In 2005, jaw-dropping studlet Benjamin Bradley broke into the world of adult porn in a scorching sex scene in Falcon studio�s The Driver, with his hunky real-life boyfriend Roman Heart. When Roman won the Gay Video News Award in 2006 for best newcomer�an award Benjamin was also up for�he dedicated it to Benjamin. In an industry about carnal desires and grunts, the genuine emotional bond between these two was touching and all too rare, and the two maintained a monogamous relationship in their private lives. As Benjamin has said, �technically, we are not monogamous because we are having amazing video sex with many different people but, at the same time, we reserve our intimate sex for each other. � Sadly, it was not meant to be, the two men split up in the fall of 2006, but that gave Benjamin more time to devote to Chi Chi LaRue�s Channel 1/Rascal Video. His �Live & Raw� performance, where he used an array of chrome dildos, was one of the company�s most popular shows. Benjamin though is not just another pretty face, and body; thanks to his work in adult video, he was able to stay in school and complete his degree in graphic design. He is also one of the nicest, sweetest souls, with a particularly voracious � if sometimes nasty � sexual appetite, as displayed in 2006�s Boot Boy.

Career Highlights: The Driver (Falcon, 2005) and Blond Leading the Blond (All Worlds Video, 2006)

MSNBC called him the Steven Spielberg of porn�for the record he prefers to be the John Waters of porn�but we think the Martha Stewart comparison is more apt given how he has branded everything from sex toys to books and videos; no adult video director is as known, or as beloved as Chi Chi. LaRue is the occasional drag persona of a loud and proud gay man of 40-some-odd years of age and the director of some 300 adult videos. His work is among the filthiest, testosterone-fused, story-deprived� and therefore most successful�adult films of the past 20 years (2007 marks his 20th anniversary in the world of porn). If you have ever rented a video by Falcon or All World�s Video, you�ve likely rented a Chi Chi LaRue production. Superstars such as Ken Ryker, Ryan Idol and Billy Herington have been directed by Chi Chi, and have somehow given credible performances (The Matinee Idol remains Mr. Ryker�s finest video moment thanks to Chi Chi�s unrelenting close ups of Mr. Ryker�s phallus). In 2006, LaRue won the GayVN award for finest video, for the two-part gay adventure Wrong Side of the Tracks. That film was an anomaly for LaRue�an artistically-shot feature with actual dialogue. But Chi Chi�s finest moment was in publicly denouncing Vivid Entertainment, the world�s largest producer of adult content, when they decided they were going �condom optional� in their films.

Career Highlights: Conquered (All World�s Video, 2003) and The Wrong Side of the Tracks (Rascal Video, 2006)

Michael Lucas is no longer just a man � he�s an empire. After years of modeling and shooting porn films for Falcon, he began his own company, Lucas Entertainment, in 1998. �I was never interested in blowing money up my nose,� he says, �no matter how good the money is, it�s not forever so don�t waste it. Use it wisely.� Instead of joining the porn pack in California, the Moscow-born Lucas set up shop in New York City. The lack of competition allowed him to assemble the best-looking collection of models with the widest variety of ethnicities and types. It allowed him, he half-jokes, to �dominate� New York City. He�s become best-known for his bigger-budget, high-gloss porn variations on classic films Dangerous Liaisons and La Dolce Vita � each hosting a stunning array of hot men, cameos from gay celebs like Boy George and the Lady Bunny, and lots of great fashion. �As a gay man, I like to make it beautiful,� he says. �Everything I have is because of porn,� he says. �I�m very grateful.� It�s an attitude he wishes was shared by more porn stars and makers. �This industry has so many people who should not be in the business, but are there because the competition is not that big. They�re not in good shape, they�re out partying all night long.� Lucas attributes much of his success to being �always sober� and has taken out full-page ads in national gay magazines promoting safe sex and condemning drug use. �It feels good to do something to help,� he says. �If you change the minds of even a few people, that�s good. I get e-mails from men all over the world thanking me.�

Career highlights: Dangerous Liaisons and La Dolce Vita. (Lucas Entertainment, 2005 and 2006)

When Jason Tiya burst into porn less than two years ago, the entire gay porn world shook to its core: this was the birth of a bona fide superstar. Though the porn world is full of gorgeous young men with muscles upon muscles, Jason Tiya�who has a jaw dropping, gorgeous buff bod and beautiful brown skin�also possesses one of the largest endowments and finest rear ends caught on tape; he also has a wide grin that�s almost as vast as his libido. His sex scenes are scorching hot; they are full of exuberant passion fueled by a performer who genuinely enjoys having sex. In an industry where men of colour are few and far between, he has become an up-andcomer and effortlessly crossed racial lines. Jason began his career as a go-go dancer on Christopher St. in New York City and began appearing in a few low-budget productions, such as Black Manhole and Aces Gone Wild. Producer Michael Lucas eventually got his hands on him, featuring him in a dazzling scene in Michael Lucas� Auditions: Vol. 4. He was the cover model for Black Inches Magazine and worked with directors like Chi Chi LaRue. In 2006 he was coupled with another man of colour, superstar Marc Williams. He amply showcased his versatility and enthusiasm for sex in a webcam performance bound to become a classic (for more of the performance, go to marcwilliamsxxx.com). Asked what inspired him to join the adult video business, he said, �I call it a hump of good faith!�

Career Highlights: Big Muscle (Titan Media, 2005) and 2nd Inning: Little Big League II (Channel 1 Releasing, 2005)

Zeb Atlas and Mark Dalton are two giant cement blocks of muscle�one brunette, the other blond�who have attained a frenzied gay fan base without actually performing anything more explicit than a jerk-off session on a website or a video. Rumours that the two men filmed their first hardcore video� (set to be released later this month) which they co-wrote, codirected and co-produced�seem to be unfounded. As Zeb explains, the two men �had a lot of fun� making the video entitled Mark meets Zeb: The Texas Two Step, but he�s vague in describing if there is actual sex in the video. The scenario of two men co-habitating, and wondering if the other one is interested, implies only the faintest trace of hardcore explicitness. Zeb Atlas has begun to produce and distribute his own videos between visits to the gym, and he is blatant in stating that he will make a plunge into the naughty world of hardcore within the next year; Texas-born Mark Dalton, who was released from prison after spending 383 days behind bars for physically abusing his girlfriend, has been taking some time off lately to consider his options. Meanwhile, muscle worshippers can always gawk at the two men�s stunning physiques in an array of magazines spreads: Zeb was just named Advocate Men�s Magazine�s Man of the Year for 2007 and images of Mark Dalton are found on virtually any gay porn site worth its salt.

Career Highlights: Zeb Atlas in A God in Paradise (Zeb Atlas Productions, 2006) Mark Dalton in Super Soaked (Falcon, 2004)

�I�ve always liked porn from a pretty young age,� says Todd Klinck. �I discovered my brother�s porn collection in the basement when I was pretty young.� Now, all grown up, Klinck is half of a two-person porn-producing team with Mandy Goodhandy. Together, they monitor the halls, hunks and homage-payers of Goodhandy�s, the pansexual Church Street playground that is their home base. �We�ve mainly shot our porn relative to our club events�it�s mostly male-on-male oriented, but we�ve been shooting she-male and t-girl porn as well. We just shot our first t-boy jerk-off scene recently.� Klinck isn�t interested in softly-lit edenic portrayals of sexuality. To him, porn is a laissez-faire affair that doesn�t need an idyllic glaze. �A rule that Mandy taught me, and it makes total sense, is that if we find it hot, there will be other people who find it hot. What we both find hot is people being themselves, which is why we don�t edit. For me, I feel ripped off when I�m watching a porn and it�s too edited,� Klinck says, facing the projection screen that gives the gatherers at Goodhandy�s all the eye can see. From production, projection and prescription, Klinck is well-equipped when it comes to porn and the philosophy behind its appeal. �Since the beginning of time people have had a visceral interest in sex and the still-existing taboo about porn helps to garner the interest. I think it�s just a natural urge. It�s reliable. It�s something you can do alone in the age of STDs and everything else�it�s a form of safe sex.�

Career highlights: Co-creator, amateurcanadianguys.com, Mandy Goodhandy Volume 2: Hanky Panky Gets Spanky Spanky

There is an endless reservoir of pornography at one�s fingertips thanks to the web but finding an adult site that is worth paying for is another matter; that�s where RandyBlue.com comes in. �Randy Blue� may just be a cartoon character, but he delivers real guys. Founded four years ago under the guise of creating original content of gorgeous amateur men, RandyBlue.com has become a phenomenon. The site offers a vast selection of gorgeous �real guys,� professionally- shot as they jerk off, play with sex toys and engage in various forms of sexual intercourse. Bluntly put, the site is scorching. The video shoots, which average from 20 to 30 minutes in length, are as good as anything produced from Falcon or Titan Media. There is at least one original model added per week, and each day an original photo set or movie is put up. As well as establishing an array of models, RandyBlue.com has started its own line of �exclusives.� Reese Rideout for example�your basic jaw-dropping hunk-�has a massive selection of pictorials and films on the site, the most recent of which was the deflowering of his, to quote the site, �really hot ass�. The film is nothing short of breathtaking. Because of their genuine passion, the models seem to be having fun, something all too often lacking in porn today. The man behind Randy Blue is a 40-something year old man who has no interest in directing dvds, �a market which is oversaturated [and] is not what we want to do.� Besides, in a few years who will be renting or buying films in a store?

When Wakefield Poole unleashed Boys in the Sand in 1971, it was a landmark moment in film history. It was released before Gerard Damiano�s 1972 clit classic Deep Throat and advertised in The New York Times as well as reviewed in Variety. The film was a radical departure; prior to Boys in the Sand porno films�straight and gay� were crudely shot 15-minute �shorts,� called �loops,� without narrative cohesiveness, let alone decent lighting. Boys in the Sand was a hardcore male skin flick that was exquisitely shot and genuinely erotic, marketed to the mainstream. The film, influenced by Poole�s love of Kenneth Anger and Jean Genet, was conceived after he had seen one too many porno films and wondered why �someone couldn�t make a pretty porno movie.� While staying with some friends on Fire Island, Poole filmed a segment with his lover, Peter Fisk, which turned out so well he filmed more for a full-length feature. Boys in the Sand is devoid of dialogue and has the thinnest of plots: a slender hunk walks along the shore and, as if through wish fulfillment, conjures out of the waves an all- American jock ready for action�blond, blue-eyed bombshell Casey Donovan became the first bona fide superstar in the gay porn world. Poole later directed a series of heterosexual features that never quite worked before making some awful video �porn� in the �80s. Watch for the forthcoming doc on him, Dirty Poole, by the folks who made That Man: Peter Berlin.

Career Highlights: Boys in the Sand (Bijou Video, 1971) and Bijou (Bijou Video, 1972)

Kristen Bjorn is regarded as one of the finest porn directors working today. The men that populate his films are decidedly masculine, amply-muscled Latin-Americans and Eastern Europeans, who go beyond mere sex acts into the realm of acrobatics. Daisy-chain fucks frequent his films with alarming frequency. A large, voodoo-inspired orgy in The Anchor Hotel is matched only by a stranger, and larger one, in Thick as Thieves. Bjorn, like a true auteur, produces, shoots, edits, and even scores his own work. You can also buy some of the soundtracks on his website for your own private �scenes.� Bjorn is reluctant to discuss his own work and to appear on-camera, which is odd given his beginnings as a model for Falcon studios in the early �80s. But the videos are obviously a labour of love and the shoots are gruelling (check out his very �adult� documentary Making It with Kristen Bjorn for more on that). Whereas most porn scenes are filmed within a few hours, Bjorn�s take a week. The models, handsomely paid, are put to the test, often producing multiple pop shots (Bjorn�s great contribution to the oeuvre of gay porn is the �hands-free cum shot,� no small feat by any means). His technical achievements are remarkable and style distinctly his own. His exotic location shoots include Puerto Rico, Miami and Brazil, and his stunning images�striking gorgeous men entwined in one another�s arms�are the stuff of wet dreams.

Career Highlights: The Anchor Hotel (Kristen Bjorn Video, 1996) and Parashooter (Kristen Bjorn Video, 2003)

It�s almost unfair to include Bruce LaBruce on this list. As a filmmaker whose sensibilities link back to queer avant-garde �60s filmmakers like Andy Warhol, LaBruce titled a collection of his magazine columns The Reluctant Pornographer. �I�ve learned to accept the term,� he says. �I don�t have anything against pornography, it just doesn�t interest me much on a personal level � except I sort of like more home-grown porn that people make themselves. But the industry porn�it�s very robotic, capitalist and interchangeable.� LaBruce�s films are the complete opposite�his eye for what�s sexy casts a wider range. He�s filled his movies with hot skinheads, sexy disabled men and Madonna�s ex, Tony Ward. His desire to push the envelope challenges the audience and sometimes himself. �In Hustler White, I could have a group of black men gang-bang a 20-year-old muscle twink and totally play it for laughs�but when I inverted it for my next film, Skin Flick, I had a group of White Power skinheads basically raping a black character. When it came time to shoot it, I definitely learned that I couldn�t play it for laughs�it�s a much more loaded scenario.� LaBruce adds, �People either get really offended by it or they find it really hot. Secretly, over the years, I�ve gotten a lot of letters from black men who say that they find that scene a real turn-on.� For LaBruce, playing with fire is the point: �Porn is a playground,� he says, �a part of the collective unconscious where people are allowed to play with their most politically-incorrect fantasies or fetishes�it shouldn�t be mainstream.�

Career highlights: Hustler White (1996) and The Raspberry Reich (2004)

All porn stars bare their bodies but few bare their souls. Aiden Shaw became an icon partly by having a thinner line between his image and his real life. �I used my real name from the beginning,� he says, �because I didn�t want to be ashamed of what I did. I didn�t want to play a part.� Shaw considered his porn career an extension of being an artist. �I brought my integrity and my personality in the same way I do through my books or my music.� While achieving huge popularity as �the Brit with the big dick,� Shaw earned respect as a novelist, musician and all-around Renaissance Man. The writers of Sex and the City were fans and named a character after him. �A big secret in life,� he says, �is to remember the humanity in everyone,� and that theme flows throughout his work. �I see myself as an advocate for a lot of alternative-lifestyle kind of people whether it�s gays, prostitutes, porn stars, drug-takers, artists�anybody who doesn�t want to fit into the white-bread mode, I guess.� Shaw had quit porn but starred in one last film at a genredefying 37 years of age. �I wanted to show people that you can grow old and still be sexy.� Now working on a Master�s Degree in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University in London, Shaw�s best days lie ahead��he�ll be moving to Toronto in the fall to marry his boyfriend and his earlier novels are being reprinted while he works on a prequel to his hit autobiography My Undoing.

Career highlights: Grease Guns (Studio 2000, 1993) and Perfect Fit (Hot House, 2004)