Seven Questions With Bobbi Starr: Wayne Hentai

Wayne Hentai is someone you've probably never heard of, but those who have value his opinion and counsel. Officially he's known as a publicist and public relations man in the industry — that's right, even in porn we need publicists because this business is still, at its heart, show business — but his opinions and his insights from working for AVN and a host of other companies makes him more a consigliere.

He's also a brilliant writer in his own right and has penned movies that you've probably seen, including the "Ashlynn Goes to College" series for New Sensations.

Bobbi Starr: How did you get your start in the business?

Wayne Hentai: A friend of mine had a cousin who wrote feature scripts in the industry. I told her I was going to LA for a vacation and she told me to look him up while I was there. I did, he took me around to some sets and we wound up at AVN. I was introduced the editor-in-chief at the time, Mike Ramone, and when he found out I had a degree in journalism he asked if I wanted to review movies for them. A few months later he gave me a call and asked if I wanted to be a full-timer.

Have you always worked in adult?

No. I've done some time in the Army as a medic and in public affairs, worked overseas in Asia for a buying agency and did some freelance work for business publications and newspapers before I got into adult.

But I have noticed that there's a lot of people, especially in production, that have only worked in the adult industry their entire professional lives. I know that for them, it's not a big deal and it's business as usual, but it's something that I find fascinating.

What's the craziest assignment you've had in this business?

Working with contract girls is always strange. There's this constant tension between what the production company wants them to be and who they really are. So you essentially work with this person and come up with someone who's not quite them, and someone that passes the company's smell test when it comes to the image they want to project though this composite character.
Look, companies would like people to believe that all of their contact girls are essentially nymphomaniacs who have doctorates in quantum physics and semiotics. But the fact is most of these girls are normal 20-somethings who like to party.

Given the problems this industry's facing right now, would you rather work in mainstream or adult?

I like this business, but I've been actively taking on more mainstream work. I am having serious doubts as to what a publicist is supposed to do in the near future. None of the companies I know of want to use condoms and these AIDS Healthcare zealots seem hellbent on making sure they get their way. If something doesn't change soon, either the companies will move back underground and shoot illegally or they move to another state and unless it's New Hampshire, they'll be shooting illegally.
In either case, it'll be like it's the '70s and '80s all over again, with producers and directors running and gunning and trying to stay one step ahead of the cops. I don't see how publicizing what you're doing would be a good idea.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

Hard to say. Everything seem to be in flux and there's nothing that's stable anymore. But ideally, doing some work in adult and some work in the mainstream and doing it all from the beach.

Where do you see the industry five years from now?

The usual way things have worked in this business are breaking down. Video companies, producers, internet companies — it's not working the way it has in the past. I think what will happen is that there will be a few large production companies who distribute and cross-distribute each other's products, what little is being sold by then, and content.

But I also think the sites of the individual performers are going to take the place of the DVDs and scenes from the Internet companies we watch now. The power and the attention in this business is going to shift from the producers to the performers. Locating yourself in LA and the San Fernando Valley isn't going to be as important. You'll see performers with real followings from Hawaii to Maine, and they'll probably never step foot in the 818 area code.

You'll also see the first superstar, on the caliber of Ginger Lynn or Jenna Jameson, who will own all of her own content and the only place anyone will see it is on her site.

What continues to surprise you about this business?

Porn is a lot of like food. There's only so many tastes, but by playing with those tastes those combinations become an infinite number of flavors.

Likewise, there's only do many ways to have sex. There's not going to be anything new, and everything that's legal to shoot has been shot, many times. But despite all of the content and scenes that were produced since someone had the bright idea to pick up a camera when people are having sex, people are still watching porn.

It's a staggering thought, really.

· Wayne Hentai (twitter.com)

This post is a part of Fleshbot's Bobbi Starr Week.