NUDITY IN CONTEXT

In Europe, nudity is accepted as related to youth when appropriately interwoven in context. Nude photos are standard fare in Bravo, the most popular teenage magazine in Germany and one of the most widely read general-interest youth publications in Europe. The photos accompany "Dr. Sommer," a column in Bravo that has become an institution, guiding generations of German teenagers through the everyday angsts of young life, love, piercings, broken friendships and yes, sex. The column started in 1969, and in the early years, many German parents were known to ban it from the house or glue the Dr. Sommer pages together.



MULTIPLYING COMMUNITIES

Erotica-related communities explode into multiplying niches. Where we used to have Playboy and Hustler, we have the likes of Suicide Girls and RazorDolls.com. The first full length RazorDolls XXX movie directed by multi award winning director JacktheZipper is wrapping on September 17th. JTZ is getting ready to shoot a new adult film entirely on green screen with the Award Winning CGI talents of Kevin Kutchavar and Himani Productions. Slaves of Venus will feature distant planets, space ships, wormholes and the latest special effects.



HD VS. BLU RAY DECIDING FACTOR

Porn biz may hold the key to which way the world goes when it comes to the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray DVD debate…Whatever format the porn industry decides to adopt is probably a format that will survive in the long run…However, the porn industry also seems to be taking a wait-and-see approach and for all anyone knows, may never adopt either format. Opting instead to go for some other strategy such as hawking their wares at some sort of online portal like the iTunes store for porn.

MONEY TALKS

Serious financial backing gives muscle to new adult entertainment companies. The worlds of pornography and hedge funds combined in August when activist-investment firm Steel Partners proposed a management buyout of New Frontier Media Inc., an adult-entertainment company. The company operates a highly profitable business model and has been gaining market share against Playboy Enterprises Inc. Steel Partners had been buying shares of New Frontier for more than a year, but hadn't made its intentions clear until the board meeting on Aug. 15.

GRAY FROM POP TO PORN

The lines get grayer from art to porn to pop. In The Lost Girls, an oversized, pricey ($75) and very graphic novel, Alan Moore and artist Melinda Gebbie (his fiancée) imagine the X-rated escapades of three of the world's most beloved storybook heroines: Wendy from Peter Pan, Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz and Lewis Carroll's Alice. The graphic novel from Top Shelf Productions represents Moore's latest break with mainstream comics publishers and with DC Comics in particular, where he jolted the comics world with Watchmen and a dramatic updating of Batman in The Killing Joke. Three of his works —From Hell, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and V for Vendetta— have been made into films, and he has disavowed them all.



CLASSICS GET COOL

Classic retro porn imagery becomes mainstream cool for guys. At the Magic Marketplace apparel trade show in Las Vegas, fashion buyers got their first peek at Playboy’s 2007 spring line of men's T-shirts, jackets and swimwear, all emblazoned with variations on Playboy's iconic bunny logo. Silk-screen images of 1970s-era Playboy cover girls adorn swim trunks and T-shirts, for example, while the ubiquitous bunny ears pop up track suit jackets and tees. Club-hoppers who want to emulate some of the magic of Hefner can also choose from an expanding line of suits and fitted jackets with patterned linings. Meanwhile, the maker of decorated pasties Nippies, Bristol 6, is in talks with Playboy because some high-profile celebrities don't want to bare all in photographs.



LIT REVAMPED FOR NEW ERA

Erotic literature gets revamped for a new generation. Adam & Eve Pictures is set to release “O The Power of Submission”. This homage to the erotic literary masterpiece “The Story of O” has been brought to fruition by veteran director Ernest Greene. Since its publication in 1954, “The Story of O” has been frequently misunderstood, turned it into merely a book about BDSM. Nina Hartley makes an extraordinary appearance as Marie, the older, wiser choreographer of the intense sexual action taking place in her estate (shot on location at a Frank Lloyd Wright house in Hollywood).



POP CELEBS MAKE IT SAFE

Highly stylized adult productions call on popular names to gain instant celebrity status and high-profile following. Ninn Worx and Eddie Van Halen are celebrating the launch of the highly anticipated, fall blockbuster hit, Sacred Sin featuring Heather Vuur. The haunting imagery of Michael Ninn and the unrivaled musical energy of Van Halen combine with a cast of other artists to entertain, and amaze.



PORN VENUES BROADEN

Licensing deals gain momentum broadening the venues available for porn stars. Giant Mobile Corporation and Teravision Inc., Tera Patrick’s adult video production company, have entered into a licensing agreement, to bring adult content into the mobile arena. Tera has starred in Miami Ink, MTVs Fast Inc., and since May 2005, has her own monthly column in FHM. Additionally, Tera was named to 2006 FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women list, as well as 2006 VH1’s Top 40 Hottest Rockstar Girlfriends & Wives list (with husband Evan Seinfeld).

VIDEO ICONS MOVE AROUND

Longtime adult video icons continue to gain steam. Ron Jeremy and Mary Carey have been named the co-publishers of SWANK. This marks the first time in hardcore history that a porn star "couple" has been named as the top officials of a major XXX publication. Ron and Mary, two of the most well-known and most popular X-biz performers of all time, signed long-term contracts to co-publish SWANK and take it to the next level of promoting the magazine's global porno profile—as the ultimate venue showcasing "The World's Most Beautiful Women."



PORN, A CULTURE TOPIC

High-brow cultural magazines take on porn as an editorial topic. Brigid Hughes, former Executive Editor of The Paris Review, released A Public Space, a new independent quarterly magazine of literature and culture. With a mix of fiction, poetry, art, argument and opinion, Issue #1 of A Public Space offers literary takes on everything from superheroes and Hollywood in the McCarthy era to New Jersey porn, copper mining in Nevada,



WAXING PORNETIC

Adult film superstar and pop culture icon Jenna Jameson unveiled her life-sized wax figure at Madame Tussauds Las Vegas. Ms. Jameson, a Las Vegas native, is the first adult film star to be immortalized in wax by Madame Tussauds in its more than 200-year history.