Jenna Jameson’s Tragic Backstory; Seeking Virgins with Paris Hilton

Jenna Jameson is probably the most famous porn star living today. She speaks here with an Australian newspaper about her childhood in “The porn broker”…

She was born Jenna Massoli in Las Vegas in 1974. Her mother, Judy, was a showgirl; her father, Larry, worked in a grocery store, but had served in Vietnam and ran with a crowd that included Frank Sinatra, Jr. and small-time gangsters… The couple moved to Las Vegas, Larry got a job in television, and they started a family; with her elder brother, Tony, Jenna had the beginnings of a happy childhood with two devoted parents. But when Jenna was three, the family was shattered by her mother’s death from melanoma.

The cost of the cancer treatment bankrupted Larry and he moved into a trailer with the children. Soon afterwards he gave up his job in television, joined the Las Vegas Sheriff’s Department, and embarked on a one-man, anti-corruption crusade. The mob tried to dissuade him by attempting to kidnap his children; he fought off one night-time assault on their home by chasing the assailant with a submachine-gun; Jenna and Tony were put under police protection. In the end, the family left town and embarked on a series of moves. When Larry ran out of money, they returned to Las Vegas and moved in with his mother. Emotionally incapable of family life, Larry spent all his time at work, and Tony and Jenna were left to fend for themselves.

Shortly after beginning high school, Jenna began taking acid and cocaine with her brother; by the time she was 17, their father was taking it with them…

[B]y the time she was 16–when Larry moved the family to a cattle ranch in Fromberg, Montana–she had filled out in a way that attracted attention. She had also begun dressing in the briefest, tightest clothes she could find. And while that was fine in Las Vegas, the other girls in the tiny midwestern town didn’t like the way their boyfriends looked at the new arrival. The beatings she sustained at their hands persuaded her to make friends elsewhere. Which is why, after a football game one day in 1990, she found herself hitching a ride home in a pick-up truck with four boys from a neighbouring school’s team. It was a mistake: they took the truck down a dirt road and gang-raped her.

They repeatedly knocked her unconscious and when she came to hours later–covered in insect bites, her clothes in tatters, her head resting in a puddle of her own blood–she realised that they had left her for dead…

[S]he was raped a second time when she was still only 16–this time by the biker uncle of her first long-term boyfriend [the uncle denies it]. She then prised the braces off her teeth with needle-nose pliers and successfully auditioned to become a stripper, making thousands of dollars a night. She was spotted by a scout for pornographic photo shoots, which led to her having sex on film for the first time. She was 19 and became an immediate sensation in the small world of the porn industry.

But there was another problem: Jameson had acquired a devastating crystal-meth (amphetamine) habit. It nearly killed her. Rescued by a friend, she was sent back to her father to recuperate: she was so emaciated that she had to be put on the plane in a wheelchair, and when he came to meet her at the airport, he didn’t recognise her.

Jameson today manages over a dozen porn stars at Club Jenna. Anderson Cooper interviewed Jameson in 2004:

COOPER: But you had a really tough background, which you write about in the book a lot. I mean, you know, you were abused as a child, you lost your mom at an early age. I mean, did that in any way play a part? Because there are those who say, look, you know, young people who experience abuse often gravitate to the porn industry.

JAMESON: Right. Absolutely. It’s something that I’ve thought about a lot, and I can’t really say for sure if that is reasoning behind why I’ve gotten into the adult industry. All I know is that when I lay my head down at night, I feel comfortable and I’m happy, and I guess that’s all that really matters…

COOPER: …[I]f you had a daughter, if she came to you and said that she wanted to get into that industry?

JAMESON: I’d tie her in the closet. Only because this is such a hard industry for a woman to get ahead and get the respect that she deserves. I fought tooth and nail to get to where I am, and it’s not something that I would want my daughter to go through. It’s not something that any parent would choose for their child.

TMZ reported in December 2006 that Jameson separated from her second husband, Jay Grdina. We recall Dr. Mary Anne Layden’s testimony to the US Senate in 2004:

The terrible work life of the pornography performer is often followed by an equally terrible home life. They…have about a 25% chance of making a marriage that lasts as long as 3 years.

LondonNet reported last week that Jameson and Paris Hilton have been engaged by a new TV reality show, Virgin Territory.

The series will feature real life virgins and follow their quest to have sex for the first time. Paris and Jenna will help to educate the uninitiated contestants.

Producer Kevin Blatt said: “Paris and Jenna have been contacted about participating in the show.

“We will be unveiling giant billboards in Time Square and Los Angeles advertising for virgins to take part in the show.

“Finding virgins in New York or Los Angeles is no easy task.”

Blatt is the man who turned Paris’ homemade sex tape with ex-boyfriend Rick Solomon, which was originally leaked onto the internet, into the best selling porn DVD One Night in Paris.

Capital Video features “1 Night in Paris” [explicit link] on the home page of Amazing.net. The sales copy reads:

“This collectors item is a must have for your adult video library! Paris Hilton a blue blood celebrity now forever to be referenced by her 102 minutes of shame. Watched this surveillance film of the Hilton family’s worst nightmare.”

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Capital Video also sells this movie with Jameson:

Jenna Loves Pain
Full-on bondage! Look who’s learning the ropes. It’s Jenna as you’ve never seen her. Restrained. Tied down. Submitting to the lash in one of the most exquisite displays of pleasure and pain ever put to film. Vivid presents Jenna Loves Pain the only time you will ever see one of adult’s greatest stars in a subserviant position as she takes a punishing look back at her most extreme fantasies. Get ready. This will hurt.

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Jameson’s story brings to mind that of another porn producer, Lizzie Borden.

Her stepfather was an abusive alcoholic, [Borden] says, who beat her mother viciously and regularly. Her mother stayed at home to raise Lizzy and her three half-siblings, and took out her own frustrations, says Lizzy, by beating her with her fists and assorted sharp objects…

When she turned 18, Borden headed off to a local community college on a scholarship… Frat parties led to raves; acid and Ecstasy led to speed and cocaine use, which led to a job as a stripper, assorted abusive boyfriends…

“When I was a child, my step-father was an alcoholic. So I think I had deep issues, and this is kind of therapeutic for me, to take my aggression out on other people. So in a way, I’m exploiting people, taking all my inner demons and aggression on them. But it’s good for me. So I guess that’s all that matters…

“I’m just making a life for myself and happy, making good money. I used to be exploited when I did movies. So if someone’s going to do it, I might as well…”