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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (March 6, 2009)
WW JUSTOUT COM MARCH b 2009 iSoys^ust <7//anna cJ%ake ^orn? Adult film director leads a pack of recently published Oregon queer authors by Tony LeTigre * t some point, gentle ously after they’ve seen you with a rubber ball up gay reader, you’ve your ass.” Thus, the book offers something for a probably devoted at person searching for the perfect gag gift as well as someone genuinely considering a wild new career least a few idle mo ments’ thought to direction. “The stigma of doing porn is quickly becoming what it would be like to work in pornography. a thing of the past,” Donner asserts in the book’s Well, the answers are here, provided by a 20-year veteran of the gay adult video industry. first chapter. “Like tattoos, what was once a poor decision Dubbed “the Frank Capra of gay porn,” Mike Donner has written and directed more than 200 MIKE DONNER'S made during a drunken gay and bi videos that have been nominated for 58 W ■ A weekend is awards and won 22. In 2002 he was inducted into now viewed Gay Chicago Magazines Grabby Awards Hall of as a daring Fame. (The Grabbies, along with the GayVNs, are lifetime com the porn-industry equivalent of the Oscars.) mitment to Just before Christmas, Donner published your aesthetic How to Be a Gay Porn Star, a slim, well-toned self.” guidebook to an Amazon, industry shrouded com already in mystique. The offers the blithely written, book, and it 120-page text is may be ordered divided into chap through Donner’s ters with headings Web site, www. like “Douche You donnerinc.com. Lube Me, Baby?” He is trying to and “Rubber Before get Powell’s to You Kiss ’Er!”, each pick it up, too. “If of which ends with they carry Jenna anecdotes from Jameson’s How to “Daddy Donner” Make Love Like himself as well as a Porn Star, why quotes from indus wouldn’t they try professionals. take my book?” he The author’s wonders. advice is both Donner lives breezy and cogent. in a small town on “Remove the penis the Oregon coast from your mouth that he prefers not before enunciating” to name, because is one example. Another: “It’s hard his neighbors, al Mike Donner’s How to Be a Gay Pom Star is though they know for your employees liberally embellished with alluring photos of of him and his to take you seri- several of his favorite actors. John C. Lucy IV Let's Be REAL. You Want www.LAW420.com Oregon Marijuana and Criminal Law Attorney and Counselor at Law MORE Out of Life With special emphasis on Marijuana Criminal Charges & Medical Marijuana & all other drug crimes, including: • Methamphetamine • Cocaine & Heroin • MDMA (Ecstacy, X) & GHB • Steroids, Poppers, & Prescription Drugs Other Criminal Charges covered, including DUII, Prostitution. Theft and Assault. _______ ph: 503.227.6000 fax: 503.227.4702 john@law42O.com GAY MEN'S THERAPY GROUP Now Forming husband, are blissfully unaware of his blue-movie career. He declined to include a photo of himself with this article. “Believe me, you’d rather see pho tos of the models anyway,” he promises. Indeed, How to Be a Gay Porn Star is liberally embellished with alluring photos of several of his favorite actors. None are pornographic or even fully nude; rather, they convey a boyish playfulness that chimes well with the author’s jocular tone and, oddly, makes them sexier than hardcore porn im ages, at least for this reader. One model is a spunky lad working under the name Brant Moore with movie-star good looks and a tongue of enviable length and dexterity, prominently displayed on the book’s cover. Moore accompanied Donner on a recent mini book tour in California, as did Troy Michaels and Dean Phoenix, two other Donner protégés who provided images and industry-insider quotes for the book. Donner gave signings and Q_& A ses sions in Palm Springs, San Diego, San Francisco and Los Angeles. “I brought [the models] with me on tour be cause 1 really like them as people and because they bring an attitude of professionalism,” Donner says. “They can answer questions at a book signing and sound intelligent, instead of standing there going, ‘Duhhh, I don’t know.’” Donner says many people who attended his signings asked “serious, thought-provoking ques tions,” especially in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Among the more challenging were questions centering on the recent resurgence in popularity of barebacking. Donner expresses dismay about the way some porn production companies exploit young, naive guys who regard HIV7AIDS as a manageable condition on par with diabetes, rather than the dreadful plague it was in the mid-1980s when he came out. “Barebacking is making a big comeback, and I take the position that we in the industry have a responsibility to have some kind of conscience Continued on Page 19 Come join a new wave of CHANGE. Inner development through respectful, authentic relationships. Call Jamie Baldwin, MA, LPC 503-241-1141 for more information. Jamie Baldwin, MA, LPC is a psychotherapist who has been in private practice for the last twelve years, working with individuals, couples, and groups. He specializes in the exploration of relationships as a vehicle of positive change in one's life.
