I just had a brief phone conversation with adult superstar Aurora Snow. We have never met, but I am thinking of doing a profile of her for Las Vegas Weekly. She doesn't live here, yet in a sense she has become a regular headliner albeit just a tad south of the Strip at Las Vegas Boulevard and Sunset to be precise, the location of Pleasures topless bar which even when she is not in town, advertises itself as "the Home of Aurora Snow." (Snow will actually appear in Las Vegas on stage next at Pleasures January 5-7.)

Not coincidently, January 7 is the annual AVN awards at the Venetian, and Snow attributes a large part of her fame to being chosen AVN's Female Performer of the Year in 2003.  She described them to me:

They are like the mainstream's Oscars. All year long performers, directors and companies do their thing and come January you see who has done the best. Everyone does well, but who has done above and beyond just doing well and that is what the awards reflect.

Snow was particularly happy about being chosen in 2003, because she credits her AVN award with allowing her to work behind the camera. "It allowed me to get my foot in the door as a director and I don't think that opportunity was available to me before I won the award." Of course, the AVN awards is one of the hardest tickets to get in in Las Vegas; fear not I will be there taking one for the team and letting Buffet readers know what happened.

(photo by Francine Orr/LAT)