A Night to See the Stars Actually Wearing Clothes

By Matt Richtel，2006年1月1日

拉斯维加斯，1月8日，女演员Tyla Wynn周六晚领取了X级电影奖，奥斯卡的pornography版。她获得的奖项是多P场景。

虽然无数人观看过Wynn的激情出演，她坦陈在接过雕着纠缠在一起的一对男女的奖杯时，她异常紧张。持着奖杯的Wynn说“当着别人说话非常难”。

第23届AVN奖的评选对象是3000多爱好者和业内人士看到的混合了好莱坞的套路和X级片断的电影。获奖演说大多很简短，很符合这种不突出对话的电影类别。

评奖显示出成人电影处在一个十字路口。部分是因为女主角Jenna Jemeson及其商业上的成功，成人电影业得到了主流的认可。根据颁奖组织者AVN协会的统计，他们销售和出租的收入是43亿美元，差不多是好莱坞票房收入的一半。

同时，该产业的前景堪忧，司法部会加强对淫秽制片的监管。然而周六之夜的颁奖却是盛大、坦然，铺着红地毯，设有104个奖项，包括各种动作和体位的最佳表演奖。比较传统的是最佳导演、最佳男女配角、最佳剧本和最令人期待的最佳影片。

得奖的是“海盗”，一个预算高的故事，一群海员追查一伙邪恶的计划统治世界的海盗。船长获得最佳男演员奖，说这部电影获得成功的一大因素是它的真实性。有顾问指导正确的船上礼仪，比如船长从来不亲自掌舵，那是首席大副干的活。“将电影中的sex剥除，那就是一部迪斯尼出品的影片。”

AVN的评奖标准并不明确。大约60位评委从每年提交的6000部电影中评选。AVN协会主席paul fishbein说看到了之后你明白什么是好的表演。不过还是有一些淘汰的标准。一个是听到了导演的声音。再一个是看得出摄像心不在焉。

这个产业看来能开自己的玩笑，但是好多美国人反对这个买卖。参与者声言他们有权拍这样的电影，但是业内人士的趣味也很不同。“比基尼模特憎恶袒胸装舞女，袒胸舞女憎恶nude舞女，nude舞女憎恶成人电影演员。”最佳女配角说人们应该停止互相中伤，解决自己的问题——老套的情节：送皮萨的小伙按响门铃，姑娘说她没钱付小费，接着他们就干上了。

并不是所有人都很拿这个奖当回事。获奖的Wynn甚至在访谈中说颁奖前一天她遇上了麻烦：她记不起她演过被提名的那个电影。她问：“那个电影叫什么来着？”一边问一边努力在脑海中从她去年演过的150部影片中搜寻。

跟“海盗”那样意在吸引男女观众的大制作不同，Wynn演的电影90%都叫作gonzo，意思是没什么情节。




Correction Appended


LAS VEGAS, Jan. 8 - The actress known as Tyla Wynn took to the stage late Saturday night to accept an X-rated-film award, the pornography version of an Oscar. The category was excellence in a multiperson sex scene.

Although thousands of people have watched Ms. Wynn perform intimate acts, she admitted to extreme nervousness when accepting her trophy, an opaque rectangle with the image of a man and woman intertwined.

"Speaking in front of people is hard," Ms. Wynn said, cradling her award, called the AVN.

The 23rd AVN awards presentation here was a campy mix of Hollywood cliché and X-rated clips watched with 3,000 of your closest friends and industry insiders. The acceptance speeches tended to be brief, befitting a film industry with little emphasis on dialogue.

The program highlighted that pornography is, at least in a sense, at a crossroads. The sex-film industry shows signs of gaining some mainstream acceptance - spurred in part by its leading diva and business success, Jenna Jameson - and it is reporting record sales. According to AVN Publications, which organizes the awards, it generated $4.3 billion in sales and rentals last year. That amounted to about half the size of Hollywood's box-office receipts of nearly $9 billion last year.

At the same time, prospects for the industry have been tempered by fears that the Justice Department is poised to add to a handful of obscenity prosecutions recently brought against makers of hardcore films.

Saturday night, though, was an unapologetic, hearty celebration, with a flashbulb-drenched red carpet entrance and awards presented in 104 categories, including best performances in a wide range of explicit acts and sexual positions. The more conventional were for best director, supporting actor and actress, screenplay and the most anticipated award of the evening: best feature.

That went to "Pirates," a relatively high-budget story of a group of ragtag sailors who go searching for a crew of evil pirates who have a plan for world domination. Also, many of the characters in the movie have sex with one another.

Evan Stone, the stage name of the man who won the award for best actor as the good ship's captain, said a crucial component of the movie's success was its authenticity. A consultant instructed the cast on proper ship etiquette, he said, like never letting the captain steer the vessel, a job that belongs to the first mate.

"Take the sex out of this movie, and it's Walt Disney," said Mr. Stone, who declined to give his real name.

The precise criteria for winning an AVN are not, well, explicit. About 60 reviewers judge some 6,000 films submitted throughout the year. Paul Fishbein, the president of AVN Publications, said you know a good acting and sex scene when you see one.

Still, certain things rule out a nomination. One is "if you can still hear the director's voice," Mr. Fishbein said. Another no-no is "if it's clear the cameraman is not paying attention."

The industry seems to have a sense of humor about itself, but there is an awareness that many Americans disapprove of their trade. Savanna Samson, who won an award for best actress, said in her acceptance speech that "most of my family is pretty ashamed of what I do."

Universally, the participants defend their right to make the films, but even within the sex-entertainment industry, opinions differ about what is tasteful.

"The bikini models hate the topless dancers, the topless dancers hate the nude dancers, the nude dancers hate the adult-film actors," said Stormy Daniels, 26, who won an award for best supporting actress. Ms. Daniels, who said she wished people would stop judging one another, does have her own pet peeve: tired plots.

"There's nothing worse then when the pizza boy rings the doorbell, the girl says she doesn't have a tip, and then they get it on," she said. Ms. Daniels also won an award for best screenplay for a parody, "Camp Cuddly Pines Power Tool Massacre," which presumably had a storyline more in keeping with her tastes.

When the night began, starlets paraded past more than a hundred photographers. The divas said they had agonized over what to wear. Tanya Mercado, 31, whose stage name is Gina Lynn, wore a strapless black gown from Nordstrom, bought after she had rejected two others as not fitting quite snugly enough.

Not everyone makes a big deal about the awards. Even Ms. Wynn, a winner, said in an interview the day before the ceremony that she had trouble remembering one of her sex scenes that was nominated.

"What's the movie called?" she asked, trying to distill just one title from the 150 movies that she said she performed in last year. A few moments later, it came to her - "Too Hot to Handle" - whose plot she described as two women who wear the same outfits and then have sex.

Unlike "Pirates," which has a high production value and is meant to appeal to both women and men, Ms. Wynn's film is in many ways more characteristic. More than 90 percent of the movies are called "gonzo," meaning they have little or no plot.

Steven Hirsch, chief executive of Vivid Entertainment, which made the award-winning "Devil in Miss Jones," said the awards could help market films to distributors and really bolstered sales.

Not all fans pay attention to awards, though. Ian Thomas, 34, who sells real estate in Las Vegas, said before the ceremony that he picked pornographic films based on his favorite female performers.

"If I want acting, I'll go to a mafia movie," Mr. Thomas said.