LOS ANGELES - Vivid Entertainment has announced its most unusual celebrity porn star to date: Jimi Hendrix.
"Jimi Hendrix: The Sex Tape" will premiere today online at www.hendrixsextape.com, with a DVD edition scheduled to hit stores across the country on May 6. Shot in a hotel room circa 1968, the film purports to show Hendrix in "an erotic liaison with two slender brunettes."
"This new movie shows that Jimi Hendrix could have been as great a porn star as he was a rock star. He could clearly play more than just his guitar," said Vivid co-chairman Steven Hirsch. "It's easy to see that he turned women on with his music and his passion."
Rumors of the explicit Hendrix film began to circulate in October 2007, when Vivid registered several Internet domain names for the project. Vivid acquired the rare 8mm home movie footage through distributor Howie Klein of Blue Vanities, who brokered the deal with a collector who bought the reel (labeled 'Black Man') at a London auction.
Vivid consulted with several experts to authenticate the footage, including author Pamela Des Barres, known for her groupie memoir "I'm with the Band," and the notorious Cynthia Plaster Caster. Both women contributed commentary to Vivid's DVD, which is billed as "a sexual documentary that gives insight on the uninhibited rock 'n' roll scene of the Sixties."
Plaster Caster is famous for creating plaster molds of the penises of rock stars, including Hendrix. "No doubt about it," she says in the commentary. "That's Jimi Hendrix' dick and I should know."
But several sources have come forward to dispute Vivid's claim that the man seen in the footage is Hendrix.
"It is not him," said Kathy Etchingham, a former girlfriend of Hendrix. "His face is too broad and nose and nostrils too wide for Jimi. Also the hair is too low on the forehead."
Des Barres says in her commentary: "Hendrix liked to be filmed having sex. He's the ultimate adult film movie star. I understand why everyone wanted to sleep with the guy. He played like an all-encompassing rock orgasm. He reeked of sex. You wanted to strip to keep up with him when he played 'Foxy Lady.' [...] The footage proves that Hendrix was fabulous in bed and really wanted to please his partner."
Etchingham told a different story in a telephone interview with the New York Times. "He would never have allowed anyone to see that," she said. "In private he was very shy and would cover up."
Is it a hoax? Decide for yourself at hendrixsextape.com.
