Well, finally! Hollywood is starting to realize there’s a whole wealth of talent that they’ve just ignored. Porn stars! While producers for years have tried to get young starlets onto the casting couch they’ve disregarded those dedicated young thespians who make their living blowing guys. As if studying at Julliard is any better preparation for a serious acting career than servicing the pool boy and his tattooed friend.Hollywood has finally woken up.
Porn stars are crossing over into mainstream pictures with great regularity these days (well 5 out of maybe 20,000 but that’s still up from 2). Traci Lords perhaps was the first to breakthrough. Despite thinking she can lecture on comedy, Traci has proven herself to be a capable actress. From John Waters CRY BABY to a guest appearance on MARRIED WITH CHILDREN (where she probably gained her expertise on the art of comedy) Traci has delivered the goods. Jenna Jameson’s star turn in Howard Stern’s PRIVATE PARTS was also admirable. No dialogue coach needed here. As an actress Ms. Jamison can stand on her own two knees.
And Nina Hartley’s portrayal of a porn star in BOOGIE NIGHTS was incredibly realistic. Dare say she’s method?
Ashlyn Gere (not to be confused with the less nuanced Richard) is as well known for her work on SPACE: ABOVE AND BEYOND as she is for her own movie, ASHYLN GERE – PUT IT IN GERE: PUT IT IN HER REAR.
And now comes Katie Morgan (pictured above) who appears in Kevin Smith’s new feature, ZACK AND MIRI MAKE A PORNO.
Certainly crossing over into mainstream is an adjustment for these porn stars. Just learning the correct industry terms can be a chore. DP means Director of Photography not Double Penetration. But they have down time on the set to learn. Entire movies aren’t shot in seven hours.
Hopefully this trend will continue. More queens of the silver screen and golden showers will become legitimate actresses, Broadway divas, or at the very least, anchors for Fox News.
39 comments :
http://www.spike.com/show/29128
James Gunn's PG Porn.
Not as mainstream, but definitely a project worth looking at.
For those who like watching porn, but are annoyed by the constant interruption of sex.
What a disappointment. It was all about girls. What's that all about? I've seen hundreds of porn films, and have a fair sized collection of porn DVDs, and there's not a single girl in any of them! Girls do porn too? Ew!
Traci Lords is also in the current release "Zack and Miri Make a Porno," where she probably (I haven't seen it. Seth Rogan could only get cast in gay bear porn.) gives the most authentic performance of her career, although her stint on ROSEANNE 10 years ago did make Roseanne's acting look better.
On LOGO, there's a campy vampire series called THE LAIR, and almost the whole cast consists of gay porn performers, although it is not porn. The thing is, in amongst all the lousy, non-acting we associate with porn, there are always a few who actually have some genuine acting chops. (Believe me, convincingly pretending to be extremely turned on by some foul-smelling skank you met on the set 10 minutes earlier, takes talent.), and THE LAIR uses mostly the more talented performers.
Girls in porn films. What won't they think of next?
One actress who did porn and later had a career in both signing and acting? Barbra Streisand. Try wrapping your mind around THAT disturbing image.
P.S. IF it's true that is. I never found out if the legend was correct, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's heard that tale.
Perhaps you could do them all on the Dodger post game show....
"Simon H. said...
P.S. IF it's true that is. I never found out if the legend was correct, but I'm sure I'm not the only one who's heard that tale."
Well nothing like libelling Barbra Steisand on the basis of a rumor that, yes, you're the only person who's ever heard. Who gives you your info, Karl Rove?
BTW, it's not true, but don't let facts stop you from smearing her.
Now Sylvester Stallone DID do a porn movie at the dawn of his career, but there's proof of that, namely the film itself, and numerous photos of Sly's shortcoming. And, given his acting,it's hardly surprising. But it WAS straight porn.
Ken, Ken - You're driving me crazy with apostrophes the last two days. Yesterday, it was FOX NEW'S, when it should have been FOX NEWS'. Today, John Water's rather than John Waters'. You can change FOX SNOOZE all you want, but not John Waters!
Either way, I do prefer the original signing porn to the more recent dubbed or closed captioned -- which are an abomination to the filmmaker's original sensibilities.
My favorite part of this derisory afterthought of a post was misspelling the name of Jenna Jameson. I know, why let facts get in the way of an effort-free snort at something too beneath mainstream contempt? Thank God there were all those trenchant insights in the post to obviate the need to sound the least bit familiar with the subject matter.
(Cue inaccurate reductive twaddle about my "loving porn" to smokescreen my point.)
Hey mobutu,
Thanks for pointing out a mis-spelled word. I hope on your blog that I'm sure you update every day the spelling and grammar is perfect.
"Hopefully this trend will continue."
I hope not! The Fox News line was funny, but to be serious for a second, I would hate to see young actresses thinking that porn is the easiest way into the mainstream movie industry.
Streisand's last effort in the adult film business was that bomb with Kris Kristofferson, A STAR IS PORN...
One of my guilty pleasures of TV was watching Space: Above and Beyond.
And I did not even know a porn star was in it.
Guess I have an excuse to buy the DVD set now!!
But they have down time on the set to learn
Not that a porn star really needs practice on down time.
Let's take the Spelling Police outside after class and pants him.
quigley: You're forgetting Streisand's other porn masterpiece: What's Up Doc?
I believe she had the title role.
And regarding this statement, mcewan:
(Believe me, convincingly pretending to be extremely turned on by some foul-smelling skank you met on the set 10 minutes earlier, takes talent.)
To this I say: And you know this how exactly?
Okay, a few thoughts:
- Back in the '70s, porn stars used to get quite a few straight gigs, especially the men. They were clearly all hoping to break into the big time and doing porn to get by. The strangest sighting to me, seeing Paul Thomas play Peter in Jesus Christ Superstar.
- I'd second @sephim's recommendation of PG Porn. Funny stuff.
- Is it wrong that I've got a crush on Katie Morgan because the special episode of HBO's Real Sex on her?
Re: d. mcewan I was just pointing out the rumor about her that's been around for 20 years. I wasn't smearing or libeling anyone, and you're probably the only person I've ever had compare me to Karl Rove. Lighten up d., it's only a blog ;-)
Ken, the biggest recent news regarding this phenomenon is a porn star named Sasha Grey getting cast as the LEAD in an upcoming Steven Soderbergh film, "The Girlfriend Experience."
Re Streisand: Many moons ago I worked in a video store and we carried a tape that purported to be porn clips of various celebs pre-fame. The "Streisand" scene was clearly just some gal with a largish nose. Indeed, if memory serves, none of these supposed celebs would've gotten any further than some Vegas look-alike revue. If the Streisand rumor began with this video, I call shenanigans.
Didn't Stallone do a porno in his early years?
"although her stint on ROSEANNE 10 years ago did make Roseanne's acting look better"
SNAP! Also very true. Plus, her annoying stint as Jack of All Trades' sexy sidekick on Profiler was a Great Moment in Bad Acting for a series that was pretty terrible to start with.
Chuck "The Rifleman" Connors was also credited with being in a porn movie, but it wasn't true. Nor is it true that Trigger was cast in the hardcore version of Catherine the Great.
Word verification: frettor. Now I'm worried.
"DP means Director of Photography not Double Penetration."
i can honestly say i never thought i'd ever see those words put in that particular order in my life.
cap'n bob: Yeah, "Connors" was in that same video compilation as "Streisand." I forget who else, but I think "Marilyn Monroe" was one.
Ashlyn Gere also did one episode of The X-Files under the name Kimberly Ashlyn Gere, as well as an episode of Millenium, both produced by the same two guys who also were the show-runners at Space: Above and Beyond -- evidently they're really big fans of hers.
Her Wikipedia article currently says she's married, has a kid, and is selling real estate in Texas these days. Good for her, and I hope she's having a great life.
what a surprise, the guy who has a huge porn collection defending barbara straisand
Stallone didn't do porn. He did that kind of Skinnemax soft-core crap, that doesn't deserve to be called porn.
There is, however, porn of Marilyn Monroe. Not my thing, but if you're into fat chicks...
"Roger Owen Green said...
Ken, Ken - You're driving me crazy with apostrophes the last two days. Yesterday, it was FOX NEW'S, when it should have been FOX NEWS'. Today, John Water's rather than John Waters'."
Well as long as we're giving usage lessons:
THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE By Strunk & White:
I. 1. (First rule in the book)
"Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's.
Follow this rule whatever the final consonant. Thus write,
Charles's friend
Burns's poems
the witch's malice
Exceptions are the possessives of ancient proper names ending in -es and -is, the possessive Jesus', and such forms as for consciences' sake, for righteousness' sake."
So Rog, if you're going to correct, make sure your correction is correct. It should be FOX NEWS's and John Waters's.
"Simon H. said...
Re: d. mcewan I was just pointing out the rumor about her that's been around for 20 years. I wasn't smearing or libeling anyone, and you're probably the only person I've ever had compare me to Karl Rove. Lighten up d., it's only a blog ;-)"
Do you think Babs wouldn't consider it a smear? If you're going to accuse a famous person of doing porn, you better be right. And I brought up Karl Rove as someone who would delight in smearing Streisand.
"Anonymous said...
what a surprise, the guy who has a huge porn collection defending barbara straisand
Stallone didn't do porn. He did that kind of Skinnemax soft-core crap, that doesn't deserve to be called porn.
There is, however, porn of Marilyn Monroe. Not my thing, but if you're into fat chicks..."
Anonymous, I'm sure you meant "huge GAY porn collection," as your implication doesn't work otherwise. And I never said it was "huge" (as in filling a room), I said "Fair-sized, as in it fills a three-foot long shelf.
And her name is spelt Barbra Streisand, not Barbara Straisand.
Actually, I am not at all a Streisand fan. I have gay porn. I have not even one single Streisand album, CD, or DVD. Don't care for her work or voice. Like her politics though. And her current step-son is kinda hot.
And Stallone showing the world "Little Sly" (And I do mean "Little") in an orgy scene qualifies as porn; just ask any Mormon, or L. B. Mayer.
Whether MM's Playboy centerfold qualifies as porn I'll leave to others, and just marvel at a person who thinks of perhaps the most voluptuously beautiful woman of the 20th Century as a "fat chick". There's no pleasing some folks. So you're more turned on by the Shelley Duval, living skeleton look? So was Sophia Loren a porker? Ava Gardner? Yvonne DeCarlo? Jayne Mansfield?
What was your name again Anonymous?
d. mcewan: Once again, I didn't smear anyone by pointing out a long-held rumor. Get over yourself, I'm sure Babs has heard worse :-)
Meow!
Hey, Simon H.:
> Once again, I didn't smear
> anyone by pointing out a
> long-held rumor.
Bzzt! Wrong answer, but thanks for playing our game, "Ignorance of the Law".
I'm not a lawyer, and my wife's not a lawyer, but she's been a legal secretary typing up lawsuit briefs for a quarter-century, and she tells me that it's an axiom of libel/slander law that anyone who repeats such, knowing it to be untrue, is just as guilty of libel/slander as the person who originates it...so as a word to the wise, I suggest you shut your big yawp.
I'm sorry, Mr. Levine, but this guy's going to get you into trouble. You might want to consider deleting his comments.
yeah, the "gay guy like barbara straisand" (whatever) joke, my heart wasn't really in it.
I'm not talking about some lame centerfold, I'm talking about a rare black & white film that was found of hers, she was a lot younger and more "voluptuous". But don't take my word for it, you're sitting in front of a computer with internet access, just put it to the use it was originally intended for.
Wow I never knew so many armchair lawyers/legal experts read this blog :-)
"Barefoot Billy Aloha said...
And regarding this statement, mcewan:
(Believe me, convincingly pretending to be extremely turned on by some foul-smelling skank you met on the set 10 minutes earlier, takes talent.)
To this I say: And you know this how exactly?"
I read.
Some gay porn stars have written (Or, let us say, co-writen) memoirs. Others write - Gasp! - blogs! And I have read some of them, in between the novels of Dickens and the plays of Shakespeare.
Their books run quite a gamut. Jim Bentley's LAST TIME I DREW A CROWD is clearly written by him and no one else, as its stunning illiteracy proclaims on every page. No one even gave it a casual proof-read or a spell check, as misspellings abound in every sentence, most of which are horribly constructed, and amazingly ungrammatical.
At the other extreme, longtime British gay porn star Aidan Shaw is a genuine writer, having turned out books of poetry, novels, and a moving memoir titled MY UNDOING. He's actually a really good writer.
Quite recently Bobby Blake's (Big black stud, not the acquitted actor-turned-killer) MY LIFE IN PORN has a credited co-writer, who is probably the reason this book ever so slyly undercuts this porn-star-turned-preacher's portrayal of himself as a reasonable man of God, and a crusader for better porn onset conditions, and instead reveals him as a violent thug who doesn't see how relating how he sent co-stars to the hospital with brutal treatment makes him come across as a thug, or how his amazing tale of breaking an unfaithful lover's legs with a baseball bat an hour before delivering a sermon in a church, shows him as a scary, hypocritical psycho.
Some of the porn star blogs are just for publicizing themselves, but others, like Eric Rhodes's relentlessly depressing "Slipping Away," tell in no-holds-barred terms tales from the sets he is working on.
ALL of these have in common instances of arriving on set, and meeting their "Co-star" less than an hour before having to have sex on camera with them, and finding them filthy, smelly, psychotic, repellant creeps. They don't say this happens every time. MY UNDOING is the story of Shaw's doomed love affair with another performer that began onset. ("When you watch our scene, you're seeing us fall in love for real.") But it has happened to ALL of them, and they must either quit the film, or grit their teeth, and do their best to look like they are into a liaison they are actually repelled by.
So that's how I know. Hey, you asked.
Sorry Aloha Bill, it was Zadig who asked. My sincere apology. Mea Culpa.
I have never performed in porn, no matter what you've heard. (Except for that 16mm short I did in 1948, AXEL'S ACTING LESSON.) and Pauline Kael wrote of my performance in 1965's DEMENTED, "Tallulah Morehead's acting never rises to the level of bad porn acting." High praise indeed!
I did however direct a lesbian porn film in 1969, titled THE CARPETMUNCHERS, the last film I ever worked on. It began life as my adaptation of Radcliffe Hall's THE WELL OF LONELINESS, but my producer rewrote it, and shot some scenes I never wrote behind my back. The result embarrassed me, although it was one of the most financially successful films I ever worked on.
As a viewer, not being a lesbian, except when I have no other erotic options available, like during a trip to the lady's room, I prefer gay porn. The men are so much more attractive. How can any woman hope to get aroused watching a naked Ron Jeremy?
Cheers
Ken........please don't encourage these girls to go mainstream. As my grandmather used to say..."leave alone"! They're great at what they do and provide so many friends of mine with "the stuff" to provide some fantastic emails to me.
@bruce miller, you're looking at it all wrong. I say let them go mainstream and try to take away acting jobs from Jennifer Love Hewitt. Then maybe, finally, she'll do that Cinemax movie I've always dreamed of.
N.B. JLo, I think you're great. I'd just like to, ahem, enjoy your work on another level.
Anyone who has the time to troll blogs for spelling errors clearly doesn't have a job (or life) that keeps them busy enough.
And really... "my wife is a legal secretary"... REALLY???
No one is going to get sued by responding in the comments section of a blog and saying they *heard* Babs Streisand once did porn. If you don't believe me, forward the post to Babs and hold your breath.
Nice post, Ken. And if it makes you feel any better, I never spent enough time looking at the cover of a Jenna Jameson DVD to worry about the spelling of her name.
But I'm sure when you're not actually working as a writer, it makes you feel somewhat superior to point out a professional's errors. :)
Ok, Barbra Streisand DID do pornography, and it was CLEARLY her !
It was in her early, or pre career.
Her 'Happy Days',circa 1967-68 had just become a hit when I saw the B+W film excerpts at one of those 'peep shows' (put in your quarters) on Broadway in NYC.....right next to the famous Metropole (live girls) 'Theater'. The reason I remember it so well, is that there was a HUGE banner approximately 3'X 10' long hung outside spelling her complete name "BARBRA STREISAND"
Already,(in her 20's) she had the reputation of suing anyone for anything she didn't like ! She was still living in NYC then. (some buildings refused to let her 'type' move into their building) I remember thinking "'WOW' how can that sign be up there if it wasn't true . . .she would sue the HELL out of them, in a second, for libel if it wasn't true !" The sign never was taken down. I went in & put in my quarter(s) 2 or 3, that was more than enough for me, and sure enough there she was, in an office setting, giving BJ's under the desk, on the desk, etc.
Now, it was so long ago, I can't remember if it was sailors, or office workers she was going down on, but 'gettin' down, she was.'
I don't think the Metropole is there anymore. I moved out of NYC about 1979. You can confirm this with any 'showbiz' people who were in town in those years because SAG, and EQUITY were just down the street, and all the Broadway theaters were from 42nd St., and up.
They surely would have seen that sign, where she, B.S. was surely "playing" on BROADWAY....in those good old days.
Ok, Barbra Streisand DID do pornography, and it was CLEARLY her !
It was in her early, or pre career.
Her 'Happy Days',circa 1967-68 had just become a hit when I saw the B+W film excerpts at one of those 'peep shows' (put in your quarters) on Broadway in NYC.....right next to the famous Metropole (live girls) 'Theater'. The reason I remember it so well, is that there was a HUGE banner approximately 3'X 10' long hung outside spelling her complete name "BARBRA STREISAND"
Already,(in her 20's) she had the reputation of suing anyone for anything she didn't like ! She was still living in NYC then. (some buildings refused to let her 'type' move into their building) I remember thinking "'WOW' how can that sign be up there if it wasn't true . . .she would sue the HELL out of them, in a second, for libel if it wasn't true !" The sign never was taken down. I went in & put in my quarter(s) 2 or 3, that was more than enough for me, and sure enough there she was, in an office setting, giving BJ's under the desk, on the desk, etc.
Now, it was so long ago, I can't remember if it was sailors, or office workers she was going down on, but 'gettin' down, she was.'
I don't think the Metropole is there anymore. I moved out of NYC about 1979. You can confirm this with any 'showbiz' people who were in town in those years because SAG, and EQUITY were just down the street, and all the Broadway theaters were from 42nd St., and up.
They surely would have seen that sign, where she, B.S. was surely "playing" on BROADWAY....in those good old days.
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