July 31, 2009 | The Biz

Lucas' 'Men of Israel' a media darling

Michael Lucas knows how to get people's attention. And the master of PR has managed to get the Los Angeles Times to not just mention, but actually profile, Lucas Entertainment's "Men of Israel."

"I doubt that Michael Lucas is in line to get a cabinet position in the Israeli government, but the New York-based entrepreneur is doing everything he can to — as he puts it — 'promote Israeli culture and tourism.' It's how he's doing it that is unusual," Patrick Goldstein wrote about the first all-male sexpic shot on location in the country and featuring an all-Jewish cast..

Goldstein said: "Whenever Jews are more open about their Jewish identity — as the Adam Sandler, Judd Apatow and Sarah Silverman generation of comedians has been in recent years — it sounds like a healthy development, as it would be for any minority culture."

Tablet magazine, devoted to issues in Jewish life, also examined the gay sex vid. In the article writer Wayne Hoffman pointed out that Jews are part of the adult biz, but seldom are they in front of the camera.

"Jewish involvement in the adult industry has been widely documented over the years," Hoffman argued. "And even though that involvement usually happens behind the scenes, where viewers never notice, or gets erased when Jewish performers adopt deracinated porn names, there have been some openly Jewish stars in straight porn. Nina Hartley, Joanna Angel, Heather Pink, and other women have succeeded without hiding their backgrounds in interviews. A smaller number of Jewish men have done the same in straight porn, although they often play their parts with tongue in cheek.

In gay porn, hunks like Dror Barak chose to hide behind more Italian names like, in Dror's case, Roman Ragazzi.

Odd. The men are all hot so it is surprising that anyone would seriously have an issue with Jewish male leads fucking the shit out of one another. It's time to book that trip to Tel Aviv ...

Check out some pics by clicking here!

Great Exxxpectations [Tablet]

'Men of Israel': The new box-office stud? [LA Times]