Lot’s happening this week, so let’s get into it…

I reported a smidgen on the AVN awards but did you know (I didn’t) that in L.A. this week the XBIZ Awards were held? XBIZ is about exactly what it sounds like as one of the highest rated portals for the adult business and its award show honored all aspects of adult entertainment, this year held at the infamous Century Plaza Hotel. A 3 hour plus affair, this award show was the in place to be according to those who were there, as 160 categories covered the four branches of the adult industry: video, web-tech, retail and pleasure products. Legends like Amber Lynn, Kylie Ireland, James Deen and even N.J. native Joanna Angel were present. Tera Patrick shared hosting duties was comedian Orlando Jones.

Unlike those AVN’s I mentioned last week, what makes XBIZ unique is that it does touch on those four branches of the biz and this year the awards really broke ground as the only award show of any kind to hold a fundraiser halfway through the proceedings (in a benefit for FSC and ASACP thanks to a matching anonymous donation, more than an estimated $70,000 in less than 15 minutes).

Some of the winners: Best Parody-Comedy: Star Wars XXX: A Porn Parody.  Best New Starlet: Riley Reid and our friends Fun Factory (see here) won Sex Toy Company of the Year.

In news related to the adult industry attorneys for the adult entertainment industry filed suit in federal court challenging Measure B, the statute just passed (but argued over now for more than a year) making it mandatory for adult performers to wear condoms while shooting films in Los Angeles County.

This suit says that Measure B is unnecessary because of rigorous and effective self-regulation in the industry and that it ‘imposes an unconstitutional system of prior restraint in violation of the First Amendment.’

“Overturning this law is something I feel very passionate about. I believe the industry’s current testing system works well,” Steven Hirsch, founder and co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment opined. “Since 2004 over 300,000 explicit scenes have been filmed with zero HIV transmission,” he added.

This last item hits home for me, especially since I have visited Vivid twice in my life and enjoyed quite the rockin’ time (and great catering) each time.

The James Franco produced/Christina Voros directed documentary about Kink.com will premier at Sundance this week. Kink and its various sites are run out of (and scenes mainly filmed) at the Armory in San Francisco and I’m here to tell you it is quite the place. The movie is called Kink, see the deets here.

And speaking of kink (or Kinky), the play (based on the movie of the same name) Kinky Boots begins March 3rd in NYC (get tickets here). Acclaimed Jerry Mitchell is the director and choreographer, actor/playwright/librettist (and four-time Tony Award winner himself) Harvey Fierstein has adapted the true story for the stage and the composer is none other than Cyndi Lauper.