Columns

The News Rack – XRCO 2011

April 17, 2011

Source: Adult Industry News

By: Steve Nelson

This isn’t a fluff piece. No spin on this report about the 2011 XRCO Awards show. It’s not like me to intentionally piss people off, but there are things that have got to be said.

Arriving early didn’t do much good this year as the backdrop for the red carpet wasn’t around and at that point no one knew where it was. I had to laugh when Monstar said the red carpet we found was so small it looked like a door mat, but lights were scrounged up, a larger carpet was found, and the backdrop was eventually brought in. A completed red carpet was confected just over a half hour late. Yes, it was late, but not bad for no one knowing who was responsible for what.

Once past the hold up in the beginning, things at the door ran smooth except for the tall rude girl who kept obnoxiously demanding to get in before we opened. The red carpet was rather slow because it was too small for the amount of photographers that were there and was a real clusterfuck with a few photographers getting elbowed away from getting any good shots.

Another mishap was the poor girl who passed out and barfed towards the end of the show. I heard there were others. The staff at the Hollywood Highland were stellar in their handling of these situations, and backed us up on whatever we needed to make the show happen. I can’t say enough good about the crew at the Hollywood Highland. They were courteous, supportive and went the extra mile to back us up.

Leading up to the show I learned that the people on the master RSVP list were not vetted. No one told Pipeline Multimedia, the new PR firm handling the press releases for the XRCO, that it was their job to make sure the people on the list were actually valid members of the Adult Industry.

To confuse things even more, I also discovered that there were a slew of people on the RSVP list who didn’t RSVP. Included were voting members of the XRCO who were not going to be there, and I presume everyone who was nominated was on the list, even if they were not coming. I was VERY disappointed at this because Julie Ashton was on the list of RSVPs and wasn’t there. I was looking forward to seeing Julie again for most of the night and very disappointed when I realized what had happened. Of course the only people who should be on an RSVP list are those who… wait for it… “respond, if you please.”

The comments I heard this year about the XRCO show itself vary greatly. Basically from a variety of the people attending I heard that although it was enjoyed by most, the event was very disorganized.

When it was time for the inductions into the Hall of Fame, Bill Margold was asked to take the stage, which was fitting since he is by default the Industry historian and the last founders of the XRCO still left alive. His bellow cut through the thick din of jabber. No one was paying attention to the stage. When Jim Holliday was alive I understand it wasn’t uncommon to hear him shout, “Shut the fuck up!” from the stage to get some relative quiet. The only difference from then to now is back then the audience paid a bit more attention to a request like that.

Margold’s booming chastisement of “his kids” from the stage got vague results and he went on to talk about some of the greats in the Biz who are now gone, to set the stage for the induction to the Hall of Fame of this year’s rookery of reprobates.

All the participants of the show – the MCs, Tom Byron and Inari Vachs, Heart-on girls Lizz Tayler and Sensi Pearl, and all the presenters – did a great job and are deserving of much thanks. The winners are all listed below at the end of this article.

Liberal thanks should also go to Dominic Ace, Mike Moz, Alexander “Monstar” Raymond, Leo, Brad Thomas, Tiki Pavelle, Roger T. Pipe, Jared Rutter, the help Dominic had in the back, and helping me at the door, Bill Margold.

There is more:

I’m troubled that the XRCO voting process is far from transparent. Do the voting members know and talk with each other? I there a consensus of who gets into the Hall of Fame among the members? Do the voting members know the process of deciding who wins an award? Where are the criterion for voting written and what are they?

The rules are too conveniently vague. For example, this year at the last minute I was told not to vote in any category I didn’t receive a screener for. News to me! It’s not written anywhere. I can just see the reaction if I said to Brad Armstrong, “Sorry, I would have voted for ‘Speed’ but Vivid didn’t send me a copy of ‘The Devil in Miss Jones’ so I couldn’t vote for any movies in your category.” That wouldn’t be fair to most of the companies sending in screeners if one company could disqualify a whole category for a member by not sending them a screener. I had to ARGUE to get my votes counted in each category where one of the nominated screeners were not sent to me for review. And, in not sending in a screener, perhaps that’s why those companies lost. The voting is usually pretty close – or so I’m told, but who really knows? Just one person knows, and he’s a few thousand miles away.

I still insist there’s hope for the XRCO’s future. There is already talk about how to make next year’s show better and solve the problems that occurred this year. The XRCO should live on as the group who gives recognition to the excellence of our own. The XRCO should live on as a tie to the past that honors those that shaped the Adult Industry before us. Finally, the XRCO should live on to remind us of who we are and where we came from.

2011 XRCO Award Winners:

BEST RELEASE

Pornstar Superheroes – Elegant Angel

BEST EPIC

Speed – Wicked Pictures

BEST PARODY – Comedy

The Big Lebowski: A XXX Parody – New Sensations

BEST PARODY – Drama

The Sex Files 2: A Dark XXX Parody – Revolution X/Digital Sin

BEST GONZO MOVIE

Tori Black Is Pretty Filthy 2 – Elegant Angel

BEST GONZO SERIES