlando Sentinel that he wrote his own eulogy and had tried to kill himself, including the night in January 2003 that he was arrested for growing marijuana at his Heathrow apartment. His law license was suspended in 2004 after he pleaded no contest.

“I’m not afraid to die,” Wasserman said.

“I want to be remembered as a first-class lawyer who was very ethical, that I was a caring person and tried to help the poor and the downtrodden.”

Wasserman is survived by his father, several siblings and a stepdaughter.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-wasserman2708sep27,0,192306.story

Legendary Porn Director Ron Sullivan Dies

Ron Sullivan aka Herni Pachard

CHATSWORTH, Calif. – Ron Sullivan, who directed adult films as Henri Pachard for more than 30 years, has died from complications of cancer. He was 69 years old.

Born June 4, 1939 in Kansas City, Mo., Sullivan became one of the most successful directors of porn’s Golden Age and a kingpin of the New York-based theatrical adult film industry in the late 1970s.

When theaters began to close in the mid-80s, he migrated to Los Angeles and carved out another successful career in video production. His list of titles runs into the hundreds and includes such classics as Babylon Pink, Outlaw Ladies, Public Affairs and Taboo, American Style.

“He was my friend, my mentor, my partner, my inspiration,” award-winning director Paul Thomas told AVN. “He taught me everything I know about set-up, about plot, about pacing – I can’t even say all the things I learned from Ron.”

“He was great fun,” recalled veteran actress Gloria Leonard. “He had a marvelous sense of humor. He and I were both good joke-tellers, so we entertained one another. On the set, he consumed a fair amount of vodka, but that was after filming. It was always disguised as a glass of water or something. And of course, when he and I were having our little fling for about a year and a half or so, it was the days of mucho cocaine, and I used to make jokes about the fact that everything we liked began with a ‘C’: cigarettes, cannabis, cocaine, cognac.”

Sullivan’s career in entertainment goes back to the mid-’60s. He worked as a stage manager in New York and Williamsburg, Va., before getting into the film business, according to his frequent collaborator, screenwriter Raven Touchstone.

Sullivan’s first movies as a producer and director were sexploitation features made for Distribpix, the independent New York distribution company founded by Arthur Morowitz and Howard Farber, later of Video-X-Pix fame. These early grindhouse films include the roughie Scare Their Pants Off (produced by Sullivan and directed by John Maddox), Lust Weekend, The Bizarre Ones and The Erotic Circus.

Sullivan also worked for Robert Downey, Sr.’s company PS Distribution and co-produced Downey’s counterculture satire Putney Swope (1969). During the same period, Sullivan produced The Headless Eyes, a proto-slasher flick directed by Kent Bateman, the father of well-known mainstream performers Justine and Jason Bateman.

“He was a very noir kind of guy,” Leonard remembered. “When we were in New York, he always wore a hat, like a fedora kind of thing. Then he moved to LA and I moved somewhere else; we kept in touch in a minimal level.”

Outlaw Ladies Box Cover

But Sullivan, though married five times, was in inveterate womanizer.
“We were an item for at least a year when we both still lived in NYC; kind of like Bogey and Bacall,” Leonard said. “He called me Toots and I called him Sulli — he considered me a ‘great dame’ and I’d tell him he was a ‘big lug.’ So he comes to my house one day and he says, ‘I had a dream that I packed up all my stuff and I left Joan [Sullivan's third wife] and I came to live with you.’ I said, ‘Ron, first of all, I don’t have any closet space. Second of all, I love you dearly, but my theory is, you’re here, we have a great time, I told you I love you. Now get the fuck out of here.’”

Actress/director/producer Candida Royalle had a similar story to tell.

“I found him to be one of the most charming, charismatic people I ever met; sinfully flirtatious, and just so wonderful and kind and such a delight to work for, and it really made me proud to be in his movie,” Royalle said. “He was one of the best ever in that whole industry. He’s just the kind of guy who made you – whenever I’d run into him, it felt so good because he had a way of looking at you that made you feel like no one else existed, at least for that moment. He just had such wonderful, loving, happy eyes and it’s like he embraced you with his gaze and made you feel so special and so important and that he was really happy to see you and was interested in everything you had to say – and I don’t say that lightly.”

“My affair with him was very short-lived,” she continued. “I was young, I wasn’t even back in New York from L.A. yet; I was very naïve. My style was never to be with married men, and he was married so many times. He just loved women. He had to be married to them, he had to have sex with them, anything. But I remember very clearly – I was still living in L.A. and I was just brought out to work on a movie with Leslie Bovee and at one point, he was dropping me off somewhere, and I had such a massive crush on him, and I turned to him and I said, ‘Do you love your wife?’ And he thought about it for a minute, and he said, ‘Yes, I do.’ And I remember thinking, Well, what the hell am I doing here then? … It’s just that I could never be number two. He just was so wonderful and adorable and special and so incredibly talented, I just feel extremely sad for him and his wife.”

Sullivan’s prodigious sexual appetite seemed to go hand in hand with his creative ability.

“We had a great time working together,” Touchstone, another former lover, remembered. “We worked together for a lot of years, but the biggest years were through the ’80s and part of the ’90s. We were doing movie after movie after movie. He was so gifted; he was so incredibly talented, and sometimes on the set he would be standing there very quietly with his hand on his chin, and people would be saying,  ‘Ron? Ron?’ and Ron would say, ‘Hush. When I’m quiet, I’m thinking.’ And he was just brilliant.”

Touchstone explained that during these meditative moments, Sullivan was picturing the upcoming action in his head.

“Ron was the first director I worked with who really knew how to direct,” she said. “He understood talent; he knew how to get the best out of the players; he knew how to block; he knew the camera – he knew if you put a fan over here and you rigged it so that the blades were going slowly and you shot through the blades, you’d get this or that – he knew all this stuff, and it was such a pleasure to write for somebody who really could actually execute what I was writing.”

“He was very sure of himself as to what he wanted in a  scene, and kind of laid it out,” Leonard agreed. “He was always a very friendly director; never harsh or belittling or anything like that. And if it wasn’t what he wanted, he would just take it over again. In those days, it was okay to have three or four takes in a film.”

Babylon Pink Box Cover

Touchstone’s and Sullivan’s first collaboration was 1986’s Blame It On Ginger, which won the award for Best Couples Sex Scene (Video) at the 1987 AVN Awards show. Sullivan had previously won AVN’s first Best Director – Video award in 1985 for Long Hard Nights, and took home directorial awards again in 1988 for Talk Dirty to Me, Part V and in 1990 for The Nicole Stanton Story, Parts 1 & 2. He was also honored several times by the X-Rated Critics Association (XRCO), first in 1979 for Babylon Pink (his first full-length adult movie), then for Outlaw Ladies in 1981, Sexcapades in 1983, and Taboo American Style 1-4. He was one of the first inductees into both the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame.

One of Sullivan’s best-known early films was 1982’s The Devil In Miss Jones 2.

“I met Ron in an office, just a standard theatrical office, and he hired me to do a remake of that famous film, The Devil In Miss Jones,” recalled star Georgina Spelvin. “He got Jack Wrangler, a star of both gay and straight films, to play the Devil. To create his director’s vision of hell, he used huge bursts of stage smoke made of dry ice blasted onto the set and made the crowded area a true hell. A delightful gay hair stylist was doing his best to give my character a lofty bouffant hairdo. Between each shot, he would drag me back to the dressing room to set, blow-dry and tease my poor wisps back into the shape of his vision… Nothing deterred Ron. He was an extraordinary director. I never saw him frown, I never heard a cross word out of his mouth. I never knew a director who had as much fun doing the films they did as Ron did; he was just great. It was a couple of films later – well, I was starving to death in Los Angeles at this time, and he called me one day and said, ‘How are you doing, George?’ And I said, ‘Well, to tell you the truth, not very well. The rent’s due and I’m flat busted.’ He said, ‘Will $200 help?’ I said, ‘Of course it will.’ He said, ‘It’s in the mail,’ and indeed, two days later, there was a check, which saved my butt that time… Henri is indeed one of a kind. Ron has been a good friend, a damned good friend for a very, very long time.”

Devil 2, as Sullivan referred to it, was also his first collaboration with his son Jason, now a prolific cameraman and director in the industry, who thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but explained, “I wasn’t allowed to be there for the sex scenes since I wasn’t quite of age yet.”

“Ron and my mom were divorced when I was about 3-1/2,” Jason remembered. “They’d bought a house in Woodstock, NY. We lived there together for a bit, and dad would go to the City to work and visit on weekends, and we’d visit him once a month or so, and go see chop suey movies in Times Square.”

Sullivan is best remembered for his New York hardcore classics, which showed him as a master at capturing boiling-hot sex scenes and creating genuinely dirty, kinky scenarios. One of his well-known directorial signatures was shooting sex in bathrooms.

“Ron flew me to New York, paid me $200 for the day, which was twice the going rate, and I got my first experience in an Henri Pachard bathroom scene,” Spelvin recalled. “I think it was called Babylon Pink. He had me wrapped around all those facilities, trying to get my nether regions to a point where a camera could get a good shot in a very close encounter, until I thought I was going to bust the facilities trying to get myself out of there.”

“Ron let me stay at his house, because when I was filming Babylon Pink, my husband, who was a crazy dentist – he used to beat me – was just always after me for something,” remembered classic adult actress Samantha Fox. “Of course, I was doing porno which he loved and hated – and Ron and his wife were so gracious and let me stay there. Ron was a very handsome, smart, likeable and generous man, just a wonderful person.”

Sullivan lived and worked on both coasts between 1980 and ‘85, before settling in Los Angeles in 1986.

“That’s when my dad married his fourth wife, Deborah Holden,” Jason said. “RSPT [Sullivan's partnership with Paul Thomas] was still flying about then, and dad was showing P.T. the directing and producing ropes, and P.T. was still producing for them, and they were educating each other.”

Hothouse Rose Box Cover

“The work was really drying up in New York,” Jason continued, “and video was taking over the film end of it, and there was no point flying to New York to make a cheap video; the budgets weren’t catering to that sort of thing, and the pretty people were out here.”

Sullivan flew frequently to San Francisco to make movies, during which period he became good friends with acclaimed director Alex deRenzy, with whom he later made the award-winning Hothouse Rose 1 & 2.

Touchstone also remembers the San Francisco days.

“I did a lot of art direction; I did wardrobe, costumed everything, wrote the movie and I would assist Ron in everything,” she said. “I was like the second in command, and worked with talent and rehearsed them, did everything. So he would drive and I would fly, and I would meet the other kids – Randy Spears, or Rick Savage, all these kids – we’d meet at the Burbank airport and fly up to wherever we were going. They were really fun days. We were outlaws; we had this great familial sense with each other, and it seemed that everybody had their [emotional] baggage. It wasn’t like today; it was a whole different thing. Everybody wanted to make a good movie and most of the kids – everybody that Ron used in all of these movies, for the most part, were all people who loved acting, like Randy Spears, Victoria Paris, Jeanna Fine – we did this thing called City of Sin and City of Sin: Street Angels with Jeanna.”

Sullivan had what amounted to his personal troupe of performers, including some of the best-known names in the business.

“We’d say, ‘Okay; who are we going to put in this movie?’” Touchstone explained. “We’d plan a movie and think about the cast before we wrote the role. See, the way we would work it is, Ron would say, ‘Okay, we have to do a movie for so-and-so.’ For a number of years here, we worked together on just about everything, and so he would come to where I was living, and we would sit outside and talk. We had an idea – he had an idea or I had an idea, either one, and we’d start talking about the story and he’d get this and then I’d pull this off of it and then he’d pull that off of it, and bouncing back and forth, putting the story together, putting the idea together, and then, ‘Okay, we’ve got all this cast of characters; now who are we going to use here so that we can tailor the characters to these players?”

“What was so good was that Ron could get so much out of them,” she continued. “We had Rachel Ryan in Kinky Business 2 – she loved performing. She was wonderful. We had Jerry Butler, a wonderful actor; Tommy Byron, who was wonderful in that movie. We used Herschel [Savage]. We had Rick Savage – all these really good players, who were very talented. Jamie Gillis, as far as acting goes, he was wonderful. He was the phantom in Phantom of the Cabaret; Keisha; Sharon Kane – I loved Sharon Kane, loved working with her, and Ron loved her. We used her a lot. Sharon Mitchell – all of the really good players. Nina Hartley, she was wonderful; she was in Talk Dirty To Me Part 6.”

Touchstone has particularly vivid memories of Phantom of the Cabaret, which was shot in and around Paris.

“When we wrote Phantom of the Cabaret, we knew we were going to have Jamie Gillis,” she said. “I knew as a writer that I could write anything for him and he could play it. I didn’t have to keep it small; I could make it as big as possible, and Ron knew, when we were working off the idea, that with Jamie Gillis, we could make the idea as big as possible because we could get as dramatic as we wanted, because Jamie had the ability to act anything.”

“We had six players who were our players that we took with us. The rest of the script, we used French people, a lot of whom could not speak English, so we would give them maybe one or two lines. Everything else had to be written in such a way that the dialog was so simple, we could teach them phonetically or there was no dialog at all and everything could be understood just by action.”

Phantom of the Cabaret Box Cover

“Ron was funny,” Touchstone chuckled. “I had on tape, because I took my Betacam with me – I have on tape Ron making a speech to all of us. The first place we stayed was in Paris proper, in a hotel. Then we went about an hour outside of Paris to a little city called Tours, and we stayed and we shot in a hunting manor that was built in 1750. It was huge. The fireplace was so huge, you could put six people just in the burning part of the fireplace. And we were all gathered downstairs, and Ron says, ‘Okay, now, I know none of you want to be here’ – and we all started to laugh, because this was one of Ron’s typical speeches he would say to the players on the set when nobody would gather at the same time – and he used to say that getting all the talent on the set at one time was like sweeping ants onto a dustpan – and he would always do his speech: ‘I know that none of you want to be here’ – but of course, we all wanted to be there; we were in Paris! It was very funny.”

This author had the good fortune to be on Sullivan’s set in 1995 when shooting the first volume of his series Venom. Always the innovator, Sullivan got the idea to hand the video camera to one of the actors, thereby creating the forerunner of what would become the popular POV genre.

“He would talk to them, and he would simply tell them exactly what he wanted them to do,” Touchstone related. “Sometimes, in discussing the scene, the player, whether it was Joey Silvera or Jamie or whoever, would have a suggestion, and they would say whatever it was – ‘What about if we do bla-bla-bla’ – and Ron’s stock line, if it was a good idea, was ‘That’s such a good idea, I’m going to take credit for it myself!’ He was always willing to allow everybody to participate, to allow everybody to contribute to the best of their ability. His sets were always fun. They were relaxed, they were easy, and yet the work was intense, because he was getting the best out of everybody, but he always made it fun for everyone. Everybody loved working with him.”

“His personal life was always a mess,” Touchstone continued. “He had affairs with people in the industry. He had quite a nice relationship for a long time with Gloria Leonard. He called her Toots. He had a relationship with me for a while. He was the only person in the industry with whom I ever had a relationship of that sort, and he called me Toots also, and I called Gloria at one time and said, ‘You’re Toots 1 and I’m Toots 2.’ He loved to be attached to a woman. He didn’t like to be by himself, and his choices weren’t always great. He was always getting married to somebody else. I knew two of his previous wives, both complete nutcases. I went to two of his weddings – I think he had five. He finally got it right when he married Deloras.”

Even while undergoing treatment for cancer, Sullivan continued to direct and work on sets. His last movie was Hustler Video’s Barely Legal Trouble Makers. An omnibus film designed to raise money to help him defray medical expenses, originally titled We Are the World XXX, was temporarily sidetracked because of disputes among its producers.

Sullivan is survived by Deloras, his wife of ten years, and two sons, Jason and Nate.

http://www.avn.com/performer/articles/32533.html