LOS ANGELES -- AVN Hall of Fame actress Janine Lindemulder, who's been sentenced to serve six months in prison for tax evasion, launched her new website FreeJanine.com Thursday night.
Lindemulder, 40, created the site with longtime friend Earl Miller, the world-renowned Penthouse photographer who helped launch her career more than two decades ago. Speaking to AVN Online Thursday evening, the pair said within hours of launching, the site had 24 signups.
Lindemulder will leave behind her two children, ages 5 and 17, while she is serving her time in a facility near Victorville, Calif.
"It's going to be hard," she said. "I can only imagine the heartbreak I'm going to feel being away from my two kids."
Despite the hardship, Lindemulder is heading in with an optimistic attitude.
"I'm looking forward to doing a lot of schooling while in there," she said. "I was a high school dropout and this is forcing my hand to get my GED. I'll take all the classes I can muster and take some of the jobs there working in the laundry, kitchen or out in the lawn, pulling weeds."
"Where I'm going, some call it a camp, some call it a jail. It's a federal camp with the lowest security, though I'm going in for a misdemeanor, not a felony," she added. "What it looks like is a big dorm; there are no walls, with a hundred roaming women. You're in there and going to make friends and make some enemies and that's really all I know about it."
Lindemulder plans to blog from prison - but without computers or mobile devices, she'll do it "the old-fashioned way."
"Pen on paper; I'm going to write, write, write and then pop it in regular snail mail. Earl will get that, then scan it and put it up as a hand-written blog four or five times as week," she explained. "I'll write about what the women are like, what the guards are like, what sex is like, the fights, all my experiences, all my ups and downs over those six months. We're documenting it all and people can take this journey with me."
While she's serving her time, Miller and the site creation team will run FreeJanine.com.
"I'm not one to frequent a lot of [adult] websites," Lindemulder told AVN Online. "All I can say is we busted ass putting this one together. It's eye-candy everywhere and easy to maneuver, with great people running it. We've done like 50 photo sets, really beautiful sets, along with steamy videos; I've done some girl-girl work with Jessica James and Kayden Kross and also work with Tommy Gunn. I have a surprise up my sleeve, too -- someone I wanted to work with for years ... I finally got to do it and it's going to rattles some cages."
In addition to the new content, the site includes archival material as well as scenes donated by Vivid Entertainment with whom Lindemulder was a contract girl during the '90s and mid-2000s, when she returned to the adult industry.
"Earl's shot me for more than 20 years, so there's stuff that he contributed and Vivid gave us around 50 of my favorite scenes," she said. "They came to the table big, knew my situation and knew I was hurting. This website is my only source of income when I'm in jail and the whole reason behind it is it will ultimately support my son while I'm away. I'm sure it will go beyond that and I can pay my lawyers, pay my taxes back."
Lindemulder plans to return to the adult business once her sentence is served, though there may be a roadblock.
The judge was quoted as saying he does not want Janine "pimping herself" to pay back taxes. "So he's telling me I have no future in the adult industry and need to look at something different," she said. "By that time it will be 23 years since I started in the business. Who are they to tell me I don't have a future in the business? What if I want to direct, if I want to produce? So if it does go that way, you'd better believe it'll all be back in court."
Lindemulder has been told her probation officer has the right to decide who she may associate with -- including those in the adult industry -- even if it has nothing to do with her tax-evasion case.
"I haven't done anything wrong in the business. Just punish me, let me get back to work and pay this $300,000 in back taxes off," she said. "If they want it from me bagging groceries, that's not going to happen. For me, a single mother porn star, to rip me away from my family and they won't even give me a chance to pay the money back or give me that fucking opportunity, something's really wrong here."
Though she admits not paying her taxes was a massive mistake, the Blondage babe also believes she's been singled out as an example in the adult business. Earl Miller agrees.
"Tim Geitner, the new treasury secretary, evaded income taxes around the same time Janine did and his punishment was to apologize and become head of the IRS. Double standard?" Miller asked.
"It's not fair. This is what I chose to do for living, and do it well, so let me get back to it," Lindemulder said. "I feel that for whatever reason, I'm the chosen one and they're using me as an example, maybe as a wake-up call for the adult industry, so entertainers, strippers and so on pay more attention to how they handle their taxes and hopefully, won't make the same mistakes I've made."
Lindemulder will drive to the federal prison early Tuesday morning, March 10, with her sister and son. "They'll walk me in, kiss me goodbye and take the car," she said. "And ya know, I'm not that spooked."
For fans who might want to send her gifts, they should be aware she won't have much personal space. "I'm allowed only to have five pictures of my family, and not allowed to bring anything with me, except a pair of reading glasses. There's a strip search that's part of the humiliation process, but I view it as another day at work," she said with a touch of defiance. "If they think it's going to make me humbled by having me squat naked, they've got another thing coming. It's not going to fluster me."
On the way to prison, she'll call in to the Sirius radio program of friend Howard Stern's (she appeared in his film Private Parts). Monday, she's scheduled to appear on Playboy Radio. The two appearances will be the last chance for the public to hear from her, other than the hand-written blogs on her new site, for the next half-year.
"I am going to have some input on the site. When people write letters, it's going to become part of the blogging," she said. "They can bring questions to me, write poems, letters and it will turn into part of my blog."
The woman who's spent two decades fully decked-out before the camera anticipates the shock of no done-up hair and no makeup week after week.
"It's going to be a weird trip on my ego," she said. "I know for me, every now and again, I have to get all glammed up to make sure I can do it. A lot of times, days go by wearing sweats and it's all humdrum, so I start to panic. There is no getting gussied-up in there; you are what you are, no makeup, hair in ponytail and everyone's wearing khaki."
Still, Lindemulder is going in seeking affirmations, ready to adapt to her circumstances.
"I'll be toned and tight, working in the yard, doing exorcises and yoga and focusing on Buddhism, which I began to study in the past year," she said. "I'm curious to see what happens to me and what new version comes out of this. When I do get out, I'm going to be ready to roar, ready to start again. And we'll change the site to FreedJanine.com."
"I've never been close friends to the point of becoming family with anyone I've ever shot, except Janine," Earl Miller told AVN Online. "We've had sons both the same age and the thing about Janine that keeps me totally fascinated is she's truly gifted, a talented individual from her presence to her unpredictability. And she's just exceptionally smart."
"I'm hanging in there," Lindemulder said. "It's definitely a rollercoaster ride; I have good days and bad days. But on the whole, I'm calm and I think I've got pretty much all my ducks in a row, pretty wrapped up with FreeJanine.com."
All of Lindemulder's visitors while in prison must fill out appropriate paperwork and submit to background checks. The address for writing her, under her actual name is:
Janine James, Register No. 70051-065
FCI Victorville Medium II
Satellite Camp
P.O. Box 5100
Adelanto, CA 92301
All pieces of mail will be screened, so she may not receive mail in a timely fashion, she said.
View AVN's FreeJanine gallery.
