At louche ends...: Matthew Don't Rush on My Account

Here is one of the most recognizable men in the gay porn industry.

Gregory Grove (nom de porn Matthew Rush) retired from porn in late 2011, announcing he had found a partner with whom he was madly in love; and then unretired in early 2012—presumably following an unannounced breakup.

Mr. Grove began his career in 2001 and was quickly snatched and sewn up by Falcon Studios as a "lifetime exclusive performer"—which of course ended in 2009. ("Lifetime" means something totally different in porn, and on that particular clock Mr. Grove is looking decidedly feline.)

This is how the newbie Matthew Rush looked: his first movie (yes, he went straight to coverboy) and an early Falcon photo shoot. The airbrushing from Falcon at times tends to the surreal, but this is a general idea of his physique. Mr. Grove picked up both the GayVN and the Grabby Award for Best Newcomer in 2002, plus a Grabby for Best Solo.

Note how they tended to give him (or he tended to give himself) a whiteboy haircut; and one way or another (THIS COW IS COVERED IN BAKING FLOUR!) his skin tone was universally at its lightest in those early Falcon features. Falcon shot and released high-end porno after high-end porno without a single African American (the occasional Latino was permitted), and it really seemed to me (and still seems) that Falcon did their best to make this astonishingly built and beautiful young man into a superstar without ever letting his audience know he was of mixed race.

Which of course would not matter in the slightest if the major studios, at least at in the early aughties, had promoted racial diversity: all the men of the rainbow, fucking.

This is about midway through his career, I think: the late aughties, small tattoos and quite a bit thicker than his debut size. Still with Falcon, but he ditched the whiteboy hair and—while that skin tone may still be manufactured in post, at least there is starting to be—and he is starting to look—a skosh "of color".

Ah, there's no two ways about it: I like enormous muscled guys. Throughout his career, Mr. Grove has reaped silos full of shit over his supposed steroid use, but his body hasn't much changed in more than a decade—and if he's been juicing this long, it certainly doesn't seem to affect his personality and mood, which seem universally pleasant.

And, after all, who's to say this young man didn't hit the mixed-race jackpot re body type and metabolism?

Anyway, back to my point, pointless though it may be: I think Gregory Grove looks better today, at age 42, then he's ever looked before, including those early, airbrushed Falcon salad days. See this here street photo in which he appears vaguely dopey (in various ways other than dwarfism)? With the smile-crinklies?