This scene is more Brady Bunch/Married . . . With Children than it is Horny Housewives/Anal Bangers 14.
A chain-link fence surrounds the backyard. There's a propane grill, a swing set perched in a sandbox and a smallish bright green lawn.
"This grass grows year-round," says Richard proudly.
Sounds of kids at play cascade through the neighborhood.
New Times' photographer is shooting Nikki, who is clad in a pink, vinyl bunny suit. She jumps, crawls and gyrates around the yard. She is good at her job. She knows where the correct light is. She is in tune with her body and how it's positioned. She pouts on command. She defines Madison Avenue sex appeal with a flick of the wrist, an arch of the brow, a jut of the hip.
It's a talent. She knows that look. That look that men can't get in real life.
Richard watches with a demeanor that is at once half adoring and half bored. He is in love with his wife, but he has seen this so many times before. It's strange. He is married to a porn star. One forgets after a while.
Richard is comfortable in a Hawaiian shirt that covers his slightly expanding midriff. He appears to be in his mid- to late 30s and has short brown hair. He likes to talk, and reveals personal things freely, with a kind of truck-driver ease.
Richard talks of Nikki's first sex scene in a porno film. It was with Shayla LaVeaux, in a film for Sin City. He was on the set--he's always on the set. The scene unfolded in the back of a moving cab, and Nikki kept trying to force Shayla's ass up to the window of the moving cab. The girls were having a blast even though they could've been arrested. This scene was also Nikki's first ever experience with a woman.
"I was nervous a bit, but the scene went really well," Richard says. "They [the crew] were going, 'Okay, we've got a new girl on the set and she's gonna be really nervous, so everybody watch what you're doing, and be gentle,' and all this, and she like just took over."
Richard is one of a long line of porn starlets' significant others who refer to themselves as their mate's manager. Often, they are looked down upon as hangers-on and referred to as "suitcase pimps."
Richard eschews this and for good reason: He is the man behind the woman. He helps with her extensive wardrobe, fan club and does the lion's share of child care and housework. Richard doesn't define his masculinity through doing. He just is.
What about her first scene with a male performer? What was it like watching your wife with another man?
"I knew we were gonna do the scene [Intense Perversions #5] and it was with Peter North. And it was a step-by-step thing getting into this [sex industry], you know, first [her] dancing was gonna kill me, then the photo shoots were gonna do it, and later, her featuring on the road I thought she was gonna get too big-headed and we would lose each other. And each step of the way I thought something would cause us to break. It never did. Then we got into the movie set with Peter North, and he came in, sat next to me and we were watching a basketball playoff game and laughing and talking about the game and the whole shot. Then they started their scene, and I just handled it."
He hesitates and repeats, "I just handled it."
No twist of agonizing jealousy?
"Maybe a little bit, but it was like, I know her so well and I know if it was me doing the scene, I can't say that I wouldn't enjoy some of it. I told her, 'Ya know, if you enjoy it, that's okay.'
"But afterwards, the only problem, I guess, was wondering if I could measure up to this guy," he adds without a hint of irony. "She assured me that I was fine, and we went from there."
Is there anything that Nikki doesn't do on-screen?
"Nikki doesn't do anal on-screen, even though most stars do. Sin City knew this when they signed her."
Later, in the family living room, we meet Nikki's stepson, Ricky. He's like any 14-year-old boy in the appropriate garb: baggy shorts, oversize shirt and cap. He looks like a white rapper. He says "Hey" in a strangely deep voice and disappears out the front door en route to a movie with his taller, gawky friend.
According to Richard, Ricky and his friends don't know Nikki's a porn star.
Nikki introduces their son Brandon. He comes in wet from jumping through the sprinkler. Brandon is a beautiful 4-year-old with big blue eyes and a blond Ringo bowl cut. He's always laughing. He farts and it just kills him. And like his mother, he's a ham in front of the camera. He mugs up to it and gives it a big world-revolving grin. Then he turns to his mother and tells her he loves her. She squeezes him tightly and tells him how much she loves him back. It's a tender moment.
