By: debbie lynn elias
Making its world premiere at the 2008 Los Angeles Film Festival is a hellacious little look at everyone’s favorite Hollywood Madam – Heidi Fleiss. Best known as the Hollywood Madam, thanks to her little black book, her no naming names policy and a little bit of tax evasion, Fleiss found herself behind bars serving 37 months, including 60 days in solitary confinement, after being convicted of, among others, pandering and tax evasion. On leaving prison, with her fortune confiscated by the Feds and no real skills to speak of but for “maximizing and capitalizing” on whatever she can find, Fleiss floundered around jumping from clothing design and retailing to writing to promoter for, what else, a publicly traded sex business in Australia. But, none of that really suited her and several years ago she was forced to file bankruptcy. Now as Heidi tells it, her latest inspiration came from none other than Roseanne Barr-Arnold who, on shopping in Heidi’s LA store, “told me to got to Nevada and open a brothel.”
With their own patented brand of tongue-in-cheek humor cross-checked with reality, Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato bring us HEIDI FLEISS: THE WOULD-BE MADAM OF CRYSTAL. The documentary spans a ten month time period beginning in November 2006 (plus epilogues) of Fleiss’ journey from the mean streets of Beverly Hills and Bel Air to the mean mesas of Pahrump, Nevada as she tries to open her own stud farm. Avowing “I really do know the sex business better than anyone”, with Barr-Arnold’s comments continually ringing in her ear, Fleiss embarked on a personal crusade and a new “legal” life.
After buying 60 acres of prime Nevada desert, Fleiss plunged into plans to make this the brothel to end all brothels. Choosing the name Crystal (“because it’s a beautiful name” although on watching the film I would have to say the name was inspired for other reasons) we’re along for the journey – the good, the bad and the ugly – as Fleiss genuflects on her decision to design the brothel in keeping with the architectural design and layout of early monasteries paralleling the similarities of each “business” as she rambles on about have 20 working men at all times with 10 on stand-by. So dedicated in her conviction to the project she even had her website www.heidistudfarm.com up and running seeking male applicants. (As of this writing, it appears the website is no longer operative.)
Controversy seems to follow Fleiss wherever she goes and Pahrump is no different as is the actual making of this documentary. In earlier interviews, Fleiss talked about her need to make this documentary in order to be “paid” for the rights for her story about the stud farm. Although not confirmed, HBO allegedly ponied up “a little more than $100,000.00″ with Fleiss sinking those monies into Crystal, starting with the alleged hiring of architect David Emmer thanks to his opulent decadent design. But money is only the tip of the iceberg as we find out through numerous interviews with Pahrump residents and Nye County officials. Interviewing local Pahrump residents, the opposition against Fleiss is surprising. Be it anger over Fleiss purchasing those 60 acres “well below market value” and “paying someone off” as argued by one business owner, to hurdles posed by the State’s brothel codes wherein the licensing board may refuse licensing to applicants described as “financially insolvent” or having “a prior bankruptcy” or “financial instability.” But the biggest hurdle, which Fleiss dismisses as “minor” is the fact that she is a convicted felon, convicted of a crime that falls into the category of “moral turpitude” thus deeming her “morally unfit” under Nevada law to be a madam – her known stock and trade. Even today, she gives the impression of innocence as to the illegality of her former business, perhaps due to the fact that she compares her work as a madam to that when she was a young teen starting a “babysitting ring”, calling on friends to serve as babysitters and tailoring each sitter to the family and/or child they would be sitting for. If nothing else, Fleiss will always give you reason to sit back and give pause to her philosophies and outlook.
Serving as the backdrop to the film is an interview taken for this documentary in November 2006. At that time, Heidi was admittedly sober and alcohol and drug free for 8 days, but even more surprisingly was her admission to being addicted to crystal meth and the fact that “punishment has never been a deterrent to me for substance abuse.” During the course of filming, it is obvious that sobriety is not the watchword of the day as during much of filming Fleiss is under the influence.
Intricately interwoven with footage shot over the next 10 months, we are privy to what has to be viewed as the demise of a dream as Heidi vacillates between sobriety and addiction (and again, candidly admits and allows filming while she is under the influence of crystal meth). An eclectic and interesting woman, she relishes and collects rare art books, viewing them as means of study and inspiration. Since moving to Pahrump, she has become an avid rock collector, combing the desert for rocks to use as bathroom tile in her stud farm when and if it ever comes to fruition. The dichotomy in viewing old news footage of Fleiss in her hey day as a well groomed fashion-plate and her now in baggy sweats and stained over-sized dirty t-shirts can only be described as frighteningly depressing and sad.
For the first time, Bailey and Barbato are able to capture and convey a realism about Fleiss that has long eluded her thanks to her media persona. Here, nothing is posed or concocted for the camera and I give Fleiss credit for being gutsy and open and “letting it all hang out.” One of the most touching aspects of Fleiss is her candor about never being in love, her fear of attachment or lack of belief in relationships. Knowing this, we see a very heartfelt loving side of Fleiss in her friendship with Nevada neighbor, former madam Marianne Erickson, and her 70+ exotic birds. That relationship is probably the most honest and heartfelt picture ever painted of this fascinating woman.
The panoramic vistas of the softness of sunset over the Nevada desert is a picturesque balance to the harshness and erraticism of Fleiss’ world. As we watch her dreams of returning to glory with her stud farm rise and ultimately fade into the sunset and then resurface with new dreams that have produced a laundromat called “Dirty Laundry”, Bailey and Barbato’s footage gives us a sense that Heidi Fleiss will always be in flux, always be searching and in many ways, always be an innocent lost in the desert.
Over the course of filming, Fleiss opened up about her childhood, the pride she felt (and clearly still does feel) at being junior chess champion in Los Angeles at age 13 and 14, the success of her babysitting business. She even talked about her favorite book, Shel Silverstein’s “The Giving Tree” wherein she equates herself to the tree and it’s ability to give people what they want. After seeing HEIDI FLEISS; THE WOULD-BE MADAM OF CRYSTAL, I only hope that one day Heidi is able to give herself what she what she truly wants.
Written and directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato.
