Las Vegas Porn Expo: more than a feeling

Every year as the world's largest gadget show cools off, the exhibition hall merely feet away heats up with the combined power of porn purveyors, the starlets they feature and the lustful gazes of the fans that line up to see them at the Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas.

Half Renaissance fair (read: a lot of bizarre costumes and exposed cleavage), half sex shop on steroids, the show attracted seemingly thousands of men Thursday, just 30 minutes after the doors opened. As the distinct scent of marijuana smoke wafted through the air, fans mingled with industry veterans, lining up for photos and autographs in a snakey maze of giant booths devoted to the lucrative art of selling sex — or at least sexual fantasy.

The annual fan show precedes an awards show on Saturday for the adult entertainment industry in Las Vegas.

Porn stars are amazing to watch work a crowd, especially one packed with press photographers like this one. I was talking to one adult actress who was sipping a drink, demurely and shyly, discussing her favorite author, Kurt Vonnegut. The next moment, at the appearance of two photographers, she put on  her "sexy face" and started striking totally raunchy poses against a wall. When the photographers departed, she instantly picked up her drink and told me she was of the mind that "Cat's Cradle" definitely gets the nod over "Slaughterhouse-Five."