Fresh From The Archives of History: Michael Lucas vs. David Forest and the Grabbys

Here's an old JUB blog post from 2007, about an even older awards show incident from 2003.

So, why am I reposting this old news about old news here? Weeeeeell, because you never know! Like this post from the past about the past says, it always good to keep the past in mind "...JUST IN CASE it becomes relevant again in the near future.":

Now I realize that this is actually really old news, but with Michael Lucas, you never know when old feuds will again rear their ugly heads (i.e., Raging Stallion Studios), and since I have only been writing the Newswire for a few months, I figured it would be OK to re-tell this story JUST IN CASE it becomes relevant again in the near future.

Picture it. Chicago. 2003. Gay porn agent David Forest is given the Grabby Award (which are kinda like the Golden Globes to the GAYVN’s Oscars of gay porn) for Best Non-Sex Role for the film Brad’s Buddies. Good old Michael Lucas, who was presenting an award right afterward, took the opportunity to express his disdain for Forest. He said from the stage,

“It’s very sad for me that we are putting ourselves, once again, so low in society by giving an award and supporting such a scum-bag as David Forest who, for years, has taken advantage and destroyed people with drugs…This industry will never gain any respect unless we will stop promoting this evil pimp, and those of you who are booing me should be ashamed of yourselves, because there’s not one word that I’ve said that isn’t true, and you know it.”

He exited the stage and was the talk of the (then-burgeoning) blogs for the next 4 days. David Forest had a rebuttal, Michael had a clarification, every columnist weighed in with their 2 cents. The general consensus within the industry was that whether or not you agreed with Michael Lucas (and there were plenty on both sides) all agreed that it was an inappropriate venue to air those opinions. In fact, Michael Lucas has pretty much been persona non grata at the Grabbys ever since. In fact, this year, after Michael Lucas’ La Dolce Vita swept the GAYVN awards, it was completely shut out at the Grabbys, not receiving a single nod. Michael claims that they are still holding a grudge from 2003, they claimed that they did not receive his screener in time to be eligible for consideration (and two of his other films did get nominations).

That’s pretty much it for that saga (it boiled over in no time at all), but another thing (which ties this story into the Johnny Hanson post) is that, after Michael Lucas left the stage, Matt Sizemore announced that he had just shot a bareback video. I think the poor BAFFLED (see I am using that word already) crowd didn’t quite know who to react more to. I hope you enjoyed this little trip into the recent history of gay porn. Hopefully we won’t need to revisit it again.

Yeah, hopefully not! :-)

Update: I must be in a nostalgic mood today, because for some reason this scene from Stanley Kubrick's 1975 classic Barry Lyndon popped into mind as well.

For those not familiar with this 18th century period piece, here's a brief recap of the scene: An arrogant puffy-lipped European aristocratic snob (Lord Bullingdon) has a long-simmering jealousy feud with the social-climbing hero of the film (Barry Lyndon). In order to tear down his "low bred" rival, Bullingdon bum rushes a stage, interrupting a recital to publicly denounce Barry as an "insolent Irish upstart" to a shocked audience:



BTW, Bullingdon then went on to use that carefully-baited and well-deserved thrashing at the end, exploiting the incident to generate a public relations pity storm in his favor.

Yep. It's funny how often life imitates art!

Update 2: An interesting chart:


Update 3: Lucas acknowledges he tried to hire Brent back in 2006, and that emails to that effect are in existence:

"To those who are saying I am going after Corrigan because he declined to be in my movie, how can that make any sense? In 11 years of business, there were many models which my company turned away and there were many models who turned down working for my company. Today we looked through all of our casting records, and found an email dating back to September 15, 2006, between our previous casting director and Brent Corrigan. At this point we, regrettably, did not know about his past and we are forever thankful that things did not work out and we declined working with him. My conscience would have never been cleared and a heavy deal of personal guilt would have shadowed me and my career."

That a "casting director" at a porn studio, former or otherwise, would have been unaware of Brent's celebrated past in September of 2006 (just when Velvet Mafia was released!) frankly strains credulity. Is Michael Lucas lying? Or are all employees of Lucas Entertainment this incompetent?

Update 4: A so-sick-he-could-vomit Jason Secrest takes Lucas out to the woodshed for misquoting him, poaching comments for his press releases, and publishing private phone numbers without permission.

Update 5: The editor at Queerty, who described the controversy as:

"The war between porn stars Michael Lucas and Brent Corrigan — or rather, Michael Lucas and the rest of the porn industry who loves Corrigan..."

...is getting sick of the Lucas Entertainment spin machine as well.

Update 6:The GorgeousBoys Online Entertainment Network disassociates with Lucas:

"Therefore, in light of my belief that “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander” my Network is now removing all of the affiliations and promotions to Lucas Entertainment’s websites and products."

Free speech, gotta love it!

Update 7: Breaking News! A Chinchilla Exclusive!

We've just received via our secret tip line a yet-unpublished but soon-to-be released on LucasBlog photo of Michael Lucas, taken right after the afterparty altercation. Obviously, it's authenticity is beyond question:


Update 8: Well, now that Michael Lucas outed Brent's new boyfriend's full real name in his latest press release, the obligatory tracking down and posting of a MySpace profile is sure to follow...and it might as well occur here, I suppose.

His full name is Eric Paul Martinez, age 31. Hmmm, and he's a father (of a six year old son). No indications of any anger issues here; although, looking at his physique, I can well imagine how just about anything he could say, from "Hello, how are you" to "Stop stepping on my feet, Mr. Lucas," could easily be misconstrued as threatening...


Update 9: Michael Lucas threatens the entire industry by knowingly and willfully violating 2257 requirements (hat tip: Elm).

Update 10: Michael Lucas - A liar AND a hypocrite. Lucas was well aware of the underage controversy as early as 2005, contradicting his own press statement claiming to be unaware when negociating to hire Brent in September of 2006 (see Update 3 above) (hat tip: Brynawel).

Update 11: Brent fills in the details on those September 2006 negociations:

""The assistant told me that Lucas didn’t write his own messages because he didn’t have a firm enough grasp of the English language, and that he had other people relay information for him. I thought this was pretty strange, you know, for one of his assistants to be telling me this, but negotiations continued.”

Update 12: J.C. Adams has an excellent, well-researched article up on the whole affaire here. Note the official statement by Joan Irvine of the Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP.org): "Brent is now over 18 and has the right to engage in whatever legal business he chooses."

Update 13: Lucas called Village Voice columnist Michael Musto during the GAYVN's to brag:

"Remember Brent Corrigan, who forged his birth certificate and lied about being of legal age? He did porn videos when he was 17 and basically sent the owner of the company to jail. Well, I've been trying to stop him from being in porn ever since. Tonight, he was supposed to present the first award at the GayVN's. But I talked to the producers of the event and made sure he didn't. He was just canned."

But of course, the notion he was doing this for publicity is completely absurd (hat tip: Yves).

Update 14: Mark Adams interviews Brent. Most interesting quote:

"One of the things that studios, and that includes Michael Lucas, tend to ignore is the fact that the producer knew exactly how old I was, and he exploited the situation. He was smart enough to make it appear like I alone forged my documents. I was told by my boyfriend at the time and by the producer that it wasn’t a big deal, and it happened all the time. The big mistake I made was not listening to that voice inside me that said, “You should hold off.”"

Update 15: Unzipped (which will soon feature Brent on the cover of Freshmen) tells Michael Lucas to go fuck himself, after he calls to complain about the upcoming cover. A permanent link to Unzipped the Blog has been added to the right.

Update 16: And now this post has come full circle...an open letter to the GAYVNs from David Forest, in which he calls for Michael Lucas to "not be allowed to attend" future award shows:

"(Posted 4/1/2009 10:00:00 PM)
Letter to AVN's "Gay Editor" (Harker Jones) and "Owner" (Paul Fishbein)

Harker & Paul –

Congrats on the big success at last night’s GAYVN AWARDS. Sorry I wasn’t there this year … however … I would have been very upset, now that I’ve heard the reports about Michael Lucas … and how, again (he did it at the Grabby’s a few years ago) … this guy interrupted YOUR show with his highly illegal “bum rush” of your stage … the same exact stage that YOU used, a few minutes later, for his induction into your GAYVN Hall of Fame. Funny how you refuse to allow talent handlers into that elite “Hall” … but … you DO allow BUMS.

You know why it’s called a “bum rush,” right … because only a BUM would rush a stage. If a “bum” were to have done that, last night (actually, a BUM DID DO THAT) … he’d currently be sitting in the SF jail. Why you folks, involved in adult industry functions, allowed Lucas to continue coming to your events, after his Chicago “bum rush” at the Grabby’s … is puzzling. You should have known that a BUM, who already showed his true colors, was surely going to do it, again … especially when he felt “bummed” about his LACK of awards (coincidentally, the ONLY award that Lucas Ent won, last night, was for NON-SEXUAL PERFORMANCE … which Lady Bunny actually won).

Michael Lucas has NO regard for anyone, any show, any event. Since he was basically a loser, last night (believe me, he’s a HUGE LOSER now) .. not winning any awards except for his “Hall of Fame” induction and the “non-sexual perf” one, above …. he decided he’d make sure he was “remembered” … and just FORCE his way on stage to do something “loud.” That’s just what happened back in Chicago … when he did his “DAVID FOREST tirade” … unexpectedly … and without permission.

Between the Grabbys and, now, the GayVN’s … Lucas has shown his total disregard for rules, proper etiquette, scheduling, etc. … and should not be allowed to attend the events. As gracious as the guy CAN BE … he’s also a total “animal” … and cannot be trusted to behave.

I can’t believe that you let him get Corrigan bounced as a presenter … then … he goes and “steals” the microphone … since Brent’s name wasn’t properly pulled from the cue cards … and Brent got to present, anyway. Lucas didn’t fully get “his way” … so … he wanted to make sure everyone knew his feelings (about Corrigan’s movies that he did while underage). Actually, the XXX biz should never have let Corrigan continue in the biz … after his fraudulent misrepresentation of his age. BUT … he wasn’t banned … so you just gotta move on. For Lucas to decide, years later .. that it was up to him to CALL ATTENTION to Brent’s wrong doing …. and to do it the way Lucas did (like an animal) … is so wrong. Lucas just couldn’t let last night go on without making sure that HE was “remembered.” With no awards to be remembered for … he decided to create his own attention … even if it meant disrupting your show.

Lucas cannot be trusted at a public event … evidenced by his improper behavior, now, at both a GRABBYS and a GAYVN awards. The fact that Brent’s b.f. decided to show Lucas how wrong he was …. is just the KARMA coming out.

Michael Lucas AND Brent Corrigan have both been given “chances” that should never have been given. They’ve both caused major disruptions to the adult business, big events … acted in ways that are inexcusable (maybe illegal) … but … weren’t reprimanded, scolded or had sanctions placed upon them.

It’s time for the gay adult world … especially the folks who produce the big industry events, etc. … to wake up and smell the obvious. Michael Lucas will always make sure that he is a HIT at these events … even if he has to make a fool of himself. He’s a firm believer that, “all publicity is good publicity.” Can you imagine if an actor/producer/director were to ever do what Lucas has done … at the Oscar’s or the Golden Globes? You let him trash your event, last night. I’m sure you won’t let it happen again. Lucas has “scored” at both big awards shows, now. AND, to think … the guy was still inducted into your HALL OF FAME … event AFTER what he did earlier in the evening. It all makes no sense.

DAVID FOREST"