Porn Valley Dispatch: AVN Nominations for Everyone!

Poor dead Andy Warhol. People have appropriated his "In the future ... 15 minutes" quip for everything from metric screws to timeshare rentals (OK, we made that up) to blog posts, but one thing is certain: In the future, everyone will get an adult industry award—starting on January 13 when the AVN Awards are disgorged on a grateful public at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.

Read more about the nominations, headed this year by Wicked Pictures' "Manhunters" and NinnWorx' "Sacred Sin", after the gap. - GP

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The expectations and hype of Las Vegas' annual AVN Awards is similar to the shrimp and meatball sections of the buffet at the Orleans. Both leave one feeling violently empty and unfulfilled. Still, on poring over the 119 categories, including everything from Best Film to Best Big Bust Series to Best Non-Sex Performance, one can't help but feel a little thrill of anticipation of the glamour and pageantry of this, the Grandma I'd Like to Fuck of all adult awards shows.

Alright, perhaps I am fooling no one.

While big-budget (and the budget includes advertising) features lead the nominations, the on-average 15 nominations per category are likely to mollify just about everyone. There remain numerous headscratchers, however, like how did "The Da Vinci Load" not get nominated for a screenplay award?

Additional award categories this year include Best Contract Star, recognizing the less genital time/more face time required of the people asked to represent a company. Joanna Angel is nominated in this category for Hustler.

"Now I have something to tell my mom," last year's winner of the Most Outrageous Sex Scene award said, adding that she wants to thank Fleshbot readers for being her fans.

Angel, along with standbys like Mary Carey, Jesse Jane, and Jenna Jameson, is nominated for the Crossover of the Year Award, given to the star who generates the most attention from the "mainstream" world. This will be a legitimate category only when Oscars are given out for celebrity sex tapes.

Another new category, Most Valuable Starlet, recognizes the overall excellence of hard workers, such as Mika Tan (pictured)

The nomination of Amy Ried in the Best New Starlet category is also noteworthy in that Ried is no longer in the adult business, reflecting the sometimes transient nature of the industry.

But awards season is a heady time nonetheless. I asked Angel how frequent scene partners Tommy Pistol (pictured with Joanna in Burning Angel's "The XXXorcist") and James Deen, both nominated in male performer categories (Newcomer and Best Male Performer, respectively) felt.

"Tommy is so happy," she said. "He's like crying. James doesn't really care at all."

"He's a hard man."

"Tell me about it."

· "2007 AVN Award Nominations Announced" (avn.com)
· 24th Annual AVN Awards (avnawards.com)

Previously: Porn Valley Dispatch Archive