In November, adult actress Stoya accused fellow porn star and former boyfriend James Deen of rape. In the days following Stoya's initial allegation, more women came forward with similar stories. To date, a total of 12 women have accused Deen of some form of sexual misconduct.
While Deen's image suffered publicly and multiple porn studios cut ties with him, the adult actor was still nominated for 33 AVN Awards -- considered the "Oscars" of porn. Despite the slew of allegations against Deen, he took home two "porn Oscars," as well as being nominated for 31 other awards including Male Performer Of The Year, Best Amateur Porn Movie and Best Director -- the latter for a movie titled "Stockholm Syndrome" in which a woman is reportedly abducted and "plays with boundaries of consent."
According to Maxim writer Ali Drucker who attended the awards ceremony, applause was sparse for Deen. "When his photo was plastered on the monitor as the nominees were read, no one seemed to cheer for him the way they yelled and clapped for the other performers," Drucker wrote. "After all, who wants to applaud an alleged serial rapist?"
Deen at the AVN Awards Saturday night.
According to Fusion, AVN quietly cancelled its first-ever panel on consent that was set to take place the day of the awards. The panel titled "Consent Degrees: Yes, No and Everything in Between" was supposed to feature Stoya, but she backed out of the panel and also did not attend the AVN Awards, which took place later that night.
The panel's "about" section on the AVN website described it as a way to discuss how to make the porn industry safer for performers. "We’ll bring together a group of experts and industry veterans to discuss how the adult community can work to make sure performers -- particularly young newcomers -- are comfortable about speaking up if they’re not really down with what’s happening on and off set," the description reads.
While the panel was cancelled, the description is still up on AVN's website. Read the full description below.
Joanna Angel, who accused Deen in December of assaulting her during their six-year relationship, told Cosmopolitan.com how she feels about Deen now after so many women have come forward. "I blocked James Deen many years ago, so I don't see him and I don't see anyone who tweets about him. I don't care about him at all," she told Cosmo at the AVN Awards on Saturday. Angel co-hosted the event with fellow adult actress Anikka Albrite.
Porn star and former co-worker of Deen, Tasha Reign also spoke with Cosmo about working with Deen.
"Here's the thing: I loved performing with James Deen. I had many scenes with him and only have good things to say about working with him," Reign told Cosmo. "But the truth is, I can't perform with him anymore. Women very rarely lie about these kinds of things, the statistics show, and I believe them and I just can't work with him anymore."
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