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Sunday, July 3, 2005 Email Luke Essays Profiles ArchivesSearch LF.netLuke Ford Profile Dennis Prager Jun 21 Rodger Jacobs Interview What was all the fuss about? I just watched this DVD for the first time and it was neither funny, intriguing or insightful. There's no depth here. If anything, this movie reiterated to me the meaninglessness of life without God.
How can I find a way to make you see? I reveal my heart to you. Hope you believe it 'cause it's true. Time To Close The Deal Helpful suggests:
Chaim Amalek writes:
Chaim continues:
I want to lie down.
Heeb Magazine's Hollywood Stories About 200 people jammed Three Clubs at 1123 North Vine Street in Hollywood on Tuesday, June 21. The first performer was novelist Stephen Glass, the protagonist of the movie Shattered Glass. He describes how he was warned in seventh grade Hebrew school about dating non-Jewish women. In public school, he was warned about venereal disease. In Hebrew school, shiksas. "In Hebrew school, they took all the conspiracy theories about Jews and invoked them about Gentiles. They principally relied on the [myth] that Gentiles controlled the media...put out images of the shiksa [as the ultimate love object] and that Jews would end up dating shiksas, marrying shiksas, having non-Jewish babies, and soon there will be no Jews and Hitler's work will be finished. "I was always wary of conspiracy theories, except for the one I would tell." Stephen lives in Los Angeles with another novelist-lawyer -- Julie Hilden:
Julie writes a column on First Amendment law: Stephen describes his highschool relationship with Heather, a 6'0 platinum blonde who went to another school and therefore "had no idea of the depths of uncoolness she was reaching into." Glass stuck Good Morning Vietnam tape in the VCR, returned to the couch, and suddenly she was all over him. "She did not want to steal our children and give them over to Christ. She merely wanted to embrace me. My parents liked her." Then she went away to summer camp and afterwards she wanted nothing to do with Stephen. "She refused to process with me." Heather fell in love with a guy named Roy in "Ten Commandments class." Lori Gottlieb was next. Never married, she's in her late 30s. "This is what I did after I broke up with my boyfriend last summer.... I decided I'd cut out the middleman and sign up a sperm bank. There was no sperm bank that was the equivalent of JDate, say JSpunk or JSperm..." She had several coffee dates with a Harvard graduate. She wanted his sperm delivered directly to her ovum. Lori says that "What a person does in his private life is his own business" is a Gentile attitude. Gottlieb is a few weeks pregnant with a baby boy. Director Jonathan Baruch Kesselman takes the stage. "To relax you should imagine your audience naked. And I've got you two people in front of me." He points to an old couple. A Chat About Frank del Olmo With Former LAT's Reporter Ken Reich I call Ken at 11pm Wednesday. He was just falling asleep at the Days Inn in Burns, Oregon. He's on an 84-day driving trip to Alaska and the Canadian Arctic. Luke: "What do you think was Frank's main contribution to journalism?" Ken: "Getting the Associate Editorship and having a column at The Times. That was his biggest success." Luke: "What was he best at? Was he a great journalist? A great editor? A great columnist?" Ken: "He was not a great journalist but he had determination. He made himself important at The Times because he was the only Latino in his position. He attended a great many meetings. He was a plodder more than a brilliant polemicist. Because he was first in things and because there was a great deal of feelings among Hispanics that he was perhaps more important than he was at the paper, he was able to accomplish some things. "The best thing Frank ever did as a journalist was opposing the [LAT's 1994] endorsement of [Governor Pete] Wilson. Are you acquainted with that?" Luke: "I'm acquainted with that, but it's something outside of journalism, isn't it?" Ken: "No. It was done at the paper. He staged a rebellion. He threatened to quit. They finally did something for him that they had never done for anybody else -- give him the right to write an editorial disagreeing with the editorial that they had written. And they gave him the Associate Editorship besides. This is not Michael Kinsley who's willing to run all sorts of contradictory editorials time after time and give outsiders a chance to write. [What Frank did] had never been done before. "At the time of the endorsement of Nixon over McGovern [in 1972], they had run a letter from some staffers disagreeing. "Frank disagreed eloquently. I think this was definitely a journalistic endeavor." Luke: "You just don't think of journalism being political partisan?" Ken: "I heard [USC professor Dr. Felix] Gutierrez speak the other night. He said that the First Amendment looks forward to impartial journalism. The First Amendment was nothing of the kind. The First Amendment looks forward to advocacy journalism. That's the reason there is a First Amendment. I think Frank was certainly within First Amendment traditions when he took a position. This is bunk when you say that journalists are not supposed to take sides. [When the First Amendment was created], it was always expected that journalists would express their opinion. That's why there was a First Amendment, so people could freely express their opinion." Luke: "You say Frank was not a brilliant columnist, yet you criticize [members of The Los Angeles Times] for not showing up to his book." Ken: "I was criticizing the indifference of the white reporters and editors about Hispanics and other minorities at The Times. The whole battle for diversity at The Times has been waged by very few people in the Hispanic community and the Black community. Even when The Times had a diversity committee, which I was a member of, it was noted by its failure to take a solid position in favor of diversity. It's a tradition around there that its largely white staff does not care much what happens to the minorities. The same could be said of women at The Times, though women have now achieved a great deal. "When I first went to work downtown, there was only one woman in the City room (Dorothy Townsend). The women got their positions by rebelling, not by anybody giving them anything. There's a long tradition around the paper about not caring." Luke: "When did this change? Shelby Coffee was famous for his commitment to diversity." Ken: "Yes, it changed more under Shelby than it did under Bill Thomas, though Thomas did hire the first Black staffers. I don't think it's an entirely satisfactory situation today. The Times is not filled with black and brown reporters." Luke: "How important is it that The Times be filled with black and brown reporters and what proportion should they be?" Ken: "I'm not an advocate of a quota system. I think The Times should have a more substantial contingent of minority reporters and more promotions. Even though Dean Baquet is managing editor and a black man is almost a coincidence due to his talents. It's not that there's any great movement afoot to promote blacks. You have Janet Clayton [former Op/Ed editor] head of Metro but the City room is not filled with blacks. The blacks like Tyla Rivera and Jocelyn Stewart aren't given good assignments. "Often, the most outstanding reporters to come out of the Metpro (Minority Editorial Training Program) program, have gone on elsewhere. Some have succeeded within the paper -- Hector Tobar, Henry Chu." Luke: "Is there a hostile work environment to minorities at The LA Times?" Ken: "It's more a sin of omission. This is not a Southern jury that decides to get together and not convict a killer of civil rights advocates. It's more that they don't really care." Luke: "What's more important? Racial diversity or ideological diversity?" Ken says racial balance. "I don't think there's a great deal of ideological diversity [at The LAT] either. At the end, I was one of the few conservatives on the staff. "When I went downtown [to the Times headquarters on Spring Street] in 1967, I was the only person interested in covering the anti-war movement. That's why I got the Eugene McCarthy campaign post. I was the only one interested in police brutality stories. "There's a lot of pack journalism. Reporters who say newspapermen are not liberals are protesting too much. "[It's not enough] to simply have people who happen to be black or brown in skin color, because The Times had a whole succession of black reporters who never uttered a peep about racial issues. They were accepted as black reporters because they weren't strong in pursuing black ideals." Luke: "What are black ideals?" Ken: "By that I mean identification with the black community. When the black community was more concentrated in South-East LA, we had black reporters (Bill Drummond, Richardson), and Baquet now in Santa Monica... I wouldn't say Baquet is interested in the Black community. Sometimes Baquet takes what would be identified as a Black position. But he didn't get ahead that way. You could say at The New York Times that Howell Raines was more interested in the Black community than any of the black reporters (except for Earl Caldwell)." Luke: "Frank seemed to be the Latino that The LA Times trotted out to all sorts of events." Ken: "Yes. Not only was he personable and a good representative, but he wanted to do it. "The same thing is true of Jewish reporters. A lot of Jews at The LA Times don't like to be thought of as Jewish. There's almost a self-hating Jew. Take Op/Ed page Editor Nick Goldberg. He's anxious to be right in the middle of the Arab-Israeli conflict. There are a lot of minority reporters who feel they've gotten ahead by not being strong advocates of their minority. "I come from a situation like that in my family. My father [Herman Reich] was only the third Jew to make Admiral rank in the U.S. Navy. Rickover was the second. All three graduated from the [Annapolis] academy. My father was not a strong advocate of Judaism within the Navy. My son is in the Navy now. "The Times had a lot of Jewish reporters. Mrs. Chandler was responsible for opening up links between the Protestant and Jewish communities in raising Westside money for downtown goals. When Otis Chandler became publisher, one of the ways it changed is that it opened up to the Jewish community. It was no coincidence that The Times had as political writers me, Bill Boyarsky, Carl Brainberg, Bob Shogun. We were all Jews. "The Chandlers had a good attitude towards the Jewish community. Now, because of Israel, there are strains between the Jewish community and the downtown Times establishment. "I'm not religious. The first congregation I joined was when my mother died last year. I liked the rabbi who presided over my mother's service. I've always been more politically Jewish than religiously Jewish." Luke: "I go to a lot of journalist gatherings and one of the things often brought up about Frank del Olmo was that he wasn't any great shakes as a journalist?" Ken won't comment about that on the record. Ken: "I do believe that a good journalist can express opinions. I followed as a political writer a much different policy than my colleagues who would never discuss their political views. I'd respond to anybody who asked who I had voted for for president." Ken's been a registered Republican for about the last 30 years (with the exception of three years when his daughter Cathy worked for Democratic senator Diane Feinstein). "My father, grandfather and great-grandfather were always Republicans. In fact, my great-grandfather who came here from Romania in 1888, said within the family that Republicanism was synonymous with Americanism." Luke: "What would be your guess about the percentage of Republicans among reporters and editors at The LA Times?" Ken: "I'd guess it would be small. "I don't think it would be a bad thing for the Republicans to exert a little control over public radio and television." Luke: "Tony Castro writes on your blog that Frank del Olmo's significance lay not in breaking stories but in 'pressing Affirmative Action and diversity at the Times'." Ken: "I don't disagree. A lot of the progress that The Times made on Latino questions was as much Frank Sotomayor's doing as Frank del Olmo's. "Many of the more successful Latino writers do not work for The LA Times. "Jack White worked for Time magazine on black affairs. I wanted to hire Jack White but Jack was entirely too outspoken for Bill Thomas's taste. That was not the type of minority reporter The LA Times wanted to hire. They wanted to hire people who seemed like carbon copies of the white reporters they had. You used the term, 'Wore good clothes.' "Black columnist Sandy Banks was interested in everything but the black community. But she just looked good, which was one reason she advanced at The Times." Our conversation wanders. Ken: "To the extent that I admired Frank, it was because he did let people know where he stood, and as a result, he accomplished certain things. Was he a distinguished journalist? Well, I wasn't either. I empathized with him." Luke: "Many of us feel uneasy about celebrating an ethnic activist at a general interest newspaper?" Ken: "Remember that The Times for many years had over 1,000 editorial staff members. Having a few activists in that group is a good thing. It would've been good to have Jack White around the paper. He would've brought to the paper some empathy with the black community, which, for a long time, our black reporters didn't have." April Book Sales 5 -- The Producers: Profiles In Frustration Angels on the Fairway, Here Is My Request A man writes:
Andrew Breitbart Leaves HuffingtonPost.com For Drudgereport.com He left about three weeks ago but nobody has noted it. Andrew's returned to the same deal he's had for years with Matt. I read the HuffingtonPost.com for a couple of days, but quickly agreed with Nikki Finke's first day evaluation that it was a flop, and stopped reading it. I remember reading Andrew's early Q&A with Cathy Seipp when he was still running HuffingtonPost.com and I didn't find him convincing in his attempted enthusiasm for the project. I guess Andrew wanted to be able to look himself in the mirror, and rid himself of disposable income. I asked Breitbart for comment. He replied: "I think it boiled down to this: mustache notwithstanding, I think John Bolton is a pretty swell guy. And, for the life of me, I can't fit all three of my kids into a Prius. Lord knows I tried." So why did Andrew leave HuffingtonPost.com? He certainly made more money there than he does for Drudge. Andrew seemed to be spinning out of Drudge's orbit since Andrew co-wrote Hollywood, Interrupted with Mark Ebner and Drudge never got behind the book. Andrew has been friends with Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington for about a decade. Breitbart worked as a research assistant for Arianna circa 1995-98. He stayed friends with her after that. Breitbart is right-wing, as is Drudge, while Huffington is left-wing. Andrew certainly knew Arianna was left-wing, so why would he leave her over ideological differences? I guess Andrew's vision for the HuffingtonPost.com did not match Arianna's and that's why they split. Matt Drudge appears to dislike HuffingtonPost.com. I wonder why Matt took Andrew back? I don't think Andrew is going to be revealing the full story on this for a while, if ever. I hear Kelly Hartog is no longer with the Jewish Journal. She was their religion correspondent for a few weeks. Ross Johnson Launches His Blog He writes:
Ross writes me:
Changes When I was young, the thing I hated most about journalism was squelching my own opinion. As I age, I more enjoy the freedom of doing interviews and reporting while keeping my views to myself. It allows me to be more open to what my subjects say while feeling little need to defend my own views. That's my feeling after my Wednesday night interview with Ken Reich, former LA Times reporter, about Frank del Olmo. I disagreed with Ken's posts about the need for racial diversity at the Times but as an interviewer I left myself in the background and simply sought out Ken's point of view. And not only was I better for that approach, you the reader will be better for it once you read my transcript. I was all excited reading this diary of a porn star who was a fan of my writing. But now I've found out that this "porn star" is the underage daughter of a friend of mine. This girl was just creating a fictional blog for fun. So now I feel creepy, as though I am a bad influence on the impressionable. Rodney Rothman Flops He was a timid dull speaker (though many other people found him engaging). I tried to liven things up by asking if he'd had any geriatric sex, but it was to no available. He said that was the most frequently asked question he's received on his media tour.
Dull and Mediocre Ira Stoll is Managing Editor and Vice President of The New York Sun. He has served as Washington correspondent and Managing Editor of the Forward and as North American Editor of The Jerusalem Post. He was one of the people I approached for an interview for my book but he could never be bothered to respond to me. He writes in the June 2005 issue of Shma magazine, which is devoted to Jewish journalism (and this is his entire review):
Is it just me, or is Ira phoning this in? It reads like he's half-asleep and relying on clichés. He seems like a supercilious man, eager to dismiss those he believes are below him socially. Though he's only in his early thirties, he already reads like he's clapped out. The last paragraph strikes me as particularly lackluster. I'm not at all sure that many journalists would make more money if they went into other fields. Many journalists I know, including myself, are not suited for any other type of work. Besides, what motives them to work as journalists is hardly relevant to assessing the quality of their work. Just as many people are motivated by good motives to do bad work as there are people motivated by bad motives who do good work. As for telling the story of Jews and their God which has supposedly gone on for thousands of years, Jews stopped writing history, essentially, for the first 1700 years of the Common Era. I love Ira's cheap dismissals, such as: "What standing he has as a critic of Jewish journalism is not exactly clear to me..." Either Ira is lying in this sentence or he didn't read the book. If he read the book, then it is clear that I, depending on his opinion, either have no standing, some standing or considerable standing to criticize Jewish journalism. The book speaks for itself and provides all the information dear old Ira needs to assess my standing. My book does not contain "transcripts." It contains carefully edited interviews. The difference between a transcript and my book would be obvious to most readers with an IQ above room temperature. Another definition of "stick-in-the-mud" (aside from Ira Stoll) is: "a person who is stolid and unimaginative, content with his lot and unprepared to make an effort to improve it." Chaim Amalek writes about the The New York Sun: "It's a great paper, given its meager reasources. I read it a few times a week. But for its budget it may well be the most literate paper in America." Marsha Plafkin writes:
But What Is The Black Man Into? White liberals have Scientology, Kabbalah Centre, Landmark Forum, Moonies, Hare Krishnas. Chaim Amalek writes: "These are all white liberal cults. For the really interesting stuff, consider the ones that the Black Man is into: Nation of Islam, Black Israelites, Black Hebrews." Robert writes: "So we all agree there is no shortage of spiritually depeleted, cash flush losers seeking a guy with simple clear cut answers to life's problems. Luke, why not set up such a group and charge $500 a weekend for such drivel. You could call it "The Fleecing."" Khunrum writes: "I did date a Branch Librarian once. Nice girl. Didn't put out though." Fred writes: "Probably because she thought you were just checking her out." A source writes:
Organizer Simone Sheffield responds to me about this:
I got this report from a model who went to this event last year:
I asked Simone Sheffield about this. She replied:
I told Sheffield I would not reveal my sources. A source writes: "This lady Simone is a wack job, I called her and she went off on me. Said she is sick and tired of people accusing her of pimping. I asked for a list of the charities that she has given money to and she hung up on me." Amber writes:
A person writes Simone:
Source continues: "This is a powerful Black Lady, I never could get any answers? I tried to get in touch with Tommy Lee about the event, as he has attended before, but his manager said no comment? What does that tell you? "This topic is a difficult one that lies at the crossroads of feminism, morals, pleasure, gender inequality, exploitation and male violence. The difficulty in discussing it is compounded by the large degree of diversity and stratification of experiences within prostitution: from straight and gay prostitutes on the street to elite escort services. The range of experiences increases again if we explore sex work, which takes into account exotic dancing, the adult movie industry and an increasing number of people who run an adult-oriented website that features themselves. Further, the level of exploitation in sex work should be compared and contrasted with a variety of exploitative, meaningless and alienating work produced by a technologically advanced, consumption oriented capitalist society. The question is thus not whether sex work is exploitative, but how does it compare with being a waitress, working in a factory or a McDonalds - perhaps even a graduate assistant?" Here's the press release on the event:
Brian Bartolo, Internet Sales Manager KZLA-FM / KPWR-FM [Power 106 FM], denies that his station is a sponsor of the above event (even though the press release listing the station as a sponsor went out January 22, 2005 (without apparent protest from Power 106) and has been published on AngelsHQ.com for months). Corona Beer, contrary to the AngelHQ.com press release, also says they are not a sponsor. Ken Reich Writes: 'Turnout of Times People At Del Olmo Book Event Is Shamefully Low'
My own profile of Frank del Olmo. Tony Castro writes Ken Reich:
Nauseating Coverage Of Warren Wilson's Retirement Warren Wilson was an unethical and crappy reporter for KTLA Channel 5 for more 21-years. Yet he only gets glowing send-offs. Here's the LA Times story (no mention of the numerous scandals associated with Wilson's work):
And here's ex-Times reporter Ken Reich:
Wilson used to push to get payoffs for referring people he met through his job as a reporter to particular lawyers. He was repeatedly disciplined for this at KTLA. I suspect that if Wilson wasn't black, he would've been fired. There are plenty of terrific black reporters and Latino reporters and reporters of every race. Why do we have to celebrate mediocrity just because someone has a darker shade of skin? Ten Commandments From an email: The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments in a Courthouse is that you cannot post "Thou Shalt Not Steal," "Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery" and "Thou Shall Not Lie" in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians! It creates a hostile work environment. The Gentile Pornographer Who Studied Kabbalah He uses the Zohar as a backdrop for some of his photo sets. I interview Donny by phone June 19, 2005. His father was an Assembly of God (fast-growing strict fundamentalist form of evangelical Christianity) pastor. Donny, born in 1973 (he has a younger brother who used to work for Donny): "I went to all the church services and I tried to go along with it but something didn't seem right. "I went to a summer camp where boys and girls had to swim separately [it's the same for most parts of Orthodox Judaism]. The boys would have to swim in jeans and a full shirt. Girls would have to swim in full dresses." Luke: "Were you allowed to watch television?" Donny: "No. I didn't have a TV [until her moved in with his aunt at age 17]. "My parents became Christians when I was five [to try to save their marriage, they eventually divorced when Donny was 26]. My dad studied to become a pastor [that began when Donny was seven]. They kept getting deeper into it. "I grew up all over California because my dad was a pastor, he was moved from church to church. "I don't have bad feelings towards my parents. They did the best they could. I have bad feelings towards church people who caused problems when I was growing up. They would cause petty problems because they wanted to run things and my dad wouldn't let them run the church how they wanted. They'd say my dad wasn't Pentecostal enough. "Pastors get paid from tithing. One family controlled the church's books. They tried to underreport how much tithing came in and tried to starve him out. Some people would claim we were having teenage girls over to our house. None of it was true. Nobody ever came over to our house." Luke: "Did you form any close childhood friendships with Christians that persist to this day?" Donovan: "No. My parents were so mistrusting of other people that they wouldn't let us go spend the night with people in the church. They thought the people would let us watch TV or listen to music. Most of our acquaintances were family members." Luke: "Did your parents get into religion because they were hurting or screwed up?" Donovan: "Yes. They were about to get divorced. They said, we've tried everything else. Now let's try God. Then they just got deeper and deeper. We went to holy roller churches where people shake on the ground." Luke: "Did your parents have a good marriage?" Donovan: "No. They were fighting all the time." Luke: "Even after they turned to God?" Donovan: "Yes." Luke: "What was the main bone of contention?" Donovan: "My mother is really stubborn and she would like to be more hard-nosed than my dad was. She thought he needed to be stricter with people. That he let certain congregation members get away with too much. My dad was more laid-back. "They'd be fighting over whether or not my brother and I respected her enough and all that kind of crap. He would stick up for us. She'd throw fits over him not sticking up for his wife. Every so often, she'd leave for a couple of days and make him beg for to come back." Luke: "Were you glad when they divorced?" Donovan: "I was happy for my dad even though he was really sad about it. My mom's hard to live with." Luke: "What did your parents and your religion teach you about masturbation?" Donovan: "They mentioned some verse in the Bible that you're not supposed to spill your seed on the ground. Masturbation was wrong. They didn't say that sex was only for procreation." Luke: "When did you lose your virginity?" Donovan: "Not until I was 20, and it wasn't even to her. It was to a girl I'd met in Orlando. She found out I was a virgin, so she kept trying and trying until I finally gave in. "My future wife and I were still dating at the time. I called her and got to the part about kissing the other girl and that's all she wanted to hear. We were broken up for a while. "I got married when I was 22. We got divorced in 2000 after six years of marriage." Though married to a good Christian Assembly of God wife, Donovan began work in the pornography industry in 1996, while he was still going to church regularly. He kept it from his wife for four years until the Phoenix Forum in early 2000 when he called her and told her the truth. She promptly divorced him. It was either God's way or the highway. "I got my first computer in 1996. I started surfing the newsgroups. I started seeing brands on there like ATK, Teenflood.com, etc. I started emailing some of those sites and asked them where they purchased their photos." Luke: "How did your wife feel about you working in the pornography industry?" Donovan: "She didn't know. We thought we were deeply in debt at this time. We had about $8,000 in debt. One day I said to her, 'I know a way to get us out of debt. What do you think if I photograph some girls for some adult websites?' She freaked out at even the thought of me considering that. Little did she know that I was already starting to do it. I just kept it from her. I started up a computing consulting business as a front. "She was just as religious as my parents had been. We fought over stupid things. If I wanted to watch a movie that was rated R, she would get mad at me for not being the spiritual leader of the house. That I wanted to watch such a movie showed that my head wasn't there. We fought about the spiritual stuff." Luke: "Where were you religiously [Assembly of God] then?" Donovan: "Off and on, I'd try really hard. It would fluctuate. I'd go from shooting porn to going to church on Sundays and raising my hands and trying to get into to going to Bible study Wednesday 6am with the men's group." Luke: "Did you have many friends in the church?" Donovan: "They claim to be your friends but they're quick to backstab you if they don't think it's right." Luke: "In retrospect, you don't think they were good friends?" Donovan: "No. They probably thought they were. They're the kind of people who will turn their back on you if you're failing and you're not willing to come in and cry and beg forgiveness. They don't think your heart is in the right place. They believe in that verse in the Bible -- 'Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers.'" Luke: "Do you believe in God?" Donovan: "I believe that what everybody refers to as God is actually energy that holds everything together." Luke: "God's not done with you yet." Donovan: "I think that's a bunch of bulls---. It's just people trying to create some hope for themselves that their lives are going to get better because God hasn't finished with them yet. "There's no way I'll ever go back to [Christianity]. It's all bulls---. There's no supreme being watching out over everybody." Luke: "How does it work being a parent and a pornographer?" Donovan: "It's been ok. On my days with my son, I don't do any business. I don't even take phone calls. On the days when my ex has him, I do all my business. "At first she didn't want to take money from me. But she had no choice because she wasn't working. She was a stay-at-home mom. Finally, I convinced her, in her terms, that while I may make the money in a way she thinks is evil, she can do good with it by staying home with her son and raising him. "I have a fiancee now who helps me with the business. On days that I'm going over to get him, she checks to make sure that everything is clean." Luke: "How does your ex-wife feel about your profession?" Donovan: "She still hates it." Luke: "How did she find out?" Donovan: "When I went to my first Desert Forum (CCBill throws it), I called her and told her. She thought I was doing computer consulting with Gary Kremen on pinpointgolfing.com. 'But that's not the area he focuses on. He also owns sex.com. I shoot naked girls.' "She just blew up and that was it." Luke: "Pornography ended your marriage." Donovan: "Yes, it did. For sure. It was a relief, though, to tell her." Luke: "If you had not worked in pornography, would you guys still be together?" Donovan: "If I had been a good Christian boy, we would've. Not fought my feelings that there was something wrong with Christianity. "Porn has allowed me to do a lot of traveling and meet a lot of different people. I was a hardcore Republican for several years while doing porn. At the last election, I voted for Kerry." Luke: "Have you found that pornography isolates you from others?" Donovan: "At first I let it get me down. Now I'm proud. Every where I go, when people ask me what I do, I tell them. "It blows most people away when you are so outfront with it. Some people want to discuss the issue. I always ask them if they want to discuss it logically or emotionally. They always say logically. Usually women don't want to talk about it. Usually they want their man to do the talking for them. "I'll ask the man if he's ever watched pornography. Of course he'll say yes. I'll say, then we don't have anything to discuss. You're in this as much as me. You're the demand and I'm the supply. If they're logical as they've agreed to be, then there's no argument to that. "I was walking around with AaronM (industry photographer) today. He was shocked how many people walked up to me. In the camera store, they know what I do. He said, I couldn't deal with everybody knowing what I do." Luke: "How does being a pastor's son continue to affect you?" Donovan: "It opens up a lot of conversations. It puts at ease at a lot of the new models I get. I'm the only guy in town doing what I do. Most of the girls I photograph have never done any work before. When I bring that I'm a preacher's son, they say, whoa, how did that happen? It works to my advantage. The first thought in a new model's mind is that someone is going to find out and tell mom and dad. I can tell them that I've had to face all the things they're worried about." Luke: "What does your mother say to you?" Donovan: "She doesn't like it. She doesn't want me to tell her boyfriend. My dad is a retired pastor. When people from his congregation email him about how he can let me do what I do for a living, he usually replies that they should keep their mouths shut. As a pastor, he had to counsel people like them who were addicted to porn. Such people have no place to talk. "He's not happy with the choice I made for a profession but he's proud of me as a person." Luke: "Has he asked you for a free log-in?" Donovan: "No. He did ask me to see photos I photographed who he knew. "My brother thinks it is the coolest thing in the world. He's a laborer. He tried working for me for a while but I wouldn't let him around the girls because he wasn't professional. He was trying to f--- 'em all. He got bored with the office work I had him doing. "Male friends think it's cool. Female friends start to roll their eyes until I have a conversation with them and ask them questions that make them think. Then they come to accept it." Luke: "When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?" Donovan: "An airline pilot. I accomplished almost every goal I set growing up. They usually had to do with academics. "One thing that annoys me about the adult industry is that people don't think they have to be professional. I've slipped numerous times but there's also a professional way to make up for that." Luke: "How would you feel if your son grew up to want to work in pornography?" Donovan: "If he wanted to work with me or run my business, I'd first make him aware of the reactions he would get from the rest of his religious family. And if he still wanted to do it, I'd definitely guide him. I wouldn't want him to be talent. "I welcome when someone comes after me. I think of it as a challenge. I have yet to have someone convince me that what I'm doing is wrong." Luke: "Did you know what you were getting yourself in for?" Donovan: "When I started, I didn't have a clue. If I had, I would've never started. Given what I know now, I would've started. At the beginning, I was blown away because I had lived a sheltered life. The first time I went to Internext, the stuff that was going on there, I felt sick to my stomach. Some of the sites that were out there such as hogtied.com. I'd never been exposed to that. I just felt that it was disgusting. "Over time, that view changed. Now some of that stuff interests me and I also have respect for other people and what interests them. As long as they are not causing harm, there's nothing wrong in what they're doing. I've become less judgmental." Luke: "Have you become jaded?" Donovan: "Yes, I've become jaded. There has to be a lot more to interest me." Luke: "Is there anything good in Christianity?" Donovan: "To be honest, I hate Christians because of their hypocrisy and how they shun people who aren't doing what they think is right." Luke: "Yet, much of what you are is a product of Christianity." Donovan: "I don't know if when you were a kid, you were told that Santa Claus existed. Then you found out he didn't. That's how I felt about Christianity. All the stuff I was taught was bulls---. There's a keen sense of disappointment. "I have to be honest with you. I have been studying Kabbalah." He places the emphasis on the first syllable. Donovan: "Stuff from the Kabbalah Centre in LA. I've also asked rabbis what they think of it. Of course they think that most of it is bulls---. "You eat the meat and you spit out the boons. You take what you want from it." Luke: "Would one of the attractive parts of the Kabbalah Centre be that it doesn't make any demands on you?" Donovan: "Definitely." Luke: "How much money have you spent on the Kabbalah Centre?" Donovan: "About a thousand dollars. I don't buy their water and I don't wear their red strings. I have one but I don't wear it. I don't swallow what they say hook, line and sinker." Luke: "What have you gained from it?" Donovan: "A reassurance from another major group that what I'm doing isn't wrong. They agree with that. It would take too long to tell you what I get from it." Luke: "Give it a go." Donovan: "They have a CD series about what they believe - The Power Of Kabbalah. A lot of what they taught made perfect sense to me. They teach that God is nothing that people can ever comprehend. It's more of an energy and a light that holds everything together. When they talk about Satan, they're not talking about a physical being either. It's negativity. There's positivity and negativity and it's all part of yourself. "I love to ask Christians to explain Hosea 13:16." It reads: "Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up." Donovan: "I say to them, how can you justify killing babies? Why would I want to serve a God who wants to go in there and rip up kids?" Luke: "You've never gotten a good answer to that?" Donovan: "No. That's not a verse they teach in the churches." Luke: "Do you think it would've been good if someone would've done that to Adolf Hitler's mother?" Donovan: "No. Adolf Hitler's mother couldn't be responsible for what he did." Luke: "By killing her and Adolf, we would've saved 50 million lives." Donovan: "But how could you know in advance? I don't even believe in the death penalty." Donovan writes on an industry chatboard January 4, 2005:
ADL_JD writes:
Donovan writes:
ADL_JD posts:
brand0n writes: "Selling porn on the net = sure fire way to avoid heaven. We are all damned. No reason to study anything." Jayeff writes:
Donovan writes:
Donovan tells me June 19: "Kabbalah is older than the written Bible. The literal Kabbalah was the spoken Torah. There was a reason why the rabbis had to be 40 years old and married to study it. Most people at that time were uneducated and the literal Kabbalah was trying to tell us how things work. "In the Bible, there's a story about the prophet Elijah going into a village. The woman and her husband hadn't had any kids. They made a room for him in their home so when he came into town, he had a place to stay. "He told them you are going to have a son. He was blessing them for their kindness. The son ends up dying and the lady ran to Elijah and said, how come my son died? It would've been better if I had never had him to begin with. Elijah sent his servant and said don't talk to anybody along the way. "Elijah has to come back and lie on the kid and brings him back to life. "The Kabbalah teaches that it's not that there's some God up there who wants things done a certain way to entertain him, but every person has an energy inside of them, and God is part of everything. "The reason that the servant shouldn't have talked to anybody on the way home was so that their negativity doesn't affect his energy. "He's saying that you have the ability to channel within yourself a healing into this person's body. "That's what I like about Kabbalah -- we're all joined together by this life force, energy, light or whatever you want to call it that allows us to do things that we normally couldn't do. Look at some of the weird things that have happened over the course of history. They're like miracles but they're not." Donny bought the Kabbalah Centre's expensive Zohar set in Hebrew and English. He says that was "a waste of money. It sits on my shelf and collects dust. We use it as a photo backdrop. "It's a little deeper than I want to get. "I've bought a lot of other books about Judaism. Judaism For Dummies. "When I first discovered Kabbalah, I had a ton of questions and I'd shoot them off to any rabbi who would answer me. I had a few who talked to me on the telephone. JewsForJudaism.com. The founder's son talked to me for a while. Once he found out that I didn't have a background in Judaism, he was still helpful, but not as much as at first. When I first contacted him, he thought I was a fallen Jew." Luke: "How do you feel about Jews not seeking converts?" Donny: "I think that's a good thing." He writes: Kabbalah.com. This is an interesting belief system. It's recently received a lot of attention because Madonna has been studying it and has also introduced Demi Moore, Britney Spears, and other celebrities to it. I ordered some of their books, as I love reading about the religious beliefs of others. I made contact with one of the counselors at the Kabbalah Center and asked what he thinks of my involvement in the adult entertainment industry. Here's what he said:
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