Triple X

At the video store the other night with my friend Carol, I caught Jenna Jamison staring out at me from the cover of Thinking XXX, an HBO documentary that "looks at the lives of adult film stars through the lens of photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders". (Wow, porn AND a documentary! Talk about having your cake and eating it too.) While I've no qualms about renting and watching porn with a boyfriend I'm not the type to pop in a video with a bunch of girlfriends and a bowl of popcorm. So when we decided to rent the "documentary" I wasn't sure what to expect. I thought it'd be low on substance and full of gratuitous sex scenes (which is fine if that's what they're going for) but it was actually an interesting, insightful film. Two (or three) thumbs way up.

I've often wondered what porn stars were like and how they got into the business. The stereotype that they're largely uneducated, from lower-income backgrounds and without a lot of options seemed to be confirmed by the film, although it's clear that some of the better-known actors are business-savvy and have managed to turn themselves into household names. Many of the actresses in the documentary describe themselves as horny exhibitionists, which made me think that there's a fine line between them and the college girls you see in Girls Gone Wild.

Overall it was a good film, worth checking out if only to behold, in one place, some of the hugest schlongs in the biz. Incidentally, the biggest on-screen one is attached to the smarmiest looking, balding, short guy. Proof positive that how a gift is wrapped doesn't necessarily reflect the present inside.

My favorite line from the film comes courtesy of Heather Hunter (a horse-faced gal if I ever saw one) who said, "I'm the Halle Berry of porn." Somehow I don't think Halle would be too flattered by that comparison.