From adultfyi.com today:
Link to complete article:
http://www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=28737
Porn Valley- In a conversation I had last October with Michael Ninn, he brought up how the Rhino move at that time had been a good one for him. Famous last words.
According to Ninn, he was still doing between 2200 to 2500 pieces out the door while most of the industry was residing around the 500 to 800 pieces plateau. Since then it’s been getting worse.
“We developed a niche-market clientele,” Ninn was saying. “They’re not the most vocal people in the adult industry, but they’re loyal. My web members are loyal. People who buy my stuff are loyal, and we haven’t seen a decline. But I know it’s coming. I know it’s going to be more Net-driven, but I still think people right now want to put a DVD in and watch it where they want to.”
Now here’s an interesting additional comment Ninn also made:
“But I took a really bad beating at Red Light and learned a few lessons as an owner.”
I brought that quote up over lunch today with The Grand Vizier who’s become something of a junkie with the Ninn, Spearmint Rhino story. The Vizier, however, says he heard it the other way around- that it was Red Light who was hollering uncle.
“Do you know why these girls wanted out of their contract?” asks The Vizier.
“Their contract had them making dance appearances at John Gray’s club. The contract money covered the dance appearances but they were not getting paid for their scenes. They were basically doing their scenes for free. That’s when they all wised up. Michael wasn’t happy about it but there was nothing he could do.”
According to The Vizier, the reason Ninn also got fucked over in the Spearmint deal is because he didn’t include his ‘guy’ in the new contract and tried to negotiate it on his own.
“He turned his back on the people that had been with him in the past,” says The Vizier.
“This was the same person that was involved in the Red Light contract.”
“I knew we were getting to that,” I laugh knowing how The Vizier steers his conversations.
“If you listen to Ninn, though, he claims he got a bad beating in the Red Light deal,” I remind The Viz.
“Not exactly,” says The Vizier. “It was the other way around. The deal was so in his favor it wasn’t even funny. There was a guarantee on what the sales would be. So even if Red Light didn’t sell enough pieces to cover what Ninn was supposed to make, David Joseph had to pay out of his pocket. And it wasn’t just Red Light, but David, personally, who was responsible to cover the nut.”
“The problem was Red Light stopped making the payments,” says The Vizier.
“I heard that Spearmint was taking back Ninn’s house which he got in their deal.”
“Funny how it works, doesn’t it?” says The Vizier.
“Ninn’s ‘guy’ wrote an iron clad deal. And despite the fact that it was several months before they distributed any product, both David Joseph and Red Light were on the hook because it was guaranteed. When they stopped making the payments, Ninn’s ‘guy’ worked something out and Michael moved on. It was after Michael had broken things off with Pure Play and moved here.”
“Ninn seems to have had a trail of these stories,” I tell The Vizier. “I was going over some of my archives and came across an interview I had with Russ Hampshire when Ninn left him quite unexpectedly to go with Private. Ninn has been through a number of companies, now.”
“Russ nurtured Michael and Jane Hamilton was supposed to watch over him to make sure things got done,” explains The Vizier.
“Russ felt Ninn was his boy and Michael would be with him forever. I think from Russ’ point of view it was a loyalty-thing more than anything else. Like he would never have expected Jim Holliday to go anywhere else. He took care of them and figured they would be there forever. Russ was definitely hurt by what happened.”
“Except in the Spearmint deal, Ninn signed for less than 50% ownership and lost his name,” continues The Vizier. “That might be an example that he’s a shitty business man. He just happened to have an advisor who struck the Red Light deal. But said advisor was not included when it came to Spearmint Rhino.”
“Things changed quickly- Spearmint took over the Ninn Worx website, changing all passwords, everything. They started from the beginning, pushing Ninn’s people out. They pushed Q out.”
“I heard that Q and Ninn almost wound up in divorce court over this,” I tell The Vizier.
“Michael should have seen this coming, but his head is in creating Oscar-winning porn and doesn’t see the big picture. But I’m assuming he went into this deal thinking everything would be at his disposal to continue creating those types of movies. He walked in with blinders on. They picked him up in a bar, bought him a drink and fucked him up the ass with no lube, more or less.”
According to The Vizier, the director, Ethan Cane, was going to be Ninn’s alias.
“He wanted to do some stuff through Ninn Worx without his name on it,” says The Vizier.
“He wanted it to look like there were other directors and that it wasn’t all coming through him. But when his head of production left, the head of production went over to New Sensations and told them he was Ethan Cane, here’s some of my movies.
“They said, wow, you can make movies almost like Michael Ninn. He stole the name, but Michael said fuck it. That’s how he got the directing gig.”
The Vizier notes that Dyanna Lauren is also sitting very pretty.
“She and John Gray were on the verge- a couple of times- of divorce,” says The Vizier. “Gray had promised her that she was going to have the production company. Now things are all fine with them again because she has the production company."
“You think a lot of this was done to pacify her?” I ask The Vizier.
“Ninn is out,” he replies. “It was probably a lot cheaper to give her Ninn Worx then have a divorce and whatever she was going to take.”
“Then, right after Michael had been locked out from the building there was a meeting at the Norco compound,” The Vizier continues.
“Whoever was left from the company, everyone was told you guys are all safe, don’t worry about it, etc. Let’s go over what your responsibilities are and how you’re handling things. They were all assured their jobs were safe. Then they came in the following Monday morning to find out they were all fired. Their brains were picked and they were kicked to the curb.”
“I’m surprised none of the disgruntled employees have come out of the woodwork,” I tell The Vizier.
“People might be talking to lawyers,” suggests The Vizier.
is with claudia downs??? Did he tell Aubrey Adams to kick rocks. 
Larry at the Red Light Xmas party. 
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