James Deen Sexual Abuse Allegations Hang Over Porn Oscars Win

James Deen has gone from porn world golden boy to a divisive accused sexual abuse perpetrator in just a matter of months, but that hasn’t eliminated all of his support: James still picked up two statues at this year’s AVN Awards — the Oscars of porn.

Still, that number is dwarfed by the amount of categories Deen lost out on. Even though he managed to land the prizes for Best Group Sex Scene and Best Double Penetration, James didn’t come out on top in 31 other races in which we was nominated. At last year’s AVN awards, Deen won four. At one of the other major porn award ceremonies, XBiz, he wasn’t in the running for anything.

It’s a stunning decline for James who was, almost without question, one of the biggest stars that the porn industry had ever seen. Deen even crossed over to mainstream film opposite Lindsay Lohan in the Bret Easton Ellis-penned The Canyons. Even though the movie tanked, it was notable for James. From then on, he had something of a mainstream crossover appeal in the press — appearing for interviews in places not generally frequented by adult film stars.

Now, even at the AVN Awards among his own industry buddies his name is spoken softly, and only if nobody else is around. Maxim‘s Ali Drucker, who attended the ceremony, was constantly prying for details about how the community felt about the sexual abuse accusations against Deen. As it turns out, porn insiders aren’t quick to discuss them at all; they seem to be caught between bashing and defending him.

James himself seems to be relatively unaffected by the controversy. When asked by Drucker why he had decided to come to the ceremony, Deen’s response seemed to indicate that he had other things on his mind.

“It’s always important for me to be at the awards every year. I used to not care. I used to just be like ‘Oh yeah, whatever, I don’t care about the AVN awards!’ and then I won one, and then every year after that, it’s the most important time of the year. If AVN was canceled…I would be sad.”

It’s possible that James did go home a bit sad Sunday evening. He lost out on Best Performer of the Year to Mick Blue, an award that he said was “the only one that matters,” and if porn stars were hesitant to even discuss him, it would be hard to imagine that his after-show mingling wasn’t at least a little awkward.

Still, the fact that he was even there shows a certain firmness against the allegations levied against him. Prominent porn sites Evil Angel and Kink.com both ended their working relationship with Deen, and as of now, a total of nine women have come forward with accusations of forced sexual activity or violence — most of which victims say happened on set. That’s not exactly the kind of image problem that the adult film industry needs.

Despite that, James has still maintained innocence. When speaking with The Daily Beast last month, Deen told the news site that he was completely baffled by the stream of sexual abuse allegations — particularly those released by his ex-girlfriend Stoya.

“I also can’t speak to her motivations. There are public articles all over the internet, written by her, that make the exact opposite claims. She discusses how we communicated and how we were very careful with consent especially when involved with rough sex. What I do know is that Stoya and I did not have a clean break up. It was pretty messy, full of a lot of emotions and both Stoya and I are to blame for that.”

What do you think about the sexual abuse accusations against James Deen?

[Image via Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images]