I don't like it at all. Here's a copy/paste of a post she made on her yahoo group.
Hi everyone I know there have been a lot of question as to weather or not I am under contract or not. There have been a lot of people on the Internet speculating my situation and writing shitty things about me because they think they are up on everything. Well, yes it is true a few weeks ago Vivid let me go they decided to cut my contract early. I was into my third year with them but there were problems on both sides. I was very suprised I was let go but at the same time I was being contacted by other companies about going under contract with them. I can't picture myself working for anyone other than Vivid, I started with them and I have never done movies with anyone else so Vivid is like home to me. I decided that I wanted to try to work the problems out with Vivid so we have been in talks for a while on what was gonna happen which is why I wouldn't comment on the whole thing. I wanted to get a definant answer from them before I put any information out on what I was gonna do. What it comes down to it my movies needed to be dirtier and I needed to work with more guys than I regularly do. So my last movie "My first love" is really dirty I am taking anal and lots of facials also you will see me with different guys that you usually never see me with. I did all 3 scenes boy/girl scenes, I hope you all like it! As of this week Vivid decided to go ahead and keep my contract so I am a CURRENT Vivid girl, me not being under contract only lasted a few weeks but still it made headlines everywhere, I just want you my fans to have the facts you deseve it. Sorry it took so long to get an answer. I will be signing at AVN this year I hope to see everyone out there. I will be doing a movie titled "The Dark side of Mercedez" a Chi Chi movie which will be diffrent from anyting you have ever seen me do I am really excited about this one! I will be shooting it the last week of November. My contract is up in the beginning of February and I hope to resign with Vivid but if not I am planning on staying in the business for a long time. I am not going anywhere guys don't worry
I know, as their employer, Vivid is perfectly free to renew her contract or not depending on what they expect from her in terms of productivity as an employee. On the other hand, it's very clear from her performances that Mercedez is not comfortable with hard sex, and that she's at her best when she's treated with care. Do I want to see her grimace during facials ? No. And I'm not sure her other fans want either.
Not renewing a contract is one thing but cutting a contract early to raise the pressure on an employee is really nasty.
I always had the illusion that Vivid treats the girls better than other companies. And this illusion definitely had an influence on my purchase decisions.
I also get the feeling there's an underlying racist motive. Mercedez has to cater to the stereotype of the Latin whore while the Anglo-American Vivid girls can have soft sex.
That sounds like a pretty one-sided contract if one party can decide to terminate it before the term is up; or was Ms. Mercedez in some sort of breech?
To me it seems like this is a part of a general development within their company.Their movies have slightly become harder.Stars like Savanna and Briana arent afraid of anals, facials or dp`s.Earlier this year they even signed Lanny, who is not so unfamiliar with rough sex.
Anyway, I agree with you Vodka.It isent any fun to watch a star that isent comfortable with what she`s doing.But I personally think that she`s a gorgeous woman, and I hope she stays with them for years to come.Let the stars who like to get nasty once in a while do that.Mercedez has a lot of quality, she`s a pretty good actress as well.Variety is the key.
SoulSphere is right in pointing they've pushed the hardcore content of their movies this last year, mostly with their "Chuck Lords" productions. Some gagging & lots more anal, mostly with their supporting players. I suppose it makes business sense for them now. Maybe cable markets have relaxed to harder porn. And yes, Mercedez has lots of qualities beyond being able to quack on a dick and holler "Fuck me !" every 20 seconds. What I found very sexy was the way she frowned & her little squeals when she had pleasure. She was never vulgar & could tell Nick Manning to behave with a single glare. She's an great actress (for porn). And now they want her to be a fucktoy. Blah. Men are pigs.
Oh, I know Vivid has plenty of hardcore content. Contrary to myth, they have always reflected the industry trends. It's just that my understanding was that cable and comps were their cash cows, neither of which particularly require Mercedez to be an anal fucktoy.
There was a series on TV about the Vivid girls a while back, and some of the scenes showing Mercedez with her child were... unsettling. Should we take her word entirely at face value with regard to these "contract negotiations"? Having said that I was also surprised at how much anal Kira Kenner started doing before she took flight. Maybe Vivid feel that some of their contract stars become overexposed after a while to make their movies that profitable on cable, and look to the DVD market to keep on making some money?
Vivid has been doing the same stuff .. like forever. Now with studios like DP outputting movies like Pirates, feature porn market is probably more competitive. I guess maybe they want to explore new areas and markets. Face it, a lot of pig men want to see glamorous contract starlets doing more dirty stuff. I think maybe the message finally got through to them.
I was just pointing out that Vivid's going dirty makes sense (to me)..
As for agreeing, yes and no. Firstly, we don't know all facts, only this single statement from Mercedez. If they dumped her before time - that ain't nice, I agree. But for some reason she wanted to stay with Vivid so badly, she chose to accept harder terms. In that case I don't see it as pressuring, especially since she's got plenty of other options as she claims.
Yeah, after rereading the statement some things don't make very much sense to me.
If Vivid going hardcore is a smart business decision only time will tell.
People tend to buy the original. Fans of the rougher stuff will stay with their favourite companies and former Vivid fans will choose to buy Wicked instead. At least that's what I think.
So she is in the position of many employees - do things our way, or you are out. She has the same choises as everybody else. She doesn't want to work their way, she can leave and see if their is a demand for what she will do.
If Vivid has the power to terminate the contract early, it was something she knew (or should have known) about. It is there in black and white. There is probably a buy-out option. For that matter, she may have a similar option. It isn't that uncommon in other walks of life. It minimizes loss on a bad contract, while the pay out keeps it from being a losing situation for the other party.
I totally agree croy. Any contract (even in porn!) should have provisions for early termination and be quite explicit about the circumstances that would lead to payment of damages/compensation.
Posted - Oct 5 2005 : 10:51AM
