John Waters Professes Love for AVN During NPR Interview

PHILADELPHIA—John Waters took a few minutes during his interview on Terry Gross’ Fresh Air program on National Public Radio to profess his love for porn, and AVN as well. The director of such cult classics as Pink Flamingos, Hairspray! and Pecker appeared on the program earlier today. “I get AVN, which is Adult Video News, which is the trade paper for the porn business, which IS great!” he said. “They have interviews with all types of people who say, ‘Oh yes, my mother handles all my fan mail.’ And I’m like, ‘She DOES?’” Gross questioned Waters about his porn-watching habits after discussing his latest book, Carsick, which debuted this month. Carsick not only chronicles the real-life adventures Waters experienced in his cross-country hitchhiking stint from his home in Baltimore to his co-op in San Francisco, but also his imagined best-case and worst-case scenarios about his trip before he started. In his worst-case scenario, Waters is picked up by truck driver Randy, a serial killer who is hell-bent on capturing, torturing and killing all cult movie directors, including Waters, Roger Corman and more. He reads a section of that passage before Gross questions him about his imagined best-case scenario, which prominently features his favorite porn star, Johnny Davenport. “I get picked up by a porn star who is also friends with extra-terrestrial aliens who take us aboard and have sex with us, and then I meet Connie Francis,” he said of the dream. Davenport performed in the mid-’80s in several gay and bisexual porn titles, including Powertool, Big Guns, In Hot Pursuit and Innocence Lost. The discussion also included Waters recounting the time he was a judge for the “Porn Oscars”—“ Once I was the judge for the ‘Porn Oscars,’ so they sent cases of them!”—and his love for AVN. “I’m all for that magazine which always gives me ideas and probably did help this chapter,” he said. For more about Waters, Carsick and the interview, visit NPR.org.