A fringe decision: Mark Kernes of the Free Speech Coalition says recent Supreme Court ruling will help Hollywood, not the adult entertainment industry. (People).

ON April 16, the U.S. Supreme Court surprised many with a decision that struck down the Child Pornography Act, primarily along First Amendment lines. At the heart of the decision was the understanding that the depiction of children in sexual situations for film or video is not illegal as long as children are not involved in the actual production.

Viewed primarily as a First Amendment issue, the decision caught the attention of many in the San Fernando Valley adult entertainment industry. The plaintiff in the case was the Free Speech Coalition, a Valley-based trade association for the industry.

Some in the industry said last week the decision and the coalition's involvement signal growing acceptance of the adult entertainment business and its gradual move into the mainstream economy. As further evidence, they sometimes cite last year's purchase of three television channels by Playboy Enterprises Inc. from Van Nuys-based Vivid Video for $70 million.

Supreme Court decisions and multi-million-dollar deals with Playboy notwithstanding, most still consider porn a fringe industry.

While it is clear the overwhelming majority of adult videos are produced in the Valley, estimates of the industry's size and impact on the area economy vary widely. In reports on the recent Supreme Court decision, local daily newspapers stated the industry employs 12,000 in the Valley and had profits of $10 billion to $12 billion last year.

Mark Kernes, senior editor with Adult Video News for nearly 20 years, says the employment figures are closer to 3,000 to 5,000 and that adult TV and film production in the Valley may generate $1 billion a year.

AVN, Adult Video News' parent, is a privately held Chatsworth company with an estimated $12 million in annual revenues. Along with the monthly industry trade magazine, it produces AVN Insider, an industry newsletter, and operates industry trade shows.

Kernes, also a member of the Free Speech Coalition board of directors, spoke with Business Journal editor Michael Hart about the Supreme Court decision, its impact on the adult entertainment industry and the question of whether the industry is "going mainstream."

Question: What effect will the Supreme Court decision have on the adult entertainment industry?

Answer: The adult industry itself, not really a lot. There are only three or four producers who are making material that features adult women dressed in miniskirts and pigtails hanging around a jungle gym. This is the stuff that was targeted by the Child Pornography Act, which just got overturned.

Where it's going to have a big effect is on Hollywood. You've got your movies like "Titanic," "Traffic," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," "The Last Picture Show," dozens and dozens of movies that feature actors that appear to be under 18 involved in sexual simulation, and that's exactly what's illegal under this.

Q: How did Adult Video News get started and what was your involvement?

A: The turning point was in a store in Philadelphia called Movies Unlimited, one of the first video stores in the country to rent adult videos. I started renting them there in the early '80s. The night manager then was a fellow named Paul Fishbein, who now owns this magazine. He had just started up this little newsletter for people who were renting adult videos there and we got to talking.

He said people would come up to the counter and say, "Is this any good?" He figured they might want to read reviews of whether they were any good or not. I was always too chicken to come up and ask, but we had talked and I guess he decided I was reasonably well spoken. So, he offered me a job.

Q: What was the competitive atmosphere like for a trade publication like this when you started?

A: This was it. We were the first magazine to review adult videotapes. Penthouse didn't do it, Playboy didn't do it, Screw didn't do it, and, in terms of magazines, in those days that was about it.

We were the first and continue to be the only magazine that does it to the depth that we do.

Q: How then did you move from being a porn reviewer to a First Amendment advocate?

A: I've always been a First Amendment guy. I was a socialist until I got to NYU and fell in with the Libertarians. So, I combined my interest in freedom of speech in general and the realization that sexual speech was among the most suppressed. Then when I got out here and met the people involved in the industry, what I found was an industry which at its base is very libertarian.

Q: How has the industry changed during the 29 or so years you've been covering it?

A: It used to be people in the industry, if not exactly ashamed of what they did, weren't all that open about it. You'd go to a party and somebody asked you what you do, the actors would say, "I wait tables." There's a lot less of that now. The fact is more and more people in society have seen the movies and, it turned out, sex was a lot more mundane than they were afraid it was.

Q: If that's the case and the business is so big, why aren't adult entertainment companies pitching story ideas to me in the same way other Valley companies do every day?

A: They assume, and it's reasonable for them to assume, that the answer would be, "Get out of here."

Plus, porn is such a salable product that you really don't need much publicity. We're very much an advertising-based publication, but the ads are really more to inform retailers of what's about to come out, because we're a trade magazine more than a publication for the general public.

Mainstream magazines like Penthouse or Playboy don't so much have ads for our products as they do for phone sex lines and Web sites, so the product itself doesn't take a lot of advertising and it doesn't need a lot of mainstream coverage to be salable.

From the mainstream media point of view, the question is, is covering porn worth it, considering the amount of flak they would take because of it from some very big-mouthed people?

Q: Vivid Entertainment is one company that has caught the attention of the mainstream business media. Why is it the exception so far?

A: They're the shining example. Vivid was the first to sell its films to Playboy and Playboy is about as mainstream as you can get and still be sexual. That gave Vivid the impetus to say, "Yes, John Q. Consumer, we also have this product or this service available."

Q: Are there other companies likely to make the kinds of deals Vivid did with more mainstream business partners?

A: Wicked Pictures just down the street is certainly headed in that direction. They have product which is at least as good as Vivid's.

Q: Even assuming for the moment that adult entertainment is gaining wider acceptance, won't there always be a part of the industry that is not mainstream?

A: Yes, simply because one of the traits of some people in the industry is to say, "Let's see how far we can push the envelope.

Q: With this Supreme Court decision behind it, what's the next goal for the Free Speech Coalition?

A: The Supreme Court decision is only a small step. The ultimate goal is to create some sanity in society when it comes to the subject of sex.

Q: If that were to ever happen, would there still be porn industry with the high profit margins people believe it has?

A: Not a chance. No, at that point the industry becomes like all the others, calling you up trying to get stories in the paper. I look forward to the day when this is like any other business.

Q: Will that happen anytime soon?

A: No.

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Mark Kernes

Age: 52

Title: Senior editor, Adult Video News; member, Free Speech Coalition board of directors

Education: B.A., New York University 

Career-turning point: The opportunity to leave court reporting to write for Adult Video News

Most admired person: Science fiction writer Robert Heinlein

Personal: Single