Alex Henderson



The Bettie Page Revival

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, May 25, 2006

April marked two major events in the life of 1950s erotica queen Bettie Page. On April 22, the 1950s pinup model/burlesque star celebrated her 83rd birthday, and April 14 was the U.S. release of "The Notorious Bettie Page," a 91-minute mainstream film starring actress Gretchen Mol as Page and directed and co-written by Canadian director Mary Harron of "I Shot Andy Warhol" fame.

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Forward Fetish: The Evolution and Diversification of Fetish Fashion

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, April 29, 2013

Fetish attire has come a long way since the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. In those days, fetish attire was much more underground than it is now. But with BDSM depictions showing up in everything from beer commercials to sitcoms to telenovelas these days, fetish fashions are much more ubiquitous than they were 30, 40 or 50 years ago—and with that ubiquity has come considerable diversification. 

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Fetisso Fantasy: Fetisso Latex Earns International Following With Authentic Quality

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, February 27, 2013

2012 marked the 20th anniversary of Fetisso Latex, which has made a name for itself selling latex attire that is known for being both durable and stylish. It’s been a long road for the Brazilian/European company, and with the popularity of latex having grown considerably in recent decades, Fetisso (FetissoLatex.com, Fetisso.com.br) has earned an enthusiastic international following with a variety of attire that includes everything from gloves, skirts, dresses and leggings to lingerie and bras.

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Legal Concerns: Adult Entertainment Companies Have Their Own Unique Worries

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, April 24, 2013

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50 Years After 'Roth': The 50th Anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's Historic Roth Decision

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, June 20, 2007

2007 marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most consequential rulings in U.S. history: the Supreme Court's 1957 decision in the case Roth vs. U.S. A major turning point for American obscenity law, the Roth ruling (a 6-3 decision) made it more difficult for prosecutors to get obscenity convictions — and it is safe to say that without the Roth decision, the U.S. probably would not have become the world's biggest erotica-producing country.

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Revenge Porn: Cyber Assault on Reputation? Or a New Business Model?

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, April 25, 2013

During the last few years, one of the Internet’s controversial topics has been “revenge porn” or “involuntary porn”—that is, websites that post nude or erotic photos of people (mostly women) without their consent. 

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Not So Private: An Interview with Berth Milton, Jr.

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, September 13, 2006

If Vivid Entertainment CEO Steven Hirsch or Wicked Pictures President Steve Orenstein has a European counterpart, it is arguably Berth Milton Jr. As CEO and chairman of Barcelona, Spain-based Private Media Group, the Swedish entrepreneur (who speaks fluent English) oversees not only Europe’s largest adult entertainment empire, but also, its oldest.

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Banning Sales of Sex Toys

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, June 13, 2005

In February, Alabama's controversial ban on sex toy sales went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which — much to the disappointment of sex toy providers — refused to examine the constitutionality of the ban. Under an Alabama law passed in 1998, selling a dildo or vibrator in that state can result in a year of incarceration and a $10,000 fine — and there are six other states where selling sex toys is illegal or greatly restricted, including Georgia and Texas (where schoolteacher Joanne Webb was arrested in 2003 for selling vibrators).

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Is the U.S. at War with Sex?: An Interview with Dr. Marty Klein

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, March 21, 2007

Dr. Marty Klein is not only a certified sex therapist and a licensed marriage and family counselor who brings 26 years of experience to the table; he is also an ally of the adult entertainment industry who First Amendment attorney Lawrence G. Walters and others have used as an expert witness in court.

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BDSM Shakes Up Vanilla Porn

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, May 19, 2008

There was a time when bondage and sadomasochism were practically unheard of in vanilla erotica. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, BDSM was seldom discussed in Penthouse, Playboy or Oui — and standard adult films stuck to what BDSM players refer to as "vanilla sex" (that is, heterosexual or gay sex that does not have bondage, fetishism or sadomasochistic activity as a primary ingredient). There were BDSM/fetish-oriented films, books and magazines back then (some designed for heterosexuals, some aimed at the gay leather community), but they were very underground and catered to a subculture that the vast majority of Playboy readers had little, if any, knowledge of. But times have changed, and BDSM isn't nearly as underground as it once was.

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An Interview with Atttorney Paul Cambria, Jr.

 
By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, February 15, 2007

Paul J. Cambria Jr. has witnessed quite a few changes in the adult entertainment industry over the years. When the famous Buffalo, N.Y.- based attorney (who is a senior partner in the firm of Lipsitz, Green, Fahringer, Roll, Salisbury & Cambria, LLP) first met longtime client Larry Flynt in the 1970s, there was no such thing as the adult Internet or adult webmasters. In those days, the adult industry's biggest profits mainly came from printed adult magazines and adult films, which, even with the VCR-powered explosion of adult home video in the early to mid-1980s, were still being transported physically instead of electronically. But thanks to the Internet revolution of the 1990s and 2000s, Cambria's clientele now includes an abundance of adult webmasters along with many adult filmmakers and some adult magazine publishers. It now includes a new generation of technology- minded adult entrepreneurs who — in this digital era — distribute erotic material electronically, not physically.

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Going Public

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, June 5, 2006

From computer technology to pharmaceuticals to fast food, publicly traded stock is the norm for a wide variety of industries. But there is one industry in which publicly traded stocks are the exception instead of the rule: adult entertainment. Erotica providers are not absent from Wall Street altogether. Playboy Enterprises, New Frontier Media (based in Boulder, Colo.) and the Barcelona, Spain-based Private Media Group (which is the largest adult film powerhouse in Europe) are among the adult-oriented companies that have been publicly traded, but the vast majority of adult entertainment outfits have not.

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In a 2006 Interview, Adult Film Director Fred Salaff Discusses His Ordeal in a Panamanian Prison

By Alex Henderson
XBIZ, March 18, 2006

In September 2005, American adult filmmaker/photographer Fred Salaff, alias Clayton Blacquemoor, was released from Panama's El Renacer Prison after seven months of incarceration on charges of corrupting minors. 

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