Porn Feuds

Michael Lucas Vs. Brent Corrigan

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Moments after San Francisco City Supervisor Bevan Duffy praised the gay porn industry for promoting a sex-positive environment and praising the industry’s role as “the first exposure many of us had to the gay community,” porn impresario Michael Lucas jumped on the stage of the Castro Theater’s GayVN Awards and admonished the crowd, “Shame on you! Shame on the judges who nominated and awarded [porn star Brent] Corrigan. On a night we honor ASACP there should be no forgiveness for the company’s and individuals who put the industry in danger by supporting this.”

Lucas was berating them because Corrigan had just won three awards, the first time the formerly underage model — he was starring in porn as young as 17, though we’ve heard 16 too — had been nominated. Corrigan admitted in 2005 to filming several bareback scenes for Cobra Video while underage, using a fake ID to convince now-murdered Cobra owner Bryan Kocis that he was over 18. Since then, Corrigan has gone on to form his own production company.

Proving the gay porn industry is the gay community’s version of hip-hop, hours later, Michael Lucas twittered that Corrigan’s boyfriend, Paul threatened to “throw acid in my face and kill me” and then claimed the following morning that he had Corrigan’s boyfriend arrested. Corrigan responded that Lucas “used me as a personal pawn in his game of publicity foul play” and that Michael Lucas had made the whole thing up.

According to a press release from Michael Lucas, here’s what happened:

“During my call to action Corrigan’s boyfriend rushed to the stage and started yelling insanely at me to get off the microphone. As I was leaving the theatre, several people were warning me to watch my back, as some overheard Corrigan’s boyfriend making threats to my address. Among all the scattered lunacy, people were saying THANK YOU for having the courage to say what I did. I didn’t see my statement as too heroic at that point. I simply exercised my right of free speech and I strongly believe in the importance ofmy message. The adult industry shouldn’t award models who work when they’re underage and forge their identification.

Conversely, and apparent in this occasion, speaking your mind can be dangerous. At the after party, Corrigan’s boyfriend came up to me and bumped his chest against mine. I do not know the boyfriend’s name but I know that it’s not his ex Grant Roy. This guy was a buff Latin male that appears to be in his thirties. He then threatened that he was going to kill me and demand that we leave the club together immediately so that he could break my neck. The club’s security swiftly came and separated him; he came back and told me that he will splash acid into my face, “which will be the end of your career.” I called the police immediately when I reached the hotel and recalled to them what happened. The cops went to Corrigan’s room, but the couple was still out partying elsewhere.

I called the police at 7:00 am, San Francisco time, as soon as I found out that they were back in their room (I simply called the room and Corrigan pickedup [sic] the phone). The police were there within ten minutes. They talked to Corrigan and his boyfriend for about twenty minutes, and then handcuffed the boyfriend and took him into custody.”

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Not so, claims Corrigan, who responded via his blog in a post titled “The Stuntman”:

“No one was arrested, and no one was threatened with any sort of bodily harm. Michael Lucas did say to my boyfriend, however, that he would “never, ever stop harassing your boyfriend!”

Later in the evening after the show, at the after party, Michael Lucas put himself between my boyfriend and me and the exit of the club. We were on our way home. He forced his body into Paul (my boyfriend of almost one year) and stepped on his toes and shoes. Michael immediately was hostile and a shouting match began. Paul requested the aid of two security officials of the venue. A warning was issued to Michael Lucas. The club was loud, there were many people around but words could not easily be heard over the noise unless you were within inches of the incident like I was. Despite this and what lies have been told, no threats of bodily harm or death were made ever to Michael Lucas. Names were called and threats of social ruin and disdain were made.

Paul and I woke the following morning at 8 AM with several police officers at our bedside. Paul was cuffed and taken out into the hallway so he could be questioned separately from me. Paul is 6 foot, 200 + pounds. There was no resist or hostility from either parties; the cuffs were used as a precaution based on the misleading statements ML had previously made to the authorities…

Once Michael’s history, motives and his outcry on stage were all brought to light to the authorities; Paul was released from his cuffs and we gave our written statements. The police were very fair and even sided. They were polite and quickly drew the correct conclusions. They departed after a little over an hour of discussion. Together Paul and I returned to bed to sleep the morning away.”

Oh, brother. Lucas has a long history of making extreme statements to garner attention and Corrigan claims the whole altercation occurred simply because occurred “because Michael Lucas’ pride and ego was brutally wounded when he was booed and the bulk of the GayVN patrons expressed distaste for his uninvited ranting on stage at the event.”

Honestly, we could care less about what actually happened. Queerty was at the awards and at the after party, though we didn’t see the alleged confrontation. What we did see was Lucas hanging out by the open-bar in the V.I.P. section until the event’s close, chatting up associates and friends for hours. If he felt he was in any sort of physical danger or harm, he didn’t show it.

The incident does highlight, however, just how far the gay porn industry has to go. This was only the second time the GayVN Awards were open to the public and if there was a message beyond “Cock is great!,” it was that the industry was beginning to mature. A tribute award was given to producer Chi Chi LaRue for her work in promoting safe sex on film and she appeared via video asking her colleagues to take care of their models and many of the award speeches focused on the artistry of porn. There was no mention of the multiple high-profile gay porn murder cases that had occurred in the last year — which, really, was the industry’s O.J. trial — and Lucas’ impromptu speech was widely met with boos.

Yet Lucas, despite himself, has a point. Why would the gay porn industry rush to embrace a star who made his fame through underage porn? If there’s a balance between being a source of sex-positive imagery and appealing to our carnal desires, gay porn has yet to find it. The aftermath of the dramatics, with its histrionic twitters, blog posts and police interrogations , proves that despite the industry’s efforts to grow-up, it still has a lot of maturing to do.

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