From a story in Variety:

“The porn industry’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo has always been a colorful, if slightly tawdry, event, a reliable resource for camera crews looking to goose news ratings in the name of covering the multibillion-dollar adult entertainment industry.

However, in what is the AEE’s seventh year since splitting away from Las Vegas’s concurrent Consumer Electronics Show, the porn event has begun to look a little more like Park City…

Like the Sundance Film Festival of a decade ago, the once scrappy trade show has begun to make big deals with corporate sponsors. It’s attracting celebs who aren’t scared to show their faces.”

The article goes on to talk about how AVN publisher Paul Fishbein is an Endeavor client and the various mainstream music acts like Smashmouth who are performing at the awards. Pam Anderson is reportedly launching a line of cruelty free clothing there on Saturday night. And the article speculates that next year the AEE will be cablecast and sponsored by mainstream corporations. It closes with a quote from inexplicable NYC cable show host Robin Byrd:

“‘I’ve got respect from Time Warner,’ said former porn star Robin Byrd, host of New York’s long-running cable access talkshow that features porn stars and strippers. She’s also made a deal with Verizon to sell a package of Robin Byrd ringtones.

‘They do not hassle me anymore,’ she said. ‘You work within the system.'”