FROM THE LAST TANGO IN PARIS TO A NIGHT IN PARIS

When "Deep Throat" was made in the early 1970s, porn was still considered too underground for the actors to use their real names. When the X-rated movie's director, Gerard Rocco Damiano (a.k.a. Jerry Gerard), died last month, Time magazine eulogized him at length, praising his smarts, ambition and personal decency while calling his movie "the 'Citizen Kane' of porn."Fashion also is taking more aesthetic cues from porn, including the growing popularity of genital piercing and shaving, which was popularized by adult film actors. In May, Fox News' resident "sexpert," Yvonne K. Fulbright, made a reference to adult film while taking up the topic of genital grooming. "It's no longer simply a style concern for porn stars," she counseled, "it seems that everyone now -- guy or gal -- is giving at least some thought to pubic hair care."Asked why adult stars have become more acceptable in Hollywood, Soderbergh cited the proliferation of Internet porn and the attitudinal sea change signified by the infamous bootleg video showing socialite Paris Hilton having sex with a paramour. In years past, such a tape likely would've destroyed reputations. Instead, it boosted Hilton's paparazzi profile."That changed everything," Soderbergh says. "Or it didn't change everything; it confirmed that everything had changed."

Grey isn't the only young adult-film performer gaining wider exposure in Hollywood these days. Katie Morgan, a business-savvy 28-year-old who has made dozens of adult films, is currently appearing in indie director Kevin Smith's R-rated slacker-cool comedy " Zack and Miri Make a Porno," which opened on Halloween to strong reviews. Distributed by Weinstein Co., the film stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks as a pair of down-and-out platonic friends in suburban Pittsburgh who decide to make an amateur skin flick to pay off their debts. It appears likely to be Smith's most commercially successful film.

L.A Times
Nov 3 2008