Rob Zicari
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Robert D. Zicari a.k.a. Rob Black (born August 5, 1973 in Rochester, New York) is a U.S. pornographer and former professional wrestling promoter. Together with his wife Janet Romano (a.k.a. Lizzy Borden) he owns the porn company Extreme Associates. He formerly owned the porn company Extreme Video.
Zicari was prosecuted for distribution of obscenity by the United States Department of Justice in 2004. The case was dismissed in what many saw as a potential landmark ruling, but was reinstated upon appeal in 2005. (See United States v. Extreme Associates).
Rob Zicari is nephew to porn entrepreneur Charles Zicari, a.k.a. Chuck Zane and cousin to fellow pornographers Mark and Matt Zane.
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[edit] 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 Associates.
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, together with fellow porn directors Tom Byron and Van Damage and porn star Tiffany Mynx (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.
[edit] Obscenity prosecution
The filming of Lizzy Borden's movie Forced Entry, which included several simulated rapes, was covered in the PBS Frontline documentary American Porn (2002); the makers of the documentary were repulsed and walked off the set. Zicari was interviewed in the documentary and challenged Attorney General John Ashcroft. These scenes possibly led to the subsequent undercover operation by federal authorities.
In April 2003, the premises of Extreme Associates were raided by federal agents. Zicari, his wife and his company were indicted for distributing obscene pornographic materials. The case is United States v. Extreme Associates.
Zicari's company is located in Northridge near Los Angeles, but the trial took place in Pittsburgh, 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. The involved movies were: Extreme Teen 24 (with a scene of a naive 'pre-teen' being talked into having sex by an adult man), Cocktails 2 (various scenes of women drinking vomit and other bodily fluids), Ass Clowns 3 (a female journalist is being raped by a gang led by Osama bin Laden; the journalist is freed and the gang members killed. The director's cut version also contains a scene where Jesus steps off the cross and has sex with an angel.), 1001 Ways to Eat My Jizz and Forced Entry (the story of a serial rapist and killer who eventually gets killed by a mob).
In April 2004, Zicari engaged in a public dispute with fellow pornographer Larry Flynt, 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.
During a hearing in November 2004, Zicari's lawyer argued that the right to privacy gave individuals the constitutional right to view offending materials in private, a right which cannot be meaningfully exercised without a corresponding right of companies to distribute such materials. The prosecution countered that an individual's right to privacy is unrelated to a company's right to commercial distribution.
On January 20, 2005, the District Court judge dropped the charges, agreeing with the defense that the Federal anti-obscenity statutes are unconstitutional. The Department of Justice (now headed by Alberto Gonzales) announced on February 16, 2005 that it would appeal the ruling. That appeal was filed with the Third Circuit Court of Appeals on April 11, 2005, argued on October 19, 2005, and decided on December 8, 2005. The appeals court reversed the lower court and reinstated the suit against Zicari and Romano, ruling that the lower court had erred in setting aside the federal obscenity statutes, which had been repeatedly upheld in Supreme Court decisions.
[edit] Xtreme Pro Wrestling
In 1999, Zicari and Romano founded the Xtreme Pro Wrestling (XPW) independent professional wrestling promotion. 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" that featured wrestlers such as John Kronus, Terry Funk, Abdullah the Butcher, and Juventud Guerrera.
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.
[edit] External links
- Rob Black at the Internet Movie Database
- Zicari's statement on the raid and the continued availability of the tapes (Wayback Machine archive of page)
- Dispute between Zicari and Flynt
- Report on November 2004 hearing
- Dismissal of U.S. v. Extreme Associates
- Department of Justice announcement of appeal
- US prosecutor's brief appealing the ruling to the Third Circuit - filed April 11, 2005
- 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.
