The Good, The Bad And The Horny: The Top Gay-Porn News Stories Of 2012

As we get ready to drag the Christmas tree to the curb, there’s no denying the end of 2012 is just about upon us. And, once again, Queerty is recapping the hardest, hottest stories to gush forth from the world of porn. And like any good porn flick, our list has triumph and tragedy, humor and hubris, and plenty of eye candy.

Did we forget a story? Give us a good spanking in the comments section below!

 

Numerous porn pups have cracked the mainstream, but it was Fredrik Eklund, a.k.a. The Hole star Tag Eriksson, who really raised the bar in 2012: The Ken Doll-handsome Swede became the breakout star of Bravo’s Million Dollar Listing New York. With a second season in production, Eklund is well on his way to proving a porn past is no barrier to mainstream success.

 

 

This year, internet sensation Chris Crocker parlayed his “leave Britney alone!” notoriety into talk-show appearances, Twitter fame and an acclaimed documentary, Me @ The Zoo, which played Sundance before airing on HBO this summer.

But Crocker fulfilled a more risque fantasy this year, too, when he made his porn debut in a hardcore clip for the Maverick Men.

What’s next—Broadway?

 

 

Along with his wife, gay-for-pay sex bomb Reese Rideout popped up on the VH1 documentary series I’m Married To A… to discuss what its like to be hitched to a dude who has sex with guys for a living. Whatever it’s like, getting to sleep with sex-on-legs Rideout probably makes it a lot easier to, ahem, swallow.

 

 

Canadian Luka Rocco Magnotta horrified the world when it turned out the part-time escort/porn actor killed, mutilated and partially ate his lover—and then mailed body parts to various municipal offices. Fleeing to Europe, Magnotta, 29, sparked an international manhunt that ended with his arrest at a Berlin cybercafe, where he was allegedly looking up stories about himself.

 

 

News of Falcon Studios star Erik Rhodes’ death in June stunned many and even made The New York Times: The musclebound superstar, just 30, passed away in his sleep after suffering a heart attack. Rhodes’ painfully raw blog posts detailed his struggles with low self-esteem, bad relationships, drug and steroid abuse, and the trappings of fame.

 

 

Celebrities’ fascination with porn stars continued unabated in 2012, when brawny blond skin star Dolph Lambert (far right in the photo above) was spotted jetting around on the French Riviera with Elton John and David Furnish. Nice work if you can get it, huh?

Continuing with the celebrity theme, tongues were wagging as Marc Jacobs‘ liaison with Brazilian porn star Harry Louis blossomed from an apparent fling to a full-on thing. Photos surfaced of the tattooed sweeties cavorting on the beach in April, and the two were allegedly inseparable during New York Fashion Week. Our spies say Harry recently changed his relationship status back to “single,” so it’s possible the boys have split for good. Oh, l’amour!

 

 

The true king of designer boy-toys in 2012, though, was Nick Gruber. His relationship with Calvin Klein fizzled this year, but the former Sean Cody model still managed to be a regular in Page Six. There were the breakup denials, an arrest on charges of misdemeanor assault and cocaine possession,  a stint in rehab, allegations that Gruber had been driven back to heterosexuality, a new sugar daddy who just happens to be the nephew of a notorious mobster, and repeated threats to write a scandalicious tell-all.

Next up for Gruber: a cookbook and his own reality show. Hollywood Exes, anyone?

Snackable young stud Brent Corrigan continued to make inroads in 2012, following roles in non-porn films like Judas Kiss and I Was a Teenage Werebear with a quartet of projects: the horror-comedy Kissing Darkness, the mysterious The Dark Place, shorts compilation Welcome to New York, and the crowd-funded thriller Truth. But Corrigan (nee Sean Paul Lockhart) managed to still find time to appear in a scorching hot promo for underwear company Andrew Christian.

 

 

Europe’s supreme porn studio, Bel Ami, made waves in 2012 when it filed suit against RSVP Vacations and Holland America cruise line for hiring its comely stars to mingle on board—and then dumping them in godforsaken Tunisia in a fit of pearl-clutching hysteria.

The lawsuit was recently dismissed by a federal judge: Turns out American courts have no jurisdiction over a Czech company suing a Dutch cruise line about an incident in the Mediterranean Sea. Go figure!

 

On December 16, the gay-porn world lost another star as performer Josh Weston passed from HIV-related complications at age 39. Weston started his career with Falcon in 2001, and then went on to work with other studios including Hot House, where he headlined films like Trunks 3 and Communion.  He appeared in more than 25 films in all.

“Josh was always a very sweet, good-natured guy that I had the privilege of knowing and sharing several production sets with,” said fellow porn performer Chad Hunt. “I will miss him.”

Weston was apparently working on a memoir, Sleeping My Way to the Bottom, at the time of his death.

2012 started off with a big bang in the L.A. porn industry: In early January, the Los Angeles City Council approved a measure requiring adult-movie studios to use condoms in all their films. The bill was opposed by much of the adult industry but applauded by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which helped get an even-stricter referendum on the November ballot. Measure B, which mandates the use of condoms and also requires producers to obtain health permits, passed by a healthy margin.

Representatives from the porn industry have announced plans to appeal.