Cole Riley Columns

Controversy follows international award-winning writer Bruce Benderson as the author continues raising hell on his freewheeling, dangerous literary journey into the dark worlds of self, identity, and sexuality. Winner of the prestigious French literary prize, the Prix de Flore for his erotic memoir, The Romanian, Benderson brings a unique sensibility and stance to every subject he encounters, whether fiction or non-fiction. Currently, his provocative novel, Pacific Agony, published by Semiotext(e)/MIT, stirred the critics up with his prickly observations on society, place, race and class. Benderson loves creating outside the box, defying all convention and all expectation. “Benderson is a true heir of D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Paul Bowles, the Bohemian bourgeois,” wrote Catherine Texier, author of Panic Blood and Breakup. Born to Jewish parents of Russian descent, Benderson was always attracted to unorthodox and unusual things. “I even have a few memories from kindergarten in which my response to things wasn’t what it was supposed to be,” he says....

For Simone Corday, a former stripper and lover of the late Artie Mitchell, it is as if time had rolled back, returning her to tragedy’s dark grip. While SexIs talked to Simone about her recent memoir, 9 1/2 Years Behind The Green Door, about the golden era of the flesh business in San Francisco and the brutal murder of Artie, she felt an eerie connection between Jim Mitchell’s son, James, and his current legal woes. Calling it “an odd deja-vu,” James, 29, was convicted a few days ago for killing the mother of his child with a baseball bat. He faces a possible sentence of life in prison. The Mitchell brothers are porn royalty. They were porn’s true pioneers with their 1972 blockbuster film, Behind The Green Door, which grossed over $72 million. The movie, which was produced for $60,000, starred actress Marilyn Chambers, of Ivory Snow fame, in her debut. Now, the son’s murder case parallels that of his father, Jim, who founded the O’Farrell Theater in 1969, with his brother, Artie. Jim shot his brother to death in 1991. He served three years in prison afte...

One of the porn industry’s hottest commodities, Bailey Jay knows she has got to be a tough cookie to survive in a rough-and-tumble business. Even in a business that prides itself on a respectable measure of tolerance and acceptance, she knows that certain doors are closed to her. “Most mainstream porn actresses won’t work with TS models for fear of being stigmatized as a higher HIV risk, even though we all take the same industry standard test. The world is changing, but never fast enough for me.” Bailey Jay has always known she was different from the rest of the boys. “When I was four years old, I told my mom: ‘I’m mad at God,’” she says. “She asked why are you mad at God? I answered because He made me a boy instead of a girl. Needless to say, my mother was concerned. I imagine that is why I was on the soccer team for five years after that incident, against my will.” Her voice carries a sparkle when she speaks of her mother’s love today. “My mother is my biggest supporter now,” she adds. “She gets it, and tells me how beautiful I am every day.” Shrinks a...

At turns both catty and brilliant, his book features some mavericks and outlaws including playwright Tennessee Williams, convicted Manson follower Leslie Van Houten, singer Johnny Mathis, actress Tallulah Bankhead, singer Little Richard, Zorro the stripper, designer Rei Kawakubo, atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, bar owner Esther Martin, and porn filmmaker Bobby Garcia. A Baltimore native, Waters rose to fame with several stunning films such as Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974), Desperate Living (1977), Hairspray (1988), and Cry-Baby (1990). He has written several books including Shock Value and Crackpot, all featuring misfits and mayhem. “They had more extreme lives than I ever had,” Waters says of his choices in this new book. “They gave me courage to be what I wanted to be. Some of them had some bad stuff happen to them and I didn’t have much bad stuff in my life. My career is going well. I’m not surviving any horror stories here.” Leading off the book is the boyish, still popular crooner Johnny Mathis, which Waters describes as “the polar opp...