Adult Entertainment News Feb/March 2021

Here are the latest headlines affecting the adult film industry.

2021 AVN Award Winners Announced 

The 38th annual AVN Awards ceremony was held on January 23rd. The awards ceremony, which was virtual this year due to precautions related to the Novel Coronavirus, was hosted by Kira Noir & Skyler Lo.  365 trophies were issued in 111 different categories.  

Some notable winners include Emily Willis, who won the award for Female Performer Of The Year.  Her film, The Insatiable Emily Willis, also won Best Double Penetration Sex Scene.  12-year porn industry veteran, Seth Gamble won the Best Leading Actor award for his performance in A Killer On The Loose.  In addition, he was one of the 10 performers to share the win for Best Group Sex Scene for their work on Dorcel/Wicked’s Climax.  

Former pornstar, Kayden Kross, won Director of the Year.  She directed Muse, starring former Disney star Maitland Ward, which took home a number of awards including Best Editing,  Best Directing in a  Drama, and Best Screenplay in a Drama.  

Ward was also one of the big winners at the event, taking home the title Best Leading Actress for her performance in Muse.  Another film, which featured her in the titular role, Mistress Maitland, picked up the awards for Best BDSM Movie Or Anthology, Best Boy/Girl Sex Scene, and Best Cinematography. 

We at Coupons wish to congratulate all of this year’s AVN award winners!

Former Pornstar Claims Taco Bell Fired Her Over Her Past Work

Lonna Wells of Arkansas had a successful career as an adult performer. She’d even been nominated for a prestigious AVN Awards.  Then the pandemic hit, and she was forced to look for side work.   

"I took a job at my local Taco Bell to make ends meet during this pandemic and to have something to replace the shoots that were canceled due to COVID-19," Wells wrote.

In an interview with the Daily Beast, Wells claims that she let her manager know about her controversial career before she was even hired. "I was very open about it and said, ‘Hey, this is what I do as a job right now and I’ve been doing it since 2017, is this going to cause any problems?’ And I was told by the manager, ‘No, it’s not going to cause any problems. Whatever you do in your spare time is your business,’" she says.

Less than two weeks into her employment, however, Wells said she was fired over the phone.  She says that one of her coworkers caught wind of her porn work, and complained that it was too caliente for Taco Bell.  The Daily Beast added that both her husband and another co-worker were able to corroborate her story.

Taco Bell has since released a statement on Wells’ termination, claiming that Well’s porn work was not a factor.  "Taco Bell team members come from diverse backgrounds and experiences and all are welcome into the Taco Bell family," Fox News reported. "This former team member worked for a franchise location and the franchisee has informed us that the accusations made are not accurate and that she was instead terminated for violation of their policies and procedures."  They did not specify what policies and procedures Wells allegedly violated.

Unfortunately, from a legal perspective, it really doesn’t matter which of these two explanations were the true reason Wells was let go.  As the Daily Beast noted, Arkansas businesses are allowed to fire employees for virtually any reason — or no reason at all. Baring a few federally protected issues like gender, race, disability, etc, employers are given total leeway when it comes to terminating their employees.  

Wells has established an online fundraiser, both to help with her bills until she finds other work, and in the hopes of raising enough money to lobby the state to protect sex workers against this kind of discrimination. She is also seeking new work in her small town, but doesn’t hold out much hope because, where she lives, “everybody knows everybody’s business."  She may be forced to resume work in pornography, despite the inherent risks.

Pornstar Causes Huge Serve in Ironic Cryptocurrency Dogecoin

You likely heard a lot of news lately about online communities drastically impacting the financial sector.  While it didn’t have as much impact as the sudden inflation of GameStop’s stock, a single pornstar is being credited with the sudden 125% increase of a particular cryptocurrency. Dogecoin, established as an ironic parody of cryptocurrency, based on the iconic meme featuring a Shiba Inu with adorably imperfect grammar.  

For a currency that was never meant to be taken seriously, Dogecoin has been in the news quite about in the past couple of months. First, Tesla CEO Elon Musk mocked it on Twitter.  Unsurprisingly, given that some have described Musk as a real-life Philip K. Dick villain, his insults actually caused a 20% increase in the currency’s value. This is nothing, however, compared to the bump inspired by pornstar, Angela White. 

She sent out a Tweet on January 1st, announcing that she’d been a Dogecoin investor since 2014.  An explosion of interest immediately followed, resulting in a massive overnight increase.