Rob Zicari
Encyclopedia
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and former professional wrestling
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
promoter. Together with his wife Janet Romano
Janet Romano
Janet Romano-Zicari, better known as Lizzy Borden, is an American former pornographic actress and professional wrestling valet...
(a.k.a. Lizzy Borden) he owns the porn company Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates, formerly known as Extreme and Extreme 2.0, is a pornographic film producer, featuring a catalog of DVD titles and Internet content. It is owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Janet Romano . The studio's material is controversial, with its films often featuring erotic humiliation...
.
Zicari was prosecuted for distribution of obscenity
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
by the United States Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...
in 2004. The case was dismissed but was reinstated upon appeal in 2005. Zicari entered into a plea agreement with the government in 2009 ending the case. (See United States v. Extreme Associates
United States v. Extreme Associates
United States v. Extreme Associates is a 2005 U.S. law case revolving around issues of obscenity. Extreme Associates, a pornography company owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Lizzy Borden , was prosecuted by the federal government for alleged distribution of obscenity across statelines...
.)
Career
Zicari, son of an adult bookstore owner, started out as a porn director in the mid 1990s. His former porn company Extreme Video was started in 1993/1994 and eventually developed into the present-day Extreme AssociatesExtreme Associates
Extreme Associates, formerly known as Extreme and Extreme 2.0, is a pornographic film producer, featuring a catalog of DVD titles and Internet content. It is owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Janet Romano . The studio's material is controversial, with its films often featuring erotic humiliation...
.
Appeared as himself (Robert Black) in the documentary film Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
Sex: The Annabel Chong Story
Sex: The Annabel Chong Story is a documentary, directed, filmed, and produced by Gough Lewis, and edited by co-creator , which profiles porn star Annabel Chong...
(1999).
His work often involved scenes considered egregious and extreme even by other members of the pornography industry, such as adult performers acting as young girls, or a simulated rape of a disabled person in a wheelchair in Miscreants (1997).
In 1998, he founded the porn company, Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates, formerly known as Extreme and Extreme 2.0, is a pornographic film producer, featuring a catalog of DVD titles and Internet content. It is owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Janet Romano . The studio's material is controversial, with its films often featuring erotic humiliation...
, together with fellow porn directors Tom Byron
Tom Byron
Tom Byron is an American pornographic actor and director. He is of Italian descent and is an alumnus of the University of Houston. He has also been credited as Tom Byrom, Tim Byron, Tom Bryon, Tom Bryan, and Tommy Byron...
and Van Damage
Van Damage
Van Damage , a former soldier in an elite Special Forces unit, is a former American Porn Star and also an acclaimed director, cameraman and producer in the pornography industry...
and porn star Tiffany Mynx
Tiffany Mynx
Tiffany Mynx is an American pornographic actress and film director.- Adult film career :In 1992, she moved to Los Angeles, where she lived with her grandmother, and started to work as an exotic dancer...
(who have since left the company). Janet Romano started to work for him in the same year, first as an actress and then as a director.
Beginning in 2000, Zicari and AVN Magazine engaged in a "propaganda war" against one another, and as a result, Black's products were not reviewed or advertised in that trade magazine for several years.
In 2001 Zicari (as Rob Black) unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Los Angeles
Los Angeles mayoral election, 2001
In 2001, Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan was prevented from running for a third term because of term limits. In the election to replace him, Riordan endorsed his Senior Advisor and Parks Commissioner, the Republican businessman Steve Soboroff.-Primary Election:...
, receiving 789 votes.http://161.149.221.240/clk/elections/ND4567.pdf
Rob Zicari is nephew to porn entrepreneur Charles Zicari, a.k.a. Chuck Zane and cousin to fellow pornographers
Pornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
Mark and Matt Zane
Matt Zane
Matt "The Lord" Zane is an American musician, suspension artist, actor, poet and author.He is currently the lead singer of new industrial rock project "Lotus Rising" with world-renowned crossover cellist and electric cellist, Tina Guo....
.
Obscenity prosecution
The filming of Lizzy Borden's movie Forced Entry, which included several simulated rapeRape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
s, was covered in the PBS Frontline documentary American Porn (2002); the makers of the documentary were repulsed and walked off the set. The filming of the movie was also a part of documentary produced for the BBC 2 hosted by Louis Theroux which follows various figures of the porn industry. Louis Theroux also leaves the set in a similar manner to that of the PBS documentary. After Zicari was interviewed in the documentary and challenged Attorney General
United States Attorney General
The United States Attorney General is the head of the United States Department of Justice concerned with legal affairs and is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States government. The attorney general is considered to be the chief lawyer of the U.S. government...
John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...
. These scenes possibly led to the subsequent undercover operation by federal authorities.
In April 2003, the premises of Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates
Extreme Associates, formerly known as Extreme and Extreme 2.0, is a pornographic film producer, featuring a catalog of DVD titles and Internet content. It is owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Janet Romano . The studio's material is controversial, with its films often featuring erotic humiliation...
were raided by federal agents. Zicari, his wife and his company were indicted for distributing obscene
Obscenity
An obscenity is any statement or act which strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time, is a profanity, or is otherwise taboo, indecent, abhorrent, or disgusting, or is especially inauspicious...
pornographic materials. The case is United States v. Extreme Associates
United States v. Extreme Associates
United States v. Extreme Associates is a 2005 U.S. law case revolving around issues of obscenity. Extreme Associates, a pornography company owned by Rob Zicari and his wife Lizzy Borden , was prosecuted by the federal government for alleged distribution of obscenity across statelines...
.
Zicari's company is located in Northridge near Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, but the trial took place in Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, from where under-cover agents had ordered the offending materials.
Zicari remained in business during the trial; he continued to market and sell the five tapes that are at the center of the prosecution as The Federal Five, with a portion of the sales price going to his defense fund. Note that buyers of those materials do not break the law, since mere possession of obscenity (unlike production and distribution) is not illegal.
In April 2004, Zicari engaged in a public dispute with fellow pornographer Larry Flynt
Larry Flynt
Larry Claxton Flynt, Jr. is an American publisher and the president of Larry Flynt Publications . In 2003, Arena magazine listed him as the number one on the "50 Powerful People in Porn" list....
, who also had to fight various obscenity trials in the past. Zicari asked the adult industry for financial support to aid in his defense; Flynt declined, saying that he only promotes consensual sex and that Zicari's actions harmed the industry as a whole.
Zicari's lawyer H. Louis Sirkin initially argued that laws against the distribution of obscenity were unconstitutional since people have a right to own obscenity, but this argument was rebuffed on appeal.
After 6 years of legal costs, Black and his wife both plead guilty to the reinstated federal obscenity charges in hopes to avoid more extensive loss and penalties if they lost at actual trial.
Zicari and his wife were both sentenced to one year and one day in prison on July 1, 2009. In late September the couple began serving their prison sentences, Zicari at La Tuna Federal Correctional Institution in Texas and his wife at Waseca Federal Correctional Institution
Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca
The Federal Correctional Institution, Waseca is a United States federal prison in Waseca, Minnesota. It is a low security prison housing female inmates. The site was converted into a prison after formerly serving as a University of Minnesota campus until 1992. The prison was co-ed for a few...
in Minnesota. Instead of reporting to the intended minimum-security satellite facility, Zicari mistakenly reported to the prison's primary facility, where officials placed him in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...
for nearly a month because it "was the only space they had available."
Xtreme Pro Wrestling
In 1999, Zicari and Romano founded the Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW)Xtreme Pro Wrestling
Xtreme Pro Wrestling is an independent professional wrestling promotion formerly owned by Extreme Associates CEO and director Rob Zicari, who appeared on shows under the name Rob Black. Zicari appeared on-camera as owner alongside his wife Lizzy Borden. The promotion focuses on hardcore wrestling,...
independent
Independent circuit
In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indy circuit refers to the many independent promotions which are much smaller than major televised promotions. They are roughly analagous to a minor league for pro wrestling, or community or regional theatre.Specific promotions on the...
professional wrestling promotion
Professional wrestling promotion
A professional wrestling promotion is a company or business that regularly performs shows involving professional wrestling. Promotion also describes a role which entails management, advertising and logistics of running a wrestling event...
. He appeared on shows as the owner as well as a manager under the name of Rob Black. His heel (bad guy) stable was called the "Black Army" and featured wrestlers such as John Kronus
John Kronus
George B. Caiazzo was an American professional wrestler, better known by his ring name, John Kronus and later "Kronus". Caiazzo worked for Extreme Championship Wrestling, the United States Wrestling Association and Xtreme Pro Wrestling...
, Terry Funk
Terry Funk
Terrence "Terry" Funk is an American professional wrestler and actor known chiefly for the hardcore wrestling style he adopted in the latter part of his career that inspired many younger wrestlers, including Mick Foley...
, Abdullah the Butcher
Abdullah the Butcher
Lawrence Robert "Larry" Shreve best known as Abdullah the Butcher, and also at times The Madman from the Sudan, is a semi-retired Canadian professional wrestler known as one of the most brutal or "hardcore" professional wrestlers of all-time...
, and Juventud Guerrera
Juventud Guerrera
Eduardo Aníbal González Hernández , better known as Juventud Guerrera, is a Mexican professional wrestler who is best known for his work in many wrestling promotions worldwide, including all the major American wrestling promotions, such as World Wrestling Entertainment, World Championship...
.
XPW folded in 2003 because of issues related to the obscenity prosecution, and in 2004 Zicari sold the company's footage to Xtreme Entertainment Group.
External links
- Rob Black at the Adult Film DatabaseAdult Film DatabaseThe Adult Film Database is a website that attempts to keep records of all pornographic movies and adult film stars. This includes filmographies, partial biographies, reviews, labeled and categorized adult film stills, as well as a regularly updated adult industry blog which features the latest news...
- Zicari's statement on the raid and the continued availability of the tapes (Wayback Machine archive)
- Dispute between Zicari and Flynt
- Report on November 2004 hearing
- Dismissal of U.S. v. Extreme Associates
- Ruling of the Court of Appeals, reinstating the case against Zicari
- Links to several blog comments regarding the affair
- Interview of Rob Zicari by avninsider.com: part 1, part 2
- American Porn documentary by Frontline (first aired in 2002, updated in 2004), watchable online.