US hard-core porn pioneer Al Goldstein, who went from multimillionaire owner of Screw magazine to being homeless on the streets of Manhattan after his sleaze empire
collapsed, is making a comeback.
Goldstein, 69, last employed as a greeter at a Kosher deli and as a wholesale bagel salesman working on commission, is back promoting smut, this time over the medium
that helped push him from his porn pedestal -- the Internet.
Goldstein was named on Monday as national marketing director for XonDemand, an Internet video-on-demand porn Website. The site is an Internet version of the
old-fashioned peep shows that populated the once-seedy stretch of 42nd Street west of Times Square. Customers can pay a per-minute charge for viewing a pornographic
firm or order the whole movie.
Goldstein built an $11 million fortune off the now-defunct Screw, which he founded in 1968, and New York cable TV show Midnight Blue. He went bankrupt more than a year
ago, blaming his fall on the proliferation of porn on the Internet.
Legal problems have also plagued the former porn king, who was forced to sell his $2.5 million Florida mansion and New York townhouse to pay off debts.
Goldstein, who had taken to sleeping in Central Park and at homeless shelters, was charged with shoplifting from a Manhattan bookstore last year.
He was convicted in 2002 of harassing a former secretary, whom he accused of stealing, by disparaging her on his cable TV show, printing her home address in his
magazine and threatening her over the telephone.
Friday, April 15, 2005 12:53 IST