He can be a nice person but act unprofessional at the same time. Maybe some performers never experienced a bad scene with him but others have and its still not good. So I can see why some would defend him because he seems nice and it didnt happen to them but in general I would never defend a person who has terrified or put someone in harms way. And Im not saying everyone doesnt make mistakes but if its a mistake you should fix it. Instead he is doing it multiple times so obviously its not a mistake. Again the part that disturbs me is when its said that he blatantly crosses the line with no regard or respect.
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J_B Deactivated User
28 Posts 12/18
Posted - Jan 9 2019 : 12:01AM
Yeah, that's not how predatory behavior typically works...
In looking at the pages of the performers coming to Dupree's defense, they seem to be arguing that this is all an attempt by August's husband to deflect the attention away from him. It seems that the podcast dredged up that he's had some issues of his own in regards to potentially harmful behavior. I was always suspicious of the way he attempted to go after Jessica Drake pretty hard, even though her comments were very measured and in no way bullying in nature. My own suspicion is both of these things are true to some degree. Markus in all likelihood crossed the line (which based on other performers comments seems to common from him) with August. And her husband probably had been emotionally abusive toward her. That's an absurdly toxic combination for anyone to try and deal with Edited by - high_flyin5 on 1/9/2019 12:32:39 AM
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J_B Deactivated User
28 Posts 12/18
Posted - Jan 9 2019 : 1:48AM
I think you nailed it, man. Nobody involved an any of this comes out with clean hands.
Nooooo not Bree! That's a shame. I do understand it to a degree though--it's the same as anyone aligning with the more powerful group at the expense of their own. It can feel tremendously rewarding to do so, and even rebellious/edgy. I'm not saying they're stupid or don't know their own minds--there are certainly elements of feminism and progressive politics that make me roll my eyes or straight up anger me and I have agreed with Mercedes from time to time. But to align with MRAs? Inexcusable.
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Arnold The Geek Deactivated User
251 Posts 7/17
Posted - Jan 9 2019 : 4:43PM
Well, considering it was her last scene shot, I think I can. But, thank you for your all knowing expert knowledge.
So there are those who think Kevin was abusive to August and he just pointing the blame at others. Without knowing the facts, the one thing that always stuck in my mind is, why Kevin wasnt there with his wife after everything that was taking place? Im assuming he knew about the incident August had in that scene. Im assuming he knew about the cyber bullying. Then he knew how August was mentally and had those demons. He shouldve dropped everything to be with his wife to help deal with this right away or at least contact one of her closest friends or family member to be with her until he gets there to be with her right away. At least call for professional help. I know some feel uncomfortable with this but there is nothing wrong to seek treatment if you know someone is in state where they can harm themselves. Again that has always stuck in my mind as to why Kevin wasnt by his wife side or at least having someone there with her until he got there when his wife was going through all of that because I assume he had to know what was going on. If he had no clue what was going on at the time I get it then.
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J_B Deactivated User
28 Posts 12/18
Posted - Jan 9 2019 : 4:59PM
^just to clarify with Bree, I unfollowed her a while back for promoting alt-right shit like Info-Wars and Jordan Peterson. I don't know what she's really about, and I feel uncomfortable speculating about it. Mercedes is a tried and true anti-feminist though, and has consistently taken that position since the whole stupid fucking gamer gate controversy.
Although August's experience might have been a factor in the end result, it likely wasn't the main cause. Logic tells you things were snowballing in her life and this was just one piece of the bigger snowball. However, that doesn't exonerate Dupree when it comes to his behavior.From the outside looking in, Kevin is either completely oblivious, in denial, or trying to hide something. For him to claim that August's mental health was completely fine before the cyber bullying started is asinine. He either was too dumb to see she was suffering, or just didn't care.
Eh, I stopped taking Mercedes seriously a long time ago. For someone who brags about their educational pedigree, she throws out some wildly uneducated statements pretty often. Also she's been trying to play this whole thing from multiple angels. She started down the road of "Well he's always been respectful to me, but I'm not judging anyone". And then like 5 minutes started ranting about "This is a witch hunt". I suppose I'm being judgemental, but there are few things more vexing than a self-proclaimed academic saying absurdly stupid things. Anyway, moral of the story should be: Never look at a performer's Twitter page unless you're prepared to be annoyed/disappointed Edited by - high_flyin5 on 1/10/2019 12:07:22 AM
Agreed. Based on the fact that he's been no listed from a number of a prominent performers, I'm willing to accept that Dupree probably pushed it way too far. But her husband has acted so shady throughout this whole thing that I'm not really inclined to believe much of anything he's pushing.
^ Wait Kevin actually though August mental health was fine before the cyber bullying? That is asinine. How can someone be married to another person and know their past and know every day is a struggle and say that its not an issue? Sure August might have been in good spirits but at any moment something can happen that can trigger those demons. If Kevin didnt know that about his own wife then he is really naive.
My whole point is we *don't* know what another person is thinking... You can speculate but you cannot know for a fact unless they confirm. Not sure why that would be a controversial or upsetting thing to say.
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J_B Deactivated User
28 Posts 12/18
Posted - Jan 10 2019 : 1:46PM
Eh, I stopped taking Mercedes seriously a long time ago. For someone who brags about their educational pedigree, she throws out some wildly uneducated statements pretty often. Also she's been trying to play this whole thing from multiple angels. She started down the road of "Well he's always been respectful to me, but I'm not judging anyone". And then like 5 minutes started ranting about "This is a witch hunt". I suppose I'm being judgemental, but there are few things more vexing than a self-proclaimed academic saying absurdly stupid things. Anyway, moral of the story should be: Never look at a performer's Twitter page unless you're prepared to be annoyed/disappointed
Click to expand
Being intelligent doesn't mean you're a decent person, and being well educated damn sure doesn't. As you say, never meet your heroes.
Yup, that's what he claimed in his statement shortly after her passing in which he also said he was going to pursue the cyber bullies in a legal manner. It was such a load of crap.
Pretty sure the only comments pertaining to individuals was what has already been reported in the podcast that was publicly released. If you have an issue go take it up with Jon Ronson.
The finger pointing towards Kevin is a disgrace,people with mental health issues "hide" them the best they can from family/friends/loved ones ,inside your whole world is collapsing around you but still you put on brave face/smile and the "I'm fine" attitude that gets you through another day.
I obviously don't know what happened. Cyberbullying may not have played a role in her death, but it certainly has played a big part in the aftermath. If we are to learn anything from this tragedy, it might be to treat each other kindly even when we can't see the other person's eyes. I doubt that August would have wanted us to remember her by trading the kind of vitriol I'm reading in this thread.
Not shocking actually. Dupree has become huge in this industry. It does he appears he's crossed the line with a few actresses( that we know of, could be more) and most likely August's case .Unfortunately, it's not going to be enough for him to pay a price. Most of these performers will ignore/dismiss/minimize these claims by noting he's treated them well and they don't know this side of him. Most of the girls aren't gonna take the effort to actively boycott a guy who shoots for every major company and miss out on the lost wages. Sadly the earnings matter more to them than any effect his scene treatment he may have had on August.
I still maintain that the director should always get a big portion of the blame when these type of things happen on their set. They're the ones running the show and deciding what type of scene is being shot and how far is too far. Plus, they should always be the ones to ensure the talent is safe and comfortable. Maybe the reason that there are a bunch of female talent standing up for this male performer is because he behaves perfectly fine when he knows the director doesn't want a certain type of behavior from him. Perhaps it's the director who encourages him to be aggressive for certain shoots. I'm not saying that maybe the guy isn't an asshole or whatever because I don't even think I know the guy being discussed here but I don't know how else you can the guy being able to work with so many girls and not be a problem and other times being so aggressive. Even if the male performer is a rough performing jerk it's up to the director to reign him in and not let him get too rough with the girls. After hearing/reading all the info I personally saw against Rico I came to my conclusion that he was basically trying to please that particular director and it was clearing what that director wanted. I also watch an episode of the docu-series on NETFLIX where the director or someone was talking about a male performer (Jaxx Slayer?) saying the performer was uncomfortable being aggressive with the girls so the had to coax him into performing rougher to get what they wanted. On the other hand, James Deen to me seems like an entitled asshole who gets off on being rough with women with little regard to them and some directors hire him to give them that type of performance. I could be completely off base but that's the way I see it.
Has anyone actually listened to the series yet? I am on chapter 6 of 7. I wonder if we should discuss the series in a different thread so as not to be disrespectful...?
As hot as Abella is, I have heard some rumours that she is pretty vindictive to even other girls, as well as some other stories about her. I think I remember her bragging on twitter using her Spiegler connections to blacklist a performer who she got beef with. I think Priya Price.
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SirPudge Deactivated User
160 Posts 7/15
Posted - Jan 16 2019 : 9:44AM
I never expected the big name performers to step out and say something. It's worth too much for them to lose, unfortunately Marcus is a top male talent and in his prime. Many studios/directors will continue to book him, it's up to the female talent to say they don't want to work with him. The fact that Abella has a picture with August as her twitter profile, and continues to work with Marcus is exactly what the industry stands for....$$$$
I ♥ the male gaze (and Palestine). 8737 Posts 11/13
Posted - Jan 16 2019 : 4:45PM
^Maybe Abella likes Markus and enjoys working with him. Perhaps she places very little or no blame on Markus for what happened to August. We don't know either way. Edited by - misspornUSA on 1/18/2019 4:27:07 PM
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J_B Deactivated User
28 Posts 12/18
Posted - Jan 18 2019 : 12:26PM
^ I think Katrina Jade's account is the most illustrative. Basically, "yes, I believe he intentionally violated my boundaries for the sake of a good scene, but I'm strong enough to handle it." That shouldn't be the case for any performer in any situation. Here's mild-mannered and cool as hell Blair Williams on it. edit: also, if you're interested, look through the likes on some of these tweets from other female performers. Edited by - J_B on 1/18/2019 12:43:47 PM
^ Even feeling like raped, August went through just to finish the scene and she didn't want to end her own career just like happens with Nikki Benz and carrying this shit for a long time affects her mental health severely...
^What The F..K was that? I mean did Stagliano just wake up from a coma because August has been dead for a year now and I don't understand why he is just now commenting on the part that EA had in the story. I don't think he helps himself when he basically explains away Jessica's part in the story. Is there some court case that I'm not aware that necessitated he make some kind of statement?
The morale I took from the August story is that if you can't support a co-worker than shut up because otherwise you aren't helping.
Truly strange, from a timing standpoint and the fact that it reads exactly like a straightforward denial of legal liability. Maybe it's in preparation for some litigation, or maybe it's him trying to smooth over a business relationship with Wicked (or whoever) that he decides he needs now. Three specific things trouble me about this public "mea culpa."
1 - as morbidthoughts says, no mention of holding Kevin Moore accountable, if you really think he should have been held accountable.
2 - no mention of Jessy Jones, one of his new and prominent directors who I suspect is being referenced in this article without being named - he was the foremost person I can recall who put the blame for August's death directly at the feet of Jessica Drake.
3 - since taking over full time again and "righting the ship" his big idea was to shoot a provocative movie about consent, marketed around the idea of the "return" of James Deen to Evil Angel and involving female performers who had credibly abused him of sexual assault in the past.
Long way around saying, I think he either doesn't actually get what's wrong with any of this, or just doesn't care, but is savvy enough to listen to the people telling him to cover his ass. Either way, it's no good.
^The Deen thing was already pretty bad on a purely marketing perspective but you now have this very strange statement and I'm starting to wonder if there isn't something seriously wrong with Stagliano. if this is him taking over then maybe he wants to leave it to people who aren't going to sink his company.
They haven't because they don't care and Markus have a lot of friends who support him just like with James Deen, Evil Angel is still casting him and even Chanel Santini stated that he was transphobic with her. This is not a thread about him but this is my last post about Markus, there's something "wrong" with him and I don't watch or buy his scenes anymore.
August Ames @ AEBN
Posted - Jan 8 2019 : 11:03PM
