Chapter 126

It didn't take long for Adam to roust everyone out of bed. No one was happy about having his or her slumber interrupted, but Adam figured if he was forced to get up that early, the rest of them should suffer too.

He drafted Trinity and Sarah to sit down and write a prepared statement for Veronica. Adam would be around most of the day but he didn't plan to carry the phone with him at all times. Veronica could pass it to him if he was around but a statement would be all they would get from him.

"The proprietors and subcontractors affiliated with Five Friends Casting have long been aware of the seedier side of the business," they decided upon. "Five Friends has made a concerted effort to steer our performers to other venues and, thus far, we have been successful in that effort. We consider our performers to be worthwhile human beings and there are several studios and web sites that we consider to be owned and operated by worthwhile human beings. Those are the elements of the industry we support and will continue to support."

Adam called Ben back to read the statement to him. He was in Tate's office, trying to craft a similar statement.

"I'm just going to steal that one and substitute Daystar," Tate said. "I'm not good at the PR game. Jerry has a person whose sole job is to put out releases about things. Hell, all I've got is Ben and he wants to just tell the papers 'Good riddance to bad rubbish.'"

"It's what Adam wanted to do, too," Shelly said. "His statement was more along the lines of, 'Yeah, we know they're there. Now you know it, too. If you want them to go away, stop your sons and your husbands from buying shit from them.' We didn't think that set the right tone, though it's true enough, I guess."

Tate found himself chuckling for the first time since Ben had called him at 5:45 a.m.

"I guess it is," he said.

"Tate, I think maybe you should be truthful," Trinity said. She was scribbling on a notepad. "How does this sound? 'Daystar Studios is not nor was it ever involved in what is known as a 'Rabbit Hole'. Our continued existence is based upon the elimination of the practice, which sends performers to sites of the type Daystar will never offer. On a personal note, we know these performers. Almost every young woman in this industry goes through our studio at the beginning or at the end of her career. We find the practice of coercing novice performers to participate in unsavory sites to be appalling. We do not condone the practice and we do not participate in the practice, nor do we condone the humiliation and degradation of female performers. We have limited our web site collection to less distasteful elements for this sole reason, without regard to the profit the dehumanizing sites of the 'Rabbit Holes' generate. Daystar Studios will do everything in its power to see that this disgusting and illegal 'custom' is eliminated."

"Hey, that's good," Ben said. "Was that off the top of your head?"

"Not really," Trinity replied. "I've been thinking about you guys over there. You're much more likely to get calls than we are. After all, this is something the studios and the agencies got started. The performers had no say in it, obviously. So while we were thinking up what we wanted to say, I was also thinking about what you might need to say."

"So we only got half your effort," Mary said. "Gee, thanks."

"Half is still more than you deserve," Trinity said with a small smile. "You couldn't handle my whole effort anyway. Ben, do you want me to e-mail this to you? I wrote it down."

"Please," Ben said. "We might change some of it, so don't be pissed off if it doesn't show up word for word."

"I would just assume you'd been misquoted," Trinity replied. "It will be there as soon as I hit the send button. I'm not sure you'll need it, but it's on its way."

Adam made it to almost 10 a.m. before Veronica tracked him down and handed him a message.

"I read her the statement," she told him. "But she wanted you to call her back. She asked specifically for you. I've had two calls and two e-mails this morning from other outlets simply looking for a comment. This one asked to talk to you. I thought you should know."

Adam glanced at the note. It was from the writer credited with the story in the 'Chronicle' that morning. With a frown, he picked up the phone to call the number. He was surprised when it was answered on the first ring. It wasn't a receptionist who answered – or if it was, it was the worst receptionist in history.

"Hello, Darcy's phone," a female voice answered.

"Hi, this is Derrick Driller returning Ms. Stanton's call," Adam said.

"Oh, great," the woman said. "Thanks for getting back to me. Can we meet for a while today?"

"Why?" Adam asked.

A sigh was the initial reply.

"Because this is about what you're doing over there," Darcy Stanton answered. "This got passed on to me because of what you found out. I'd like to meet with you to discuss where this is going."

"It's your story," Adam said. He was leery of journalists in general and he was even more leery of journalists with an agenda.

"It's not my story," Darcy countered. "It's your story. I spoke off the record to a number of people about the payola scam. It wasn't hard to confirm once I understood what I was looking at. Getting people to open up about why it happened was easy. What has been more difficult is getting anyone to discuss a single plan to make sure it won't happen again in a few years. Everyone I've spoken to pointed me in your direction. The porn industry is more mainstream now than it's been since AIDS came on the scene ... You have major actors and athletes dating porn actresses. You have men who paid their way through college by doing what you're doing becoming doctors and lawyers.

"I know some of these people. They stay in touch with some of the people they knew and everyone says you're the one with the plan. You somehow have the financial wherewithal to make it work. I know about Polar Power and Subarctic. What I would like is for you to sit down with me and explain what the next step is. I don't need details but, well, I guess I just need proof that someone out there has a plan. If you have one, you're about the only one. None of the major studios has a single thing to say. The ones we've proven participated are just saying 'no comment'. The agencies are closing ranks. The only ones who will even speak to us with anything close to candor are Majestic and Elite. And all they're doing is covering their asses. 'We stopped the practice as soon as we found out, ' sort of stuff."

Adam sighed and looked around for anyone to discuss this with but he was alone.

"This is bigger than just me," Adam said. "I need to discuss this with others and get their perspective. Can I call you back in, say, an hour?"

"That's fine," Darcy said. "But I really think you need to get your message out. It's not really a secret what groups have been driving this change. What no one can really figure out is how or why."

"Would you be surprised if I told you that I don't really know that either?" Adam askd.

Darcy laughed.

"No, I wouldn't be," she said. "Do you mind if I ask how old you are?"

"I'll be 20 next month," Adam said.

"No kidding," Darcy replied. "I spoke to some of the male performers. You are not well liked by a lot of them and they all referred to you as 'that college kid' or 'some kid'."

"One thing you can attribute to me is this quote," Adam said, "'I don't like them any better than they like me'."

Darcy chuckled again. Her immersion in the world of adult entertainment had introduced her to a host of people she wouldn't want to call friends. But rumors persisted that there was a group out there who were trying to fight the tide. This guy sounded almost normal.

"Call me back in a while," Darcy said. "We can do this off the record if you prefer. I would rather get your comments for publication, though."

"I'll let you know," Adam said.

Darcy Stanton was younger than Adam had imagined. She was in her late 20s but she looked like the typical California girl – blonde hair, perfect teeth, impressive body. She rose and extended her hand when Adam arrived at the restaurant.

"Thanks for meeting with me," she said earnestly. "I've heard rumors that something else is going on this week with some of the guys I've spoken to. A couple of them called and tried to twist this story to their point of view. I guess they wanted me to cover their little protest instead."

"You seem surprised," Adam said. "Look, you researched this piece. You know the sort of person you're dealing with. The owners and the money men are exploiters. They seek profit at any cost. The male performers all think a big appendage makes you a big man. They believe that they are as important to the business as the females. They're wrong on both counts. The women are generally undereducated and they are playing on the only attribute they possess. As with so many things, the stereotype is based on fact. Everyone wants you to accept their point of view as fact. I have refused to do that."

"Tell me more about that," Darcy said.

"It's simple," Adam said, speaking directly into the tape recorder. "The perceptions that I've just mentioned aren't always right. No one with any sense would participate in some of the things that go on at these sites. Look, you're going to have to edit the hell out of this because I'm going to be blunt. Do you know what fisting and gaping are? Do you understand bukkake and felching? Those are not about normal sexuality. Neither is slapping a girl's ass while you're having sex. Has anyone ever done that to you?"

Darcy reddened but shook her head.

"What would you do if they did?" Adam asked. He didn't wait for an answer. "You'd castrate the poor bastard. The same if he tried to face-fuck you. The same if he wanted to piss on you. The same if he wanted to tie you up and hit you with a stick. Those are the things this industry paints as normal. They are not normal. Anyone who gets his kicks watching things like that is not normal. I don't care what their psychiatrist tells them. I don't care what their parents say. Those people are no more normal than the people who like to see kids have sex or who get off on torturing animals."

"I can say, without hesitation, that I have enjoyed meeting more than 70 percent of the people I've met in this business," Adam continued. "They are normal people. Sure, maybe we're a little more open with our sexuality. This started out as a personal business decision. I saw an underserved market and I thought we could grab a piece of it. When we found out about the system in place – wholly by accident, at first – it became a crusade for me. I don't know which young women you're planning to profile. I'm sure you'll play up the ones who killed themselves and that is a shame."

"Wait," Darcy said. "Why do you say that?"

"Because their careers weren't the only thing that led most of them to that decision," Adam said. "Most had a history of drug or alcohol abuse that predated their entrance into the adult industry. Many were victims of sexual abuse. Some had a history of depression. Some had a criminal record before they landed in the porn business."

"That wasn't in the interview I saw," Darcy said, almost to herself. A light went off in Adam's head.

"You're owned by the same parent company as Peaches," Adam said, nodding his head. "I wondered about how you got this information. It seemed too coincidental that you did the same research we did. Well, I'm sure the ownership is well hidden. Allie and Sarah have not seen the edited version of the Peaches story and the interview hasn't been posted. I was wondering why you were ahead of the curve. Now I get it. But you're a day late and a dollar short. Where were you when you could have made a difference?"

"This will make a difference," Darcy said. The interview was getting away from her and she didn't like it. She planned to lead this 19-year-old boy into saying exactly what she wanted him to say.

"It's over," Adam replied. "The smaller studios banded together and put pressure on the agencies. Five Friends Casting has made it a point to contact any newcomer we find and fill them in. It's no coincidence that, first, several agencies have changed management in the past three months; and second, there are a slew of adult-industry agents looking for work.

"Places like Daystar and Dazzle told them they would refuse to hire their fledgling talent if it continued. Places like Jackknife and Studio 919 have done the same thing. Those sites counted on the smaller studios to help build a following for the performers. When the smaller studios banded together, the agencies had to comply. The shithead sites don't make money by hiring unproven talent. They make money by getting bigger names to appear. Plus, you missed the biggest problem completely: the major studios are complicit."

"We know they are," Darcy said. "But the link is so tenuous it could be actionable if we allude to it. I fought our legal department about that very fact. But we have no tangible proof."

"You do," Adam said. "But you don't know it. Your problem is that you don't know what you're looking at and the Peaches shoot had already ended by the time we figured it out. Trace the career of the ones who made it through. Don't focus on those who left or died. Stick with the ones in the business. Get one of them to talk. Work through which studios put money into which web sites. If Peaches gave you everything we gave them, it's there if you know what you're looking for."

Darcy reached over and shut off the recorder.

"Show me," she urged, reaching into her briefcase to pull out a large bound portfolio. When she opened it, Adam saw it was the documents Allie and Sarah had provided to Peaches.

"Find Kristi Clear," Adam said. Darcy complied and Adam walked Darcy through Kristi's days with Premier then to Silver Wing. He did the same with another random name: Brandi Wray. She went from Rival to Jade. The names were different but the result was the same.

"Damn," Darcy said. "I didn't think to track where they went next. This is the link I was looking for. What else?"

"You might have to pay a source," Adam said. "Mostly because he's a complete tool but also because he'll need to leave town afterward. His name is Larry Warren. He was an agent for Elite until they underwent restructuring a few months back. He was a player in this scheme. If you offer him a plane ticket out of town, he might come across with all the facts you're missing."

"Do you have a number for him?" Darcy wondered. She didn't know if her bosses would let her pay the guy but she would try to make a compelling argument. Her publisher was already clearing space in his office for a major award.