Editrix Abby  

Brittany Andrews Photo Shoot

Brittany Andrews is a blast! I'd seen her in a few porn videos, more or less blending in with every other L.A. blonde as tends to happen when lips are smacking and limbs are flailing, so when my photographer, Anneli Adolfsson, said she'd booked her for my shoot, I was only slightly excited. She was a porn star, which was very cool, and up till now, the cover models had progressed from no-name babes who knew friends who knew friends to actual friends. Then, once I started working with Anneli, she booked centerfold models that were real models. Now we were dealing with a bonifide name.

The reason I wasn't thrilled with the idea is that porn stars can be serious bimbos--I'll bet that's a real news flash--and if they aren't complete bubbleheads, then they're likely to be total bitches. It ain't a pretty industry, and the women who've managed to survive and flourish are hard-as-nails businesswomen shrewdly marketing their most valuable assets: tits, ass and the ability to smile while getting slammed into from behind.

Anneli's shoots are always well organized affirs. By the time I show up, the set is built, the cameras are in place and the model is being coiffed and curled, rouged and falsh-eyelashed by a professional stylist. There's either pizza or a deli order delivered to keep everyone from passing out, because once the shoot starts, it often last hours. I can honestly say that those women really work, bending themselves into pretzel shapes in various stages of undress. Anneli's efforts to avoid capturing every offensive fold of skin, spread of flesh or wrinkle of brow means that in addition to being bent into imposible positions, this arm needs to angle a scosh further, or that foot should move a teensy bit to the left, or could she arch her back up an inch higher. In person, the human Gumbies appear to be smiling through moments of discomfort, if not downright pain, in poses that you'd never see a person strike in a million years. But once the film is developed, all that torturous tweaking was worth it, as there's never an unsightly bulge, a less than flattering fold or an obscuring shadow. In other words, the women look spectacular. Which is why they love to shoot with Anneli.

Anyway, back to Brittany. When I arrived, she was having her newly-dyed bright pink hair curled and we made small talk. Within seconds, she'd offered to help me in some way; I can't even remember exactly what, but she struck me as both sharp and sweet. Anneli took the deli order and Brittany requested a donut. Another good sign, I decided. And you should have seen her technique for eating it in a way that wouldn't destroy her makeup job. My only disappointment was that he didn't immediately wolf the whole thing down.
The shoot was for The Smoking Issue, dedicated to the fetishists who love to see elegant women smoking. I'd dashed out to a smoke shop in search of pastel colored cigarettes and the ladies thought I was crazy. When I returned with a pack of Nat Sherman Confettis, they were mighty impressed. "The pink ones will look sooo cool with her hair," I gushed.

Anneli, a non-smoker, was insisting on the "demon breathing," a technique of exhaling that produces the curls of smoke the fetishists especially crave. Brittany was having a bit of trouble mastering it, so Anneli demonstrated, gagging and grimacing the entire time. Once she'd gotten the exhale down, Brittany "demon breathed" like a dream and we oohed and ahhed as she struck each seductive pose, the smoke curling around her voluptuous lips and swirling past her crystal blue eyes. The cigarettes would burn themselves out between each series of snaps, and I became the smoking slave. As Brittany's distaste for the evil cancer sticks increased, I offered her a Jelly Belly, highly recommending the cinnamon ones.

Soon, I was positioned just out of camera range, matches in one hand and bag of Jelly Bellys in the other, and every few clicks I would dash in and deposit a tiny red bean on Brittany's tongue. I said it felt like I was delivering her "meds," and Brittany laughed that this was the kind of druggy behavior people probably expect on a porno shoot. I was also the ashtray, but not in the human ashtray sense; I only proferred the silver Deco depository for Brittany to flick her ash or extinguish a stub. Still, the entire scenario would have made a stimulating video for the serious smoking wanker set.

Even if we didn't have the video cameras rolling, we did have Anneli's camera, and the results are absolutely perfect! I've provided a slide for you to see for yourself. Look for Brittany's shoot on newsstands in July!
For more about Brittany Andrews: www.brittanydrews.com
For more about Annelie Adolfsson: www.anneliadolfsson.com

[Written in the late '90s.]