Luke Ford

Luke Ford (born May 28, 1966, in Kurri Kurri, New South Wales, Australia) is a writer, , and pornography gossip columnist known for his salacious disclosures and traditionalist Jewish religious views.

Personal

Ford moved to California in 1977. His father, Desmond Ford, was a noted Seventh-day Adventist theologian, and was the center of a theological controversy in the late 1970s and 80s. His mother, Gwen Ford, died in March 1970, of bone cancer, when Ford was three years old.

After leaving the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Ford explored atheism before converting to Judaism in 1992.cite web|title=Interlogue #15 ~ Luke Ford|url=http://progressiveadventism.com/2007/02/04/interlogue-15-luke-ford/|date=2007-02-04|accessdate =2007-03-09] One of the major reasons for converting to Judaism was talk-show host and moralist, Dennis Prager. Ford observes the Jewish Sabbath, attends synagogue regularly, and keeps kosher. His faith conflicts with his chosen profession, which many rabbis see as immoral, and he has been asked to leave at least two different congregations. [cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/08/46001|title=Porn Stripped of Gossip Maven|accessdate=2007-06-14|author= Noah Shachtman|date=2001-08-13|publisher=Wired] Ford wrote about his religious ostracism in "XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without a Shul".

Ford has suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, which kept him bedridden for a time in his twenties.cite web|url=http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017968399.php|title=Luke Ford: Another Brash Web Columnist|date=1998-07-09|accessdate=2007-03-10]

Professional

Ford studied economics at UCLA but did not graduate. Instead, he worked as an investigative journalist for southern California newspapers and at a radio station. In 1995, he became intrigued with the lack of journalistic coverage of the pornography industry, and started to write a book, which would become "A History of X".

In January 1996, after researching porn for a year, Ford wrote, produced, directed, and acted in "What Women Want", a pornographic video, not related to the Mel Gibson movie of the same name. It was not a success. [http://web.archive.org/web/20040608151715/http://www.lukeford.com/photos/content_1-26-96.htm]

In 1997, Ford started his pornography gossip web site, LukeFord.com. It was criticised for being badly organized, but contained a large amount of information; Ford would take a tape recorder with him nearly wherever he went, and transcribed many conversations.

Ford exposed a 1998 HIV outbreak which infected an indeterminate number of actors (including Tricia Devereaux, Brooke Ashley and Kimberly Jade) who had been working with actor Marc Wallice. Ashley eventually sued Wallice, claiming that she had been infected on the set of "The World’s Biggest Anal Gangbang".

Discretion has never been a Ford strong suit. In his own words "I'm not a businessman. I'm not a conventional journalist. I'm a story teller/entertainer/lunatic."cite web|url=http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,40829-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1|title='The Most Hated Man in Web Porn'|accessdate=2007-06-14|author= Noah Shachtman|date=2001-02-01|publisher=Wired] Prominent porn stars such as Asia Carrera and Brandy Alexandre have criticised errors and inaccuracy on his site. But its impact was undeniable, and he was referred to as "the Matt Drudge of porn".

Ford was sued for defamation multiple times by people in the porn industry, including by RJB Telecom, whom he (as well as the Federal Trade Commission) accused of dishonesty; Christi Lake, whom he mislabeled in a bestiality photo; and Laurie Holmes (widow of John Holmes), for accusations of prostitution on the set. Ford has said that he has been sued five times to date: one suit was dropped, another was thrown out, another was settled when his insurance company paid $100,000, and the last two were settled when he removed some of his statements without making a retraction. [cite web|url=http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-dustup23jul23,0,7322888.story?page=2&coll=la-opinion-center
title=Rumor romp|accessdate=2007-07-23|author=Luke Ford|date=2007-07-23|publisher=Los Angeles Times] Wired magazine called him "The Most Hated Man in Web Porn". He was even physically assaulted by Mike Albo, an editor for Hustler. [cite web|url=http://www.adultvideonews.com/archives/200003/loose/loose0300.html|title=Loose Lips|accessdate=2007-06-14|publisher=AVN|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20010410162059/http://www.adultvideonews.com/archives/200003/loose/loose0300.html
archivedate=2001-04-10|quote=In an outdoor confrontation with gossip columnist Luke Ford, Albo bitch slapped Ford and chased him outside around the Hustler building.]

In August 2001, after urgings of his rabbi, Ford sold his main web site, [http://lukeford.com LukeFord.com] , to Netvideogirls.com for $25,000, and created [http://lukeford.net lukeford.net] , which avoided pornography, and focused more on Jewish issues. One year later, after nearly going broke, he returned to his pornographic roots by starting [http://lukeisback.com lukeisback.com] , with many of his old archives.cite web|url=http://www.dailynews.com/search/ci_6067495|title=Luke Ford: the outsider|accessdate=2007-06-14|author=Tony Castro|date=2007-06-05|month=June|publisher=Los Angeles Daily News] On October 23, 2007, Ford announced he had sold lukeisback.com and its contents for an undisclosed sum to an undisclosed party. [cite web|url=http://www.xbiz.com/news/85553|title=Luke Ford Selling LukeisBack.com, Distancing From Adult|accessdate=2007-10-24|author=Anne Winter|date=2007-10-24|publisher=XBiz.com] "Any writing I do on the porn industry from now on will be for publications with no porn advertising," Ford said. Those owners (whose names have not been divulged) ran the site until June 2008 but walked away from the site saying that writing the site was too much work for the money earned. [cite web|url= http://lukeisback.com/?p=1639|title= LukeIsback.com is For Sale|accessdate= 2008-08-22|author= Luke Ford|date= 2008-06-11|publisher= lukeisback.com] It was sold a second time, with the new owner being long-time industry observer Cindy Loftus. [cite web|url= http://lukeisback.com/?p=1794|title= Not Luke is…|accessdate= 2008-08-22|author= Cindi Loftus|date= 2008-07-20|publisher= lukeisback.com]

The Lukeford.com site is currently headed by Taylor Rain with most day to day blogging done by former owner Scott Fayner. It publishes gossip that is friendlier to the porn industry.

AVN Hall of Famer Bill Margold has said that "Luke Ford is exactly what we deserve... Luke's not really a blogger as much as is an Internet journalist".

Bibliography

*"A History of X: 100 Years of Sex in Film". Prometheus Books, 1999. ISBN 1-57392-678-7
*"The Producers: Profiles in Frustration". iUniverse, Inc., 2004. ISBN 0-595-66463-6
*"XXX-Communicated: A Rebel Without a Shul". iUniverse, Inc., 2004. ISBN 0-595-66441-5
*"Yesterday's News Tomorrow: Inside American Jewish Journalism". iUniverse, Inc., 2004. ISBN 0-595-66768-6

References

External links

Websites run by Ford

* [http://www.lukeford.net/ Official website] , without pornographic content
** [http://www.lukeford.net/luke_ford/bio/l1.html Autobiography at official website]
* [http://www.lukeisback.com/ Luke Is Back! Porn News] 2002-2007
* [http://yourmoralleader.blogspot.com/ Your Moral Leader] blog about Judaism and moral issues
* [http://lukeford.buzznet.com/user/ Nearer My God To Thee] Buzznet site with many photos
* [http://www.myspace.com/lukecford MySpace site] Used for personal and social activities

Other

* [http://booble.com/nation.html Luke's weekly report on Booble Nation] (site where Luke Ford used to contribute)
*Emmanuelle Richard, [http://www.ojr.org/ojr/workplace/1017968399.php "Luke Ford: Another Brash Web Columnist"] , "Online Journalism Review", July 9, 1997
*Nancy Beiles, [http://www.forward.com/issues/2000/00.01.07/fastforward.html "Porn Muckraker and Son of a Preacher Man: Luke Ford Holds Forth on Converting, Dennis Prager and the Trials of the Triple-X Industry"] , The Forward, January 7, 2000
*Noah Shachtman, [http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,46001,00.html "Porn Stripped of Gossip Maven"] , Wired magazine, August 13, 2001
*Dan Kapelovitz, [http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006/the-xxxorcist/13191/ "LA People 2006: The Xxxorcist"] , LA Weekly, April 19, 2006
*Brad A. Greenberg, [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=18014 "Interview with a serial blogger"] , "JewishJournal.com", August 3, 2007
*imdb name|id=0285760|name=Luke Ford - Appearances in "What Women Want" and pornography documentaries