Feb 22, 2022 5:12 PM PST

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Avery Jane will headline two Instagram Live interviews this week for Adult Time and HotMovies.

She will host an AMA for Adult Time and field questions about her career, as well as recent releases for Devil’s Film, tomorrow at 12 p.m. (PST); click here to join the discussion at the appointed time.

Jane will then sit with Lotus Lain for a discussion to commemorate Black History Month on Friday at 12 p.m. (PST); click here for that interview.

Their Q&A will subsequently be uploaded to YouTube and a print version, with photos, will be made available on the HotMovies blog.

“I’m excited to be part of both events,” Jane said. “I really enjoy working for Adult Time and look forward to filming more with them. And I love Lotus and recently was on a panel with her as a moderator; I know this IG Live interview will be incredible, and I’m honored HotMovies is including me in their Black History Month celebration.”

Follow Avery Jane on Twitter and find her premium social media links here.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. — The pretrial hearing in the Mercedes Carrera criminal case concerning multiple child sexual abuse charges against Carrera and her husband, which was scheduled for today at the Rancho Cucamonga courthouse in San Bernardino County, California, has been postponed once again, this time until March 25.

Carrera and her husband, Jason Whitney, were arrested after a police raid of their Rancho Cucamonga home on Feb. 1, 2019.

They have now been in county jail without trial for three years, first without bail and later, after they had liquidated their assets and had no source of income due to their incarceration, with bail set at $2 million for each.

A pretrial hearing to determine the jury selection process, and the date of the beginning of the actual trial, has already been postponed numerous times, most recently yesterday.

The new date of March 25, like several previous postponements, appeared in a document filed online.

The earliest date for the actual trial to begin has been set for late May.

The document shows the hearing took place today with District Attorney Laura Fragoso and Carrera’s conflict panel attorney, Geoff Newman, standing for the accused. Carrera was in attendance.

For more of XBIZ’s coverage of the Mercedes Carrera case, click here.

NEW YORK — A New York Times article is spotlighting the growing trend of major retailers carrying sexual wellness products, highlighting beauty giant Sephora’s recent partnership with Dame and Maude to offer their pleasure product lines.

“With careful rebranding, word choice and packaging, products like vibrators and lubricants have become newly palatable to higher-end retailers that cater to women,” The New York Times reported today in a story examining this trend.

The Times called the addition of sex toys by the nationwide cosmetics retailer “a significant evolution in the public acceptance of such products, helped in part by celebrity endorsements [which] comes amid a broader focus on wellness and self-care spurred by the pandemic.”

“Dame’s partnership with Sephora enhances our message that pleasure is wellness,” Alexandra Fine, CEO and founder of Dame, told XBIZ earlier this month. “We’re thrilled to have a national, credible beauty retailer carrying pleasure products alongside face wash and lipstick, as it helps to normalize sexual wellness as part of our holistic beauty rituals. Being welcomed into the Sephora community is a reminder that our sexual well-being matters.”

According to Maude’s founder and CEO Éva Goicochea, “Sephora and these other big beauty retailers are saying, ‘It’s just like everything else, you can buy it together.’ It’s impactful in this subtle way.”

As XBIZ reported last year, major chains Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom were pioneers in carrying sexual wellness products.

“People are spending more time, energy and disposable income on their own wellness, so it was natural that this expanded to sexual wellness,” Elizabeth Miller, a vice president who oversees cosmetics at Bloomingdale’s, told The New York Times’ Sapna Maheshwari. “It’s evolved so much from what it used to be, maybe 10 or 15 years ago, to be much more approachable.”

The Paradox of Progress and Stigma

However, speaking to TechCrunch about the progressive development, Andrea Barrica, CEO of sexual wellness education platform O.School, cited the “paradoxical issue” that raising money for companies in the sector, even in the new climate of acceptance, “is still no easy feat.”

“When you go into a space where very few people have gone, with a lot of barriers, arguably you need more money, but typically we have to do it with less money upfront,” Barrica told TechCrunch.

“The larger the fund, the more common it is” for it to have a vice clause, she added, referring to outdated venture capital funds policies that “contractually obligate them to pass on companies that offer products or services in categories like alcohol, tobacco, gambling, weapons, porn — and sexual wellness,” TechCrunch’s Anna Heim explained.

Barrica recommends being upfront and telling prospective fund managers or partners, “We’re really excited about sexual wellness as a part of health and wellness. Is this going to be a problem with one of your LPs [limited partners]?’”

As the Times pointed out, social media stigma still results in an absurd situation where Maude “may not be able to advertise its devices on these platforms, [but] can promote its ‘massage candle,’ which melts into massage oil, and its condoms.”

And when Dame’s Alexandra Dime tried posting, “Somebody pinch me — after five years of pitching, we are in Sephora!” on LinkedIn this month, “her post was automatically removed multiple times for violating the professional site’s guidelines against ‘sexually explicit material or language,’” the Times reported today.

For more on the new “Intimate Care” subcategory within the “Bath & Body” section, visit Sephora.com.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Lawyers acting on behalf of FanCentro’s parent company have filed a civil lawsuit in Broward County, Florida against OnlyFans’ U.S. billing company, Fenix Internet LLC and owner Leonid Radvinsky, alleging “tortious interference with contract and intentional interference with prospective business.”

FanCentro’s lawyers allege that Radvinsky “engaged in a scheme to cause competitors of OnlyFans — including [FanCentro] — to be ‘blacklisted’ by social media platforms, for the purpose of interfering with [FanCentro’s] business and reducing competition with OnlyFans.”

The complaint defines this “blacklisting” as being “typically accomplished by automated classifiers of filters that keep particular websites or pages from appearing on social media platforms or appearing in the results shown in search engines pursuant to user queries.”

The lawsuit alleges a conspiracy between Radvinsky and unnamed persons in an unnamed company to blacklist OnlyFans competitors. This blacklisting, the suit alleges, suddenly halted FanCentro’s growth in winter 2018, after which the company’s growth “stagnated and then started declining because [models] who promoted FanCentro began losing their pages on Instagram or had their page visibility reduced.”

FanCentro alleges that before Radvinsky acquired OnlyFans parent company Fenix International Limited in October 2018, OnlyFans was “a medium size competitor” in a “vibrant, competitive market with more than 100 [adult entertainment] platforms.”

But after October 2018, according to the complaint, adult entertainment providers that had previously only promoted OnlyFans’ competitors “suddenly began to experience a drop-off in traffic on social media platforms” and “experienced having many posts deleted by social media services, and the number of click-throughs from those posts that did appear on social media services dropped drastically.”

The complaint alleges that this alleged drop “was most noticeable on Instagram,” but “also occurred on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms.”

‘Substantial Reduced Visibility’

FanCentro alleges that “the combination of deleted posts and reduced click-throughs resulted in substantially reduced visibility for the [adult entertainment] providers on social media,” and that this “extended as far as reduced visibility on Google’s search engine.”

According to FanCentro, the reduction on social media traffic “was so substantial and dramatic that it could not have been the result of filtering by human reviewers” and the drop “suggested that social media services were using computer algorithms that automatically classify/filter content.”

FanCentro alleges that models “who had only promoted OnlyFans online” and not any of their competitors — other than MyFreeCams and AVNStars, which the lawsuit names as companies also owned by Radvinsky — “appeared to be unaffected by these automated takedowns and reduced traffic.”

FanCentro also alleges that OnlyFans “obfuscated” its supposed participation in this “scheme” by claiming that some of the models who promoted OnlyFans and also other companies were affected by the social media blackout, although “in fact those who promoted exclusively OnlyFans were immune.”

The lawsuit claims that OnlyFans’ current dominant position in the sector came as the result of this alleged drop in the traffic of models promoting other platforms.

The central claim of the FanCentro lawsuit concerns what the company calls “the disproportionate classification/filtering treatment” accorded OnlyFans’ competitors as compared with models who exclusively promoted OnlyFans.

Since, the complaint alleges, “there is no statistical or other benign explanation (such as better marketing)” for the alleged differential treatment, FanCentro has reached the conclusion that “it was caused by a manipulation of one or more of the individual databases (or sets of training data) that was then shared in part or in full among multiple companies,” a scheme designed “for the purpose of harming the competitors of OnlyFans and their [models], and to cause a net benefit to OnlyFans and its [adult entertainment] providers who never promoted any OnlyFans competitors.”

Allegations of a ‘Mysterious Immunity’ Against Blacklisting

Central to the lawsuit is what FanCentro’s lawyers called the “mysterious immunity of OnlyFans and two sites affiliated with Radvinsky […] to this new heightened classification/filtering activity” which FanCentro claims took place “soon after October 2018.”

The lawsuit also implies that one of the manipulated databases was the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, a shared hash database created in 2017 by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube.

FanCentro and “certain [adult entertainment] providers,” the lawsuit alleges, “were blacklisted as terrorist organizations or individuals, sympathizers, or otherwise as dangerous organization or individuals, and content associated with them was hashed and shared with the GIFCT, along with certain URL data, with the goal of harming [FanCentro’s] business (and through the scheme, the other [adult entertainment] platforms that competed with OnlyFans), in order to improve the market position, revenue, power and otherwise benefit OnlyFans and its owner, Radvinsky.”

The lawsuit claims that the alleged scheme “required and involved” individuals within a company “with the ability to add and/or manipulate content” on these databases, and that Radvinsky and others involved with OnlyFans “provided the information” to these individuals “to add false classifier/filtering information” to them.

The lawsuit conjectures that the alleged participants in the scheme must have been driven by “an economic incentive,” and implies Radvinsky and/or OnlyFans used an offshore company in Hong Kong and other Asian countries for these alleged transactions.

A Florida Lawsuit Leaked to a BBC Journalist

The FanCentro lawsuit was filed in November by FanCentro’s lawyers: William R. Scherer of Fort Lauderdale, Florida firm Conrad & Scherer; Jeffrey C. Schneider of Miami firm Levine Kellog Lehman Schneider + Grossman; and David E. Azar of Beverly Hills firm Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman. 

The lawsuit was leaked this morning to BBC News journalist Noel Titheradge.

According to Titheradge, “OnlyFans has not yet issued a legal response” to the FanCentro lawsuit, “but a spokesperson said the company was aware of the claims — describing them as having ‘no merit.’”

Last August, Titheradge authored a sensationalized report criticizing OnlyFans, which the notoriously anti-sex-worker and anti-porn BBC promoted by implying that it had caused the company to “ban sex videos.” The BBC later had to revise the report’s headline to correct that implication.

LOS ANGELES — Free Speech Coalition (FSC) will host a town hall discussion this Thursday addressing the EARN IT Act, which recently passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is potentially headed toward a full vote in the Senate.

The FSC statement announcing the Town Hall follows:

FSC invites all industry stakeholders who want to learn more about the bill itself, what’s being done by FSC and allies and what can be done on an individual level to fight back. 

“While supposedly targeting illegal content, the likely effect of the EARN IT Act will be widespread deplatforming of adult content online,” said Mike Stabile, director of public relations. “The bill as written would encourage social media sites, search engines, cloud storage and web-hosting companies to stop hosting sex-related content entirely.”

Stabile will moderate the discussion, which will also include First Amendment attorney and FSC Board member Reed Lee, and Clarity Consulting, the lobbying firm which represents FSC in Washington.

FSC’s analysis of the EARN IT Act can be found here.

The town hall will be held online Thursday, 11 a.m. (PST). Industry members who wish to attend should register in advance through this link. Once approved, they will receive an invitation via email.

COLOGNE, Germany — FanCentro has announced the addition of Sunny Tiger to its roster of brand ambassadors.

The German “social media personality, blogger, model and entrepreneur joins a growing base of influencers who use FanCentro’s best-in-class tools to turn their fans into followers and revenue,” a rep said.

“FanCentro has been instrumental in helping me grow my business and my following, so it was an easy decision to join them as an ambassador,” explained Tiger. “I need a platform I can trust that will advocate for me and provide me with the tools and services to help me succeed. FanCentro has really worked for me, and I want to help get out the word to more creators about the incredible resources here.”

Tiger joins an ambassador team that includes Rachel Starr, Eliza Rose Watson, JustLucy, Rosanna Voorwald and Niels van de Zanden.

“We’re attracting internationally known influencers because we’re the best at what we do, which is helping them build successful long-term businesses,” FanCentro Chief Sales Officer Nicholas Hörger said. “We’ve created a platform that serves all influencers and where they can grow without fear of de-platforming. Sunny Tiger’s been enthusiastic from the start, and it’s helped make her a huge success. We’re so glad she’s sharing her story to the larger creator community.”

Follow Sunny Tiger on FanCentro and find the platform on Twitter.

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Boneyard Toys has rolled out the Drop-Kick Ass Trainers kit as its first product release for 2022.

Additional Boneyard kits on the boards are the Low Hangers Ball Stretcher kit, the Aroma Topper Pack and the Bangers Butt Plug training kit.

“The Boneyard Drop-Kick Silicone three-piece ass trainer is the perfect beginners kit for anal kinksters,” a rep said. “The teardrop-shaped trainers push-and-pull on your anal pleasure points. The kit comes with three graduated sizes to train and ease your way into more intense anal play. Each individual trainer enhances your foreplay and sex with incredible results that will keep customers coming back for more.”

“The easy pull ring grip handle ensures a secure hold so the set will go no further than you want,” continued the rep. “Four weighted beads connected by stretchy and flexible silicone from handle to tip. The Drop-Kick is 100% silicone with no filler. They have a beautiful but firm stretch with legendary Boneyard soft touch, velvety smooth silicone finish that has a smooth seamless finish.”

Rob Reimer, chief marketing officer for Boneyard parent company Channel 1 Releasing, added, “We are really excited about this product release, we think this is something that consumers will really enjoy. Boneyard is known for manufacturing products for the more experienced user, so this is an avenue that we think will attract a whole new consumer base for us.”

For additional details, contact sales@C1R.com or visit C1RB2B.com.

Feb 22, 2022 10:44 AM PST

LOS ANGELES — Alexis Tae returns to Brazzers in a new double-penetration scene, ”TA Gets a DP,” released today.

Tae stars with Xander Corvus and Lucky Fate as a teacher’s assistant who takes her job very seriously. One of the students in her class, Corvus, is near failing and when he asks Professor Fate for help, it’s suggested he work with Tae to better his grades. But Tae needs and wants more, eventually enlisting Fate to join in as she manages a double-blowjob and then gets her DP action.

“I loved my DP scene for Brazzers,” said Tae. “I was so excited to work with Xander again, and adding Lucky to this scene for his first time being part of a DP. It was so much fun having both of them fuck my holes, and I loved getting to play a teaching assistant who has sex with both the teacher and a [college] student. The scene proved to be perfect for my cravings.” 

Find a preview here and follow Brazzers on Twitter.

Follow Alexis Tae on Twitter and find her premium social media links here.

NEW YORK — Alfred Sole, who directed the controversial 1972 adult film “Deep Sleep” — which was investigated by the FBI in its attempt to shut down the nascent adult industry — and then went on to have a successful mainstream career, has passed away at 78.

Sole died on Feb. 14 at his home in Salt Lake City, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The Rialto Report has long championed “Deep Sleep” — Sole’s directorial debut — and re-released over the weekend a lengthy interview with the accomplished filmmaker and production designer, as well as a short film about the making of his pioneering X-rated title and its convoluted legal aftermath.

According to the introduction to the Rialto Report podcast, when Sole decided to make “Deep Sleep,” he “didn’t know much about adult films or the industry, so he shot it in his hometown of Paterson, New Jersey and using a cast and crew made up of friends and family members. This meant that the local lawyer, banker, policeman, high school teachers, funeral home director, the mayor’s wife, even Alfred’s wife and his mother were part of the filmmaking group. It seemed like everyone in Paterson knew someone who was involved in the making of ‘Deep Sleep.’”

And so, the introduction continued, “predictably when it came out, it was a smash hit in New Jersey, with long lines of people breaking box office records trying to get into the theaters to see it. But not everyone was impressed. And what followed was one of the most remarkable and notorious prosecutions of an adult film in American history. First the filmmakers were indicted on a state basis under an ancient anti-fornication statute, and then on a federal level for interstate transportation of pornography. Suddenly Alfred Sole found himself at the center of a storm. He was under attack both from the law and from everyone who’d helped him make the film in the first place.”

Later on, after being forced to pay off a hefty fine to have the case dismissed, Sole found success in Hollywood, and eventually directed the cult horror classic “Alice, Sweet Alice” (1976), wrote for several TV thrillers, and was production designer for popular shows like “Veronica Mars” (from 2004-07), “Castle” (2009-16) and “MacGyver” (2017-19).

“I’m so saddened by the loss of someone I was fortunate enough to call my friend these past 15 years,” wrote the Rialto Report’s Ashley West. “I’m grateful that so much of his creative output is available for audiences to appreciate. And I will keep doing all I can for the story of Alfred Sole and ‘Deep Sleep’ to reach as many people as possible.”

WASHINGTON — The Washington Post published an opinion piece yesterday offering a cautionary historical perspective on how anti-pornography crusades like the current War on Porn end up harming marginalized groups like sex workers and the LGBTQ+ community.

The opinion piece was penned by Quinn Anex-Ries, an American Studies and ethnicity scholar at the University of Southern California, whose research examines the historical relationship between technology and sexuality.

According to Anex-Ries, in the past two years efforts to ban online pornography have been “growing in strength.”

“High-profile skirmishes over online pornography are microcosms of the broader debate raging over internet regulations,” he wrote. “Large swaths of the American public, along with federal regulators and political pundits, have adopted the view that the internet is unchartered — and untamable — territory. But when it comes to pornography, the debate is anything but new. For over a century, government officials, concerned citizens and erotic media producers have wrestled over the distribution of pornography via platforms ranging from the U.S. mail to the telephone to cable television.”

For the writer, older incarnations of the seemingly never-ending religiously-motivated War on Porn “offer a cautionary note as lawmakers grapple with how to regulate the internet. While proponents historically have sold tools to limit pornography as ways to protect public safety and national morality, multiple generations have wielded them more as weapons against LGBTQ communities and political radicals — with devastating effects.”

Anex-Ries then invoked the name of the founding father of American censorship, “anti-vice” crusader Anthony Comstock, and moved forward through U.S. history to show how anti-porn campaigns have “disproportionately affected the LGBTQ community.”

“More recent efforts to block internet pornography,” he noted, “have also perpetuated these historical exclusions. In 2018, Congress passed a legislative package, FOSTA-SESTA, intended to curb online sex trafficking. While regulators rarely use the law, its passage led many platforms, including Tumblr, Craigslist and eBay, to crack down on a range of consensual pornographic and sexually explicit material. This has had particularly adverse effects on the livelihoods of sex workers and the availability of LGBTQ media.”

Only if lawmakers “work collaboratively with the marginalized communities — including sex workers and LGBTQ people — most frequently subjected to censorship under anti-pornography legislation,” Anex-Ries concluded, will they be able to craft policy solutions “that allow individuals to choose how they encounter pornography online while also preserving free speech rights.”

To read “A New Push to Censor Internet Pornography Could Harm Marginalized Groups,” visit the Washington Post.