YNOT – When reporter Kent Jones from MSNBC’s popular The Rachel Maddow Show arrived in Dallas, Texas to film an interview at gentleman’s club The Lodge, he also met industry personalities Tony Batman and his “showgirl” partner Schevelle. The couple was introduced to Jones, and all shared polite conversation over dinner; but Batman and Schevelle came away with different impressions of their encounter with the affable MSNBC reporter.“Dawn introduced Tony and me to Kent, and we showed him the trophy room where The Lodge displays their awards, and the VIP areas of the club, as well as introducing him to some of the house dancers,” said Shavelle, who was briefly shown sitting next to Jones at dinner in the clip produced by MSNBC. “Then I sat down to dinner with Kent, as he sampled the award winning lobster and Angus steak dinner that has made The Lodge famous in Dallas. Kent asked us a lot of questions, and was very polite to me.”
Shavelle’s partner Tony Batman, however, was disappointed that Jones didn’t seem interested in discussing adult entertainment beyond the Dallas strip club.
“I was talking to Kent about my long association with both the Gentlemen’s clubs across the US and my involvement with the adult film industry, and he started to become very uncomfortable at the mention of adult films,” Batman said. “He told me that he didn’t want porn to become part of his report. It never ceases to amaze me that talking about strip clubs is okay in most people’s versions of ‘polite conversation,’ but mention the adult entertainment industry and all of a sudden it turns into an uncomfortable silence. That double standard needs to end.”
In the segment that was shown at the MSNBC website, Jones seemed enthusiastic about his trip to The Lodge, starting the segment off with the emphatic proclamation that this was his “best assignment ever.” The segment goes on to show an interview with club owner Dawn Rizos, but Batman says he was disappointed that the network chose not to air any of the interview footage it shot of Shavelle.
“I know in my heart that Schevelle would have had at least half of the 30 odd minutes of interview she taped with Kent Jones end up on air, if he hadn’t learned that I have ties to the adult industry and that Schevelle is interested in doing some web cam and video work in the future,” Batman claimed.
The segment though was only about five minutes long in its entirety, and Jones generally films brief segments for the closing minutes of The Rachel Maddow Show, so it’s unlikely that any interview would have resulted in more than a minute or two of screen time regardless of politics.
Jones was at The Lodge to film a follow-up report to a previous story about a fundraising misstep attached to former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. A conservative activist group accidentally notified Rizos that she has been selected to receive an “Entrepreneur of the Year” award that would be presented at a private group dinner with Gingrich. “Winners” were told they had to first join the group American Solutions, at a cost of $5000, a fee that Rizos paid only to see it refunded and the “award” rescinded. What proved to be an embarrassing incident for Gingrich was met with glee at liberal-learning MSNBC, where the story got coverage by popular pundit Rachel Maddow.
“I think that Dawn Rizos made a very good decision,” Schevelle said, referring to the club owner’s choice to donate the $5000 that would have done to Gingrich’s group to a local animal shelter instead. “I am so proud of her and I enjoyed being part of her announcement that she is using the money Gingrich’s group tried to bilk her out of for a good cause. She is taking that $5000 she was going to pay American Solutions for a fake award, and is putting it into funding an animal shelter.”
Rizos told MSNBC that she’s going to name the shelter “Newt’s Nook,” and that the former Speaker is invited to the upcoming ribbon-cutting ceremony should he choose to attend.
