Posted 4:45 PM by John A. Seafisk

Celebrity Signing

I saw Ron Jeremy yesterday. For those unfamiliar with the name, Ron is a well-kown adult film star who has spent the past 20 or so years in the industry. Within that span, he has gotten overweight & lost some hair, but still has maintained the prime reason why he's still working hard. (You can figure out what I'm talking about by the clue word 'hard'.)

Ron has become an underground hero, of sorts. Last year, a documentary film was released about him. I went to go see it, primarily out of curiosity, with the added benefit of seeing some porno scenes without feeling too dirty or guilty about it. "It's not a sex film! It's a documentary! It's art!" Besides, the scenes were hardly graphic.

What also made this trip to the cinema interesting is that I, in fact, went to see a movie at all. It has become known to people that know me that I am not a movie buff. I have been written off as, "He Hate Movies". This is not 100% accurate...more like 95% accurate. I do not make a point to trek to a cinema because I don't find the experience very entertaining. My main point of contention are the usual offerings on screen. In my frank opinion, most is garbage, especially the big-budget, play-it-in-stadium-style-seated-theather. My 2nd point of contention is paying at least $8.50 to sit through such nonsense. Point #3 - Even before the film starts, having to sit through 6 or 7 trailers for equally bad & annoying films. Point #4 - people in the audience, in which there is always someone talking on their cell phone or laughing loudly at inopportune moments or people making loud noise in general or little kids yelling and/or crying. And Point #5 - I'm very picky in what I watch.

But, pushing all these points aside, I went to one of those small, art-house theaters and watched the movie. I liked it. Very interesting & humorous at times.

A year later, I found out that the DVD of "Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy" would be released yesterday, and the Hedgehog himself (as he is known) would be signing copies at Tower Records & Video on Sunset Boulevard. I, of course, had to go.

The signings began at 6 p.m. I arrived at the store at 7:30. There were 3 people in front of me, and there stood Mr. Jeremy, along with a semicircle of his managers & paparazzi (I'm guessing). He looked pretty much the same as in the documentary, except shorter. Or maybe I'm just taller than I think. He was standing at a table, signing away & posing for photographs, and he looked tired...not annoyed tired, but I-need-a-quick-nap tired.

After waiting for him to sign some guy's large Homer Simpson cardboard cut-out, one of the managers/paparazzi directed me to Ron. I said 'hello' & shook his hand. He gave an exhausted 'hey' in return. I asked if he could sign it 'To One Stud From Another'. He replied, 'Sure, why not'. After he wrote the finishing touches on my DVD sleeve, he handed it back to me. As I went to shake his hand again, he already began talking to someone else. So I walked out & headed for home, with the door-stationed manager telling me, 'Take it easy, buddy."

It's not often I attend any kind of signings, whether it be book or movie or other forms of media. The only others I went to were by Michael Moore and Scottie Pippen....and I can't find either book now. I'm just not really into hero-worship.

Maybe I went to get Ron Jeremy's signature just to have a story to tell. He really isn't a hero of mine, but I did really like his movie.