His "American Gladiator" appearance as the character "Militia" on the newly revamped show, announced yesterday, is bringing on a wave of more mainstream attention.
Celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton got a hold of Cortez's news yesterday, and with a link to COLTStudioGroup.com, COLT received an unexpected number of visitors who temporarily shut the site down.
"We were fortunate enough to be listed on PerezHilton.com yesterday and had so much traffic from it in such a short amount of time that our servers crashed," COLT Studio Group President John Rutherford told XBIZ. "We're still receiving a high volume of traffic, but we've made changes to our system to take on the online demand."
Additionally, the National Enquirer is preparing to print a story about Cortez's COLT work, though Rutherford said the printed images will not be hardcore.
"[Cortez's] photography is not scandalous and very tasteful as all COLT Men photography is," Rutherford said. "We have not survived 40 years as a gay lifestyle brand for nothing and our men as well as all our products are high-quality and well respected."
Cortez previously appeared in front of COLT director Jim French's cameras a few years back, according to the company. He was photographed in the Butt Beautiful 2003 calendar and also appears in a number of novelties such as playing cards for the company.
"As Playboy is to Pamela Anderson, so is COLT for Alex Castro in a nutshell," Rutherford said. "Jim French shot many hot, muscular men over the last few decades and as the all-male leader in masculine erotica, Elian's photos speak for themselves."
Cortez has a fan site on the American Gladiator blog site, which names his interesting fun facts such as his appearance in Cirque du Soleil. For more information, visit the "American Gladiators" blog site and COLTStudioGroup.com.