Director Chi Chi LaRue Admits To “Drinking Excessively” And Sexually Harassing Performer Papi Suave During Noir Male Production
Last week, performer Papi Suave came forward to accuse Noir Male director Chi Chi LaRue of sexually assaulting him while intoxicated in a hotel room during production of a Noir Male feature in March of 2019. Today, LaRue has responded to Suave’s accusation with a partial admission of sexual harassment and being intoxicated, but LaRue claims to “not remember” sexual assaulting Suave.
According to Suave, LaRue was “drunk as hell” when he FaceTimed Suave and asked the performer to come to LaRue’s hotel room last year. Suave said he complied with LaRue’s request because he feared for LaRue’s safety, as LaRue had told Suave earlier that day that he often blacked out while binge drinking. (Str8UpGayPorn can confirm that LaRue has in fact blacked out while drinking, and he did so in public in front of a crowd of industry members at the Hard Rock Hotel And Casino in Las Vegas during the 2018 GayVN Awards.)
When Suave arrived at LaRue’s Los Angeles-area hotel room that night (where the Noir Male models and crew were staying during the production), LaRue allegedly forced his hand down Suave’s pants, grabbed his penis, and told Suave, “I’m going to make you a star.” Suave says he rejected LaRue and told him to stop touching him, at which point LaRue then kicked Suave out of the room.
In response to Suave, LaRue has written a statement that was published today by an author using the fake name “Dan Carrington” on porn studio NakedSword’s news blog, The Sword. LaRue is a regular director of NakedSword movies and is a close friend of NakedSword’s employees and anonymous bloggers, which The Sword’s “Dan Carrington” did not disclose when publishing LaRue’s statement.
Here’s the relevant portion of LaRue’s statement in response to Papi Suave:
I am embarrassed and honestly blindsided that [Papi Suave] would share his account of something that happened between us, and we worked through, over a year ago.
On the night Papi talks about, it’s true that I was depressed and drinking excessively. I did ask him to come over because I was in desperate need of a friend. There was no ulterior motive in doing so. I do not remember the events playing out exactly as he describes, but I do remember that it became awkward when I expressed feelings for him that he did not share.
In my thirty-six year career in the adult industry, I’ve never used my position for sex, and that certainly wasn’t my intent that night. It was naive of me to think that what I felt was an off-set personal relationship wouldn’t be clouded by our work together. This is my failing for which I accept full responsibility.
While Suave was an independent contractor and not a full-time employee of LaRue’s or Noir Male’s, this was for all intents and purposes an employer/employee relationship, as LaRue had hired Suave to work for him, and LaRue was in effect his boss for the week-long production. And while the incident occurred in a hotel room and not the film set, it still occurred during the course of the production. As LaRue was the person in charge, it’s not a matter of him being “naive,” it’s a matter of him being a drunken sexual predator harassing someone whom he hired to work for him.
LaRue—who, again, was Suave’s boss—has admitted to becoming intoxicated and inviting the person he hired for work to his hotel room, at which time LaRue also admits he “expressed feelings” for Suave. This is a crystal clear form of sexual harassment, and any person of authority in any other workplace who behaved this way with a subordinate would be fired immediately without question (and likely sued, too).
With regard to the alleged sexual assault, LaRue says he doesn’t “remember the events playing out exactly as [Suave] describes,” but he does say that it became “awkward.” Not being able to remember might be true, considering LaRue said he had been “excessively drinking.”
For his part, Suave stands by his claim and is not satisfied with LaRue’s partial admission, telling Str8UpGayPorn, “[LaRue] didn’t have ‘feelings’ for me. He just wanted to fuck me, because he thought he was entitled to fucking me. His response is complete bullshit.”
Suave added, “[LaRue’s] trying to negate accountability by making it seem like he didn’t remember what he did, even though he said that he remembers calling me and expressing he needed a friend.”
Indeed, it’s not clear how an intoxicated LaRue can remember asking for help, needing a friend, and “expressing feelings,” but then doesn’t remember other events in the hotel room. Selective memory, perhaps. Or, he’s lying.
Suave is now calling for LaRue to be fired from Noir Male, and he tells Str8Up, “If he isn’t fired, he is going to keep doing this and getting away with it.”
During a phone call with Jon Blitt—the owner of Mile High Media (Noir Male’s parent company)—Suave says that Blitt actually admitted to knowing that LaRue had a recurring problem with alcoholism.
“[Jon Blitt] knew Chi Chi was an alcoholic,” Suave said. “Jon told me that this isn’t the first time he has heard about Chi Chi being drunk and doing things he shouldn’t do.”
If that’s true, Blitt and his company could be considered complicit and legally liable in LaRue’s admitted sexual harassment and alleged sexual assault of Suave and any other workers who come forward.
The fact that LaRue has not resigned from his position and that Noir Male has not fired LaRue is a sad reminder that some in the business are still able to get away with the same sleazy, unethical, and potentially illegal behavior that mainstream America and the religious right have used to condemn the porn industry for decades.
Based on LaRue’s own admission of being intoxicated, inviting one of his workers to his hotel room, and “expressing feelings” for him during a production, Noir Male/Mile High Media must terminate Chi Chi LaRue.
