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Pornographic actor
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A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic films or photographs, live sex shows or peep shows. Most actors and actresses may appear nude in films (usually filmed in explicit sexual genres). Most genres have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche market such as bondage, strap-on sex, gaping, general anal sex, double penetration or 'teenage' girls.
Some legal jurisdictions consider commercial pornography a form of prostitution, though most commercial sex film performers do not regard themselves as prostitutes for various reasons, but rather as artists.
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Encyclopedia
A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is somebody who appears in pornographic films or photographs, live sex shows or peep shows. Most actors and actresses may appear nude in films (usually filmed in explicit sexual genres). Most genres have specialists who achieve most of their recognition in a specific niche market such as bondage, strap-on sex, gaping, general anal sex, double penetration or 'teenage' girls.
Some legal jurisdictions consider commercial pornography a form of prostitution, though most commercial sex film performers do not regard themselves as prostitutes for various reasons, but rather as artists. Most notably these performers are not paid directly by their sexual partners for the sex, but both are paid through a studio. Some sex film performers do not receive money at all for their inclusion in such films. In this instance, they do so for promotion of their other works, such as artistic paintings and sculptures, or they have no sex in some films, such as repeat performers in the famous Girls Gone Wild film series.
History
Many performers had appeared in various sex films since the beginning of photography. Many so-called "penny arcades" of the early 1900s had early hand-cranked films and "rotoscope" (Holmes-style Stereoscope) glasses that featured "racy" pictures of women, mostly in topless pictures, though a few actually showed women in full frontal nudity with fewer still showing them in actual sexual couplings.
There have been many films and photographs that showed sexual acts including the World War II series of erotic German home movies known as the "Sachsenwald films," recorded secretly in Nazi Germany 1941. But performers of these early photograph and film recordings usually chose to remain anonymous due to extreme social pressure and legal sanctions against open sexual actions.
Common wisdom holds that the first generally acknowledged porn star with specific (stage) name recognition was Linda Lovelace from the United States, who starred in the 1972 feature Deep Throat. However, Casey Donovan, star of the first mainstream pornographic hit Boys in the Sand in 1971, achieved name recognition nearly a year before Deep Throat debuted. The success of Deep Throat, which grossed hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide, spawned a slew of other films and pornographic film stars such as Marilyn Chambers (Behind the Green Door), Gloria Leonard (The Opening of Misty Beethoven), Georgina Spelvin (The Devil in Miss Jones), and Bambi Woods (Debbie Does Dallas).
This era has been termed by some to be The Golden Age of Porn when porn films were being shown in public theaters and thus accepted for public consumption or at least tolerated for such. This time frame lasted until the late 1970s, with some saying the early 1980s, whereby these sex films had specific story-plots and promotional budgets and the performers became notable. Such legendary performers of this era include John Holmes, Ginger Lynn Allen, Veronica Hart, Nina Hartley, Seka, and Amber Lynn, who became well known in this era.
Attempts were made in the 1970s to outlaw pornography in the United States by prosecuting porn stars for prostitution. The courts in California were where the case was initially made, and stopped short of advancing the case to the United States Supreme Court for a final decision. It was this decision and acceptance to let stand whereby the California Court made a legal distinction in the case of People v. Freeman between someone who took part in a sexual relationship for money (prostitution) versus someone who takes on the act of merely portraying role where a sexual relationship was engaged in on-screen act as part of their acting performance. It is this specific legal distinction between pornography and prostitution in California law that has allowed California to become the porn center of the United States.
At present, no other state in the United States has either implemented or accepted this legal distinction between commercial pornography performers versus prostitutes as shown in the Florida case where sex film maker Clinton Raymond McCowen, aka "Ray Guhn", was indicted on charges of "soliciting and engaging in prostitution" for his creation of pornography films which included "McCowen and his associates recruited up to 100 local men and women to participate in group sex scenes, the affidavit says." The distinction that California has in its legal determination in the Freeman decision is usually denied in most states' local prostitution laws, which do not specifically exclude performers from such inclusion.
In some cases, some states have ratified their local state laws for inclusion to prevent California's Freeman decision to be applied to actors who are paid a fee for sexual actions within their state borders. One example is the state of Texas whose prostitution law specifically states:
- An offense is established under Subsection (a)(1) whether the actor is to receive or pay a fee. An offense is established under Subsection (a)(2) whether the actor solicits a person to hire him or offers to hire the person solicited.
The ability for people to view adult movies in the privacy of their own homes, owing to the popularity of the VCR (and later DVD) created a new adult market that exceeded the scope of the previous theatre centric era. Additionally, the prevalence of the Internet served as a catalyst for the increased sale of pornography. In the late 1990s, Janine Lindemulder, Jenna Jameson, Juli Ashton, Ashlyn Gere, Asia Carrera, Racquel Darrian, Tera Patrick, Briana Banks, Stacy Valentine, Jill Kelly, and Silvia Saint emerged as new wave of porn stars.
Some state that the production values of adult films have decidedly declined in the attempt to create a constant amount of new films to fulfill the ever increasing demand. Others argue that sex films are merely being more true to their source as some have stated that people only watch these films in order to see these performers have sex - paraphrased from (To which the only answer is "No, they watch her movies to see her fuck.")
As a result of this, there are hundreds of adult film companies today, releasing tens of thousands of directly recorded-on-video with minimal sets, including so-called web cam recordings annually, with thousands of people working on both sides of the camera to meet the demand for these films.
Male performers
While the primary focus of heterosexual sex films are the women in them, who are mostly selected for their on-screen appearance, there is a definite focus on the male performers who are able to fulfill the desires of the male watching audience as their on-screen proxies. Most male performers in heterosexual pornography are generally selected less for their looks than for their sexual prowess, namely their ability to do three things: achieve an erection while on a busy film set, maintain that erection while performing on camera, and then ejaculate on cue.
Rocco Siffredi, Ron Jeremy, Peter Northare probably the most famous male performers in porn films. Peter North is known for his ability to launch above-average amounts of semen at notable velocity from his penis on-screen which most other male performers can not do. Ron Jeremy is known for his large penis and an appearance very unusual for a porn star (he is overweight with large amounts of body hair). Adding to his fame, Ron Jeremy has been a staple in the industry since the '70s and has become something of a cultural icon.
Pay rates
According to some sources, most male performers in straight porn are paid less than their female counterparts. Ron Jeremy has commented on the pay scale of women and men of the sex film industry: "The average guy gets $300 to $400 a scene, or $100 to $200 if he's new. A woman makes $100,000 to $250,000 at the end of the year. " and "Girls can easily make 100K-250K per year, plus stuff on the side like strip shows and appearances. The average guy makes $40,000 a year."
Some state that gay male porn generally pays men much more than heterosexual porn; a number of male performers, including North, have appeared in both heterosexual and gay pornography. Ostensibly, men who perform in gay pornography but identify themselves as heterosexual, most notably Wolf Hudson, are said to do gay-for-pay, that is, perform in gay movies only for the paycheck, not because of any personal attraction they have to other men.
According to notable producer Seymore Butts who runs his own sex film recruitment agency, as well as producing sex films; "depending on draw, female performers who perform in both straight and lesbian porn earn more than those who do normal sex (Boy/Girl) usually make about US$200-800 while those who only do oral sex (blow job) usually only make about US$100-300 for the scene. It was also noted in an interview conducted by Local10 news of Florida that individuals were offered $700 for sexual intercourse while shooting a scene of the popular series Bang Bus in 2004 According to Videobox, a porn website, actresses make: Blowjobs: $200-$400,Straight sex: $400-$1200, Anal sex: $900-$1500, Double Penetration: $1200-$1600, Double anal: $2000.
Pornographic actors and STDs
Because of the nature of their work, usually involving sex without condoms, pornographic actors are particularly vulnerable to HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
In the 1980s, an outbreak of HIV led to a number of deaths of erotic actors and actresses, including John Holmes, Wade Nichols, Marc Stevens, Al Parker and Lisa De Leeuw. This led to the creation of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, which helped set up a system in the U.S. adult film industry where erotic actors are tested for HIV every 30 days. All sexual contact is logged, and positive test results lead to all sexual contacts for the last three to six months being contacted and re-tested. The use of condoms became standard in films featuring homosexual anal sex.
In 1997, John Stagliano tested positive for HIV. He contracted the virus recreationally after having unprotected anal sex with a Brazilian transsexual in Rio de Janeiro.
In 1998, a second outbreak occurred. Sharon Mitchell, Director of the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation, announced on April 30, that Marc Wallice was HIV-positive. Wallice's career was effectively over, with rumors and speculation that he also infected several actresses, including Brooke Ashley, Tricia Devereaux, Caroline, Jordan McKnight, Barbara Doll, and Kimberly Jade. He denies the rumors, but they continue to resonate with many in the business; he had been caught with a fake AIDS certificate only months before the scandal broke.
In 1999, Tony Montana and a Florida female performer tested HIV positive. On January 18, 2000, Niki Lae tested HIV positive. In January, 2001, Tori Coca Flame tested HIV positive.
In 2004, a male performer, Darren James, tested positive for HIV; after engaging in unprotected anal sex with Brazilian porn star Bianca Biaggi for a scene in the video "Split That Booty 2" in Rio de Janeiro. By the end of the month it was discovered that three actresses who had worked with James shortly after his return to the United States (two of whom were involved in the same production) had also become infected with the virus. These were Canadian newcomer Lara Roxx, Miss Arroyo, and Czech-born Jessica Dee. While it was announced that the viral load tests showed that James was "Patient Zero," others in the industry have stated they feel that Lara Roxx is truly the source of the outbreak as she was previously working as a street prostitute in her native Montreal before coming to Los Angeles. Following the release of this information the heterosexual porn industry voluntarily reduced their workload for the next 30 days, as various contacts with both individuals, as well as others within the industry, re-evaluated and expanded upon their original programs dealing with this possibility.
Accurate information about the extent of infection among those in the adult industry is unknown because no organization has ever done rigorous studies. The existing data suggest that pornographic actors have a much higher rate of STDs than the general American population.
Autobiographies
- Zen and the Art of Pornography, Harold Johnson, 2008 (ISBN-10: 1438204302)
- Per amore e per forza, Ilona Staller, 2007 (in Italian)
- The Hardest (Working) Man in Showbiz, Ron Jeremy, 2006 (ISBN-10: 0060840838)
- Porno - Ein Star packt aus, Kelly Trump, 2005 (in German)
- Secretos de una pornostar, Celia Blanco, 2005 (in Spanish)
- How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, Jenna Jameson, 2005
- J'assume, Nina Roberts, mai 2005 (ISBN 2350120201) (in French)
- Sex Star, Clara Morgane, 2003 (in French)
- Traci Lords : Underneath It All, Traci Lords, 2003
- Raw Talent, Jerry Butler, 1990 (ISBN-10: 087975625X)
- Hard, Raphaëla Anderson, 2001 (ISBN 2253154490) (in French)
- Lights, Camera, SEX!, Christy Canyon, 2005 (ISBN 0972747001)
- Penetrating Insights, Peter North, 1994 (ISBN-10: 1885591225)
- The Secret Lives of Hyapatia Lee, Hyapatia Lee, 2000 (ISBN-10: 1587219069)
External links
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