Yo quiero fashion accessory?

Tera Patrick had her toy fox terrier stolen (from the inside of her car, no less) the other day. While I sincerely hope the dog is returned to her unharmed, thinking about her situation led me to this post. This isn’t necessarily a commentary on porn starlets, though they’re just as guilty, but a commentary on women in general. What is it with women in general and their tiny dogs? Dogs that can’t defend themselves from New York-size rats, much less dog-nappers. You never see famous women out at a social function with their Dobermanns or St. Bernards (okay maybe that’s a little extreme). Maybe those owners keep their canines at home. :-]

I was watching Pornucopia again the other day. Katie Morgan had about 3 or 4 of those little guys; they didn’t equal a Dobermann in size stacked one on top of the other. Yet another porn star with a Chihuahua is Paris Hilton (she did do an adult video that was available for public consumption) . I’m glad she found her little Tinkerbell, by the way. It’s not just porn stars with tiny dogs; Barbara Walters, Tara Reid, Britney Spears, Ashley Judd, the list goes on. Granted, not all of these owners flaunt their pretty little pooches. But some of these owners you see on talk shows or red carpets (ahem…Hilton), provided that it’s appropriate, with their miniscule pets.

Which leads me to believe that a lot of the dogs belonging to famous people are fashion accessories. Note, I’m not saying these people don’t love their dogs or treat the dogs as one of their family. However, somewhere along the line, some starlet must’ve thought, “Let’s see, I need a dog that’ll go with red stilettos one day and, at the same time, pink sensible shoes on another day.” At least Katie hedged her bet, she has several “accessories” to choose from. So the dark short-haired terrier goes with the brown loafers, the white coat Chihuahua goes with sneakers, etc.

Unless I’m missing something, you never see famous guys at some informal or dress-down event toting their Black Labs (I think men are inclined to bigger dogs) underneath their arms. There are men (like Justin Timberlake) out there with tiny dogs. But if you do happen to see a guy with a short dog out in public, chances are he’s out walking it.

Imagine that, some people took man’s best friend and turned him into a mere fashion add-on. Speaking as a guy, I don’t get it. You don’t see the alternative as being true; you never see some guy pulling a large diamond at the end of a leash.
Although now that I think about, that would be a great way to attract women….

Art Imitates LiveCamNetwork

(Montreal) January 25, 2005 - Performers from live video chat
site LiveCamNetwork.com will be featured in an upcoming exhibit
by Montreal photographer Mia Donovan.

The exhibit, called "Stripped", will present a series of "lush,
large-scale photographs of women who provide their body to the
adult entertainment industry". Among those featured are Laurelle
and 2much.net poster girl Deja, as well as women from other
facets of the sex business, from strippers to porn stars.

Donovan, whose work has been on the web as well as independant
newspapers and print advertising, seeks to provide more than
behind-the-scenes peeks into the trade by setting a counterpoint
to the stereotyped images normally associated with the business
by documenting the day-to-day reality.

The LiveCamNetwork chat hostesses were photographed over the
summer of 2004 in a variety of work-oriented settings as part of
a year-long project which reflects Donovan's continued interest
in notions of sexual fantasy.

The exhibit opening will take place Saturday January 29, at 2:00
pm, and will run until March 19 at Montreal's Observatoire 4,
located at 372 Ste. Catherine street west, gallery 426. Donovan
herself will be present, though she will be meeting the public
at the space on Saturday, March 5th, when the exposition will
have had a chance to be seen.

###
About the author:
Media And Communications manager at www.2much.net, Jones
provides free press releases for 2much clients as well as site
optimization and listing services.

XXX Sexuality

We featured an article about the book XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. It turns out that they made a documentary, called "XXX Sexuality" (or something like that), on the making of the book. The documentary aired on HBO (where else?) and I got a chance to see it. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a huge fan of HBO and their many sex series: Real Sex, Shock Video, and the recent Pornucopia, which I believe was a Real Sex production.

In addition to being a statistics fanatic, I like being taken behind the scenes of the porn industry. The more insight I gain into the industry, the more I get to see the business aspect of it, and the more professional respect I gain for the performers. I also realize that starlets aren’t all cute, bimbo, f!@#$%^ machines; they also have feelings and their own lives. This documentary brings home these points in spades.

The Pornucopia series, for the most part, took you behind the scenes of the industry. This documentary, largely, takes you into the stars’ lives. For example, Savannah Samson said her family practically disowned her when they found out what she did for a living. I know she’s a beautiful woman making good money, but I kind of felt for her. To me, family means a lot.

Also, Tera Patrick mentioned that there was an incident with a male performer that almost made her quit the industry. Although, she didn’t (thank heaven), you get the feeling that she’s a little disillusioned with the industry. As it is, when she’s not performing in front of the camera, she doesn’t like to be around porn; she takes a very vanilla approach to making love with her husband.

Sunrise Adams told about her former insecurities with her chest size, before she got her breast augmentation surgery. I’d always thought that most starlets who elected to have that surgery either did so to increase their revenue, or on the advice of an associate (co-worker, agent, or otherwise). Maybe, as in Ms. Adams case, being surrounded by contemporaries who are much better endowed elicits old insecurities. That’s a pity because Ms. Adams was such a pretty girl to begin with, even before her “boob job”.

The documentary humanizes the performers, I think, in other ways. If you don’t know about the book, basically what it does is show two different photos of each porn star , one with the star in street clothes and the other with him/her in the buff, in the exact same pose. Maybe they were trying to convey the idea that but for the fact that they perform naked, porn stars look just like you and me (the good-looking portion of the population, anyway) with their clothes on. At least that is what I take the juxtaposition of the photographs to mean.

For several of the female stars, their nude shot featured them in their typical, on-camera makeup. In their clothed pictures, contrastingly enough, they assume a more dressed down, little-to-no-makeup appearance. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of heavy make-up, so the dressed down look is appealing. The women still look sensational: Tera (one of our favorites around here), Jenna Jameson (another one of our favorites), Brianna Banks, all of them.

Like I said before, the show takes you into the personal lives of several of the stars‘ , many of whom are married (Tera, Jenna, Sampson, Gina Lynn). The garage/dungeon that Nina Hartley and her husband own has to be seen to be believed (rubber floors? Wow!) And kudos to the producers of the book for going old school (middle school? Junior high?) and including some of the seasoned performers like Sean Michaels, Hartley, Christy Canyon, Peter North, and Ron Jeremy.

The show reinforces two points I’d heard before. One, gay male performers make much more than their straight counterparts (somewhere between the ratios of 5 to 1 and 10 to 1 for the average gay star). Ms Hartley, whose know-how I respect a lot, also reinforced the technical aspect of the typical straight porn scene. E.g, the male performer has to be hard within a certain amount of time (quickly, needless to say); the oral portion takes so many minutes; the hardcore portion involves so many positions with so many snapshots, etc.

For a long time now, I’ve felt that female porn stars are some of the most down-to-earth people you will find. They know exactly what they do for a living, and the stigma attached to it. If they’re able to navigate the pitfalls of a life, which some people consider easy money, that could chew them up and spit them out before they hit the fourth decade of their lives; then more power to them. If this show did nothing else, it reminded me that I’m rooting (in keeping with the theme of this entry) for these performers, as a whole. I’m on their side.

AVN awards

I’m back from my holiday hiatus. Another avn award show has come and gone, and I’d just like to say congratulations to all the winners. A special congratulations goes out to Miss Jameson, sporting her new brunette ’do, who won the award for Best Actress in a film. We’re big fans of Jenna around here; 10 years in the business, and still going strong. I haven’t gotten a chance to see her award-winning role in The Masseuse yet.