"Facialized Vol. 7" 2021 AVN Awards Winner: Best Oral Movie 9308 Posts 9/13
Posted - May 13 2018 : 3:37AM
In the past week, pornstar Adria Rae has detailed what might be considered mistreatment at the hands of her agency, LA Direct Models. It seems to have started something, as there is now an #IStandWithAdria hashtag on Twitter with other performers within the industry expressing their support for her and some even describing their own stories of (alleged) mistreatment by LA Direct Models. This conversation over LADM's alleged mistreatment of their performers seems to have taken over the Star Crossed threads of both Adria Rae and Hadley Viscara (also an LADM contracted performer). Not to mention, it also seems to be leading to debate about topics like the justification of "kill fees" and - most seriously (and once again) - the mental health of the porn industry's performers. I feel like because of all of this, this whole thing needs a thread of its own instead of the discussion being relegated to Adria and Hadley's Star Crossed threads. If this is all new to you and you want to get an idea of what the situation is, you should check out this tumblr. page that Adria created to give her account of it all: Adria Rae -- I Stand With Adria: Pt. 1 Also, there are the Twitter accounts for Adria (@IStandWithAdria) and Hadley (@HadleyViscara).
A very good read, well presented as well - clear and precise. Definitely worth the time and gives great insight into how much a performer must work in with schedules and the strain it can take on a performer. Personally, I understand the porn industry has it rough financially (in some cases) and the performers get the sharp end of the stick in that regard - but kill fees should be negated if the performer can provide sufficient certified medical reasons for cancelling - or minimum an option to re-schedule at a reduced rate (or something like that). In this case, it was obvious that Adria wasn't medically, physically and mentally fit - even just a surprise pregnancy should be grounds for some sort of lee-way. Surely, if it was handled a bit better - you could reschedule most shoots for a later date even at an agreed rate in light of events passed. I'm not an expert, but a little bit more communication and even just sending someone to support for a day to help Adria through her ordeal would benefit both the agency and the performer. This is one side of the story, nonetheless is presented so well and provides ample evidence to support herself, that it shows it isn't just a rant or anything of the like, its a true heart-felt message. The way a professional / community manager handled the situation in response was excessive and quite frankly unnecessary. I hope Adria can bounce back from this healthier than ever, with the support of the people around her and in the industry.
From what I saw, her agency offered her physical and mental help. Looks like what she did instead of trying to solve things with them directly was to use the internet and slander them.If you believe the story is authentic and have her best interest at heart, the last thing you should want is for her to come back. 2 suicide attempts since being in this industry can't be ignored.
I've read all of Adria's Tumblr posts and followed this on Twitter. As a fan, I stand with her and Hadley. LA Direct/Derek Hay are notorious. There have been murmurs and rumors of fuckery and bullshit on their part for years and years. The first person I thought of when reading about all of this was Morgan Lee, who was one of my favorite up-and-comers and who couldn't get out of her contract with LA Direct so stopped shooting instead. Several of my favs are signed with LA Direct (Jill Kassidy, Lexi Belle) but I wish new girls wouldn't sign with them. Multi-year contracts seem like a red flag. To contrast that with another top agent: Spiegler doesn't do contracts and apart from what Lana Rhoades had to say about him when she left his agency, I haven't seen anything negative about him. I saw some users in Hadley's thread asking very rational questions about Derek's behavior and why he would do what Hadley is alleging because it doesn't make sense from a business standpoint. The answer is that sometimes people aren't just motivated by rational decision-making and their financial bottom line. Sometimes they're motivated by power, control, spite or malice and sometimes those things override what should be rational business decisions. I see his alleged penchant for not letting girls buy themselves out of contracts/not letting other agents buy them out as an example of this. You have to think that decision is a power move, a way of saying "if you're not shooting through me, you're not going to be in this business". He has also blacklisted talent over the pettiest shit at times, and that's not a rational business decision either. Didn't he blacklist Logan Pierce from shooting with his girls because he refused to shoot with one who had an expired test? We have to account for the fact that everyone involved is human, including Derek, and humans are not purely rational creatures and do have character flaws. Being a jerk is a character flaw. Fucking over people who trust you is a character flaw. Lena Paul made a good Twitter thread for newbies to the business. I hope it's seen widely and that people take her advice. I also agree with what Carter Cruise has said about these contracts not being enforceable in a court of law, but companies choose to enforce them. That's a shame. I hope it changes. Not surprised that most of the top tier talent at LA Direct hasn't said anything. Why would they? They don't want to find themselves in a similar situation, on the outs and struggling to get booked. I understand why they wouldn't want to stick their necks out or rock the boat. At the end of the day, people have to eat. They have to pay rent. I would think that some are powerful and popular enough to not have to worry anymore, but maybe not.
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Mass Facialties Deactivated User
"Facialized Vol. 7" 2021 AVN Awards Winner: Best Oral Movie 9308 Posts 9/13
Posted - May 15 2018 : 12:49AM
I knew the power LADM held over their performers, but I never realized how they are able to control porn producers, too. If LADM has a performer "fall out of line" with them, they can threaten porn producers to no longer hire that girl for work or else all of LADM's talent will be off-limits to them.
Not sure of that thread title gives a good idea of what thread is about but then again most don't care about agency stuff.It got a lot of attention because Adria is very popular though usually it happens regularly but without a lot of people noticing. Just this year alone other LA Direct models like Aali Kali, Nadya Nabakova, Charlotte Cross were in similar situations and spoke out against LA Direct, though not as explicitly as Adria and Hadley (Nadya Nabakova also deleted her tweets). And that's not counting other models that didn't have the courage to speak about Derek publicly and just disappeared.
^ IIRC, this stuff with Derek goes back years. Like, a lot of years. It isn't new at all, and performers have talked about it before.
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Mass Facialties Deactivated User
"Facialized Vol. 7" 2021 AVN Awards Winner: Best Oral Movie 9308 Posts 9/13
Posted - May 18 2018 : 4:03AM
Yeah, obviously, LADM has a "track record" of doing things that their performers find to be wrong and/or downright abusive. Not to say they're the only agency out there that's been accused of treating their performers badly, but they are certainly the agency that is called out for it the most. By the way, The Daily Beast just published an article: [Tweet is no longer available]
^Let's say the article and everybody else is correct and this is exactly how it is(I don't believe that's true). Why is it that Adria was more than happy with the way Derek dealt with her for 2 1/2 years (her entire career less 5 months)? As far as I know her so called problems with the way LA Direct and Derek treated her started when she discovered that she couldn`t work with her new boyfriend because he is blacklisted by her agency.
Can a mod please change the title? "I stand with Adria and LA Direct Models" makes this sound like an extremely different kind of story. I don't think it is very respectful at all.
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Mass Facialties Deactivated User
"Facialized Vol. 7" 2021 AVN Awards Winner: Best Oral Movie 9308 Posts 9/13
Posted - May 22 2018 : 3:14PM
^ I put the two in the thread title because they are the two subjects of this thread-this #IStandWithAdria movement that Adria Rae started and the agency that said performer is calling out. Are you implying it's disrespectful because you think it could be read as: "LA Direct Models is standing with Adria Rae"? Regardless, I'll just go ahead and change the thread title, anyway.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 22 2018 : 10:42PM
That seems to be part of it. Her boyfriend, Lucas Frost, is a first class piece of shit and deserved to be blacklisted. He's the main reason Bella Rose stopped shooting, though I think her plastic surgeries were going to make that inevitable anyway. But there is still the issue of the kill fees for the shoots she had to cancel. To some extent, those are justifiable and part of the cost of doing business. But, it seems like an agent should be looking out for the performer's best interests as well and since LA Direct is such a large agency, why not simply try to arrange for another performer to take her place? Lots of girls in this business are looking for work. And sure, maybe some producers would want the kill fees anyway, but I think most would be willing to let that pass if they can still shoot their scene and make their production schedule. This is where the agent can really add value as a problem solver.
to answer the question ^^ The sentence "I stand with Adria Rae and LA Direct Models" implicates them being as on the same side against a common opponent/enemy. The hashtag effect, since we see hashtags like that these days and (correctly in this case) assume it has to do with a desire for progress or justice, makes it worse because it gives the added impression that Adria Rae (who we assume is responsible for or supports the hashtag) is proudly receiving the support of LA Direct. It took me a moment to understand that was the exact opposite, and she is actually calling them out. Anyway I don't mean to pick on a minor issue because it surprises me that this hasn't really been touched much in the wider online community yet? Earlier this year two adult performers called public attention to a rough on-set incident and it became a minor story of interest, but this is a pretty serious chronicle of questionable practices and I could hardly find anything, apart from the Tumblr and this thread. If Adria wants to call attention to this (seems very worthy) she should be in touch with blogs like Jezebel immediately.
It's right there in the articleThis is one of many examples that show that Derek cares about models only when they're making him money. Her having no issues with Derek while she was making him tons of money is pretty irrelevant - of course he wouldn't mistreat her at that stage. What really matters and separates a good agent from a bad agent is how they treat their models who are struggling with earning them money.
Can you elaborate on this more? I know he was brought into the industry by Cassidy Klein. She was in the industry and she got him into it, then they broke up and she retired but he stayed in. Never heard anything bad about him other than from her though?
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lefaf Deactivated User
5776 Posts 10/14
Posted - May 23 2018 : 12:54PM
cassidy klein is not retired and bella rose still shoots.
Why are they even called agents in porn, they are pretty much pimps pure and simple. In other parts of the entertainment industry, you hire an agent and pay them to find you work, they work for you and do what you say. In porn it seems like the other way around where you actually work for the agent, shoot with who they want and, if you step out of line they have the power to blacklist you from getting work on your own. It's a fucked up system where, even in an industry where the women are the stars, it's still men who seem to have the power with some exceptions of course. My sympathy with Adria is tempered though by how she acted in bullying Lana Rhoades and others when she thought she was friends with all the top tier girls at that agency. She's now finding out that none of them have her back and are only out for themselves. Pity she wasn't nicer when she was at the top.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 23 2018 : 7:00PM
Bella may be back shooting. She left and made it clear she was done, but she's gotten active on twitter again in the last few weeks, so who knows. Lucas Frost is still a piece of shit though.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 23 2018 : 7:13PM
Bella had (past tense because I can't find it now) a blog where she talked about it. She had a scene with him where she asked him to kind of take it easy on her (I think she was sore from her last scene) and instead he power fucked her and then came in her eye. This supposedly was in retaliation for her saying something politically incorrect - maybe about gay or trans people, I'm not exactly sure. I don't know what it was she said exactly, but I know she's from a small town in the south and had an extremely conservative background, so I wouldn't be surprised if she isn't exactly in line with Lucas Frost's personal progressive agenda. Regardless, his job on set is to act like a professional, not like some sort of enforcer of liberal/progressive values. So in my opinion, he's an asshole and good on Derek for banning that piece of shit.
You say good on Derek but this just shows again where the power lies. He's telling all the girls he represents that they are not allowed to work with this guy rather than them making their own choice. I really think the performers and directors need to remove these people from the industry and just self book and keep the money they earn rather than line a middleman's pockets.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 23 2018 : 9:29PM
^ Okay, so what does the producer/director do after booking location, crew, and male performer and then the girl no-shows because she partied the night before and doesn't feel up to doing the scene? Will that self-booking performer pay the kill fees? There's a reason self-booking performers don't do very well. And look, I'm not a big fan of Derek. LA Direct is too notorious for me not to believe he's problematic. But I think he did the right thing with Lucas Frost.
You have to remove your porn fan hat before you look at this situation otherwise it skews your view of the facts. You, I and everybody else has no idea how Derek feels about his models because we aren't him. To claim that he only cares about them when they make him money is both demeaning to him and to all the women who sign contracts with LA Direct and are happy to do so. People like Adria who was happy with his services for 2 1/2 years. To this day I haven't read anything that Adria wrote where she was unhappy with all the bookings she got except in 2018 when she complained that Derek had booked her on the 30th of January when she had hoped to only work starting February 1. A Good agent is one that finds his models as much work as they want and makes sure that they are aware of when they are shooting, the location, if any travel arrangements have to be made, any lodging have to be made and more importantly how and when they get paid. By all account that is what Derek does. How he treats his models is also very important but I don't think it makes him a bad agent if he expects his models to show a modicum of professionalism and show up on time and ready to shoot on the day they are scheduled to. Again I see nothing that Derek has done that makes him a bad agent.
You do realize that a big part of what agents - at least the major ones like Hay - can offer performers is some level of ability to enforce scene rates? The mechanism is exactly the same as what you're criticizing - agents withholding their whole stable of performers from producers who aren't willing to fall in line. So it's not necessarily as simple as "cut out the middleman, keep extra money" for the performers, especially those who haven't built a strong reputation in the business yet. Self-booking performers might well be finding themselves lowballed by producers. Edited by - shalalin on 5/23/2018 10:22:29 PM
^Every argument I used was based on what Adria wrote and nothing else. We really have no idea what Derek said except the stuff that Adria posted and we only have a portion of those things so unless Adria kept the really disturbing stuff out of her post then all I see is someone trying to help one of his models through a difficult time. Unless you can point me to problems Adria had with Derek before December 2017 than I am stuck at reminding everyone that Adria was happy with Derek for 2 1/2 years. That is her entire porn career. Now where you and I can agree on is that Derek should release Adria from her contract because at this point she won't work for him and he is better off not having to deal with the headache he of having a performer on his roster who is basically not on his roster. In fact he should do that with everyone of his disgruntled models as long as they are not scheduled to work for one of the jobs he secured for them. Otherwise let them find another agent or try self-booking.
I remember this, it was from her saying that women who shoot with black male performers are washed up and only do it because they're "shot up" and have no other choice, which she got called out for by a ton of performers in the industry (and got a good amount of discussion in her thread on this forum). Then, after Lucas did what he did, he tweeted that it was payback for her being a racist, which, yeah, was an asshole thing to do on his part. But let's not pretend this was about "Lucas' personal progressive agenda" or that it was just "something politically incorrect".
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 25 2018 : 5:33AM
^Yeah, I didn't remember what it was she said. But, honestly, I don't care that much. I would have banned that asshole as well. I can't stand the progressive police.
^ His principles apparently weren't strong enough to refuse to work with her altogether and forego a paycheck, in any case.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 25 2018 : 5:09PM
^ I guess what pisses me off is that his self-righteous retaliation on behalf of his black brothers is completely out of proportion to the "crime". Yes, she said something offensive to a lot of people. Does that mean that she deserves to be assaulted on set? And then also, it's this self-righteous, self-appointed "hand of justice" mentality combined with his narcissistic need to tell everyone about it on twitter. And honestly, that's what this was all about - it was a way for this dimwit to gather attention to himself.
I usually don't chime in on this stuff but I don't get why y'all are talking about Lucas Frost. LA Direct Models has fucked many models over but seeing as y'all can't keep focus, I don't see how Adria's movement can either. There's been stories worse than what y'all have been talking about but it's sad to see it's not a consensus.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 25 2018 : 7:55PM
^ It's because Derek banning Lucas Frost from performing with LA Direct performers appears to have been one of the triggering events for Adria. I don't think it's what killed the relationship, but she clearly was upset about it.
^ He's also threatened to ban models from working with Greg Lansky for no apparent reason. Never mind exploiting severals models out of the business as well as preventing them from signing with a new agent due to his ridiculous contract lengths. Lets not forget all this.
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Porn Scout Deactivated User
3735 Posts 10/02
Posted - May 25 2018 : 10:03PM
^ Who's forgetting that? I'm not defending the guy broadly. I just think on that one particular issue, he had the right of it.
^ As I said, that's irrelevant. A bad guy saying or doing something obvious doesn't make him a good guy. It just distracts from the point. From all accounts, Derek is not a good guy, and that's that.
