Billy Santoro Trashes Jon Blitt And Chi Chi LaRue’s “Noir Male” Studio
Last week, Str8UpGayPorn received an anonymous tip that cell phone sex tape performer Billy Santoro had been fired from his production job at Icon Male due to his alleged mistreatment of a model who had been cast in an Icon Male production. That unnamed model canceled their own shoot with Icon Male due to verbal abuse from Santoro in the days leading up to production, and after news of the model’s mistreatment made its way to Santoro’s boss—Jon Blitt, the straight man who owns Icon Male and Mile High Media, the straight porn conglomerate based in Canada—Santoro was allegedly fired. (On an unrelated note: Santoro is still named as a defendant in the federal lawsuit against Blitt, Icon Male, and Nica Noelle for illegally filming porn in a Martha’s Vineyard home, so while Santoro may not work for them anymore, they’ll all still have to deal with each other in some regard until the suit is over.)
While Str8UpGayPorn has been unable to confirm Santoro’s firing from Icon Male, it’s clear that Santoro is not afraid to criticize his (former?) boss, based on what Santoro is saying publicly today about the other gay porn studio that Icon Male’s Jon Blitt owns: Noir Male.
Noir Male is Blitt’s new gay porn studio promising to “showcase black men as they deserve to be seen,” and while there are several exceptional black performers on the site, a majority of Noir Male’s models are white men, not black men. As of post time, there are 29 men on Noir Male’s “models” page, with 16 of them being white, and 13 of them being black or mixed race, so the studio’s title and tag line may be misleading for customers hoping to join a site that features mostly black men. That said, Noir Male has time to grow and live up to their mission, so we wish them well. Billy Santoro, however, does not appear to wish them well, as he trashed both the studio and its director, Chi Chi LaRue, on his blog this morning. And remember, this all comes on the heels of Santoro allegedly being fired by Jon Blitt, Icon Male and Noir Male’s owner:
I had a chance to review the site. I feel like every scene is interchangeable. Maybe it would do the site some justice to have multiple directors producing content. It also shows that perhaps Chi Chi LaRue is not growing with the times. I felt like I was watching scenes from the late 90s. Nothing felt new! The men cast for the scenes are drop dead gorgeous men. But why are they not getting the focus of the marketing push? I’ll tell you why. There is still that fear that black men simply do not sell in gay porn. Chi Chi not only keeps her directing style in the 90s, but also her out of touch view of the market. I get asked by many in the industry if I think Noir Male with last. The short answer: No. It will lose too much before it makes any. Some advice for Noir Male. Don’t fetishize a race! You can use your content methods, but focus more on being relatable rather than watching a big black dick fuck.
While Billy Santoro may have made some points that some might agree with, the fact that he’s making disparaging remarks about a studio owned by someone who just allegedly fired him delegitimizes anything he says, especially considering that he’s not disclosing his recent firing, assuming it did happen. Noir Male only launched yesterday, and if they can focus on filming great sex scenes with more black men—as the studio’s title advertises—in the coming weeks and months, the studio can become competitive.
Finally, it’s sad to see that Santoro and LaRue (who, as the director for Noir Male, works for Jon Blitt) have apparently had a falling out. The two had been very close, with LaRue sharing that she and Santoro have been friends for “like 10 years” in a tweet from last April. Hopefully in time, the two can make amends.
