Skin City: Behind the Scenes of the Las Vegas Sex Industry

THE OSCARS OF PORN

The air of mock-suspense was palpable. The ballroom on the second floor of the Venetian Hotel, holding 3,500 gaudily but scantily dressed revelers, was hushed as the nominees were being read for one of the major awards of an evening that's come to be called "the Oscars of Porn."

Among the contenders for Best Anal Sex Scene in a Video were: Buttfaced! 3, White Trash Whore No. 24, and Hot Bods and Tail Pipe No. 21. And the winner was ' Actually, I never heard the name of the winner because by the time the other 12 nominees for the same award were announced, the garbled pronunciations of the presenters had long since been drowned out by private conversations in other parts of the massive room.

I couldn't help thinking that in order to produce sequels to the titles that were being honored this night, there must have been a sizable audience somewhere on the planet willing to buy 23 previous editions of White Trash Whore and 20 episodes of Hot Bods and Tail Pipe.

As easy as it is to poke fun at the Adult Video News Awards that are given out each January in Las Vegas, and the outrageous categories that have been concocted to honor nearly everyone who had sex on camera in the last 12 months, the event is indisputably the industry's biggest annual party and the best marketing opportunity for a porn production company to increase video sales and rentals.

There are so many still and video cameras in the Venetian this night, and such a crush of fans lined up along "the gauntlet" leading to the ballroom of this beautiful hotel (which was constructed, ironically, to re-create the most romantic city in the world), that at first glimpse one might think this ceremony had all the elegance and distinction of the real Academy Awards. At least until two busty blonde women wrap their arms around each other, embrace in a ferocious French kiss, and then release their breasts from their gowns and start to maul each other for the cameras. The explosion of camera strobe lights is suddenly blinding. This is what the fans have come to see, and the resulting pictures capturing this tender moment will be used in thousands of international publications over the next several months to celebrate an underground industry which ' at least on this night ' surfaces for the mainstream to observe and ogle.