LOS ANGELES — Elizabeth Skylar has signed with Star Factory PR for publicity representation.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with Elizabeth Skylar,” said Star Factory PR owner Tanya Tate. “Her journey in adult entertainment is off to a fiery start, and we’re excited to help her share her story and work with the world. Elizabeth is a rising star, and we’re here to support her every step of the way.”
Visit Elizabeth Skylar’s Star Factory profile; follow her on X.com.
MIAMI — MYLF has released three new scenes this week across its network of sites.
First, Mandy Rhea helps her step-grandson, Nicky Rebel, overcome No Nut November in PervNana’s “No Nut Nana.”
Next, Mylf Labs’ “Concept: Clamazon” stars Mellanie Monroe making a special delivery to Peter Green and his girlfriend Selina Bentz.
Finally, “New Thanksgiving Traditions” from FreeUse Milf stars Marica Hase and her partner Sarah Arabic getting a visit from Arabic’s stepson Nade Nasty.
Follow MYLF on X.com.
VALENCIA, Calif. — Girlfriends Films has scored six nominations for 2024 XBIZ Awards.
The platform has received four nominations in the category of All-Girl Series of the Year, for “Bad Lesbian,” “Lesbian Daughter In-Laws,” “Women Seeking Women” and “Twisted Passions;” a nomination for All-Girl Movie of the Year for “Twisted Passions 32” and a nomination for All-Girl Site of the Year.
“Congratulations to our incredible lineup of performers who were honored by XBIZ with nominations,” said Girlfriends Films President Moose. “It’s a privilege to see so many of you among the nominees for New Performers, MILF and Girl/Girl categories, and we are thrilled to have had you on our sets this year.
“Big congrats go out to our directors, cast and crew for the All-Girl Series noms and to the amazing ‘Twisted Passions 32’ lineup for the All-Girl Movie of the Year nomination,” Moose added. “Most of all, thank you to XBIZ for the honors. We are truly thankful for the recognition of our team’s dedication and hard work throughout the year.”
The 2024 XBIZ Awards will recognize the best in the industry on Sunday, Jan. 21 at the historic Hollywood Palladium. In keeping with tradition, select award categories under Web & Technology, Pleasure Products and Retail will be presented at the two editions of the annual XBIZ Honors ceremonies.
Voting will begin Wednesday, Nov. 22; for the complete list of nominees, click here.
For more information, visit GirlfriendsFilms, and follow the company on X.com.
LOS ANGELES — Jesse Pony and Sydney Paige have made their debuts on Maestro Claudio’s DPDiva and PervCity, respectively, this week.
In her DPDiva scene, Pony co-stars in a threesome with Eric John and Milan Ponjevic.
“I was looking forward to shooting this scene with Eric and Milan, and it was better than I’d hoped,” said Pony. “Getting both my holes stretched to the limit and pounded with such impressive force was beyond imagination and a wild ride I won’t soon forget. You’re going to have to see it to believe it.”
Next, in her PervCity debut, Sydney Paige is interviewed by Claudio before Isiah Maxwell joins her for a scene.
“I had the best time working with Isiah, Maestro Claudio and PervCity,” said Paige. “Every moment with Isiah was insane in the best way possible. Our chemistry was off-the-charts amazing, and I can’t wait to meet up with him again for another go.”
Follow Jesse Pony and Sydney Paige on X.com.
CHANTILLY, Va. — Exxxotica D.C. will be returning to the Dulles Expo Center, Dec. 1-3.
“In just two short weeks, the Exxxotica Expo, presented by MyFreeCams, returns to the Dulles area for a sexy celebration,” said a rep. “At Exxxotica, there will be appearances by more than 200 of the top stars from all branches of adult entertainment, more than 100 exhibitors, over 20 hours of shows on the Chaturbate Entertainment Stage and educational and engaging programming with Bad Dragon’s seminar series.
“There’s also CouplesX, SW!TCH for the LGBTQ+ community, the interactive Dungeon Experience and so much more,” the rep added.
For more event information and tickets, click here.
PHOENIX — The jury in the federal retrial in Arizona of former Backpage.com owner Mike Lacey and some of the company’s executives reached a verdict Thursday, finding Lacey guilty on one count of international concealment money laundering.
The jury “deadlocked on prostitution-related charges filed against former New Times editor Michael Lacey, but found him guilty of a financial crime related to the classified advertising website he co-founded, Backpage.com, to enable and profit from prostitution,” the Arizona Republic reported, after news of the verdict was first published on X.com by Phoenix journalist Stephen Lemons, who attended all hearings and posted regular updates throughout the proceedings.
The jury, however, found two former Backpage executives, Scott Spear and John “Jed” Brunst, guilty of “using the website to facilitate prostitution,” the Arizona Republic noted. “The jury also found the two guilty of some financial crimes, but not guilty of others.”
Former Backpage execs Joy Vaught and Andrew Padilla were found not guilty.
“One count of a 100,” Lacey’s attorney, Paul Cambria, told XBIZ after the verdict was returned. “We have a very good basis to have it vacated, however.”
The jury was supposed to begin deliberations the last week of October, but was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa on Nov. 1, after a potential COVID outbreak in the courtroom. It reconvened Tuesday, when deliberations began. On Wednesday afternoon, the jury asked the judge for clarification on what would happen if they were unable to reach a verdict on one of the counts.
Judge Humetewa convened the parties earlier this month to determine what would happen to the millions of dollars seized from the defendants in 2018 in case of a conviction.
The verdict is the conclusion of a protracted, years-long process that included questionable seizure of defendants’ assets, controversial strategies by federal prosecutors, judges with apparent conflicts of interest, a mistrial and the July suicide of Lacey’s business partner and co-defendant, Jim Larkin, days before the scheduled beginning of the retrial.
Prosecutors dropped the charges against Larkin after his death, leaving the five remaining defendants collectively facing 100 felony counts. Padilla and Vaught were charged even though they apparently had no policymaking authority in the company.
The defendants were charged with 50 counts of violating the Travel Act — dealing with “interstate and foreign travel or transportation in aid of racketeering enterprises” — for publishing ads for escorts, dating and massage that ran on Backpage, as well as one count of conspiracy to violate the Travel Act. Lacey and two of the execs also faced additional money laundering and conspiracy charges.
As XBIZ has been reporting from the start of the protracted ordeal, Backpage.com was shuttered and seized by federal authorities in 2018, days before President Trump signed FOSTA into law. The government accused Lacey, Larkin and other company executives of a number of crimes related to their ownership of the popular adult-oriented classifieds website. The case was subsequently used by several political figures, including Vice President Kamala Harris, as an example of the need for the FOSTA Section 230 exception.
Federal prosecutors accused the company of “participation in a conspiracy to facilitate and promote prostitution,” money laundering, human trafficking and other charges, which were strongly disputed by the defense.
In September 2021, Judge Susan Brnovich declared a mistrial, ruling that the government and its witnesses “crossed the line several times” by inaccurately implying that the case involved CSAM and child exploitation, even after she admonished them not to do so.
The current retrial began in August 2023, under Judge Humetewa.
A Trial With Crucial Ramifications for All Sex Work Online
Lemons tirelessly kept a running chronicle of the sprawling proceedings through the website Front Page Confidential.
Front Page Confidential is the last remaining outlet of the once-powerful Village Voice Media organization headed by Lacey and Larkin, which by the 2010s had grown from a local Arizona operation into a conglomerate owning several of the largest, most prestigious alt-weeklies in the country, including the Village Voice and the LA Weekly.
The jury heard first the defense summation. On Nov. 1 the government offered its rebuttal to the defense’s closing statements through prosecutor Austin Berry, an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice’s obscenity section.
Berry, Lemons wrote, “portrayed standard online industry practices — like moderation, aggregation, and reciprocal links — as evidence of knowledge of wrongdoing. Berry’s interpretation of the U.S. Travel Act should scare the bejeezus out of any and all social media sites because it holds that generalized knowledge of possible misuse of an interactive website by its users is enough to convict a site’s former owners, operators, and employees with wrongdoing.”
Moreover, Lemons explained, the Travel Act “is a Kennedy-era law that was passed to go after the mafia, not newspaper owners and publishers.”
Berry also told the jury that they should disregard mentions of content moderation practices because in the government’s view, “Moderation is a game. It’s a joke. It’s not good faith.”
According to the defense argument, in order to be found guilty, the defendants “must have specifically intended to facilitate the business enterprises at hand — those connected to the 50 charged ads,” Lemons continued. “It’s tough to facilitate a business enterprise that you have no knowledge of, and the prosecution cannot show that any of the five defendants on trial ever saw these 50 ads.”
Berry stated during his rebuttal, “I’m not going to show you a jury instruction saying we must prove that any defendant had specific knowledge of these particular ads because it isn’t in there. We don’t have to do that.”
Another prosecutor, Andrew Stone, told the judge during a meeting last week that the government’s position since 2018 has been that its case does not rest on whether the defendants knew about the specific ads in question, but on issues related to the “maintenance of the site.”
The government’s case, Lemons explained, “is based on two assumptions: 1) that all the ads on Backpage were blatant prostitution ads; and 2) that the defendants had general knowledge that prostitution resulted from ads on the site. If this theory prevails — that you can assume criminality, despite law enforcement stating, repeatedly that the content of the ads did not give them probable cause to make an arrest, and that general knowledge is enough to gain a conviction with federal laws — then all speech on interactive websites is at risk, because everyone who works for, helps operate, or co-owns those sites, is a possible target of federal prosecution.”
HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Russian Cream stars in the latest scene from Dire Desires, titled “A Trip to Russia.”
The scene opens with Cream teasing site honcho Jay on his balcony by lifting her dress. She then grinds herself against him before letting him take over.
“I love working with Jay,” Cream said. “His dick was so big, and he fucked me so good. He was definitely a twelve on a scale of one to ten. I know the next time is going to be epic.”
The scene is streaming on DireDesires.
Follow Russian Cream on X.com.
NEW YORK — September Reign will headline at Sapphire 60 in New York City on Friday.
Reign will also be available for photographs and autographs, and will be giving away DVDs.
“Hello New York,” said Reign. “I will be back deep inside you at my favorite gentlemen’s club, Sapphire 60. I love all Sapphire clubs; they know how to make a girl feel welcome, and they know how to make their customers happy. Come see me for this uber-sexy one-night-stand.”
For more information, visit Sapphire 60 online.
Follow September Reign on X.com.
LOS ANGELES — Sliquid has been nominated for four 2024 XBIZ Awards.
The noms are for Sexual Health & Wellness Brand of the Year, Sex Lubricant Company of the Year, Sensual Bath & Body Product of the Year, and Queer Pleasure Product Brand of the Year.
“We are thrilled and honored to be nominated for not one, but four prestigious categories at the 2024 XBIZ Awards,” said Dean Elliott, founder and CEO of Sliquid. “Our team is proud to be recognized for our commitment to sexual health, lubricants, bath and body products, and our dedication to promoting healthy pleasure for all.”
The 2024 XBIZ Awards will recognize the best in the industry on Sunday, Jan. 21 at the historic Hollywood Palladium. In keeping with tradition, select award categories under Web & Technology, Pleasure Products and Retail will be presented at the two editions of the annual XBIZ Honors ceremonies.
Voting will begin Wednesday, Nov. 22; for the complete list of nominees, click here.
For more information, visit Sliquid.
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Swiss Navy has received three 2024 XBIZ Awards nominations.
The nods are for Sex Lubricant Company of the Year, Sex Lubricant of the Year for its Naked lube, and Sexpert of the Year for Marketing and Intimate Health Advisor Sunny Rodgers.
“We realize that having XBIZ and our industry peers recognize our outstanding product achievements is a symbol of our continued success,” said Ralph Albrecht, CEO of parent company M.D. Science Lab.
The 2024 XBIZ Awards will recognize the best in the industry on Sunday, Jan. 21 at the historic Hollywood Palladium. In keeping with tradition, select award categories under Web & Technology, Pleasure Products and Retail will be presented at the two editions of the annual XBIZ Honors ceremonies.
Voting will begin Wednesday, Nov. 22; for the complete list of nominees, click here.
For more information, visit SwissNavy.