Fox Files last night carried one of those real objective reports on the adult industry, titling it: Burned Out Porn Stars. It was unabashed TV tabloid exploitation at its best where virtually every soundbite was skewered to the deep, dark and dismal. The report had, as its focus, Linda Lovelace, and the late John Holmes and Savannah. The upside was a segment focusing on the work of Sharon Mitchell and AIM, even though it did dwell on some of the seamier elements of Mitchell's experiences in the business, including her rape at the hands of a porn fan/ stalker several years ago.
Reporter Arthel Neville commented, "Women believe that it's their road to glory, money and fame, but for most it's a highway to oblivion...for the young men and women who peddle their flesh in these movies, there's a cost that can't be measured in dollars or cents... Is the steep price of embarrassment, disease and drug abuse offset by big bucks?" Linda "Deep Throat" Marchiano, who wrote a book about her experiences called Ordeal, was interviewed. Marchiano claims she made $1250 from doing the film even though the film supposedly made $600 million, according to Fox.
Says Marchiano, "You're being used and abused and when they're done with you they'll toss you aside."
Porn "expert" Luke Ford is quoted throughout. "There's a loss of dignity in performing sex on camera," says Ford. "It diminishes the soul. It flattens the soul."
Says Neville: "Linda Marchiano should know. This 51-tear-old suburban mother may not look like it now, but she's one of the most famous porn stars of all-time. It's been over a quarter of a century since she rose to fame as Linda Lovelace, the star of Deep Throat. Deep Throat is the best selling porn film of all-time. [A screen factoid put Deep Throat in the company of the best selling films of all-time including E.T., Star Wars and Titanic.] But Linda Marchiano wants no part of her legacy as Linda Lovelace."
Marchiano: "I've never actually watched the whole thing. I don't think I could. I want to set the record straight. I was not a willing participant. I was a victim of Deep Throat."
Neville: "Linda grew up in a small suburb outside of New York City. She says as a child she had a much higher calling."
Marchiano: "I went to Catholic school so I had nuns around me all the time. That was what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a nun."
Neville: "So how did this good catholic girl end up in the most hellish of industries? According to Linda, she was forced into it by an abusive boyfriend she met when she was only 21."
Marchiano: "People watch Deep Throat they say, 'Wow you have a big smile on your face. You're having a great time, aren't you? No. I suffered brutal beatings."
Neville: "She [Marchiano] says she was beaten and abused on the set of Deep Throat, unless she performed sexual acts on film."
Marchiano: "Every time someone views that movie, they're viewing me being raped."
Neville says that Marchiano left the business after "Throat" and avoids the limelight [such as writing books and giving interviews]. "She's trying to recover." "My life was taken away from me," Marchiano says. "Time doesn't heal everything but it heals a lot."
Christi Lake offers this soundbite. "The best part for me is the sex," says Christi Lake. "And I enjoy it a lot."
Johnnie Black: "We're providing something for thousands of people out there to enjoy. We're promoting freedom of expression.
Neville: "But what we saw on the set isn't what you'd call good old family values."
Dr. Robin L. Smith, a psychologist, has this to say: "One reason why people would go into porn acting would be that they're trying to correct something from their childhood." According to Smith what leads many women into porn is "a craving for attention."
Smith: "Maybe they were abused emotionally, physically, sexually; that they were told that their sibling was prettier, that their sibling was smarter. And it is the sweet revenge. At least it feels that way."
The segment swung over to the subject of Savannah aka Shannon Wilsey who, besides being the biggest name of her era, dated celebrities.
Neville: "In the porn world she was known as Savannah, but to her mother she'll always be her baby."
Pamela Longoria [Savannah's mother]: "Shannon was my little girl. She was a nice, happy good child as she was growing up. I never thought of her as a porn queen. I guess I blocked her career out of my mind.
Neville: "It was a career that began at the tender age of 19. Shannon left her mother's home in Texas and moved to Los Angeles where she quickly became involved in porn, making 84 titles over the next four years.
Longoria: "You just can't go there and say, 'C'mon. You're coming home. You're not going to be a porn star.' Now that I look back, maybe I should have.... All these sicko people are watching and getting pleasure out of it."
Neville: "There was a terrible price to her porn career. Heroin addition."
Ford: "She got the attention she wanted, but inside she was empty. She was a junkie."
Longoria: "I know she took drugs to get through it. She was sick of it [being in the industry]. Her mind thought that she would be able to go into regular acting."
Neville: "But like most porn stars, Shannon's time on top was short. Her life began to spiral out of her control."
Ford: "As her looks began to fade and her popularity faded, and her boyfriends left her, she became increasingly desperate."
The Fox report recounted the events that lead up to Savannah's tragic suicide, as a result of an automobile accident, including a desperate phone message to her agent: "I just had the biggest car accident. And I think my nose is broken...and my head."
Neville: "Minutes after hanging up, Shannon shot herself in the head." Longoria says the porn industry called her daughter. "Had my daughter not been in the porn industry she'd still be alive, for sure." The report went on to offer the names of porn stars who "committed suicide over the last two decades - drugs and depression are realities of the porn industry".
Ford: "You look at the porn industry and it has left a trail of body bags. It's a price to pay. It's a price that they will pay for the rest of their lives."
The widow of John Holmes, Laurie Holmes, offered this: "There was only one king and John was, without a doubt to porn, what Elvis was to rock n' roll."
Neville: "Holmes was the first major porn star to die of AIDS. No one will ever know whether he got it from drug use or unprotected sex with thousands of partners. Holmes was 43 when he died"
Laurie Holmes described John's physical condition in his final days. "He had skin rashes, ear infections, bronchitis...he went very fast.
Sharon Mitchell: AIM is all about the healthcare for the sex worker in body, mind, emotion and spirit. I think I needed and desired the attention, There was a very big emptiness inside of me. My personal journey was very difficult. I spent a lot of my money on drugs and a frivolous lifestyle. I couldn't find an honest relationship in my life. I was burned out. I was so tired. I felt like I was running on a treadmill."
Porn stars Amber Michaels and Randy Spears had this to say about AIM. Michaels: "Getting tested every month is very beneficial to everyone in the industry. Spears: "If she [Mitchell] wasn't doing it, I don't know who would."
Mitchell: "What I bring to this I industry as a counselor is a lot more than HIV counsel-dependency. It's a life of pornography. A life of ups and downs."
Gloria Leonard, who was not on the Fox Files show, has this to say about Lovelace's comments: "The truth is she never took responsibility for her choice of a shitty old man," Leonard says. "Chuck Traynor, who later went on to become Marilyn Chambers' old man, was a horrible guy. Yeah, he probably beat the shit out of her at night in the hotel room where they were staying. But it was nobody who had anything to do with this film that coerced her. She leaves out those little salient soundbites that would be important, normally. She makes it look like the business is the one who raped her and seduced her. She's a fucking loser. I can't stand that woman. I hate those shows [like Fox Files] - all those losers, Linda Lovelace, Laurie Holmes and Luke Ford. This business leaves a trail of body bags, and NBC hasn't had a trail of body bags lately.
